ABSTRACT
Since the beginning of literacy programs designed to spread reading and writing beyond a small elite group, the matter of “benefits” that come with literacy has rarely been seriously questioned. Initially linked in Latin American nations with religious goals of friars and missionaries, reading and writing grew to be associated with social privilege and a rise in social status. Tightly associated with the dominant language of each nation, the written word in that language promised to open doors for work opportunities, land ownership, political power, and marriage possibilities. However, these openings have seldom materialized for the millions living in poverty with little chance of advanced schooling or social mobility in the legitimate economy. As researchers around the world have shown in their long-term statistical studies of literacy rates in correlation with growth in capital and opportunity, strong intervening political and social factors easily derail individuals who hope to move up the social class ladder. Some of these factors relate to language competencies; others have strong ties to regional and racial barriers. In the contemporary world, the hopes of the young are derailed when their formal schooling inadequately erases markers of class origin that will not move easily into the kinds of employment (generally in urban centers) that appeal to young people today. In this chapter we provide an example of such a case in which a community gardening and literacy development project in the Dominican Republic seemed to offer the opportunity for social mobility, but which in the end was overtaken by the kinds of social capital constrictions we have indicated here (and that are described in many of the other chapters in this book).
