Ma'alob táal Bienvenid@ Welcome

  A specialist on Mexico-United States Immigration issues, with more than 25-year experience on promoting, protecting, defending the human and civil rights of the Mexican immigrants abroad- as a member of the Mexican Foreign Service. Ioana was born in Mexico City. An immigrant by profession, in now in Chicxulub Pueblo, Yucatan by choice. She is cofounder of Ajxíimbalo’on. With this organization, she hopes to contribute to the visibility of the migrant person´s reality and its convergence with the Yucatan indigenous communities, striving for a positive interconnection, focusing on their human rights. Ioana is currently studying the Mayan Language at the Institute for the Development of the Mayan Culture in the State of Yucatan (INDEMAYA) as a means for a better understanding with the indigenous communities. She completed several studies on:  Human Rights of Indigenous Communities; Forced Internal Displacement; Mediation; Transitional Justice; Human Rights of the Incarcerated and Liberty of Expression, by the National Commission on Human Rights in Mexico (CNDH). She earned a post-grad degree in Compared US-Mexican Law Studies by the University of New Mexico School of Law and studied Law at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM).

  Born in Ubaitaba, Bahia, Brazil, he has lived in Mérida, Yucatán since August 2019. He is currently co-director of Ajxíimbalo’on - Fundación Senda Común A.C. in Yucatán. He studied Social Sciences at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) in Brazil; a master’s degree in education at the same university; a PhD. in Social Anthropology at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) in Brazil. He was a professor at the State University of Santa Cruz (UESC/ Bahia - Brazil) between August/1990 and August/2019. He has developed studies and collaborations with indigenous communities, institutions and social movements (Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay), focusing on social projects on human rights, interculturality, education, theater (with emphasis on the Theater of the Oppressed). He has co-authored several publications in Brazil, the United States and Canada, in addition to other publications for symposiums and scientific magazines. He has also been studying Mayan Language.

  Native Mayan speaker, born in the Municipality of Mama in Yucatan. He emigrated from his community to study a Philosophy at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa and Psychology at the Autonomous University of Yucatán in Mérida. He has several studies on “Gender, Health and Interculturality within a Human Rights Framework” by the Autonomous University of Mexico (UAM acronym in Spanish) and on “Family Therapy: from an endemic perspective” by the Autonomous University of Yucatán (UADY). He was a professor at the Yucatan State Highschool - Colegio de Bachilleres de Yucatan (COBAY) in Teabo. Eduardo worked for the Institute of Gender Equity of the State of Yucatan (IEGY), he was Health Services Coordinator for Migrant Families at the Institute for the Development of the Mayan Culture in the State of Yucatan (INDEMAYA) and worked at the Mental Health Department for the Mayan Indigenous Communities at the Secretariat of Health Services of Yucatan (SSY). Since 2020 he has been assigned to the 800 YUCATAN and 911 SUICIDE lines, at the Public Safety Secretariat of Yucatan (SSP). He was collaborated since 2008 with the civil organization Casa de la Cultura Maya of Los Angeles in California, U.S.A. Since 2024 he serves as the Advisory Committee Coordinator for Ajxíimbalo’on.

  A Mexico City native, she emigrated to the State of Yucatán given the rising insecurity. She studied to be a chemist, but she is by vocation and conviction a social activist for women and youth´s human rights. With a steady trajectory, based on knowledge, experience, hard work and resistance to achieve a decent life for historically vulnerable groups. She has worked in collaboration with: the Integral Family Development System (DIF) of Yucatan in Mérida; Self-Managed and For the People Research and Education Civil Association (IEPAAC); Ibero-American University (IBERO) on a Studies Program for Teachers in Mayan Communities project; National Institute for Indigenous Communities (INPI/Yucatan) in Mayan women projects; Sexual and Reproductive Health and Human Services (SHSSR); Psychological, Sexual and Education for Personal Development Attention Unit civil association(UNASSE). Presently she is a member of the Advisory Board of Ajxíimbalo’on. 

  A native Mayan speaker from Dzán, Yucatan, Felipe emigrated to Merida to further his studies. He completed his B.A. in Modern Languages at the Peninsular School of Languages and a master’s degree in education at the Universidad Meso-American University of San Agustin. While learning the academic grammar of his mother tongue, at the Peninsular Humanities and Social Sciences Center (CEPHCIS), of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), he designed efficient teaching and learning methods, which he practices at his current job as Training and Capacity Building Coordinator as a teacher of Mayan Language at the Language Department at the Institute for the Development of the Mayan Culture in the State of Yucatan (INDEMAYA), where he has worked on and off since 2008. He was a 2009 fellow by the State Fund for the Arts and Culture of Yucatan (FOECAY). Felipe was certified as a translator and interpreter of Maya and Spanish specifically on justice administration matters in 2010. He collaborated on the review committee during the development of the Yucatec Mayan Language Grammar Manual by INALI from 2008 - 2014 and from 2012-2019 he was a Yucatec Mayan professor for the Language Program at the North Carolina University, and from 2014-2017 at the Michigan State University, giving lectures on cultural filiation ilnesses and Mayan culure, to medical students. He worked at the Media and Communications department of the Cultural and Turistic Unit Patronage of the State of Yucatan (CULTUR), from 2018 to 2020. Since 2016 up to date, he is profesor of Mayan Language for Nutrition Studies at the Latin University and for Fisiotherapy and Rehabilitation Studies at the Meso-American University of San Agustin (UMSA). He is also a well-known short stories writer. He prefers to narrate popolt’aan, u talamil u kuxtal kaaj in maya language: the everyday life issues of community life. He has earned several awards for his short stories in Mayan language from the UADY and the Institute of Culture of Yucatan (ICY). Felipe has also written several books: U áanalte’il u tsikbalil ts’aak (A Medical Phrases Manual specialy designed for health services providers); T’aano’ob yéetel u yoochelo’ob (An illustrated bilingual vocabulary) and a short novel,  Ix Ts’ak yaj (La Yerbatera – The Healer), as well as co-author of U Túumben K’aayilo’ob xYa’axche’ – The New Songs of the Ceiba II. Felipe is also a citrus grower in his community, as well as a promoter of his Mayan culture and heritage. He has shared his migrant experiences as a student, as a professor and as an emigrant (inspired by the time he lived in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.). He is a member of the Advisory Board of Ajxíimbalo’on.