Cuernavaca Center for Intercultural Dialog on Development (CCIDD)

In May of 1977, the Cuernavaca Center for Intercultural Dialogue on Development welcomed its first group: students from the Divinity School at Duke University in North Carolina. Thereafter CCIDD received more than 500 religious, social justice, academic and professional groups from Canadian and U.S. colleges, universities, high schools, churches and non-governmental organizations. From direct encounters with Mexicans and other Latinos in their communities, homes and places of work and worship, some 10,000 people from the United States and Canada have learned about the roots of poverty and oppression in Latin America and Christian commitment to social transformation. CCIDD was founded by Ray Plankey, a lay missioner from the United States who had previously worked in Chile. He and others created CCIDD to “promote experiential understanding of rural and urban poverty in Latin America and the Christian struggle to transform society.” With encouragement and support from Cuernavaca’s progressive and ecumenically-minded Catholic Bishop Sergio Mendez Arceo, and leaders from other churches, CCIDD embarked upon its mission. From humble beginnings in rented hotel rooms, CCIDD moved to its present location in 1981 and expanded the site in 1985.

While CCIDD closed in August 2013, its basic mission is being continued by Augsburg College's Center for Global Education (CGE) (http://www.augsburg.edu/global), which began through dialogue with the CCIDD founder Raymond Plankey back in the late 1970s and early 80s. CGE´s mission is to provide cross-cultural educational opportunities in order to foster critical analysis of local and global conditions so that personal and systemic change takes place, leading to a more just and sustainable world.

CGE is nationally recognized for its work in experiential, intercultural, and educational travel opportunities. More than 10,000 people have participated in our international travel seminars, which are well-known and respected for exposing travelers to a variety of points of view, especially the perspectives of those working for justice and human dignity. CGE also operates undergraduate summer and semester abroad programs in Mexico, Central America, and Southern Africa, which have served over 1,600 students from more than 300 institutions of higher education.

[Information from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine; https://web.archive.org/web/20140331182302/http://www.ccidd.org/aboutus.htm]

Revised 20210406