Interculturalidad

As this will be my last response paper for this class, I began thinking a lot about the class as a whole.  I was thinking about everything we have learned so far this quarter, and there was definitely a lot to think about.  Not just in the content of all the readings and other literature that we experienced, but how we looked at them.  I know that for me personally, at least, this class teaches and requires a completely different way of thinking and analyzing than what I’m used to.  That, however, doesn’t mean that it’s the wrong way to look at things.  Far from it!  As I was thinking about this, one word came to my mind: Interculturalidad.  I realized that a lot of Mignolo’s concepts and explanations about Interculturalidad are actually very similar to what we have been learning in this class.  

According to Mignolo, Interculturalidad “means that there are two distinct cosmologies at work” (118).  In contrast with his idea of multiculturalism, which is essentially one idea being “right” and the others merely being tolerated, Interculturalidad recognizes the complete coexistence of two truths.  One doesn’t have to be wrong for the other to be right.  This idea is relatively foreign to most people, or at least to Americans.  We are brought up taught that there is an absolute truth or fact to all things, and that every other answer or method is wrong.  As it relates to teaching and thinking, this class has in itself showcased the concept of Interculturalidad.  In many respects, the education I have received thus far in my life has not been wrong.  I am what most people would consider smart, and I am “good” at school (for lack of a better word.)  In addition to this, there are many other ways that I could have been taught, and infinite different ways of thinking that I haven’t been exposed to.  The way I’ve experienced is certainly not the only way, nor is it necessarily the best.  It’s just one form, or cosmology, or result of a certain world-- however you want to put it.