Who are we?
The Tierra Roja Cuxtitali Community Center NPO is an education and social integration project in the urban periphery of San Cristóbal de Las Casas. We provide free educational and development activities to children and adolescents from 6 to 18 years old, as well as adults. Our program fosters spaces for community coexistence grounded in collaboration and the exercise of personal and collective human rights.
Where do we work?
The outskirts of San Cristóbal presents a complex and diverse context where economic precarity and institutional gaps exacerbate social, cultural, and resource-related conflicts. Our community-based activities respond to these compounding challenges, including limited access to primary and secondary education and shortcomings within the formal education system itself. We also work to address social fragmentation, discrimination and conflict between the Indigenous and Mestizo populations.
Since 2015, Tierra Roja has worked with the people of Cuxtitali and neighboring communities to promote peaceful coexistence amidst communities in conflicts rooted in origins, resource access, language, gender, and religion. Through classes and workshops that strengthen basic literacy and education, participants exercise their autonomy and rights in a space free from discrimination. Tierra Roja remains committed to cultivating a community learning space for all, and dismantling the barriers and divisions that political, social, and economic forces continue to impose between the urban center and peripheral communities.
Our Vision: To establish ourselves as a recognized organization in San Cristóbal de Las Casas through our impactful contribution to reducing educational setbacks in the periphery; and to be identified as a space for integration, dialogue, and channeling diverse community needs.
Our Mission: To expand opportunities for social integration and ensure the human rights of children, adolescents, and adults of Indigenous and Mestizo backgrounds in the outskirts of San Cristóbal de Las Casas – through the development of formative and educational activities that promote multiculturalism within a community space for learning and coexistence.
Legal Status
The civil association was legally established in November 2015 in San Cristóbal de Las Casas and completed a protocolization of its record in October 2016. Since June 2017, Tierra Roja Cuxtitali has remained registered in the Federal Registry of the Organizations of the Civil Society with the following unique code of inscription of registry (CLUNI): TRC15112707AR1.
Testimony on the ground:
My name is Isàlia, and I’m originally from Boston, Massachusetts. In 2024, Tierra Roja welcomed me with open arms as a volunteer for the afternoon program with children and adolescents. From the very beginning, I was struck by the love, life, and warmth that fills this corner of Cuxtitali. Tierra Roja is not only an education center; it’s a haven where children and families from diverse backgrounds can gather as active community members to learn, heal, and grow together.
As a volunteer, I’ve gotten to witness the transformative power of the project firsthand. It was uniquely moving to watch a young girl go from learning the alphabet to spelling her own name, keeping in mind that without Tierra Roja, this would not have been possible. I also got to listen to a group of adolescents reflect on their lived experiences of diversity, inclusion, and exclusion; then channel these reflections into artwork, skits, and even a short film which they protagonized.
Whether we’re scouring dictionaries in the library, cooking popcorn over charcoal fires, tending to the greenhouse or harvesting the milpa, learning here is active, collective, and deeply rooted in local realities. Tierra Roja creates a safe space for kids—both in and out of formal schooling—to learn, play, and live together. Their curiosity and enthusiasm is heart-warming and infectious.
This work is urgent and vital in an area facing poverty, identity and resource-based conflict, and systemic barriers to education and social inclusion. But the reality is that Tierra Roja operates with limited resources. Every workshop, every book, every meal, every gallon of drinking water – it’s all made possible through community support and donations.
Your donation has a direct and immediate impact. It helps cover the cost of school supplies, art materials, transportation for field trips, and maintenance work for our structures. It also supports the small but deeply committed team doing extraordinary work each day on the ground. Ultimately, donations ensure that Tierra Roja can keep offering a safe and consistent space for children in one of Mexico’s most marginalized regions.
Supporting Tierra Roja means investing in a model of education that is inclusive, community-based, and grounded in care. It means standing behind the idea that all children and families alike deserve access to learning and support. If you’re in a position to give — whether a one-time gift or on a recurring basis — I urge you to consider donating today,and help build a more just, inclusive, and hopeful future. CLICK HERE for U.S. tax deductible donations.