Xch’ool Ixim Linguistic Advisor, Dr. Ava Berinstein, contributed a bilingual collection of Q’eqchi’ Maya legends to the principal and teachers at Instituto Maya Comunitario K’amolb’e (IMaCK), to promote the integration of Maya cultural education into the secondary curriculum.

Upon receiving the bilingual Q’eqchi’ – Spanish Maya booklets, the class and the teachers began reading the episodes aloud to the full auditorium. There was such joy in the air! Perhaps, this was due to the fact that no one had heard the beautiful Deer Dance legend, and now they each had a chance to read about it and share their appreciation of an honored oral tradition that is at risk. Perhaps also, it was the simple realization that the teacher who taught Maya cultural education now had a resource, where before, there was none. That this material could also play a significant role in their music and art, natural science, and social science classes sparked teachers’ imagination with innovative ideas for incorporating ancestral knowledge into the curriculum in numerous ways.