La Casa del Escritor is a cultural cooperative sponsoring a literacy program for Tzotzil-Tzeltal Maya speakers. They publish a series of bilingual Tzotzil-Tzeltal/Spanish booklets, have produced 30 radio programs on culture and ecology, and sponsor a woman's cooperative and other cultural activities in San Cristobal de las Casas and Zincantan.

There is a picture of the troupe Teatro Lo'il Maxil (Monkey Business Theatre) who have appeared all over the world. They even produce puppet shows (and those that have known me long enough might know about my interest in puppet shows, which I can honestly say has pretty much faded over the years). Click on the picture above to see a full-size JPG color postcard.

I got to see them perform recently in Mexico, and they were very entertaining (if you understand Spanish). Click on the photo to learn more. Unless you have a really fast communications line, don't access this until I shrink the size of the graphics, which aren't looking too good in my browser.

The cooperative is not only doing important work in education, but also in documenting and preserving the native culture history of this relatively small group of Mayan speakers.

They would appreciate checkbook-style contributions, payable to Cultural Survival, sent to Robert Laughlin, NHB - MRC 112, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560.