Teobaldo Martinez has graduated from university with his teaching degree, and after working as a Kuna language consultant for a few years in Panama City, is now applying to the Ministry of Education to be stationed as an elementary teacher in his home village of Morti. If he is successfully placed, he will be the one of only a few people from his community to not only have reached this level of education but also to return to their village as a teacher. As such he will be able to provide a culturally sensitive, bilingual education to his community, and to serve as an adept leader on many other fronts. Currently there are only a handful of young men from Morti who have been able to pursue university level education, and only a couple that have graduated.
Teobaldo was born and raised in the remote, isolated Kuna village of Morti in the Darien Province of Panama on the 9th of February, 1979. At least this is the date he has chosen, since precise birth records were not kept at the time in his riverine community. Morti is an indigenous village hidden away in dense tropical rainforests of the Darien region where the Morti River empties into the headwaters of the Chucunaque River. At the time of Teobaldo's birth, only a handful of men from Morti had ever even ventured outside of the community, and few spoke any Spanish. There were no schools, roads, western medicine, or conveniences. Much has changed in the Darien since then, but even today, Morti remains one of the poorest, most isolated and misunderstood communities in Panama. To this day there are no roads, electricity, running water, or basic medical services available in Morti.
It is in this world that “Teo,” as he is known, struggled to shape himself as the father, husband,leader, educator, role model, and professional that he is today. As a baby his family was abandoned by his father, who disappeared among the foreign masses of the outside world. Without being able to depend on the subsistence living normally provided by the male of the house, Teo and his family were forced to depend on his grandparents, who were also strugglingto get by. From the age of 6, Teo was expected to accompany his grandfather down the long jungle paths and winding river to fish, hunt, and gather plantain, arising as early as 3am only to return at sundown.
Even when Teo enrolled in school, this routine continued on the weekends. Because of the absence of his father, Teo was often treated as the proverbial stepchild by many in his family. He would often go hungry, with nothing to eat for a day or two at a time.
In spite of this often harsh existence and treatment, Teo remembers his grandfather fondly. He encouraged Teo to go to school, and would scrape together what he could to help him buy the basic necessities: one notebook, one pencil, one pen, and perhaps one uniform to recycle daily. The uniforms, foreign to the usually naked bodies of young children in Morti, represented the recent arrival of the State of Panama, which did not make its presence known in Morti until 1984. This presence was uncomfortably solidified by the sending in of a single teacher to establish the rudimentary façade of formalized state education. Given the novelty of western education, many parents did not make an effort to send their kids to school, and Teo himself did not enroll until the age of 9.
This disadvantage, like so many others in his life, did not prevent Teo from pushing through to finish sixth grade, the highest one could achieve in the rustic Morti school. This is the highest level that most people of Teo’s age ever achieved in his community. In fact only this past year, has 9th grade been made available to the children of Morti. Nevertheless, Teo (who has been described by those who know him well as “persevering, approachable, teachable, patient, friendly, persistent, full of integrity, and intelligent”) was bound and determined to continue his education.
The only option available to him at the time, was to continue his education in one of the distant island communities of Kuna Yala (formerly known as San Blas).
To reach this island community, Teo would travel by dugout canoe up the Morti River for a full day. He would then spend the night on a makeshift bed in the middle of the jungle before arising early to hike 6 hours through the densely forested, mountainous, jungle path over the continental divide to the Caribbean coast. From there, he would take a boat out to the only slightly less isolated village of Mulatupu, Kuna Yala. Repeating this routine several time a year, and living for months at a time with a host family, he was able to complete 9th grade, the highest level available in that community.
After ninth grade, Teo was forced to return to his community, not having the resources available to travel to and live in Panama City to continue his education. At 16 years of age, he was also being pressured by his family and community to return home and join the community work force and get married, the custom for all young men of his age. At 17 years old, Teo was married in the traditional custom and within a couple of years had a beautiful young daughter. Incidentally, in the years to come Teo and his wife, Arnulta have sacrificed and worked extremely hard top provide this daughter, as well as her younger brothers with a consistent, quality education in Panama City. Like her father before her, she hopes to lead the way in her community, where women rarely make it past sixth grade.
Teo spent the next few years working in subsistence agriculture in his village in order support his family. Eventually, by working part time and with the financial assistance of some missionaries,Teo was able to move with his family to Panama City to continue his dream of finishing college.Through night and weekend classes, Teo was able to finish his secondary education and finally enroll in university. It was during this time that Teo began working and being trained as a language consultant for the official Kuna translation of the Bible. In the process he gained a strong command of the Spanish language, and a nuanced academic understanding of his own language. He has participated in many Kuna literacy workshops for native Kuna speakers, most of whom barely read and write Spanish. As such, he is on the leading edge of the effort to protect and advocate for the preservation of his endangered native language. His superiors constantly sing the praises of his intelligence and linguistic capabilities. One of Teo’s passions is to return to his village and help both the youth as well as the adult population to learn to read, write in Kuna, and to help his community appreciate and protect their cultural heritage.
After four years more of scraping by, working and supporting a growing family, Teo was finally able to graduate from university with his degree in elementary education. Upon finalization of the Kuna Bible project, a monumental task involving over 30 years of work, Teo was again without a means to support his family. He has since moved back to Morti with his family where they scrape by on a small yearly income provided to the men of the village by the sale of their precious tropical hardwood trees for harvest.
In some ways, Teo is back where he started at the age of six, tending to and harvesting small plots of plantain and coffe. However, he patiently awaits the next opportunity that will allow him to grow as a person and most importantly to feed and educate his family. In the meantime Teo volunteers as the "siqqwi," or primary assistant to the illiterate head chief of the village. This position requires him to travel frequently, representing the village before a wide variety of stakeholders, including Panamanian government officials, business people, dignitaries from other indigenous communities, and the village of Morti itself. Teo is also the volunteer Panama Director for a small nonprofit called Village Rights International (www.villagerights.com) based in Miami, which seeks to provide legal eduction and advocacy to rural indigenous communities in Latin America. Given the volunteer nature of his two positions, Teo still seeks another means of gainful employment. Village Rights International is committed to one day being able to employ Teo full time for his invaluable work, should he so desire. In the meantime, Teo continues to put one foot in front of the other down the muddy, slippery, jungle path of life.
