NPPF

Emberá children sit in class in the government-mandated public school within their community. The students have one Emberá teacher and one Latino teacher, who comes from the city to stay for two weeks at a time. In school, they wear Panamanian uniforms and speak Spanish. Aceroi Barrigón, one of the medical Shamans and elders in the Emberápuru community, says that the sole reason the culture is being lost among the rising generation is “because they’re studying in these schools.” Others, like 25-year-old Emberá schoolteacher Lizbeth Conguista, think it is crucial to raise children who can speak Spanish, go into the cities for college, and come back to serve the community in a greater capacity.