In September of 2014, 43 Rural Teacher College students disappeared as part of a series of human rights violations that brought unprecedented global attention to the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teacher College in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero. Within the context of these events, this research centers on the student-driven advocacy that emerges across Mexican Rural Teacher Colleges today. These Colleges historically serve as an avenue for young men and women from humble, rural, or farmworking backgrounds to train as elementary and bilingual educators. Rural Teacher Colleges emerged from the spirit of the Mexican Revolution, and they have long weathered disenfranchisement, including accusations of being nests for communists and school closures in the 1960s. The aim of this study is to illuminate how Rural Teacher College students are continuously advocating for school maintenance, student essentials, and education programs. This research identifies student-driven advocacy strategies, which may exist beyond calls for justice for the missing 43 students. The study is based on three primary questions: What are Rural Teacher College students advocating for? Which strategies do students engage in to promote those issues? What are the benefits and challenges of different advocacy mediums? This study draws from semi-structured interviews with one Rural Teacher College student. Interviews are transcribed and translated, and they lend a student perspective and voice to research analysis. Further, an online document analysis examines social media statements and Rural Teacher College webpages. Preliminary results indicate students face numerous barriers in maintaining consistent educational opportunities. The study serves as a platform to highlight how students organize themselves in innovative ways. Further, it has implications for understanding the political and social justice consciousness attached to a Rural Teacher College education. This study will influence future research on the issue of student-led advocacy and the development of civic engagement via online platforms.

This research aims to explore the roots of solidarity in the ongoing violent political context of Colombia. By challenging the general rhetoric of “rescuers” as privileged and educated people, I will try to answer the following questions: Why are people willing to risk their lives or privileges to help others, who are they, and what are their characteristics? My initial findings indicate that in the Colombian context, acts of solidarity and courage are often performed by dispossessed populations. I argue that in Colombia, victims of crimes against humanity become the helpers because solidarity becomes a form of survival. I am exploring some of the most relevant factors shown by victims of State violence such as critical consciousness, sense of community, moral agency, and political agency, which are related to the victims´ commitment to social change. Based on interviews I will do with members of the MOVICE (National Movement of Victims of State Crime), a memoir about my own personal experience as a teenager involved in the social movement, and videos and testimonies from the web archives from the National Center of Historical Memory, I try to identify a pattern for solidarity. By doing this, I highlight different forms of solidarity as processes of resistance against hegemonic powers, where victims play the main roles challenging the status quo. Overall, I attempt to show that in this context, where solidarity is a form of survival, it is also a form of healing from the trauma of political violence, because it establishes relationships rooted in reciprocity.