Mexico is a multicultural country, we have more than 60 different groups of native people around the country and they represent about 10% of the whole population. These groups are meaningful to our culture since they represent how rooted we are with our ancestors which are an important part of our being as Mexicans, even though Mexican history has left leave them aside. Native people have been suffering from fewer opportunities and discrimination.
The Xaverian Missionaries have been working with native people in the state of Hidalgo for more than 40 years in two parishes: Santa Cruz and Acoyotla. These places are in part of a region named Huasteca and have a very specific culture. People usually speak Nahuatl, the most common language after Spanish.
The work of the Xaverian Missionaries here has been prolific. Now youth people including myself have the opportunity to help in their missionary activities to know closely the native people and to share our faith with them. We are invited each year by the Xaverian brothers to participate in the Holy Week. During these days, we prepare some activities and spend time with them. Year by year, we get in love with their culture and their way of life. As a youth, I find it really enriching, it's common to say that they give us more than all that we can give to them, and it's somehow true. A youth who has tried this experience will never look the same at the other, this kind of sharing gives you sensitivity to see in the other the figure of God, gives you a way to explore and increase your faith, gives you an open mind and heart to understand the position and difficulties of people and gives you fortress to do what is at your hands to change.
Something really special in contact with native people is when we realize the power we have as a youth; As such our actions have more emphasis especially with youth, that is, from youth to youth, we invite them to still preserve their language (a lot of them don’t like others to know they speak Nahuatl), to value their culture, and more important, to make them feel really loved by God in the same way we feel when we talk to them.
