The sea in Yucatan is not only on the coast, we can also find some of its salt and foam in Sudzal Chico, the southernmost community of Tekax, the southernmost municipality of Yucatan.
There, a little further from Kakalná, Ermila, and Noh-Bec; a little more hidden than Escondido and about 10 kilometers from Tigre Grande, is the indigenous primary school “Netzahualcóyotl”.
And if Sudzal Chico is, as its name indicates, small, the enrollment of the Netzahualcóyotl school is also small, very small: 19 students in this 2022-2023 school year.
In front of the school four flamboyant trees are facing the community, but even further in front is the teacher Juan Ismael Rodríguez Abán.
And to say ‘in front’ is an understatement if we take into account that in this unitary school (the name given by the SEP to the schools where a single teacher serves all the groups and grades of the school and also performs management and administrative functions), teacher Ismael is in front of the group, in front of the community, in front of the Segey and in front of everything that is required to keep the school in good condition.
Although the ocean is far from Sudzal Chico and few students know the coast, water is present in textbooks, in notebooks, and in the daily life of the entire school community.
In the textbooks, because the importance of water to keep the middle forest alive and green is mentioned in the study plans, the ecosystem that surrounds the PUT Point, that Territorial Union Point where the states of Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucatán meet; in the notebooks, because the blue of the sea is present in the drawings with which they have participated in competitions at a national level; and in everyday life because they know first-hand the importance of taking care of water, since after many efforts, work and arrangements they are just installing the well that will guarantee the water supply to the school, and because when it rains, in addition to the community being cut off, they have to protect the library books and school furniture during floods.
The sea is also present in the words of the Sudzal students, among whom only five know the sea and the rest, only through what they see in books, but they long for the day when they can touch the foam of the waves with their hands.
These children ask those who visit the beautiful beaches in their community not to litter, to use as little plastic as possible, to also spread the word about environmental care, and they ask not to build large hotels in the area.
TYT Newsroom
