In this article, we present findings from a seven-day immersive learning experience (ILE) where students from the Universidad Veracruzana visited the Huasteca Veracruzana region to learn the importance of music-making for secular and ritual purposes from Huasteco culture-bearers. We reflect on how a culturally responsive music education can inform future post-secondary education in the Mexican context via collaboration with community-led organizations and community music making initiatives. We discuss the importance of challenging the perception in the Mexican public school system that Indigenous ways of knowing and being are static. We argue that music educators have the agency to disrupt this narrative. To do so, it is necessary to provide music teacher candidates with opportunities to collaborate with Indigenous culture-bearers. We provide an overview of the Huasteca region and the seven-day ILE that occurred there. We share the narrative of five Huasteco culture-bearers who provide recommendations to music educators about how to establish collaboration based on reciprocity at the community level.
Vázquez-Córdoba et al. (Sun,) studied this question.