Communication students from Fray Luca Paccioli University in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, visited UNM last month, the third year their professor, Arturo López Durán, brought a group to study broadcast with Communication and Journalism Associate Professor Richard Schaefer.
For the first time, the group left the campus, the studio and the state and traveled extensively through Navajo country. Their goal was to develop an understanding about Navajo culture and to listen to stories, gather information about the traditions and history and draw comparisons and contrasts with native cultures in Central Mexico. The students will also produce a television program about their experiences.
Armed with notebooks, still and video cameras, the group set off for Acoma and El Morro. The guide explained that Acoma ancestors came in search of Hak’u, a spiritual homeland prepared for their eternal settlement. Coming from Mesa Verde, the people called out “Acu” and when the mesa echoed back their call they found themselves in “A place always prepared.”
After a cold night camping and learning how to make Schaefer’s famous spaghetti carbonara on a Coleman stove, the group headed to KTDB-FM 89.7, a public radio station in Pine Hill, N.M. The students learned of the station’s 36-year history.
Bernie Bustos, the station’s community services division director, explained that in the station’s early years people came in to give messages to friends and family over the airwaves because there was no telephone service in the area. Barbara Maria, general manager, broadcasts NPR news and then translates it into Diné. Maria is hard at work to complete a broadcast degree, having taken as many courses as she can at UNM-Gallup.
The group made its way to Window Rock and toured the Navajo Times. Duane Beyal, editor, explained how the paper made its break from tribal control and how it covers the entire Navajo Nation in its weekly publication.
The group camped at Spider Rock Campground, near Canyon de Chelly, and looked at the ruins of a once vibrant community living in the shadow of the rocks.
They then headed north to Monument Valley. Harold Simpson combines his love of his Navajo culture with his love of storytelling in his tour company business. After a tour of the monuments, dinner and a native dance performance, Simpson collected questions and answered them by weaving the responses through stories and legends as well as personal experience.
A tour of the ruins at Mesa Verde brought the story full circle. All the native people regionally connect their ancestry to the ruins at Mesa Verde, the students learned.
The drive back to Albuquerque was illuminated by the glow of laptop computer screens as the students – eager to make deadline – put together their presentation set to be delivered the next afternoon.
Schaefer will travel with UNM journalism students to Mexico in June.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; email: cgonzal@unm.edu