Celebration to the Jaguar

Below is a letter, written in appreciation of  the WILD9 Jaguar project from the President of Aprendamos Juntos, A.C.

Dear Mr. Martin,

Aprendamos Juntos A.C. is a nonprofit organization that works with people with intellectual disabilities, fighting for their rights, respect and dignity, and their full inclusion in our society.

We feel very proud to have been invited to participate in the Jaguar project, knowing the impact the Wild9 Congress will have in our community and the world.

We invited Sandra Nikolai, a very talented painter born in Merida, to make the design of the JAGUAR.

Sandra Nikolai was inspired by the JAGUAR that was found inside the great Maya pyramid known as the Castle at Chichen Itza, which is painted red and has jade incrusted eyes.

She also wanted to transmit our culture and drew the Mayan temples of the Chichen, Uxmal and Dzibichaltún ceremonial centers where the Mayans worshiped the sun god and lived in harmony with nature. The JAGUAR also symbolizes the flora, fauna, towns, caves and cenotes (sink holes) which represent the natural wealth of the Yucatan peninsula. This was a great opportunity for the students to learn about jaguars, their habitat, and the importance to save the wilderness.

The sculpture was painted by the students with the help of their arts teacher Cecilia Bolio, showing us that they can express their capabilities though the design that Sandra Nikolai made. She respected the student’s drawings and gave her talented touch to the JAGUAR filling it with light, color and life.

When people and organizations with such diverse interests such as ecology, art and disability get together and form ties to give opportunities to young adults with intellectual disabilities, many benefits are received. Actions like this one, help our society understand that art has no frontiers.

It was a wonderful experience and very gratifying. The students feel very proud of having worked on this project, and they enjoyed it very much. Paint helps them increase the time and capacity to concentrate, while immersed in their work. At the end the reward is the satisfaction of seeing their artwork exhibited at the Museum.

On behaf of the 65 families that make the Aprendamos Juntos asociation, we manifest our gratitude to Mercedes Ruiz Galindo and Patricio Robles Gil from WILD9, for their invitation to participate in this project; to the Papalote Museo del Niño in México City for their sponsorship; to Cecilia Bolio for her altruistic job teaching painting to our young adults, and to Sandra Nikolai for her creativity, time and generosity towards Aprendamos Juntos.

We want to share with you the photographs that show a lot more that words can say, and we would be very happy to meet with you when you come to our country.

Mrs. María del Carmen Bujaidar
Presidente Aprendamos Juntos A.C.

Below is a list of the donors who supported the project and the painters of the jaguars: