Coordinadora de Grupos Culturales Indigenas y Populares

La Coordinadora de Grupos Culturales Indigenas y Populares (CGCIP) is an association of indigenous and people’s cultural organizations located in the state of Morelos, Mexico. Our main objective is to help, coordinate, and empower 48 indigenous communities within the state and to rescue and promote our customs, traditions, and the indigenous identity. We work toward the self-management and self-development of our communities in order to obtain a better capacity to define our future.

Examples of groups that are part of our association include traditional dance (tres potencias, pastoras, moros y cristianos, tecuanes, vaqueritos, chinelos), wind instrument bands, and crafts groups, not to mention practitioners of traditional medicine, indigenous cinematographers, artists, poets, writers, religious leaders, and professional activists.

We have 8 major areas of action: 1) promoting cultural encounters, such as festivals and intra-national exchanges; 2) facilitating permanent personal development of members through workshops, roundtables, courses, seminars, forums, etc.; 3) fostering personal development of children through exploring and visiting places of Morelos history; 4) running summer workshops for children in the areas of handicrafts, first aid, use of video cameras, and human rights of children; 5) creating women community leaders through local and international forums; 6) running indigenous video workshops; 7) promotion of indigenous human rights through workshops or activism; and 8) welcoming international exchanges with volunteers from other countries. We also encourage environmental protection and the promotion of sustainable development within the communities.

CGCIP provides administrative, fundraising, and organizational support to our groups, always keeping in mind the goal to respect their individual autonomy. Our activities are realized for and with the communities where we live and do not depend on any institution, religion, political party, or government department, although we do cooperate with diverse organizations and institutions, such as INI (Mexican government), Traditions for Tomorrow (NGO from Switzerland), the Catholic Church, and the TEC of Monterrey (a Mexican University).

Membership is open to any individual who wants to work in a team for the betterment of the community, and all members can propose and decide on the main goals of the organization and its activities. Most of our projects are initiated and proposed by the communities themselves. A coordinator committee (9 representatives from around the state) meets at least once each month in order to coordinate activities all over Morelos, establish and maintain work relations inside and outside the communities, and permit a better cultural exchange between all the members.