Introduction
 Un Mundo is a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a comprehensive and revolutionary approach to development work. Our mission is to promote dignity, community, and self-sufficiency while facilitating access to health care, education, and livable wages in marginalized communities.¹ Un Mundo partners with Honduran villages that are largely made up of historically oppressed peoples, who have had little if any institutional contact, are often illiterate, and are predominantly subsistence agriculturists. Un Mundo places human potential at the center of our understanding of under-development. We view under-development simply as the deprivation of basic capabilities, and view development work as the expansion of those freedoms that improve human well-being.²

Each of our programs has a pedagogical dimension designed to engender an understanding of the causes and effects of underdevelopment, and the necessity of collective action in combating that underdevelopment. Since our 1995 beginnings as an association of spontaneous efforts focused on the Honduran north coast community of El Pital, we have evolved into an organization with depth and vision.

Ideology
Un Mundo believes there are both objective and subjective factors of under-development. Objective factors include disease, illiteracy, and oppressive social and economic arrangements. Subjective factors include cultural identity, ethics, and beliefs — i.e., the world-view of a people. These objective and subjective factors are both causes and effects of under-development.³ Un Mundo also believes much of this debilitating cycle of under-development in Latin America exists as a direct effect of colonization, and that many of the dynamics of colonization are still at work today..⁴ Accordingly, we treat both the subjective and objective factors of under-development as historical realities, and as such susceptible to transformation, which also explains why we primarily focus on forming the youth. Our ideology and corresponding two-pronged approach to development work are rooted in our philosophy of empowerment.

    

Philosophy
One powerful explanation of the astonishing 'success' of the American conquest and colonization, both during the 15th and 16th centuries and today, is that European powers were able to conceptualize the pre- and semi-literate Native American populations in such a way that allowed the Europeans to conquer through division and deceit a virtually paralyzed Native American culture.⁵ This explanation is largely built upon the premise that underlying economic arrangements give rise to social and cultural forms. By striving to maximize profit, the premise holds, Western capitalism promotes risk-taking, which in turn promotes rationality and creativity; whereas the fear of famine in a subsistence agricultural economy constantly threatened by environmental disaster promotes risk-eliminating habits, which in turn promote a past-oriented, ritual-dominated, and mythical-thinking worldview.⁶ Accordingly, the past-oriented, ritual-dominated, and mythical-thinking Native American worldview was less able to improvise when confronted with the wholly unforeseen encounter with the 'other' than a forward-looking and rational Western ethos. Upon encountering the Europeans, the Native Americans suffered a virtual cultural paralysis, as their modes of interpreting the world and communicating broke down in the face of such a dramatically unprecedented event. The highly structured Native American worldview (wherein any event out of the ordinary was deemed heralded by another, prophecy and law were designated by the same word, and individual destiny was entirely preordained by a cosmic/religious/social order) lost its ability to promote coherent understanding, as ritual and divination suddenly ceased to offer guidance, and in doing so lost its ability to effectively resist predatory European interests. This same tradition-dominated worldview that catalyzed an improbable conquest proved fertile ground for subsequent colonial subjugation of the native outlook with a foreign one, spawning a false consciousness that today obscures the true nature and origins of under-development.⁷ This understanding not only provides insight into many seemingly ironic technical, social, and moral arrangements in under-developed communities, but also offers the pedagogical lesson that so called "under-developed" peoples must learn to unite and develop a critical consciousness if they are to resist power and control their own destiny.

Pedagogy
Because Un Mundo recognizes and addresses subjective as well as objective factors of under-development, education pervades all Un Mundo projects and programs. Our education process can best be described as pedagogical dialogue, defined as interactive and reflective cognition as opposed to the mere transfer of static ideas.⁸

We view pedagogical dialogue as a personal exchange, founded in the love, humility, and faith that transcend class and make true solidarity a possibility - an exchange that implies a respectful recognition of the worldview of others. Our embrace of pedagogical dialogue is at the heart of all we do, and inspired by the simple but revolutionary belief that through the undeniable force of honest dialogue men and women can achieve the unity and critical consciousness necessary to effect authentic change in their lives.⁹ The vital role for such a pedagogical approach to development work is apparent in the too numerous ironies of under-development, such as the multitudes of farmers whose children are malnourished because they sell every bit of what they produce, or the countless ill who die next to donated medical equipment no one knows how to install or use. Un Mundo is revolutionary in that we address the subjective factors of under-development through pedagogical dialogue, and comprehensive in that our methodology addresses the objective factors of under-development.

Methodology
Un Mundo's methodology begins with designing or screening health, education, livable wages, and community development projects and programs. Our projects are unique solutions to the particular needs of communities, and our programs are what we feel are recommended or necessary for community development. We then facilitate these projects and programs in the marginalized communities with whom we partner on a long-term basis. These communities are strategically selected to benefit a wider area and eventually form a support network with other Un Mundo communities.

Our projects and programs are designed not to integrate under-developed peoples into an unjust social order, but to transform that oppressive order and the debilitating world view of under-developed peoples so that they can more fully realize their potential. We ensure that our methodology realizes our mission faithfully by requiring that all our projects and programs promote our carefully articulated objectives.

Objectives
All Un Mundo projects and programs are designed to incorporate our immediate, intermediate, and long-term objectives. Our immediate objectives are to facilitate access to health care, education, and livable wages. Our intermediate objectives are to realize a pedagogical exercise promoting unity and critical consciousness. And our long-term and ultimate objectives are to promote dignity, community, and self-sufficiency. While our immediate and intermediate objectives are 'instrumental,' in that they help to advance our long-term objectives by directly addressing the objective and subjective factors of under-development, we also directly promote our long-term objectives by always limiting our active participation to that of merely facilitating our programs and projects.

Projects and Programs
Un Mundo facilitates projects and programs based on the needs of the community with which we are partnering. Communities are encouraged to select from a group of core programs developed by Un Mundo in addition to designing projects that are unique solutions to their particular needs.¹⁰ Un Mundo acts largely as a resource for community projects, providing logistical, technical, and financial support. Any locally originating project is eligible for Un Mundo support as long as it is arrived at in a democratic fashion, conforms to our mission, and its benefits reach the community as a whole and not just one or two families or wealthy members of the community. Our programs vary from carefully crafted workshops to more complex and long-term activities designed to become a lasting part of the communities with whom we partner. All projects and programs are facilitated by an Un Mundo representative and a local project director.

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¹For a condensed understanding of our mission and values see Our Values ² Un Mundo's conception and evaluation of development borrows heavily from the work of Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen. See Development as Freedom. Sen, Amartya. Anchor Books, New York, NY. 1999. (Chapter 1, The Perspective of Freedom, and Chapter 2, The Ends and Means of Development.)
³ For a more complete understanding of the value of approaching development work from such an objective-subjective dichotomy, see generally Under Development is a State of Mind: the Latin American Case. Harrison, Lawrence. The Center for International Affairs, Harvard University. 1985.
⁴ See The Open Veins of Latin America. Galeano, Eduardo. Monthly Review Press, New York, NY. 1973. (Introduction; Chapter 1, Lust for Gold, Lust for Silver; Chapter 5, The Contemporary Structure of Plunder.)
⁵ For a complete discussion, see The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other. Tzvetan, Todorov. Harpers & Row, 1984. University of Oklahoma Press, 1999. (Chapter 2, Conquest: The Reasons for Victory, Montezuma and Signs, Cortez and Signs).
⁶ See generally, The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in South East Asia. Scott, James. Yale University Press, 1982.
⁷ See, Jose Marti, La America Precolombina Espanola. Acosta, Leonardo. Casa de Las Americas Publisher. Havana, Cuba, 1974. (Chapter 7, La Conception Historica de Marti.)
⁸ Un Mundo's approach to the subjective factors of underdevelopment borrows heavily from the Pulitzer prize–winning work of Paulo Freire. See Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Freire, Paulo. Continuum International Publishing Group Inc. New York, NY. 1970.
⁹ For an elaboration of the moral and political power of the word, see, Our Word is Our Weapon: Selected Writings of Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos. Ed., Ponce de Leon, Juana. Seven Stories Press, New York, NY. 2001. (Preface; Chapter 14, The Word and the Silence.) And for an understanding of the history and present role of pedagogical dialogue within development work, see, The Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power, Ed. Sachs, Wolfgang, Zed Books Ltd. London. 1992. (Participation, pg. 116.)
¹⁰For information about present and proposed Un Mundo programs see What We Do.

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