“Do Not Dig Further Back”: The 500-Year Assimilation Project in Mexico

The main purpose of this article is to affirm that music educators have agency to foster collaborations with local culture bearers, particularly in contexts where a strong influence of music with Indigenous roots exists.This can be done in Mexico, despite the lack of Indigenous perspectives in the nation's national curriculum.Music educators have the freedom at the local level to decentre the idea that knowledge connected to Indigenous cultures is less valuable than forms of knowledge associated with a Western-European paradigm.In order to demonstrate the importance of embracing Indigenous perspectives via music in Mexico's educational system, I provide narratives of Huasteco Culture Bearers (HCBs).The HCBs interviewed reflect on their personal journeys as they have personally experienced the undermining of their ways of knowing and being by people working in the educational system; at the same time, the HCBs share their interest in seeking meaningful collaborations with music educators in order that students can learn and engage with their own local cultures via music making in schools going forward.