How Letras Itinerantes Spent 10 Years Taking Books to Maya Communities

During a painting workshop run by Letras Itinerantes, a boy filled his paper with shapes and colors that looked abstract to the adult beside him. Then he explained it. It was his house.

A blue house, to be exact. He pointed out the wooden front door, a staircase running up one side, and an angry cloud with rain falling from it. What had looked like a composition of color was, to him, a place he knew perfectly.

The foundation still tells that story, mostly because of what it taught the adult in the room. That adult was Andrea Almaguer, who volunteers as the foundation's director of communications and outreach. "I was trying to interpret his drawing through my own eyes, while he was showing me something familiar and meaningful to him," she said. "It made me think about how easy it is to believe we understand what's in front of us."

Letras Itinerantes, legally registered as Fundación Letras Itinerantes A.C., began in 2016 and marked its 10th anniversary on September 26. Over that decade, it has brought reading, writing, and art to 33 communities across Quintana Roo and Yucatán, logging 836 workshops and activities, delivering 20,600 books, and reaching 928 children and young people with the help of 360 volunteers.

Those are the figures. Behind them is a decade of going back to the same places, learning names, and listening before assuming.

Two founders and a method built into the name

Tanya Landeros and Reyna Beatriz López González started the foundation, and its name describes how it works. For Letras Itinerantes, being itinerant has always meant going where the children are, on the premise that culture, creativity, and stories should not belong only to the places that already have them.

"What moved me to found Letras Itinerantes was my wish to serve the community through what I am passionate about, reading and art," Landeros said.

She describes an impact that reaches past literacy. "Each gathering reminds us that the impact goes beyond books," she said. "It is about awakening curiosity, strengthening community bonds, and helping preserve the Maya language and the cultural richness of the region."

The travel itself matters to her. Reaching these communities, she said, is also a return to nature, to the essential and the simple, "connecting from the heart and learning from one another."

López González, a partner in the foundation who also serves as its accountant, came to the project wanting to change conditions in Maya communities. "Today, many children in the Maya communities of Tulum do not have direct access to schools or to the basic learning tools that are part of daily life for the rest of Mexican society," she said.

She sees the foundation's work as a bridge for those children and teenagers, with art, music, singing, and reading as the main engines of their development. "Through these cultural activities, I want to open windows to the world for them, and also strengthen their self-esteem, creativity, and expression," she said.

Reading circles with no front of the room

Most sessions open the same way. Children sit in a circle, and a volunteer opens a book. At first, not much happens. Someone hesitates. Someone is distracted. Someone wants to tell their own story before the first page has turned.

The circle is deliberate. Everyone can see everyone else, so a child can speak, listen, ask a question, or simply watch until ready to join.

From there, reading takes many forms. The foundation's workshops have included painting, music, dance, yoga, meditation, photography, breathing exercises, and gardening, along with sessions in which participants write their own story or put together a book about their town. In the foundation's words, stories can enter through many doors.

In San Pedro, near Cobá, a mother found the sessions a home

When Letras Itinerantes arrived in San Pedro four years ago, it had no fixed place to work. Marisol Infante Ceme, a mother in the community, remembers the sessions moving from a temple to the local delegación office and then to the church.

She proposed the school. "As a mother, I told them we should meet at the school, since it was the closest point to find all the children during class hours," she said.

The team now comes back once or twice a month for yoga, painting, dance, reading, and storytelling, and organizes small celebrations at the school, such as Three Kings Day. "These are very beautiful activities," Infante Ceme said. "Nobody else had really come to us to do them with the children of the community."

Patricia Canul Ciau went from taking workshops to leading them

Patricia Canul Ciau has spent eight years as a volunteer at Biblioteca Ayari, the library in her community of San Silverio where she works with the foundation. She calls it one of the richest experiences of her life.

She started on the receiving end, in workshops on reading, storytelling, painting, photography, gardening, and writing her own story. Now she runs the sessions. Before each one, she cleans the space and sorts the books by age. She helps prepare storytelling for younger children and reading clubs for young people and adults.

"Beyond academics, the library has become a safe refuge for many of them," she said. "It is a space where they feel heard, valued, and motivated."

She has watched shy children find the confidence to speak up during read-aloud sessions. Many now take a book home each day and come back ready to talk about it with the group.

"Going home each day knowing I helped open a door to knowledge for someone else is a priceless reward," she said.

Canul Ciau is one of the 360 volunteers the foundation counts across its first decade. Some joined because they love books. Others brought a specific skill in art, music, yoga, education, or photography. The artist Paco Rocha, founder of Equinoccio Art Gallery, is among them. In June, he led a museum visit and painting session at SFER IK for 20 young people from Manuel Antonio Ay.

The foundation says many volunteers arrive expecting to give something and leave having received something they did not expect.

The next Letras Itinerantes book day is set for November 14

The anniversary falls in the middle of an eight-day campaign to bring 400 books to communities. The most recent was held in Sahcab Mucuy.

Two more are confirmed, although rain and some logistical adjustments have pushed both back. The next one is planned for November 14, with a sponsor already secured and the location to be announced. The other is sponsored but still waiting on a date and place. Four more book days remain open for scheduling.

Information on volunteering or supporting the foundation is available at fundacionletrasitinerantes.org.

Among the photographs the foundation shared for this story is the boy's drawing of the blue house. To anyone else, it could still pass for an abstract. He never had any doubt about what it was.

Which book from your own childhood would you put in the bag for the next trip into a Maya community? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes .