At the Maya Heritage Center, we believe that preserving Maya culture is not just important—it’s essential. We’re a community-driven organization working alongside Maya people to protect, celebrate, and share their rich traditions, history, and future.
Our work spans several programs, all designed to meet real needs in real communities. Through our Community Education Program, we support Maya students in rural areas, many of whom don’t have access to education beyond sixth grade. On top of limited resources, many Maya children are taught in languages they don’t speak at home, making learning even harder. With most written records of the Maya language destroyed centuries ago, literacy in Maya communities has faced major challenges. We’re helping to change that by expanding digital literacy programs and promoting education in Maya languages—because every child deserves to learn and thrive in their own words.
We also run a Student Exchange Program, connecting students from the U.S. and other countries with Maya communities for research and cultural learning. In return, Maya students get the opportunity to travel and study abroad, gaining new perspectives they can bring back to their communities.
Our passion for education and research doesn’t stop there. We’ve launched one of the first academic journals to feature peer-reviewed work in English, Spanish, and Maya. It’s a place where important conversations about Maya culture, history, and issues are shared and valued in every language that matters.
Through our Archaeologists Without Borders Program, we bring people together from around the world at annual symposiums to discuss new research and ideas about the Maya world. We also fight for funding for important projects like LiDAR surveys and detailed mapping of areas that have never been fully explored.
And because culture and the environment are deeply connected, we created the Biotourism Program. This initiative works with Maya communities to build sustainable and ethical tourism projects—so visitors can experience the true heart of the Maya world, and so tourism can become a tool for protection and prosperity, not destruction.
At the heart of everything we do is the belief that Maya culture is living, evolving, and powerful. We’re here to help it thrive—for today, for tomorrow, and for generations to come.