Qualifications

Journeys Beyond the Surface is made up of Journey Coordinator Mojdeh Hojjati, working in collaboration with a group of men and women. We are friends from a variety of social and cultural backgrounds, each with our own contact with Mexico beyond the surface, including links to grassroots communities and civil society organizations.

From the Journey Coordinator:

I have been living and working in Mexico for 14 years now. Although I am not from here, Mexico has become my home and my roots, my beloved everyday reality.

My vocation as a bridge has been formed and informed by a lifetime of being in two or more cultures, becoming a part of both sides without losing contact with either. I have been straddled between two cultures ever since I was born. My Iranian parents went to the US to study, and I was born. They returned to Iran when I was 4. Although I lived in Iran until age 16, I always lived in contact with non-Iranian cultures. As a girl in a very small, international, mixed-sex school (very uncommon in Iran), and with an English education, I was Iranian and yet also foreign. When my parents sent me to the US in 1978 (due to the eruption of the Iranian Islamic Revolution), I found myself alone in a huge American university, where I was an American (citizen) and yet also foreign. Upon completing my Master's degree in Agricultural Economics / Community Development in 1988, I arrived in Mexico for a one-year internship with a colleague of one of my professors.

At first I was completely overwhelmed by Mexico City, a feeling augmented by my total lack of Spanish and lack of money for classes. But 12 months later, I was just starting to feel completely comfortable and to participate actively in the work here. So I stayed another year, and another, and eventually ended up realizing that this is where I most prefer to live. In this way, I began collaborating with Mexican non-profit organizations and civil society groups in conceiving, planning and implementing specific activities or projects. I also became useful as a bridge between these groups and outsiders (students, researchers, activists from other countries) who wanted to get to know them.

Here in Mexico, I continue to live straddled between cultures -- I continue to be an Iranian and an American, but at the same time I have immersed myself in this city and country. I have created family and roots here. Over the past 17 years, my collaboration with Mexican civil society organizations has continued and expanded. For 12 years, I worked as a consultant for corporate foundations such as the Levi Strauss Foundation and the Kellogg Foundations, facilitating their social grantmaking efforts throughout Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. In addition, I have been organizing educational trips and accompanying university student groups in Mexico for over 10 years, mainly for the International Honors Program on Rethinking Globalization , and the School for International Training but also for groups from European and Canadian universities.

In the "Testimonials" section you will find comments by students and others for whom I have played a trip facilitating role. I invite you to browse through the section, to get a better idea of my work.