ABSTRACT
Contemporary Mazahuas from El Nopal have two important community goals which are shared and often discussed by men and women of the adult generation. They are: the goal of remaining Mazahua in spite of the growing pressures of acculturation into Mexican society; and the goal of accepting as much of El Progreso as possible. One of los senores from El Nopal, Don Edmundo, a man of about 40—quite an advanced age in this village—acts as the village philosopher and ideologist. He would like to have "books out of which people from El Nopal would learn to read and write Mazahua". Other facets of Don Edmundo's Utopian dream deal with bringing some sort of cottage industry to the village, "maybe sandal-making for the whole area, maybe making parts of agricultural machines at home under contract to some factory," to use his words.
