OCR Text |
Show 15 Puebla zone. Later, the Centers of Guatemala and Bolivia were started, and most recently in Mexico, with the direct participation of the National Indianist Institute through its Tzeltal-Tzotzil Coordinating Center in Chiapas. In these Inter-American Training Centers, of which two more will be started this year-in El Salvador and Ecuador-scholarship holders from the various American countries are being prepared in an intensive form. Of the approximately 150 scholarship holders who have passed through these Centers already, many are working in departments of their respective governments on Indian community development programs. Among these graduates are doctors, agronomists, economists, teachers, etc. It is true that the work done in this field has been very limited to date. It must be increased rapidly until there are many hundreds of professional people properly trained in integral development techniques in order to make possible the suitable adaptation of the various national programs of development to the scope of the Indian cultural context. It has only been very recently that the Inter-American Indian Institute itself has been able to increase considerably its budget, covered for the most part by contributions from the member states, and has begun to widen its radius of action. Among the new work undertaken, we can mention the creation of a Department of Social Investigation for the study and analysis of the methods and techniques applied in specific projects. The social anthropologists who make up the personnel of this Department are in charge, aside from their advisory work, of the preparation of technical manuals that can be employed by various organi- |