What can Central American youth tell us about the learning-teaching-learning approach?
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The Journey of memory: From exchange to Connection
At the CAMY Fund, we brought together youth organizations to reflect on their expertise in facilitating spaces for political and social education, and the construction of knowledge.
Fourteen organizations from Central America and Mexico came together to discuss the motivations that drive them to organize, the challenges and commitment involved in strengthening their own learning processes, the role of popular education as a source of guidance and inspiration, the richness of diverse and pluralistic spaces, and the challenges of building community.
With the committment of keeping these reflections alive, we transformed them into eight letters and five postcards, all written from the perspective of a very special figure whose presence was felt throughout our gatherings: Memory.
Through these letters and postcards, Memory writes to us to share key concepts, practices, resources, and recommendations it “heard” during the conversations between young people, while also posing questions to encourage further reflection.
In a global context marked by hyperconnectivity and isolation, writing a letter requires us to slow down, take time and care, and pay attention. With this in mind, we present this playful and educational resource as a way of honoring and connecting the efforts of these organized youth, so that it will inspire new processes of creation, connection, and collaboration.
We invite you to read these letters and postcards and explore the paths toward transformation that emerge through popular education and the utopian vision of a more just and dignified world.
The process of creating the eight letters and five postcards that make up this resource required us to ask ourselves questions and imagine how we could bring these reflections back to participants in a creative format—one that would allow them to see themselves and their experiences reflected in the material, while also helping us connect more people with the transformative work of Central American youth.
Along the way, we drew on narrative practices, which provided us with a methodology for mapping the journey undertaken by these young people.
We identified key themes, drew from their experiences, and wove them together with insights from popular education and examples that helped place the reflections in context.
For the postcards, we took phrases shared during our meetings and added a touch of fiction. In essence, they are their own words.
In July 2026, we held an in-person gathering with 14 Central American organizations that are part of our Social Justice portfolio.
The gathering provided the perfect opportunity to share physical copies of the letters and postcards. But we wanted to go a step further and use a communication exchange as the conceptual, narrative, and practical foundation of the days we spent together in Costa Rica.
2026 Gathering: Weaving Networks of Reciprocity arrow_forward
Reactions
to the letters and postcards
“These letters and postcards are such a beautiful and heartfelt reminder of our time together. It’s really clear that you care about us, and that means a lot.”
Mey Paz
Las Subversivas
“It was beautiful to see my organization’s work and our conversations reflected in these letters and postcards. I came across a letter that felt incredibly familiar because it resonated so closely with what we do. I feel that our experiences have sparked deep and valuable reflections that are worth sharing with other organizations.”
Temis Martínez
Academia de Liderazgo Social
“I loved how you used letters and postcards to share memories of previous gatherings and spaces for exchange, while also incorporating the ideas of theorists whose work speaks to our contexts and lived experiences.”
Violeta Cetino
Ruda