Why Indigenous Languages Matter

Understanding the Importance of Indigenous Languages through Research and Activism

On Monday, August 8, the General Consulate of Mexico in Boston and the Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies co-hosted a virtual webinar, “The Importance of Indigenous Languages.” Livestreamed to over 80 academics and activists via Facebook Live, the webinar was one of many highlights during the Semana de Pueblos Originarios e Indígenas de México.

The session featured a conversation between two incredible speakers, Ximena Gonzalez-Parada and Cecilia Baltazar Yucailla. Gonzalez-Parada, a Senior Lector at Yale, kicked the webinar off with a summary of her research on how Latin American artists of color continue to re-define geographic and symbolic borders. Through her work, she has come to appreciate the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to understanding Indigenous self-representation.

Baltazar Yucailla, a Kichwa Indigenous leader from the community of Chibuleo San Francisco in Ecuador, followed her colleague’s remarks with a brief history of Indigenous activism in Latin America. In addition to land rights and food access, Baltazar Yucailla explained, the preservation of Indigenous languages has been one of the major goals of Indigenous movements over the past few decades.

Following their respective remarks, the two speakers engaged in an open dialogue about the many benefits of preserving Indigenous languages as well as the threats facing them. As Gonzalez-Parada explained, the dissemination of Indigenous languages is essential to understanding Indigenous communities on an individual level rather than as a monolith. Any truly diverse, multicultural society needs to protect all lenguas originarias and the cultures they represent. Baltazar Yucailla, however, warned that language policies have not yet been implemented to the degree necessary to recuperate Indigenous languages like Ecuador’s Záparo.

Gonzalez-Parada concluded by reemphasizing the value of Indigenous languages not just to their respective communities but to society as a whole, and both speakers acknowledged the need for these conversations to be ongoing.

If you’re interested in attending similar events in the future, please follow the General Consulate on Facebook and CLAIS on Twitter.