Alison Cook-Sather
July 22, 2026
Passing through the valley between the Oaxaca airport and Tlacolula
Returning to Jardín Pochote
I am honored to return to Jardín Pochote this summer at Brook Lillehaugen’s invitation and supported by funding from her Faculty Research Fund. Passing through the valley between the Oaxaca airport and Tlacolula, I retune my senses to the blues and greens of sky, mountain, agave, and more. These layers of color, texture, and light in the natural landscape inspire a complementary retuning of my senses to the cultural landscape of learning from Ticha’s interlinked layers of texts and the people working to co-create and collect those.
Continuing work from last summer
I spent a week at Jardín Pochote and in Oaxaca City last summer, thinking with Brook, Lili Domenick, Janet Chávez Santiago, and my daughter, Morgan, about what form Zapotec-led assessment of this long-standing project might take. The process we co-developed is one we came to describe as “sitting beside,” inspired by the root of “assessment,” which is the Latin assidere (or adsidere), which means “to sit beside.” We used this literal practice and also this metaphor to come to more deeply understand the learning unfolding through and from Ticha (Lillehaugen et al., under review, “Running with and Sitting Beside: Curriculum and Assessment in Partnership for Social Justice through a Language Reclamation Project”).
That assessment project is ongoing, and one of the lessons we learned through writing together about it is the importance of listening as an essential part of sitting beside. This summer I am again sitting beside differently positioned participants in the work, listening for learning. What I hear again this year, but in new layers, is that there are very complex dynamics involved around identity, position, experience, perceived expertise, and desire to craft and communicate meaning in and through Ticha’s work. What has struck me most forcefully this year is the importance of recognition—of experience, of worth, of contribution—and the responsibility that comes with being recognized.
I use “recognition” intentionally here because it has two seemingly contrasting meanings. One is identifying someone previously known and acknowledging their achievements or status anew. The other is coming to awareness of value in and of a person that was previously unknown. The first is about re-realizing, and the second is about realizing for the first time. Both kinds of recognition catalyze a sense of responsibility.
When I listen to long-term participants in this project describe moments of recognition and associated responsibility, what I hear is a reaffirmation of each person’s distinctness and also a newfound sense of connection, even—maybe especially—across differences. These are sometimes moments of recognition of previously unrecognized sameness, such as discovery of shared linguistic practices across different forms of Zapotec. But what seems to most animate these collaborators is the recognition that what they bring is unique and essential, seen by those actively engaged in the work and by those “sitting beside” as of particular value. This might be obvious in principle, but until it happens in practice, the complementarity of recognition and responsibility might not lead to the affirmation that contributes to sustainability.
New layers of wall in a newly opened space within Jardín Pochote
Life-affirming layerings
Maybe because I have been considering both natural and cultural layerings, I perceive the layers of wall in a newly opened space within Jardín Pochote as another metaphor for this work. What histories, legacies, innovations, discoveries, connections, and co-creations animate this project?
A question that the expanding number of participants in Ticha raises is how to provide the scaffolding necessary to support the crafting of the unique written expression of any specific form of Zapotec such that those involved feel one or both kinds of recognition I mention above and can embrace the responsibility that accompanies such recognition. Put differently, how can the experiences of those involved in this language reclamation project be at once experiences of restoring, recovering, or reclaiming recognition, coming to realize for the first time, and finding ways forward that are responsive and responsible to the individuals involved and to the collective those individuals constitute? Because of Ticha’s work, I believe we will be seeing more and more examples of these life-affirming layerings.
A beautiful view from my time in Oaxaca thus far
Credits and contributors
Published: July 22, 2026
Author: Alison Cook-Sather
Reviewed by: Brook Danielle Lillehaugen
Reformatted by: Dahlia Le Tourneau
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, the Ticha team and I can be reached at tichaproject@gmail.com.