AYOTZINAPA, Mexico — In their first week of school, the new students eat and drink nothing but beans and cold coffee, and spend sleepless days cleaning up the buildings and planting crops.

It is a “boot camp” to foster a sense of community and prove that they really want to be here at the Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos. The small teachers’ college in southern Mexico has been at the center of a national crisis since 43 of its students disappeared in September after a violent confrontation with the local police force, which has been infiltrated by a drug gang.

The school’s students read books on Marxism, have weekly discussions on political documentaries championing leftist causes and try to adhere to the social justice ideals underpinning the school since its founding in 1926 after the Mexican Revolution, one of several such schools begun to keep alive its fires of social transformation.

“It was not only about the academic stuff but the political side of it, the risk of the activities they did and the sense of belonging,” said Ricardo Jacinto, a student there, explaining why he and his brother Israel, 19, as well as two uncles have attended the school.