The ‘Abre Mi Escuela’ Movement Finds Support in Cancun

Two hundred people mobilized in favor of the return to in person classes on August 30 in Quintana Roo.

CANCUN – As almost everywhere in the country, the ‘Abre Mi Escuela’ (Open My School) movement is present in Cancun. Some 200 fathers, mothers, teachers and directors, mainly from private schools, are asking that their children be allowed to return to face-to-face classes. 

“We are the voice of our Mexican children for all the damage, both emotional and psychological and of use,” said Estefanía González, one of the promoters in Quintana Roo.

Sunday morning, a vehicular caravan of over 200 protesters departed from Puerto Cancún, passing in front of the Municipal Plaza and through the hotel zone until it reached the Malecón Tajamar. The participants carried banners with the hashtags #AbreMiEscuela and #YoRegresoPresencial.

“If they can open bars, they can open schools!”

In total, nearly 200 people mobilized in favor of the return to in person classes on August 30 in Quintana Roo.

The protesters spoke out in favor of face-to-face education and asked the authorities of the sector to begin to consider school activities as essential, regardless of the epidemiological traffic light. 

González said she did not know the number of people who have united around the movement, although she stressed that it is a national protest with supporters in the thousands.

“‘Abre Mi Escuela’ is a movement that was born in San Luis Potosí after witnessing the educational backslide our children have experienced for a year and a half. We are fighting for education to be declared an essential activity,” said González.

The movement represents the voice of girls and boys throughout the country, both in public and private schools, although most of the participants teach or have children in private schools.

She also clarified that they do not represent a specific socio-economic level or just private education, but rather all students, noting the “damage” that the pandemic and the cessation of face-to-face activities in schools has caused in the areas of both education and socio-emotional development. 

“The damage is immense and time is ticking and if the children are still in their homes the damage will be irreparable,” she said. 

Sofía Martínez Torre, another spokesperson for this movement, said she agreed with the opening of classrooms regardless of the epidemiological stoplight, because “education should be the last thing to close and the first thing to open”.

AbreMiEscuela is a national social movement formed by parents. It seeks the safe reopening of all schools in Mexico, for the benefit of child, social, psychological and educational development of Mexican children.

The ‘Abre Mi Escuela’ (Open My School) movement is organized through social networks. For more information visit the Facebook Page Abre Mi Escuela.

With information from La Jornada Maya