Luci is a bright 14-year-old girl who lives in a village about an hour´s drive from Oaxaca, capital of one of the poorest states in Mexico. While Oaxaca is a UNESCO World Heritage Site noted for pre-Hispanic ruins, colonial construction, museum, galleries, quaint craft villages and cuisine, it has a reputation for public education of questionable quality. Ongoing struggles between the state government and Section 22, the Oaxaca division of the federal government teachers’ union, have contributed to issues impacting schools and learning. But Luci’s unfolding story reveals a positive side to public education in Oaxaca.

Lucinda Martina Cruz Aragón: Background Deserving of a Break

Lucinda Martina Cruz Aragón resides in San Marcos Tlapazola, just beyond the district capital of Tlacolula de Matamoros. She lives with her older brother, her mother and her aunt. The family’s main source of income is derived from making terra cotta pottery and selling it in the Sunday marketplace in Tlacolula.

Luci has always helped her family with all aspects of their primitive pottery making workshop. She also assists her aunt Gloria who makes and sells tejate, the pre – Hispanic cacao and corn based beverage. And on top of all this she makes jewelry which she sells in the market. Yet she has always achieved top grades at school. In early July, 2011, she graduated junior high with a 9.4 grade point average.