This story was produced by El Tímpano , a civic media organization serving and covering the Bay Area’s Latino and Mayan immigrant communities. The original version of the story can be found here .

I wasn’t used to hearing anything about my Mam culture at school. Most classes focused on U.S. history, or maybe Mexican history, but never Mam. My only knowledge of my culture came from my parents and my family, tales of their lives in Guatemala and what they endured to get us to where we are today. I was one of the few Mam speakers at Skyline High School in Oakland, where I graduated last year. It wasn’t until our history teacher, Javier Armas, took notice of our tight-knit Mam community and the rich culture embedded in us, and began teaching our class about the Mam people and about Gu

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