Precursors of Decolonial Pedagogical Thinking in Latin America and Abya Yala Precursors of Decolonial Pedagogical Thinking in Latin America and Abya Yala

This chapter introduces the pedagogical thinking of an array of Latin-American and indigenous educators who dreamt of Latin America featuring more freedom and democracy. The works selected were from scholars who were born and had their ­intellectual­­upbringing,­in­the­first­half­of­the­twentieth­century.­This­is­a­“­bibliographical­ essay” intended to highlight the predecessors of decolonial pedagogy, thinkers, and edu- cators who formulated ideas and theories within a delinking philosophy. We place these thinkers­in­the­context­of­building­a­Latin-American­“awareness”­and­within­the­scope­ of active resistance from the people in Abya Yala .


Introduction
Asimpliedbythetitleabove,thekeyobjectiveinthis"bibliographicessay"istomakeexplicit the evidences of the crisis in the contemporary school system, and some of the response formulated by the Latin-American pedagogical thinking. We prioritized a generation of educators who achieved their degrees in the first half of the twentieth century and who had shared with society their intellectual production by 1990, a time preceded by a decade of social conflictanddemocraticliberalization. 1

Precursors of the liberating philosophy
Colonization in both America and Africa shares an ontological common feature: the modernity discourse disguised as Ulysses' siren song. In Latin America and the Caribbean, few intellectuals resisted the charm of this West European modernity, and fewer were unharmed by it. Nevertheless, we find a unique variety of poets and philosophers willing to unravel the mysteries of colonization and colonialism, formulating ideas and insights to create " enlightened subjects" for a "different" America. Among others worthy of being studied and known, we chose the Brazilian anthropologist-historian Manoel Bomfim (1868-1932), the Mexican philosopher Leopoldo Zea , the Caribbean poet Aimé Césaire ,theCaribbeanpsychiatrist-philosopherFrantzFanon ,thePeruvian sociologist Animal Quijano, and the Argentinean philosopher Enrique Dussel.
InBrazil,ManoelBomfim [4] struggled against the hegemonic power of scientismic and racist thought that prevailed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was one of the Latin-American thinkers who did not succumb to the simplistic and racist arguments from Eurocentric modernity. He earnestly rebutted the theories attempting to justify the cultural and economical lag in LatinAmerica with the conceptual instruments of scientific racism.DarcyRibeirobecamefamiliarwithBomfim'sworkwhileinexile(Braziliandictator-shipof1964),inMontevideo,thetimewhenhewrotehis"StudiesontheAnthropologyof Civilization."Itwasduringhisexilethathebrokewiththe"Brazilianimposedprovincialism" and became aware that "we are part of a whole: LatinAmerica." It was in exile that DarcyRibeirorealizedthat"theoverwhelmingmajorityofLatin-Americanwritersstriving tounderstandourhistoricallag"wasmadeupof"parrotsrepeatingotherpeople'swisdom or mountebanks." Some of them covered pages parroting what metropolitan thinkers had said about us with the intent of justifying European colonialism-as he pointed out-and others opposed it, referring to "innocents, with terrestrial forces, bronze races, and even Latin cosseting to lecture, feeling insulted, about superiority assumptions that our history failstoendorse."However,amidstthebibliographicalflockofparrots,DarcyRibeirofound abright,albeitfickle,andsparkoflucidity.Heincidentallyfound"thisextraordinarybook titled Latin America-Evils of Origin,byManoelBomfim."Fromreadingit,hediscoveredthe singularityofan"original,fullymatureLatin-Americanthinkerin1905,"whenthefirstedition of his Latin America [5] was published.
WhilehegemonictheoriesjustifiedthelaginLatinAmericaasanoutcomeofthepresumed genetic legacy from the indigenous people and African negroes, the tropical climate and the Catholic religion, Bomfim identified the "European colonizer's parasitism" as "evils of origin."TheEuropeandevelopmentmodel,Bomfimaccuses,wasbuiltontheoppressionand enslavement of the indigenous and African people; the colonizers' parasitism is the foremost cause of the lagging economy and social inequity.
In Mexico, philosopher Leopoldo Zea  proposed a philosophical itinerary to build an authentic American philosophy, free from the psychological contrivances from the colonizedframeofmind,empoweredintermsofculturalreliance,andcommittedtosolve the major inequity and injustice issues in America. In America as Consciousness, Leopoldo Zea (1953/1972) takes for an issue the cultural and philosophical dependency of American thinkers; America's"feelinginferior"toEuropeissue.Zeadevelopshisphilosophical-historicalthought projecting an evolutionary empowerment scenario, still following the epistemological coordinates from West European knowledge. He presents a critical diagnosis of the situation of thinkingandrealitythatprevailedinLatinAmericaduringthefirsthalfofthetwentiethcentury;hediscussestherankingAmericaheldwithinthe"Europeanawareness."Zea challenges the History of Philosophy by Hegel, a Eurocentric philosopher who failed to acknowledge the history of the original people, but took America merely for its future potential.
The Mexican philosopher makes explicit his interpretation of the political independence and thecontroversiesbetweenthe"TwoAmericas,"viz.Anglo-SaxonAmericaandLatinAmerica. Upon considering America's intellectual emancipation, he confers a strategic role upon education as a cultural empowerment instrument. Education steps up to a fundamental role, particularly after the events suggesting the failure to conquer political independence, when the social groups in the new independent nations faced each other with unrestrained violence: wars, conspiracies, and coups. Overall, Creole elites defeated metropolitan despotism and developed multiple American despotisms; they replaced the king with various regional dictators (warlords). First, people fought for the king; then they fought for the clergy, the militias, or the warlords: adynasticandcolonialistdictatorshipbyanykindofdictators:"conservative,constitutional, liberal, or personalistic." A dictatorship was implemented even under the guise of establishing freedom [6]. Zea confers an empowering role upon education from the awareness that in a colonized society, people are educated for servitude. In his dialog with the thoughts of Simón Bolívar, particularly regarding the Jamaica Letter, Zea observes that in the colonial regime from Spain and Portugal, the population was taught to serve the best interests of the metropoles; "sucheducationstemmedfromthepresumedethnicandculturalinferiorityofthepeoplecolonized." Zea further points out that the notion of inferiority was extensive to all those born in America,"regardlessoftheirethnicalandculturalorigin."Therefore"anyoneborninthisterritory, including indigenous, Creole, and mixed, was deemed inferior to their conquerors and colonizers." The colonized population was deprived of its human condition, being educated and disciplined to obey, to serve, and become a thing, an object, or a nonhuman animal. This is why SimónBolívarinsistedinpointingouttheeffectsofcolonialdominationforhumanservitude, "educatetoobey,toneverbeabletocommand"andmuchlesstoleadanation,anewstate [7].
In Colombia, Orlando Fals Borda (1925Borda ( -2008 produced several works toward a "liberatingsociety,"committedtofreetheoppressedpopulation,mostlypeasantsandIndians.Fals Borda's very intellectual upbringing is a path of intellectual liberation. He took his undergraduate and graduate studies in the United States (1947, 1953, and 1957 [8].Thisworkdrewattentionfrom public opinion in Colombia, since it made explicit the structural nature of violence and suggestedactionsforsocialpacification,includingideasforaneducationalpolicy. In 1970, Fals Borda launched the book where he set forth the Eurocentric issue in a sociological manner. In his Own Science and Intellectual Colonialism [9], the Colombian sociologist expresses theconceptualcoordinatesofthe"sociologyofliberation",proposingtheindependenceand valuation of Latin-American thinking. Fals Borda takes as issues the epistemological domains of Eurocentric, cultural, and economic dependency, highlighting the need to overcome our "inferioritycomplex";hechallengesthetheoreticaltranspositionofEuro-Americanscientific categories into the Latin-American reality. He proposes a liberating and creative intellectual independence, however devoid of ethnocentric xenophobia and scholarly hubris. At the same time, he emphasized the need to transcend the Eurocentric boundaries. Fals Borda also pointed outtheimportanceofmaintaininganinterculturaldialogwiththedifferentschoolsofthought, includingtheEuropeanone.Hisproposedsociologywouldbecommittedtofairnesstothose oppressed and a Participatory Action-Research (PAR) for social transformation. Intellectual recal-citranceandsubversionwereliberatingattitudesinFalsBorda'sthinking & feeling sociology [10].
WherewasAiméleadingto?HispointisthataStatepromotingandpracticingcolonialismis the same that creates the conditions for the development of a Hitler. When European imperialism deemed it permissible to invade foreign lands and colonize non-European peoples, "it was Hitlher who spoke", saysAimé.Inotherwords:"nobodycolonizesinnocently",andneither colonizes unpunished, since "a civilization that condones colonization (…) is already a sick civilization, morally blemished, which unavoidably moves from one consequence to another, from one denial to the next, invoking its Hitler, i.e., its punishment [11]".
FrantzFanon followsthesamereasoningthreadasAiméCésaire.InThe Wretched of the Earth, Fanon unveils the physical and psychological dimensions of colonialist violence. Using insights and psychoanalytical study of patients fraught with mental derangement conditions resulting from colonial violence, Fanon [12] demonstrates that, in the colonialist society, violence dehumanizes both colonizers and their subjects. Colonial society is divided into explicitlyracialandculturalfields,featuringthegeographyofMasterandSlave,astermed by Aristotle. Post-colonial society melts the visible and legal boundaries of oppression and slavery;however,thecolonialistcultureisdeeplyrootedinthedeepest"being"ofcolonized men, i.e., the oppressor's shadow remains culturally and psychologically hosted within the oppressed ones, as Paulo Freire would put it.
In his conclusive-and to some extent desperate-narrative, Fanon leaves some warning to those"wretchedoftheearth"whoconquertheirindependence,advisingthemtostayclear fromthemistakeof"mimicking"Europe,implicitlyemphasizingthevigoroftheEurocentric colonialism domain in the epistemological and cultural scope: "Mankind expects from us somethingbetterthanthisgenerallydemeaningmockery";and"ifwehopetotransformAfrica intoanewEurope,AmericaintoanewEurope,thanwe'dbetterentrusttheEuropeanswiththe fateofourcountry,"as"they'llknowbetterhowtodoitthanthebestamongstus"(p.275) [12]. Hence, for Fanon, the conquest of political independence, ousting colonizers from the territory, isjustthefirststageofthedecolonizationprocessandmaybethisisthemostvisiblephaseof the"liberatingwar,"sincetheenemytobedefeatedisinplainsightbeyondthetrenches.The toughestandmostcomplexchallengeistofighttheshadowoftheoppressorthatisingrained inthesoulofthecolonizedpopulationandinthemindsofthe"colonizedintellectuals." OneofthemostefficientimperativerationalesofEuropeanmodernityisachievedthrough colonialism in knowledge, "driven" by Eurocentrism. Eurocentrism is both a vision of the worldandanewformofpower;itisanepistemologicalknowledgematrixthatjustifiesand validates this new world standard for the power of modernity/colonialism. Eurocentrism, states Anibal Quijano, is the perspective of knowledge whose systematic compilation began in Western Europe during the first half of the seventeenth century, though its origins date fromearliertimes.Itsideologywasbuilttogetherwiththe"specificbourgeoisesecularization of European thinking, as well as the world's experience and needs of the capitalist, modern/ colonial, Eurocentric power, established from America" [13].
The philosophy of liberation proposed by Enrique Dussel is that one which stems from the ontological criticism to the normative moral of the prevailing social system, which also implies "unraveling"anddecolonizingtheEurocentricepistemologicalknowledgegeography,mostly theepistemologicaldecolonizationofhumanandsocialsciences.The"liberating"termevokes historical experiences and mythical reports referring to the liberating processes in oppressed people that deposed the domineering moral order and transcended their oppression and enslavement by means of a new and more equitable social order. In the past, there was the enslaving moral of ancient societies, the European feudal period servitude, the castes system in Eastern and Asiatic societies, and the modern and contemporary colonial order in America, Africa, and Asia; in the present, there was the neoliberal-grounded capitalist moral.
The liberating philosophy, therefore, is a philosophy born in and developed from the life conditions of the oppressed/excluded ones, a "pedagogy of the oppressed" as meant by Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, and Paulo Freire, aspiring to justice, equity, and life quality. More than a Western-style philosophy, Dussel expresses some radical criticism to the positivisticandilluministicvisionofhistory,asreportedfromtheEurocentricstance.Itdemystifies the key arguments of the West European history of philosophy, evidencing a philosophy of history purporting to be universal; and it further radicalizes its philosophical analysis upon uncovering the fetish of modernity, an ideology that creates a natural a locus of universal centrality for Europe, validating and hiding its imperialistic background as a presumed civilizing advance for the entire mankind [14].

Education in the indigenous peoples living and resisting
What was the life style and, particularly, education in the major civilizations in Abya Yala like? What was education like for the people in the forests? The entire epistemological reality oftheoriginalpeoplewas"covered"bytheWestEuropeanepistemologicalmodernity.Our firstpedagogicalmissionistodigand"uncover"thisimmenseworldthatwasburied.When Spanish conquerors invaded the Anáhuac territory (currently Mexico and Guatemala) in 1519, for instance, the Aztec civilization was organized into 38 provinces. On top of a complex urban structurethatimpactedtheSpaniards'firstimpressions,therewasapubliceducationsystem and an erudite culture that valued the art of knowledge to be preserved and shared by means ofbooks.Thebooks,asJacquesSoustellepointsout,"wereregardedasveryimportantby ancientMexicans";inthetemplesandmoreaffluenthomes,therewererichlibraries,andthe profession of painter-scribe (tlacuiloani) was particularly valued. Spaniards still had a chance towitnesstheexistenceoftwopubliceducationsystems:"theneighborhoodschools,where male instructors taught boys and female instructors taught girls, to get them prepared for real life," and the monastery-school (calmecac),"whereteachingwasperformedbypriests" [15].
TheIncacivilization,differentlyfromtheAztec,didnotneedwrittenlanguagetodevelop its complex urban architecture or its knowledge in astronomy and mathematics; they developed a recording and accounting method using a technique involving knots on ropes. When Spaniards invaded the Tawantinsuyuterritory,theynotonlydestroyedthe"admirable"cityof Cusco, Tumipampa, Cajamarca, Huánuco, Jauja, Huaytará, and Vilcashuaman, but also destroyed and covered the information and knowledge artifacts from this complex cultural diversity of the Inca civilization. In the State territory, for instance, there were two educational modes, one institutional,andanotherinformal,"naturaleducation" [16].
The Tawantinsuyu empire developed between the 12th and 15th Centuries, gathering within its domain millennial traditions from other people. The Empire's social basis was strongly supported on an Ayllu network, a family and community organization created by kinship within a territory collectively shared by a number of families. At its climax, the Inca empire had its domains spanning from the present territory of Colombia to Argentina, covering about 1.5 million square miles, with an estimated population of 30 million inhabitants [17].
Education-wise, the Empire organized a system of educational agents in different tiers and roles, a system that privileged the male members and the higher classes, however including all communities that were part of the Empire. Teaching philosophy, practical moral, and literature were assigned to the Amautas, wise men who represented the higher knowledge of the Inca culture. Knowledge on poetry, nature, and good life was conveyed by the Harávecs, recognized for their knowledge and memorization skills. Priests also had their educational role, and one of the most acclaimed was Willac Umu, a specialist in teaching philosophy and religion. The Kupucamáyoc were specialists in the Kipus arts, the method used for recording and accounting with ropes, enabling knowledge in arithmetic, mathematics, and record-keeping in the Empire. The Chasquis were some kind of messengers of knowledge. Their role was in communication, transmitting information, usually performed by physically fit youngsters who had a good memory. Other educational agents, no less important than the previous ones, were the Mitmacs, some kind of cultural envoys intended to spread the Inca culture by replacing, in rebellious territories,thosewhoopposedthesovereign'spower,therebyperformingthispacificoccupation through the dissemination of the Empire's language and lifestyle in the occupied territories. The Inca government recruited Mitmacs from among the working population, selecting experts in varied occupations, such as shepherds, farmers, painters, masons, and goldsmiths [16].
In the early seventeenth century, the Peruvian Indian Felipe de Guama Poma de Yala (1534-1615) wrote his First New Chronicle and Good Government, a 1200-page document, denouncing the social injustice of the Spanish colonial regime and asserting the peaceful coexistence of the two worlds. He also implicitly advocated for the return of an educational system focused on the Tawantinsuyu cultures. In his chronicle, Guama Poma states that the Inca people had nothing to learn from the European colonizers, since these had nothing good to teach to the conquered people other than the art of violence and prejudice. Guama Poma's claims were not awarded [18]. In both the Spanish and Portuguese colonial systems, there was an extended process of culture assimilation imposed by military, judicial, religious, and educational action. In colonial societies, educating the indigenous ethnic groups was paramount, and priests and missionaries were the ones who performed the most durable colonizing educationalwork,withthepurposeof"civilizing"and"acculturating"Indians.
In the nineteenth century, the colonizing elites-who fought for independence and spread thepatrioticdiscourseandthecolorsofthenewnationalidentities-viewedbothIndiansand negroes as an obstacle to the intended advancement of the Eurocentric modernization. In this (in)dependent modernization context, three policies were found, relative to the indigenous people: the extermination policy for those Indians who resisted invasion of their territory; the confinementpolicyinreservesandschoolsfortheethnicgroupswhopreservedtheirindigenous identity, aiming at social control and progressive acculturation to the national State; and the school education for the rural population, in regional realities (mostly Andean and Central America), where the prevailingly indigenous and mixed population had been born and survived within the colonial society's borders. Within the national States, the education thenewrepublicannationsofferedtotheindigenouspeople,duringthefirst150yearsafter political independence, was focused on assimilation and acculturation. That school education was conceived and organized by the State and the Catholic Church.
Faced with this invasion and colonization scenario, the leaders of the Kuna and other indigenous people assembled a general meeting on February 12, 1925, where they passed the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Tule. The key issues in that Declaration to be negotiated with the Panama government were the administrative and political indepen-denceoftheKunapeopleinitsterritory;landboundariesdefinedfortheSanBlasjurisdiction (Kuma Yala); jurisdiction of the plantations in Armila and Mandinga bay, as well as the exploit of iron and manganese; and also the implementation of educational institutions that respected the Kuna people cultural traditions [20].
In Southern Colombia, other indigenous people also rebelled against the national State colonization and modernization project. This resistance can be found and understood from the path and work of Manuel Quintín Lame, a Colombian Indian from the landless Paeces people, who had to work in the farms of major landowners, like his father. He was born in 1883, in the Polindara reserve, currently located in the Totoró county, Cauca district, in Southern Colombia. According to his testimony, he dictated the book Los pensamientos del indio que se educó dentro de las selvas colombianas (The Thoughts [21].
Whatdoweseeinthe"thoughtsoftheIndianeducatedintheColombianforests"?Quintín Lame characterizes nature as a mother and master of divine origin; he explicits a conception ofotherness,differencesbetweenIndiansandwhitemen.HelearnedtheSpanishlanguageas a strategy to accuse the oppression of his people. As Martha Elena Carvajal points out, Quintín Lame, like the vast majority of American Indians, in tune with his legacy cosmic vision, feels, sees, and conceives nature, in itself and in the land, as his mother; and just like the actual Peace Indians, Nature is his "nasa kiwe," his motherland [21].Itexplicitsaconceptof"naturaleducation,"emphasizing the moral value of an educational philosophy ingrained in nature.
Quintín Lame says he did not receive the schooling intended for non-Indians; and he knew that this education represented prestige and access to the modern society knowledge. However, heobservesthathis"naturaleducation"wasandisatleastasimportantastheformaleducation provided to non-Indians. Hence either North or South of the Americas, the indigenous people resist as much as they can to the modernity expansionistic project; and modernity/colonialism always comes from either therightortheleft.Inthescopeof-privateorpublic-schooling,schoolhasbeenanational andglobalinstrumentfor"shaping"modernsubjects,implementingcurriculardisciplining practices that suppress the historical and cultural diversity of the people in Abya Yala.

The liberating popular education
What do we mean by "liberating popular education"? We conceived the idea of "popular liberating education" as a pedagogical concept articulated with a social and political reality transformation project, going beyond the two social paradigms of West European modernity-capitalismandsocialism-thoughitmightincludesomeoftheequityandjusticeprinciplesfromthelatter.Populareducationmakesexplicitapedagogicalconceptcommittedto overcoming the oppression and inequity that prevail in popular classes. It is a pedagogical practice with the intent of building a pedagogical project of liberating a people (or a community) from its cultural or environmental reality, in a dialogically shared literacy-awareness educational process; a pedagogical practice promoting some liberating intellectual empowerment, enabling the subjects in the educational process to have a critical reading of the world, without resorting to ideological indoctrination, so that learners will be intellectually fit to make their political choices for a world endowed with more fairness, solidarity, and welcoming, for a respectful intercultural and interethnical coexistence. Warisata was not a casual choice for the aylluschool.ElizardoPérezselectedanindigenous territory, far away from both urban centers and the countryside areas where chiefdom by landowners prevailed. The school was collectively and cooperatively built by that very indigenous population, with supplemental resources from the State, Bolivian society friends' associations, Elizardo Pérez's own funds, and building materials donated by the governments of Peru, Venezuela, and Mexico. The architectural design of the ayllu school drew admiration and conservative fear, as it was an investment for the indigenous population. It was a two-story building, having an 8000 sq.ft. yard, surrounded by trees and a garden. The design also included a boardingschool,withfivedormitorieshosting150beds.Inside,therewerefiveclassrooms,five otherroomsforofficesandstorage,plussixworkshopsforpracticalclassesandproductionin carpentry, textiles, tapestry, and blacksmithery, as well as canteen, kitchen, and bathroom [24]. 3 The Bolivian indigenous people, like other countries having an expressive indigenous population, has had an endlessstrugglinghistory.In1780therewastheTupacAmaruIIrebellion(TupacKatari),ledbythenativeJoséGabriel CondorcanquiagainsttheSpanishcolonialsystem,andin2000theWaterWarinCochabamba,thefirstanti-neoliberal revolutioninthetwenty-firstCentury.
Since its foundation, the utopic and liberating dimension of the ayllu school caused hatred and fearful responses among the Bolivian society rural oligarchs. During all its 9 years of enlivening operation, the ayllu school was under permanent threat. Government resources were withdrawn; farmersconspiredandconnivedtohampertheschool'soperation,cuttingthewatersupplyand rumoringslanderthatstimulatedfearandhatred.ElizardoPérezwaschargedofbeingacom-munistattheserviceoftheSovietsocialistregime.In1940-1941,theayllu school in Warizata was dismembered from its original project and ostracized by Bolivian government. In spite of protests from Bolivian society, school management was handed over to men with corrupted moral character and, most of all, people had no respect for the indigenous. Construction work was halted, and parts were demolished; the roof shingles factory was dismantled and taken toLaPaz;cropfields,orchards,andgardenswereabandoned;livestock(lambs,pigs,poultry) were killed; tool and material storerooms were emptied; electricity supply was disabled, and the furniture vanished; the Amauta Parliament was suppressed, and its members were persecuted; the potable water system was destroyed; the new managers occupied the dormitories as if they were owners; natives were thrown out, and a hunting season began, chasing students andparentswhowerecommittedtotheayllu school's social project [24].
Inthepopulareducationfield,BrazilianeducatorPauloFreireisoneofthemostacclaimed figures worldwide. His thoughts and works are studied and discussed in many universities, academic conferences, and publications. His literacy-awareness method, conceived in the 1960s, is still used in several countries. All continents welcomed his pedagogical thinking, and many countries set up study and research centers as the Paulo Freire Institute.
PauloFreire  According to Paulo Freire, as history unfolds, human groups are subject to humanization and dehumanization. Man's ontological condition is humanization, however within an oppressingsocietythatgetsitsself-affirmationfrominjustice,exploitation,violence,anddomination, such condition is denied. This creates the need to develop a Pedagogy of the Oppressed, making itpossible"torecoverthestolenhumanization" [1].
In order to understand the liberating role of the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire highlights two key points: the oppressors' violence also renders them dehumanized, hence "themajorhistoricalandhumanistictaskoftheoppressedonesistoliberateboththemselves and the oppressors"; and, in order to carry out this liberating role, the oppressed ones must becomeawarethatthey"hosttheoppressorinsidethemselves,"since"onlyastheyperceive themselves as hosting the oppressor, they'll be able to contribute, by sharing their liberating pedagogy" [1].
The oppressed ones' liberation process does not take place upon discovering their condition. Inordertorefrainfromanaiveandsimplisticvision,PauloFreirewarnsthat"thestructure of your thoughts is conditioned by the contradiction experienced in the actual, concrete, situationinwhichtheycomeup."Forthisreason,"theiridealis,indeed,beingmen;however for them, being men within the contradiction they have always been in, and whose way to overcome is not clear, is achieved by being oppressors" [1].
The challenge of the Liberating Pedagogy is more complex than it seems. Oppressive mechanisms pervade the oppressed ones' culture and mentality, while the oppressor clings to material assets and to the politico-economical power that enables him to preserve his family's comfortandperks.Intheoppressiveculturalenvironment,theoppressedoneswho"host"the oppressor'swayofbeingfearfreedom,becausetheliberatingprocessrequiresthemtofillthe void-leftafterhavingexpelledtheoppressorfromwithin-withsomenewcontent,i.e.,"their autonomy."Therefore,forPauloFreire,freedombehoovesresponsibilityandautonomy;"it requires a relentless search that can only exist in the responsible act of who is performing it" [1].

Precursors of biocentric education
As an outcome of the ontological and biological condition of mankind, the human being's vision of the world is "naturally" anthropocentric. However not always, and not in every culture,hasmanplacedhimselfasa"superiorspecies,"relativetononhumananimals.This is why we consider it important to explicitly trace back the path of such anthropocentrism, and the place this way of thinking occupies in the contemporary process of devastating our planet's environment; at the same time highlighting the new ethical sensitivities, with the intent of overcoming the colonialist dimension of anthropocentric pedagogy.
Both anthropocentrism and speciesism are ideologies that justify and legitimate the human species' violence and domination relative to all other nonhuman life forms on our planet. Modernsociety's"evolution"waspavedbyspeciesismandanthropocentrism.Intheancient Greco-Roman tradition, some philosophers expressed their vision of the world without bestowingasuperiorpositiononhumans.Theseancientphilosophers-Pythagoras,Seneca, andPorphyryamongothers-conceivedmenwithina"weboflife,"sharedbyalllivebeings. Had the Western humanity followed Pythagoras' ethical conception, the tyranny that has been established ever since, to the present day, regarding other live beings would not have found its place morally in the cultural upbringing. However, "our moral format endorses the Aristotelic, anthropocentric, and hierarchic concept, typical of the slavocratic rationale" [26]. In the Western cultural upbringing, the Aristotelic conception has been taught by the anthropocentric pedagogy.
Biocentric education, therefore, is a pedagogical proposal built from the criticism to eco-colonialist anthropocentrism. This is why we consider it relevant to introduce the theoretical contributions from two Chilean educators, biologist Humberto Maturana, creator of the autopoiesis theory and the biology of knowledge, in partnership with his former pupil Francisco Varela, theories developed sincethe1960s;andtheprofessor,psychologist,andpoetRolandoToro ,creatorof the Biodance Pedagogy, a theory also developed from the 1960s. The autopoiesis theory states andclaimsthatlivebeingsarebiologicallyautonomous,i.e.,theyareself-sufficientinproducing their own vital components while living and coexisting in interaction with their life ecosystem.
In their research and philosophical interactions, Maturana and Varela [28] developed two other conceptual breakthroughs: the biology of knowledge and the biology of love (currently biology ofloving).Thefirstmilestoneinthisnewepistemologicaloutlookisverysimple:"lifeisaknowledge acquisition process," which is why knowledge is the condition for a live being to be alive, and the condition of living is the condition to be building a world that is in a permanent process of change.
Summarizing, the basic assumptions posed by Maturana and Varela are the following: a priori, there is no reality to be discovered or known, there is a world under construction in the conditionofgettingtoknow,living,andcoexistingoflivebeings;"livingisgettingtoknow-living is an actual action in existing as a live being [28]";and"Everythingthatissaid,issaidbyone observertoanother,whichmightbehimorherself,"i.e.,"theobserverisalivehumanbeing, and anything said about live beings or human beings, or generally organisms, applies to the observer"; live beings live like autopoietic systems "in a systemic molecular dynamic that continuously produces its self." The primitive condition for mankind to exist followed the line Homo sapiens-amans amans, a condition where shared well-being relationships prevailed.
Thisis"thefoundingandfundamentallineinourevolutionaryhistory,anditisstillpredominates in our biological-cultural present," coexisting with the Homo sapiens-amans agressans and Homo sapiens-amans arrogans trends. So, contrary to what positivist, liberal and Marxist fundamentaltheoriessay,"we,humanbeings,arelovingmammals,bipedalprimatesbelonging to a culturally evolutionary history centered in the Biology of Loving, coexisting in sharing andcollaborating,notonlyincompetingorattacking,"since"ifourbiologicalbasiswerenot amatory,ifthehumanbabywerenotbornontheimplicitconfidenceofbringinglovewithin, the concern of one for the other's well-being would not be possible" [29].
The"BiologyofLoving"maybethemostcontroversialamongMaturana'stheoriesandalso the most liberating them. It is through this theoretical point of view that Maturana and his research partners refute the idea that "competition" is an essential component of life. The "biologyofloving"isavitalcomponentofthebiologicalstructureoflivebeings,sinceevery live being is born in a natural or cultural environment that requires loving care and the acceptanceofcoexistingwithotherlivebeings.Inthehumanbeings'realm,"love,or,ifsuchan intense word is undesirable, the acceptance of the other together with us [our emphasis here] in coexistence, is the biological basis of the social phenomenon." Without love and without theacceptanceoftheotherwithus,theauthorspointout,"thereisnosocialization,andwithoutitthereisnohumanity."Forthisreason,"anythingthatvoidsorconstrainsacceptance from the other, from competition to ownership of the truth, to ideological certainty, voids or constrainstheoccurrenceofthesocialphenomenon."Thus"italsovoidsthehumanbeing, asiteliminatesthebiologicalprocessthatmakesitexist."MaturanaandVarela(p.268-269) make it clear that they have no intent of moralizing, much less making an apology to love. Theirintentistodemonstrate"thefactthat,biologically,withoutlove,withoutacceptanceof theother,thereisnosocialphenomenon";andthat"ifcoexistencesosurvives,lifeishypocriticalinindifferenceoractivedenial" [28]. What educational paradigm do Maturana's theories suggest? An education based on the principles of acceptance and respect to ourselves and others, living and coexisting in a way to build knowledge, developing life and the world. This calls for rethinking the school curriculum idea, the way to conceive mistakes and the role of reassessment, the relationship between teachers, students, and school managers, consciously integratedtoourrespectivecommunitiesforgoodlivingandto"compete"forajobinthe marketplace.

RolandoToro(1924-2010)developedhistheoryfromdancingactivitieswithpatientsinthe
Santiago Psychiatric Hospital, in Chile, while he was a professor at the Medical Anthropology study center in the School of Medicine of the University of Chile in 1965. Initially, the therapy was defined as psychodance, and a decade later, Toro attempted to transcend the anthropocentric vision toward a biocentric vision, creating an epistemological framework for the " biocentriceducation"paradigm,whichbegantowidespreadinthe1980s.Toro [30]defines the biocentric principle as the way of feeling and thinking in the existential living and coexistingoflivebeings.Hisepistemologicalassumptionistheideathat"theuniverseexistsbecause there is life"; and that all components of the universe, from the physical elements and live beings, are part of a larger living system that gets organized to generate life. For the Chilean educator, education is the darkest expression of the crisis of Euro-Western civilization: • I would like to be extremely sincere in reviewing the energy background of our civilization and its darker expression: Education.
• Thecontemporaryeducation,inalmosteverywhereintheWest,doesnotfulfillitstaskof providing the individual with internal guidelines for development.
• It neither provides the natural germs of vitality nor the values of the intimate. It does not develop creative potentials, intellectual freedom, or the uniqueness of skills. It does not foster the splendor of human relationships.
• The current education tends to produce servile adaptation to the established. It seeks to createasenseofdutyandanattitudeofrespecttowardthingsthatarenotrespectable [30].
Rolando Toro mentions 15 assumptions of the biocentric theory, including the following: biodance is oriented by "an ecological concept of human and cosmic relationships"; biodance postulates a prophylactic action that transcends the borders of conventional therapy, attemptingtopreventdiseasestomanifest;itpostulatesacommunity-centeredsocialchange system and not client focused; biodance is a theory based on Human Sciences (Anthropology, Etiology, Biology, Medicine, Psychology, and Sociology), and "does not stem from any special ideological, religious, or psychological system"; "biodance is an evolutionary-not revolutionary-system" [30].
Why biodance? Rolando Toro was born in the territory that, before 1492, was occupied by a wide diversity of indigenous people having (and they still have) dance as an existential practice to connect with the natural and spiritual world. Furthermore, Toro lived through the crisis of social, political, and epistemological paradigms that would get expressed in a more striking manner in the rebellions of youngsters, in several countries through the 1960s, against the materialistic, destructive, and consumerist rationale of West European modernity; a rationale that fosters competition, war, and deaths. Biodance theory is hence a theory aspiring to promote life and the peaceful and respectful coexistence of humans and nonhumans alike; it is an approach proposing a new educational/upbringing paradigm for subjects that are capable of feeling, coexisting, and connecting to the life beings community, be it at local level or in any other living environment in the universe; it is a systemic and holistic vision of the world, based on a dialogical interaction between the tradition, wisdom, and knowledge produced by contemporary science.
RolandoTorosaysthatthe"biodance"conceptgetsclosetotheideaofDancing Your Life, from the French philosopher Roger Garaudy, who expressed his dance philosophy as one of the vital components of live beings, humans included; to live and interact with nature dancing forlife.Dance,accordingtoGaraudy,"isacompletewayoflivingtheworld;itisknowledge, art,andreligion,allatonce."Sodance"showsusthatwhatissacrediscarnalaswell,andthe body may teach what a spirit without a body doesn't know: the grandeur and beauty of the act when man is not apart from his self, but wholly present in what he does"; it is through thedanceoflifethatamandevelopshisadmirationforthesea,theclouds,thefire,orfor love,because"love,likedance,precededmaninblossoming,"since"amonginsects,birds, andmanyotherspecies,danceispartoftheloveact."Forthisreason,"danceisnotmerely the expression and celebration of the organic continuity between man and nature; it is also an accomplishment of the living community of men" [31].

Final thoughts
Overall, we found that Latin America reached the end of the twentieth century having accomplishedasignificantpartoftheeducationalidealsproposedandclaimedbythegeneration ofeducatorsbornandgraduatedinthefirsthalfofthatsamecentury.Allcountriesimplementedanationalpubliceducationsystem"forall."Literacyincludesthewidemajorityof the population. Elementary education has become an obligation of the family and a duty of the state. There are school buildings implemented in all regions, cities, and small villages. Eachcountryhasdevelopeditsuniversity-levelteacherqualificationpolicy.Newuniversities cameup,aswellasanewbreedofeducators-researchers.Scienceandscientificknowledge have been absorbed by the school culture. "Liberal democracy" has become the dominant (andpracticallyonly)paradigmofaState,withtheexceptionofCubaandoccasional"Coup" attempts,whicharestillapoliticalpracticefosteredandvalidatedbyconservativesectionsof Latin-American countries and imperialistic Northern governments.
Manyconquestsandfewvictories-Themetricsofviolenceagainstthepoor,Afrodescendant, andindigenouspopulationsareingrainedinwhatisknownasthe"banalityofevil."Social disparity between the rich and the poor is shamefully staggering. The national educational systemhasmadesignificantimprovementstothelivingconditionsofmanyfamilies; however, itisabureaucraticsystemthatperpetuatesthe"bankingeducation"rationaleanddevelopsa schooled population deprived of intellectual autonomy and critical thinking, as intended by the educators who dreamed about and believed in the transforming role of modern education. Elementary school teachers' working conditions and compensation are still in indigenous and demotivating situation in most countries.
From either left or right, Latin America has adopted the developmentalist model from the West European modernity. The educational system and professional training for teachers were both adjusted to match this model. The inter-ethnical plurality of national States only begantobeacknowledgedinfactduringthefirstdecadeofthetwenty-firstcentury.Some states dignified the rights of their autochthonous people; however, in most, their situation entails hostility, violence, and exclusion.
Eurocentrism still dominates the curricular structure of national education systems at all levels. Most scientists and educators in Latin America have not yet noticed or acknowledged theeffectsoftheepistemologicaldomainofEurocentrisminitswayofseeing"problems"and "solutions"forLatinAmerica.However,anewgenerationofeducatorshasundertakenthe challenges left by the generation that designed the initial framework of liberating education, of the decolonial education, of the pedagogy of the Abya Yala people, and of the education that values the life and the well-living of all live beings.

Carlos Renato Carola
Address all correspondence to: crc@unesc.net University of the Extreme South of Santa Catarina (UNESC), SC, Brazil