The surprising way classic literature is tackling Mexico City’s biggest social challenges

In a engaged session successful Mexico City’s Iztapalapa neighborhood, patients struggling with obesity aren’t conscionable receiving nutritional proposal and aesculapian treatment. They’re speechmaking poetry, sharing idiosyncratic stories and engaging with literate texts. Over astatine the National Autonomous University (UNAM), meanwhile, a premix of students and professionals analyse and sermon Carlos Fuentes’ masterpiece “La Muerte de Artemio Cruz” (The Death of Artemio Cruz). Together, they uncover themes wrong the publication akin to the firm ethical dilemmas and interpersonal conflicts of today.

This innovative approach, primitively founded successful the United Kingdom by student Maurice Biriotti, is known arsenic applied literature, and it’s taking the creation of the written connection to a full caller level.

Many of the cutting-edge programs successful the Applied Literature Seminar are developed astatine Mexico’s National Autonomous University. (CDMX Secreta)

From British innovation to Mexican institution

Biriotti, cofounder of the SHM consultancy steadfast and the SHM Foundation, began integrating humanities-based reasoning into business, healthcare and societal problem-solving successful the UK implicit 25 years ago. In 2008, SHM began moving successful Mexico, creating a mobile telephone enactment web for large women diagnosed with HIV successful an attack they called the Zumbido Health Model. In 2016, Biriotti started collaborating with UNAM’s Faculty of Philosophy and Letters connected a antithetic project.

Together with Dr. Aurora González, a Mexico City-based scientist and UNAM instructor, Birriotti kick-started the Applied Literature Seminar. Soon enough, scholars from divers fields began to usage lit arsenic a instrumentality for knowing and addressing analyzable quality and societal issues, going arsenic acold arsenic applying the method successful hospitals, assemblage centers and nonrecreational workshops.

The Seminario approaches lit arsenic much than conscionable worldly for classrooms and literate critics. These classical texts pass profound insights into quality conflicts, ambiguity and the complexities of experience. And erstwhile addressing problems similar obesity that person psychological, taste and societal dimensions, that’s precisely what is needed.

Literature meets Mexico City’s wellness crisis

Mexico City faces immoderate of the highest rates of puerility and teen obesity worldwide, and accepted nationalist wellness approaches person struggled to code the analyzable factors down this nationalist wellness issue. Beyond the array of unhealthy nutrient supplied successful schools and unethically marketed to children, immoderate experts place Mexican taste attitudes toward nutrient arsenic an obstacle to implementing existent change.

Maurice Biriotti, the laminitis of the Applied Literature method and progressive successful processing the Applied Literature Seminar, holds a Chair of Medical Humanities astatine University College London and is simply a visiting prof successful the section of psychiatry astatine Yale University.

To combat puerility obesity, the Applied Literature Seminar hosts community-wide workshops and chats to get radical talking astir their experiences. In their communicative workshops, participants work and sermon texts, specified arsenic novels by Rosario Castellanos and poems by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, which halfway astir food, assemblage representation and health. Empathetic storytelling sessions supply a harmless spot for patients suffering from the wellness effects of obesity to uncover the stigma astir the condition. 

In a much world setting, aesculapian professionals and humanities scholars often conscionable for interdisciplinary dialogues, dissecting texts specified arsenic Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” and Fuentes’ ​​”La muerte de Artemio Cruz” for their themes of mortality, quality dignity, people disparity and the societal determinants of health.

Mexican lit transforms concern ethics

The relation that morals play successful concern is different important absorption for the seminar. In its archetypal large colloquium, “El canon literario mexicano en el campo empresarial” (The Mexican literate canon successful the tract of business), the radical explored however Mexican literate works tin illuminate ethical dilemmas successful workplace settings.

Carlos Fuentes’ “La muerte de Artemio Cruz,” which examines a businessman and erstwhile revolutionary’s emergence to powerfulness done ethical compromises and corruption, provided almighty worldly for discussions astir powerfulness dynamics and motivation work successful Mexican organizations.

The seminar besides referenced foundational texts that code leadership, dialog of values and the enactment of Mexican identity, specified arsenic canonical works by 19th-century wide writer Ignacio Manuel Altamirano and periodicals of the aforesaid period, similar El Recreo de las Familias and El Renacimiento.

The discussions purpose to assistance professionals presumption workplace conflicts from caller perspectives. By examining lit that deals with abstract concepts similar corruption and discrimination, participants tin link these ideas to real-life experiences, making them much tangible and emotionally resonant for ethical decision-making.

How lit is leaving classrooms and entering communities

The Seminario de Literatura Aplicada astatine UNAM is transforming the accepted boundaries betwixt literate survey and mundane experience, 1 nationalist programme astatine a time. Through assemblage events, world seminars and hands-on originative sessions, the programme is actively dissolving the separation betwixt the arts and existent beingness successful Mexico City.

That breakthrough is taking spot via world seminars, originative penning sessions and theater. Regularly scheduled events, similar the Seminario de Literatura y Géneros Vórtices research literature’s intersections with gender, individuality and societal issues. Local wellness centers and hospitals big workshops for patients to read, constitute and stock stories astir their idiosyncratic challenges with obesity, intelligence wellness and assemblage memory.

UNAM researchers person besides ventured into theatre productions, successful collaboration with Teatro UNAM, arsenic a antithetic mode to provoke discussion. (Teatro UNAM/Facebook)

Applied lit has adjacent made its mode connected stage, with projects similar “Teatro para los que nos curan” and “Yo soy Amalia” blending creation with existent life. These performances are designed to some analyse and process existent societal realities, including the aftermath of the pandemic oregon existent healthcare challenges.

A caller attack to municipality challenges

The seminar continues to grow its work, exploring applications successful different areas of societal interest specified arsenic unit prevention, biology consciousness and improving education.

Applied lit offers ways to code problems that defy purely method solutions. It’s casual to oversimplify societal issues, particularly successful a analyzable municipality situation similar Mexico City. However, by capitalizing connected the city’s layered past and divers population, literate approaches springiness researchers and participants the accidental to admit patterns and clasp challenges for a amended future.

For much accusation connected however the Seminario de Literatura Aplicada uses humanities-based approaches to complement and heighten accepted involution strategies, cheque retired the program’s main page and literary events calendar.

This nonfiction draws connected probe conducted astatine UNAM’s Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and assorted assemblage applications of the applied lit attack crossed Mexico City since 2016.

Bethany Platanella is simply a question planner and manner writer based successful Mexico City. She lives for the dopamine deed that comes straight aft booking a level ticket, exploring section markets, practicing yoga and munching connected caller tortillas. Sign up to person her Sunday Love Letters to your inbox, peruse her blog, oregon travel her on Instagram.