Mexican Indigenous Languages

Mexican Indigenous Languages
at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century
Contributions to the Sociology of Language

91
Editor
Joshua A. Fishman
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin New York
Mexican Indigenous Languages
at the Dawn of the
Twenty-First Century
edited by
Margarita Hidalgo
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin New York
Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague)
is a Division of Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin.
Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines
of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mexican indigenous languages at the dawn of the twenty-first century /
edited by Margarita Hidalgo.
p. cm. (Contributions to the sociology of language ; 91)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-3-11-018597-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 3-11-018597-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Indians of Mexico Languages. 2. Language and culture
Mexico. 3. Language policy Mexico. I. Hidalgo, Margarita G.
(Margarita Guadalupe) II. Series.
PM3008.M48 2006
497.0972dc22
2005030052
ISBN-13: 978-3-11-018597-3
ISBN-10: 3-11-018597-0
ISSN 1861-0676
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Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
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Contents
Prologue
At the dawn of the twenty-first century vii
Part I. History and theory
Chapter 1
Mexican indigenous languages in the twenty-first century 3
Margarita Hidalgo
Chapter 2
The Indianization of Spaniards in New Spain 29
Claudia Parodi
Chapter 3
The multiple dimensions of language maintenance and shift
in colonial Mexico 53
Margarita Hidalgo
Chapter 4
Socio-historical determinants in the survival of Mexican
indigenous languages 87
Margarita Hidalgo
Part II. Language policy
Chapter 5
Legislating diversity in twenty-first century Mexico 127
Dora Pellicer, Brbara Cifuentes and Carmen Herrera
Chapter 6
Centralization vs. local initiatives. Mexican and U.S.
legislation of Amerindian languages 167
F. Daniel Althoff
vi Contents
Chapter 7
The Mexican indigenous languages and the national
censuses: 19702000 191
Brbara Cifuentes and Jos Luis Moctezuma
Part III. Bilingualism and bilingual education
Chapter 8
Local language promoters and new discursive spaces:
Mexicano in and out of schools in Tlaxcala 249
Jacqueline H. E. Messing and Elsie Rockwell
Chapter 9
Bilingual education: Strategy for language maintenance or
shift of Yucatec Maya? 281
Barbara Pfeiler and Lenka Zmiov
Chapter 10
Intervention in indigenous education. Culturally-sensitive
materials for bilingual Nahuatl speakers 301
Jos Antonio Flores Farfn
Chapter 11
Stages of bilingualism. Local conversational practices among
Mazahuas 325
Dora Pellicer
IV. Conclusions
Chapter 12
Language policy. Past, present, and future 357
Margarita Hidalgo
Index 377
Pr ologue
At the dawn of the twenty-fir st centur y
Margarita Hidalgo
This book is about the past, the present, and the future of Mexican indige-
nous languages. It is thus apposite to make a reflection on the motivations
that incline us to write about them. It is certain that the history of Mexico is
linked to the history of the indigenous languages and the superimposed
language, Spanish. This is more conspicuous when we come across the
early encounter of Mesoamerican peoples and European uninvited guests.
Conversely, we hardly think that the recent history of Mexico is connected
with the external history of language(s). This book contributes to knowl-
edge of Mexican history and knowledge about the languages of Mexico.
Because Mexico is the worlds largest Spanish-speaking nation, there is no
trepidation about the fate of Spanish in Mexicoexcept among those who
see the English language making strong inroads in some domains. In con-
trast, the agitation over indigenous languages is ever present, for they are
the genuine representatives of ancient cultures and even greater civiliza-
tions. This book is also about the significant events that brought the indige-
nous languages of Mexico to where they are today at the dawn of the
twenty-first century.
We are tempted to believe that the Chiapas uprising of 1994 was the
only and isolated catalyst of recent changes in Mexican history. However,
the Chiapas uprising did not originate in isolation. While it is not the direct
result of previous pro-democratic movements, it is the culmination of
twenty-century pursuits of democratic options. Earlier mass movements are
not tangential; for this reason, their understanding helps elucidate the whole
and the parts. Whereas it is true that some of the transformations appear to
be merely local or localized, others have gained momentum at particular
instances of worldwide changes. Thus, what makes Mexico worthy of
study is the amalgam of the local with the universal; the provincial with the
cosmopolitan; the national with the international. The search for democracy
in Mexico is of no small magnitude. My view of pro-democratic changes
that will orient the country in the twenty-first century is based on three key
periods which have contributed to the shaping of self-governing institu-
tions. They can be traced to [a] the student movement of 1968; [b] the elec-
toral reform movement of the late 1980s; and [c] the Chiapas insurrection
viii Prologue
of 1994. I did not think that I would see these changes in my lifetime, or
that I would have the opportunity to write about them. There is a common
thread that connects them.
[a] The Student Movement of 1968, vaguely known as el movimiento
anarco-estudiantil began with a student scuffle and ended with a massacre
on October 2, known as la masacre de Tlatelolco. The hot summer of
1968 would have passed unnoticed had it not been for the determination of
hundreds of thousands of tireless university students who were extremely
agitated over the use of undue force displayed by the government to settle
disputes among the youth. As repression escalated after each colossal dem-
onstration, leaders petitioned for justifiable resolutions to their grievances.
On the eve of the Olympic Games, the authorities decided to (ex)terminate
the movement with the final blow of wrath in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas
or Plaza de Tlatelolco. Many innocent lives could have been saved had
there been wireless communications at the time.
The short-lived struggle against repression motivated, however, endur-
ing changes in the political climate and the structures built during the twen-
tieth century. Poorly understood even after almost four decades, the Stu-
dent Movement of 1968 stands out among the breaches of the past century
that are still bringing into light a process of democratization. In spite of the
fact that the leaders and the followers were indeed grubbing for seeds of
democracy and for many national quandaries that are germane to the grad-
ual process of democratization, it is no secret that the definition of democ-
racy of the Student Moment was diffuse. The actors did not have ill-
conceived notions of modern democracy, but there was a spur-of-the-
moment proposal contained in the grievances of the Student Movement.
We know today that the movement was an attempt to tackle the limited
alternatives offered by the Mexican Establishment in order to open up
channels of communication in the political process, which had been domi-
nated for five decades by one single party, the Partido Revolucionario Insti-
tucional or PRI. The hegemony of the PRI was based on the notion of State
nationalism, centralization, and authoritarianism, although the authoritarian
system instituted by the hegemonic Party had gaps open for negotiation
with smaller parties, especially those to the left of the PRI.
[b] The resulting consequences that followed the Student Movement of
1968 are manifold. In the political scenario, the country had to deal with
the timid aperture of the single party system, political repression, and the
brain drain of highly qualified professionals. In the economic scenario,
Mexicans faced the unexpected ups and downs of a mixed economy tack-
ling head-on its own crises of devaluation, inflation, nationalization of the
Prologue ix
banking system, the drop of the oil prices in the international markets, and
the resistance of the Party-government to resort to the sale of the oil re-
serves to solve the crises.
By the early 1980s, the PRI began to lose small municipalities to the
only large registered party known as Partido Accin Nacional or PAN,
which has been to the right of the PRI since its inception in 1939. However,
the most important Mayoral elections lost by the PRI occurred simultane-
ously in 1983 in Ciudad J urez and in Chihuahua City, in the State of Chi-
huahua, which had been the leader of national opposition. It is not a coinci-
dence that the 1986 election for governor in the State of Chihuahua
initiated a meaningful reform of the electoral system. For the first time in
the history of the country, the large registered parties were dangerously
confronted in a State election.
The hot summer of 1986 was not tedious; on the contrary, major local
episodes not only exceeded the expectations and suspicions of political
observers and voters, but also exacerbated the tensions between political
contenders. The landslide victories of the PRI in Chihuahua were pre-
arranged, and consequently, gave rise to pervasive allegations of fraud by
the representatives of the PAN, which presumably had lost in its own
stronghold. Evidence of major irregularities was first collected in the rich
neighborhood of Ciudad J urez, where voters were loyal to the traditions of
the PAN. Representatives of the PAN complained about the lack of (literal)
transparency of the ballot boxes; to make things worse, the ballot boxes
belonging in the affluent precinct had been (literally) trashed by representa-
tives of the PRI. Evidence of fraud grew by the day in different municipali-
ties of the State and provoked public protests and massive demonstrations
denouncing official tallies. The strategy of the demonstrators was passive
resistance la Gandhi, civic nationalism, and alliances with the Catholic
Church and the left. Demonstrators showed their command of the situation
when they blocked the three international bridges that connect the border
city with El Paso, Texas. Since then, in Ciudad J urez, local control alter-
nates between parties and the number of parties represented in local elec-
tions increase every three years. The issue of local autonomy and inde-
pendent decision-making is alive and well in this municipality.
The late 1980s are truly interesting in national politics, inasmuch as the
highly centralized and monolithic PRI split in two major groups: (a) those
who were loyal to the center-wing of the PRI, and (b) those who defected
in order to establish a new party, the Partido de la Revolucin Democrtica
or PRD, the new moderate left to the left of the original PRI. Founded in
1988, the PRD contended in the national election of the same year and
x Prologue
won, but the PRI claimed the presidential victory by a narrow margin. It
was expected that the PRI would resort to fraud in order to secure the
Presidency. In 1989, the Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE) was founded. In
addition, in 1989, the PRI conceded its first governorship to the PAN in the
State of Baja California Norte; the second governorship was conceded to
the PAN in 1992 in the State of Chihuahua. From then on, a few more
States were legitimately won by either the PAN or the PRD.
[c] Two major events changed the history of Mexico forever: the Chia-
pas insurrection of 1994 and the assassination of the official candidate of
the PRI for the presidential election of the same year. With many similari-
ties that remind us of the J ohn F. Kennedy assassination, the political mur-
der took place in Tijuana (Baja California Norte), which was at the time
governed by the PAN. The early months of 1994 determined to a large
extent the course of events between 1994 and 2000. Finally, at the end of
the century, the official Party was no longer official, since it had to con-
tend with at least two large parties in national elections and with many
more small parties in State and Municipal elections. Supervised by the in-
dependent IFE, elections run smoothly in most places. The IFE is a public,
autonomous, and independent agency bestowed by the State with the au-
thority for organizing federal elections. With its headquarters in the Federal
District, it exerts its authority by means of decentralized bodies located at
the capital cities and the correspondent electoral districts.
The process of democratization has advanced considerably in Mexico
since 1968, even though the Student Movement of 1968 is little understood
at present. A reflection on the past has not helped to heal the wounds; some
of those who participated in it believe that the movement only brought to
the surface the tribulations affecting a diverse nation which had not come to
terms with its own diversity. Those who kept a safe distance from it failed
to see the contribution of the outlandish youth, which consisted in shaking
up the already wobbly basis of an exclusive system. This is the contribution
of the traditional left. In like manner, the contribution of the Mexican right
and the movement of the PAN as the loyal opposition are also poorly
understood, as though a-Party-to-the right did not have the right to advance
proposals for its constituents. The movement of the PAN gained momen-
tum in Chihuahua and many more sympathizers than the Student Move-
ment of 1968, because it made alliances with diverse groups. Nonetheless,
the fact that the national leadership of the PAN had conspicuous executives
coming from the North made the right-wing party suspicious. None of the
two movements galvanized the country in the direction of an inclusive na-
tional agenda.
Prologue xi
The short-lived insurrection in Chiapas, however, moved the country in
the direction of modernity and post-modernity. It did bring to the surface
the Mesoamerican roots and put in bold relief the historical inequalities that
led to a major conflict, and the issues and concerns that had been contained
since the early 1960s. The participation of women in the process of de-
mocratization, the positive reception of divergent opinion, and in general,
the appreciation of cultural and ideological pluralism were debated in-
tensely at the end of the twentieth century. The participation of additional
parties in local and State elections grew significantly between 1988 and
1994, the crucial years during which Mexicans expressed their desire to
recognize diversity; this recognition is the exponential gain of a nation-
state that consummated the soul searching process at the end of the twenti-
eth century. By the time the Chiapas insurrection took place, Mexicans
were more mature to express their divergent and independent opinions.
Two years after the Chiapas insurrection, the focus of the debate was the
issue of autonomy and the Acuerdos de San Andrs Larrinzar drafted in
1996. Finally, in 2000, voters went to the polls to cast their vote for the
conservative, though ground-breaking PAN.
In the twenty-first century, we can expect inclusions rather than exclu-
sions and a political praxis that is more in consonance with post-
modernism. Mexico remains the Roman Catholic frontier of Latin America,
the worlds largest Spanish-speaking country, the only one sharing a border
with an economic and military superpower, the largest Spanish-speaking
trade partner of the United States, one of the most culturally and linguisti-
cally diverse, and one that is constantly re-inventing itself in terms of de-
mocratic alternatives. Democratization is still, however, an ongoing proc-
ess, which may be viewed as the exclusive legacy of Western or
Westernized societies. A global patrimony and a cultural practice, democ-
racy should be more versatile and eclectic in those societies in which lin-
guistic and ethnic diversity is the norm rather than the exception. The re-
cent legislation on linguistic rights of the indigenous peoples is indeed the
most pro-democratic advancement of the twenty-first century; this innova-
tion protects and promotes power-sharing practices and plural interaction,
and for this very reason, it should be placed above party lines and outcomes
of national elections. The consolidation of the recognition of diversity is
more promising than ever. It is in this landscape that the indigenous lan-
guages of Mexico still shine under the sun. They are shining bright and
coming increasingly into sight.
Par t I . H istor y and theor y
Chapter 1
M exican indigenous languages
in the twenty-fir st centur y
Margarita Hidalgo
Abstr act
This volume explores the reversing language shift framework from differ-
ent viewpoints. First, the socio-historical perspective explores the processes
of external and internal Indianization of the Spanish-speaking protagonists
of the Mexican colonial period; it also addresses the various factors inter-
vening in language maintenance and shift and in the strategies of survival
of the Mesoamerican peoples from the early colonial times to the present.
Language policy is discussed in reference to the new General Law on Lin-
guistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples (2003), which is examined in light
of political changes in both the national and international arenas. The com-
plete English version of the new Law complements the thorough discussion
of the trajectory of recent legislation. Additionally, a preliminary classifica-
tion of the Mexican indigenous languages based on quantitative criteria
is offered with a detailed overview of their geographic distribution, trends
of macro-societal bilingualism, use in the home domain, and permanence in
the original Mesoamerican settlements. Also, several innovative models of
bilingual education are presented along with relevant data on the location
of the communities and the philosophies and methodologies justifying the
programs. Finally, a model of language use and bilingualism examined in a
small Mazahua community sheds light on the sociolinguistic patterns along
the Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale.
1. I ntr oduction
This volume approaches the study of Mexican indigenous languages
(henceforth MIL) utilizing the perspective of reversing language shift
(henceforth RLS) as proposed and developed by J oshua A. Fishman (1991
and 2001). It is divided into three major sections: History and Theory; Lan-
guage Policy; and Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. RLS is a model
formulated with seemingly opposing concepts: language maintenance and
4 Margarita Hidalgo
language shift, each of which has its own interacting dynamics in bilingual
communities, except when one of the languages is severely threatened by
another more powerful and more prestigious. When the damages to the
threatened language are catastrophic, the losses are more apparent and more
easily quantified. RLS is an alternative model to the paradigm of ethno-
linguistic vitality, but in essence it serves the same purpose, i.e., it assesses
the different degrees of erosion caused to languages debilitated by social
contact. The theory of RLS is expounded in Reversing Language Shift
(Fishman 1991: 1121) and Can threatened languages be saved? (Fishman
2001: 122). These two sources have been summarized in Spanish along
with an accessible nomenclature that will hopefully encourage scholars to
utilize the RLS model in the Spanish-speaking world (cf. Hidalgo 2004).
The first four chapters of Reversing Language Shift introduce the reader
to the principal operational definitions and guidelines which aid in recover-
ing the threatened language according to the degree of damage inflicted and
the circumstances of contact. Reversing Language Shift uses as a point of
departure the analogy of an earthquake whose harm can be measured by the
Richter scale. In like manner, the social dislocations and disruptions caused
by contact with another group can be gauged through a quasi-implicational
scale of a model known as the Graded Intergenerational Disrupted Scale
(henceforth GIDS), which places the threatened language at one discrete
point on a scale (ranging from 8 to 1), 8 being in the most vulnerable
position and 1 meaning the most recouped or stable condition. Recovery of
the threatened language, which in this typology is codified as language X
or Xish, is not accidental. On the contrary, RLS is closely associated with
the endeavors of sympathetic agents (i.e., groups and individuals) who
intervene opportunely in order to deter major and more serious damages to
Xish. In both theory and practice, language X is the opponent of language
Y or Yish, normally used by speakers whose accorded status is more undis-
turbed by contact.
The first four stages are associated with recovery and reconditioning
brought about by active agents committed to reversing the damages
inflicted to the weaker language; they normally propose and implement the
remedies needed at every stage of the scale. Stages 8 through 5 are the
result of the endeavors conducive to recondition the threatened language in
the home, community, and informal educational practices. On the other
hand, Stages 4ab through Stage 1 represent the attainment of high language
functions in mostly public and/or prestigious domains. Stage 1 embodies
the paragon of the ultimate goal of RLS: cultural democracy. A summary
of the stages of RLS can be found in Fishmans studies (1991 and 2001).
Stages of r ever sing language shift
Sever ity of inter gener ational dislocation
(read from the bottom up)
1. Education, work sphere, mass media and government
operations at higher and nation-wide levels.
2. Local/regional mass media and governmental services.
3. The local/regional (i.e., non-neighborhood) work sphere,
both among Xmen and among Ymen.
4b. Public schools for Xish children, offering some instruction
via Xish, but substantially under Yish curricular and staffing
control.
4a. Schools in lieu of compulsory education and substantially
under Xish curricular and staffing control.
II. RLS to transcend diglossia, subsequent to its attainment
5. Schools for literacy acquisition, for the old and for the
young, and not in lieu of compulsory education.
6. The intergenerational and demographically concentrated
home-family-neighborhood: the basis for mother tongue
transmission.
7. Cultural interaction in Xish primarily involving the
community-based older generation.
8. Reconstructing Xish and adult acquisition of X second
language.
I. RLS to attain diglossia (assuming prior ideological
clarification)
Source: Fishman (1991: 395 and 2001: 466)
The applicability of the RLS model can be extended to Mexican indigenous
languages (henceforth MIL), given that all of them have been
adversely affected to varying degrees by the major catastrophe that oc-
curred in Mexico in the early decades of the sixteenth century, i.e., the fall
of the Aztec Empire and the subsequent disruption of the entire Meso-
6 Margarita Hidalgo
american ecosystem (cf. Aguirre Beltrn 1983). The engrossing cases of
Mexican indigenous cultures and languages transformed by contact with
the Western culture are explained in the lower sub-stages of the GIDS. In
spite of the massive losses of speakers, many MIL have been preserved
mostly under the disadvantageous conditions imposed during three centu-
ries of colonization and the subsequent two centuries of independent
nationalism. In this volume, I claim the privilege of applying this model to
a historical scenario which begins with a catastrophe of major proportions.
Regressing to the past is just a way of dealing with the present, as the study
of the past prompts a series of questions that continue to be significant.
Resistance to the spread of the Western influence and control is perhaps
inevitable, especially among populations that have been compelled to
relinquish ancestral practices that still have a resonance in their present
ways-of-life. A full understanding of such issues is difficult to achieve but
ultimately does reside in the common attitudes of rejection and devaluation
of non-Western cultures.
2. H istor y and theor y
2.1. Indianization or mestizaje
In this volume, Claudia Parodi applies the RLS model to a historical period
covering the years immediately after the destruction of Great Tenochtitlan
to the mid-seventeenth century. This application is warranted because the
Mesoamerican cataclysm brought together two civilizations that were pre-
viously unacquainted with one another. Most studies dealing with language
and culture contact tend to focus on the unidirectional assimilation of traits
of language and culture Y by individuals or populations espousing lan-
guage and culture X. However, Claudia Parodi proposes that Europeans or
descendants of Europeans residing in New Spain (i.e., children of Span-
iards born in Spain) assumed ethnolinguistic attributes that were once
exclusive to the indigenous populations. In this realm, the lives and works
of some of the most prominent scholars of the Mexican colonial period
(e.g., Bernardino de Sahagn, Alonso de Molina, Bernal Daz del Castillo,
J ernimo de Mendieta, J uan de Palafox, Carlos de Sigenza y Gngora and
Sor J uana Ins de la Cruz) elucidate innovative processes of culture and
language mixing that may have retarded language shift. To this effect, she
advances the notion of Indianization, that is, the opposite of Westerni-
zation. This notion is also warranted, given that some Europeans immedi-
ately assumed new positions of responsibility, power, and prestige. While
the hierarchies in New Spain might have appeared to be merely decorative,
the burdens and obligations were onerous. In fact, a common survival strat-
egy utilized by Europeans living in New Spain was the swift adaptation to
the new environment. Everyday subsistence was accompanied by the
acquisition of new habits ranging from diet and attire to the use of para-
phernalia needed to furnishing or building a house. If adjustment to the
environment was superficial, it was deemed only external Indianization; but
if it was more involved in the non-material trappings of culture, it was in-
ternal Indianization. The processes explored by Parodi are better known as
mestizaje, a term that refers to racial and cultural blending, or intermixing.
Most definitions of mestizaje focus on a process that begins with subjuga-
tion, whereas mestizaje is redefined in this volume as a process of cultural
reversal or reversed assimilation. Spaniards living in the ruins of the Meso-
american civilization found inspiration in the everyday experiences associ-
ated with the surviving culture(s), which provided sufficient resources that
allowed them to introduce linguistic innovations. A model of cultural
semantics explains both borrowing and semantic extension, two creative
processes that exemplify external Indianization. This model is indeed con-
venient to re-capture both cultural and linguistic meaning; while the latter
appears in the surface structure, the former belongs in the deep cultural
structure, which is re-interpreted by speakers of languages in contact.
In contrast, the zealous commitment to write works of philology, history,
literature, and religion represent internal Indianization or a more profound
empathy with the surviving indigenous culture.
The sixteenth century was the age of the Iberian expansion, a worldwide
phenomenon that brought about the mixing of the worlds cultures, subse-
quent multiculturalism and unfolding of new identities. According to Gruz-
inski (1999: 40), the phenomena of mestizajes or renunciations that are
currently observed everywhere are not as innovative as they seem. Ever
since the advent of the Renaissance, the Western expansion has not ceased
to engender mestizajes in all of the corners of the world. The initial mesti-
zajes of global projection emerged then and were linked to the premises of
economic globalization promoted in the mid-sixteenth century, a century
that viewed from Europe, the New World or Asia, was par excellence the
century of Iberian expansion. The colonial Mexican period also sheds light
on socio-historical factors that intervened in the immediate process of lan-
guage and culture mixing: myth, social stratification, scholarship in and
8 Margarita Hidalgo
about indigenous languages, socio-religious movements, and the direct
intervention of the Catholic Church in matters of language policy.
2.2. Language maintenance and language shift
My contribution entitled The multiple dimensions of language mainte-
nance and language shift in colonial Mexico explores the various phases
of attrition and recovery of MIL in the multilingual and multicultural
scenario of the New World society. The periodization of the two trends is
not free of contradictions in that the Spanish Crown was not consistent in
its language policy at all times. This article re-considers the endeavors of
the mendicant orders as a symptom of RLS because the intentions and atti-
tudes of cultural promoters were oriented towards conscious revitalization
of Nahuatl, the language normally associated with the Aztec civilization.
The recovery of the linguistic and cultural heritage of the Nahuatl-speaking
people was not symbolic but real. It was supported by the institutions that
assumed the responsibilities of guiding and educating the subjects of the
new dominions in the Christian faith. Nowhere in the American continent
was the conquest so earnestly mitigated by the spiritual and scholarly
endeavors, but only lasting approximately fifty years. The opportune and
timely intervention of the Mexican mission was forceful and productive,
but it was undermined before the end of the sixteenth century. I thus pro-
ceed to interpret the undertakings of one of the major forerunners intro-
duced in the preceding contribution: Bernardino de Sahagn, the author of
the Historia General de las cosas de la Nueva Espaa, the encyclopedic
accomplishment of the Seraphic Order. The enigmatic circumstances sur-
rounding the confiscation of the works by Bernardino de Sahagn makes
this case worthy of renewed examination. I therefore propose to consider
the end of the recovery mission era ca. 1580. After this year, there are no
more zealous individuals committed to reversing language shift, and conse-
quently, the prospects of maintenance of MIL turn bleak.
The inconveniences and hurdles laid out against the preservation of MIL
had the net effect of enhancing the power and prestige of the Spanish lan-
guage. Indeed, the seventeenth century ushers in the Golden Age of the
Spanish Empire during which dozens of writers excelled in the diverse
genres, thus gaining international recognition and fame. The Mexican
colony was exceptionally benefited by the advancement of cultural activi-
ties in spite of the fact that many texts from Spain were prohibited in New
Spain. By the seventeenth century, Spanish speakers residing in Mexico
represented a miniscule minority who enjoyed all the privileges of the
elites. This is the era that places the Spanish language on the world map, an
attendant state of affairs which worsens the already debilitated position of
the MIL. My first contribution highlights, too, the work of Sor J uana Ins
de la Cruz, for she is the foremost representative of Spanish letters. Accord-
ing to the authorized opinion of her biographer, Nobel Prize winner Octa-
vio Paz, Sor J uana Ins de la Cruz perfected the art of writing that she had
learned from the Spanish Golden Age poets and playwrights. The privi-
leges she had were not granted gratuitously; on the contrary, she earned
them because she mastered the Spanish language like a professional. Two
powerful institutions, the Church and the Court, recompensed her for her
literary services. In fact, the Mexican colony encouraged and promoted the
use of the Spanish language in all influential domains; others less talented
than Sor J uana were also remunerated for their accomplishments. If we
apply the contemporary operational definitions that help us understand
language attitudes, we could assert that the Mexican colony stimulated and
propagated instrumental, integrative, and personal/developmental attitudes
towards Spanish. In turn, individuals responded positively and sought the
various opportunities afforded to climb the social hierarchy of Spanish
speakers who were either Spaniards (born in Spain), or criollos (offspring
of Spaniards) born and raised in New Spain. It seems that in the seven-
teenth century, the latter consolidated their position not only by exploiting
the manifold functions of the Spanish language but also by searching for
their own roots in the glories of the indigenous antiquities. The eccentrici-
ties of the criollos are justified on the grounds that their artistic orientation
and splendid creativity derive from universally accepted aesthetic princi-
ples; for these reasons, the literary performances of the Mexican colony
were unsurpassed in the New World. This is not merely fortuitous. It is
instead the direct consequence of the abundant resources allotted to the
richest colony of the Spanish Empire, a circumstance that exacerbated the
gaps between the functions of Spanish and those of the MIL. Under these
conditions, reversing language shift was not only neglected but undesirable.
Other Spanish colonies could not afford the luxury of literary creation and
contemplation, but the Mexican colony accommodated Sor J uanas creative
endeavors in Nahuatl, socio-ethnic varieties of Spanish, and even a feminist
trend that stands out as an additional peculiarity.
10 Margarita Hidalgo
3. Sur vival of M exican indigenous languages
My next contribution entitled Socio-historical determinants in the survival
of Mexican indigenous languages aims to examine the various factors that
have impinged on the survival of MIL after the major catastrophe that dis-
rupted and unsettled the lives, cultures, and languages of the Mesoamerican
peoples. I follow herein two notions: adherence to the cultura propia and
the clash of civilizations. The former stems from the attitude of preserva-
tion of language and culture in an adverse contact situation; the latter ap-
plies mostly to the contentious encounter of the Western civilization with
any other civilization. History has taught us that such confrontations nor-
mally eventuate destruction and contempt, but can engender, too, syncretic
resolutions and creative venues. The fate of languages weakened by these
confrontations appears to be predictable, for almost always they deteriorate
to the point of extinction. The opposite of extinction is survival, which can
be measured in amplitude and intensity, since not all the languages are
equally threatened or deteriorated. In retrospective, survival could be
approximately measured through socio-demographic indicators, restoration
of Xish language(s), reactions of Xish speakers to imposition(s) perpetrated
by Yish speakers, or all of these in combination. For all these reasons, I
strive to explain survival according to basic demographic trends dating
back to pre-Hispanic times. A high-pressure system of high fertility and
high mortality has been suggested for ancient Mesoamerican peoples, who
experienced significant losses even before the advent of contact with the
Western civilization. This cataclysm is directly responsible for initiating
the trend of indigenous language shift, whereas the members of mendicant
orders straightforwardly intervened in the recovery mission of MIL. The
methods of recovery of MIL based primarily on the written tradition were,
however, diametrically opposed to the styles of language use characteristic
of the Mesoamerican civilization. Other intervening factors that helped
speakers of MIL survive were rebellion and confrontation inspired by reli-
gious beliefs. Socio-religious movements appeared in the Mexican land-
scape since the mid-sixteenth century; they are easily and clearly
explained by the hypothesis of multiple deprivation and the ideal of a
reversion to ancestral conditions.
The survival of MIL can be studied, too, in connection with the general
demographic trends prevailing in the country in recent times. In this realm,
all sources clearly indicate that the Mexican population has dramatically
increased between 1921 and 1970 due primarily to advances in medicine,
medical technology, and public health services. It is also clear that the non-
indigenous population grows at a faster rate than the indigenous popula-
tion, giving the impression that the latter has been shrinking throughout the
decades, when in fact such population has been growing, too, in absolute
terms. The future of the indigenous population is thus less clear than that of
the non-indigenous population. Nonetheless, I propose that maintenance
with bilingualism is in itself a trend that signals survival with stabilization.
My observation on survival does not derive from biosocial Darwinism; it
derives from my belief that the differences among groups come not from
physical disposition but from the system of attitudes and values expressed
by language and other forms of behavior. The objects of material and non-
material culture shaped by the human mind and the human experience are
in my view more tangible or discernable than the genetic makeup. In sum,
if speakers of MIL have sufficient motivation to express adherence to the
cultura propia, they will find efficacious strategies to reverse language and
culture shift.
Finally, I look into the Chiapas uprising of 1994 and highlight the lan-
guage issues that I consider more significant in the survival setting. After a
brief historical survey of the region, I proceed to compare the maintenance
and shift trends of the languages of Chiapas with the largest groups repre-
senting MIL (e.g., Nahuatl, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, Otomi). An analysis of
the varying degrees of maintenance and bilingualism shows that the rates of
language shift of major groups elsewhere in Mexico are greater than those
of the Chiapas language groups. I impute the differential degrees of bilin-
gualism to an attitude of stronger adherence to the cultura propia and an
attitude of stronger resistance among the indigenous peoples of Chiapas,
who were politically marginalized until J anuary 1, 1994, when they pro-
nounced themselves against the central authorities through the Ejrcito
Zapatista de Liberacin Nacional (henceforth EZLN). In 1996, the neo-
zapatistas drafted a document known as Acuerdos de San Andrs Larrin-
zar, known in English sources as the San Andrs Larrinzar Accords
(henceforth SALA). In theory, this document endorses the agreement
between the Federal Government and the EZLN on indigenous rights. The
SALA are the result of a negotiation between the national movement on
behalf of the indigenous peoples and the central authorities. The most
important section of this document expresses a commitment to initiate a
new relationship with the State on the basis of the Constitutional
acknowledgment of indigenous rights. A potential reform to Article the
Fourth of the Mexican Constitution would establish the right to free deter-
mination under an autonomous regime. Autonomy was indeed the corner-
stone by which all indigenous demands were founded. The issue of auton-
omy clearly lies at the root of disagreements that were presented to the
EZLN on February 2, 1998. Dissension ensued after the representatives of
the major Parties had signed the terms of the SALA.
One decade after the Chiapas insurrection, it is clear that this short-lived
uprising was not an immaterial event. On the contrary, Chiapas represents
the periphery that broke into the mainstream only to make the waves, the
tides, and the drifts that the country and the world needed at the time that
the North American Free Trade Agreement was being enacted (J anuary 1,
1994). The Chiapas revolt brought to the surface not only the dilemmas of
the powerful center versus the powerless periphery, the city versus the
countryside, capitalism versus pre-capitalism, but also the quandaries that
imperial languages, national languages and marginal autochthonous lan-
guages have to confront and resolve in the new world order (Hidalgo
1994c). The Chiapas uprising was useful in making serious considerations
on the effects of globalization, which appears to have triumphed over pre-
vious schemes. While the nation-states were solid in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, in the present century they appear to be weakened or
fragmented by the global system. Many formerly prototypic nation-states
(e.g., Germany, Sweden, Spain, Netherlands, etc.) are now well along on
the path to becoming state-nations... (Fishman 2001: 20). In addition, the
re-affirmation of the ethnic, religious or regional identities promoted by the
movements of ethnicity and re-identification affecting indigenous popula-
tions, minoritized or immigrant contribute to debilitate centralized systems
that pretend to be homogeneous. As a case in point, the link between local
crisis and globalization is recovered expressly, as in Mexico, where the
neo-zapatistas from Chiapas continue to declare their rejection of economic
globalization. Again, according to Gruzinski (1999), mestizaje, uniformiza-
tion and globalization are associated with a striking increase in trade and
the broadly indiscriminate transformation of any object into merchandise.
The scenario is, however, more complex, as not all of the recoveries of
identities are means of rejection of the new world order. To this imposition,
an imaginary plurality appears confrontational, only to enhance the impres-
sion that the clash of civilizations has ended by means of globalization.
I have herein advanced the notion that small languages and small
language communities, such as those still living in Chiapas, can serve as
catalysts for major societal changes. Conceiving autonomy in the face
of national centralization, conceiving major roles for their languages and
cultures, and attaining a definition of self free of definitions from the
dominant groups are all to the credit of the indigenous peoples who are
not merely survivors of sorts but survivors of history. The neo-zapatistas
have contributed in redefining national identity, which is no longer equiva-
lent to cultural identity. They have reinforced the notion that the reflection
on a multicultural society is more than a strategy to strengthen the foothold
of democracy. Finally, the neo-zapatistas have taught us that the concept of
diversity is neither new nor innovative, but that what is new is the chal-
lenge to define it, to approach it, and to confront it along with the issues
that are tantamount to its endurance.
4. L anguage policy
4.1. Legislating diversity
In a meticulous tour de force, Dora Pellicer, Brbara Cifuentes and Carmen
Herrera explain the trajectory of the most recent legislation pertaining to
MIL. They examine the philosophy behind the law that protects linguistic
rights and the activities of the actors that intervened in the drafting of the
General Law on Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, in effect since
March 2003. One factor that persuaded different official entities to embark
on this project was the constant pressure from various non-governmental
associations concerned with the status of indigenous peoples. The tensions
surrounding the activities associated with it are simultaneous to the evolu-
tion of the incidents that followed the Chiapas uprising of 1994, but derive
specifically from the SALA (1996) signed by the EZLN and the representa-
tives of the Mexican government. The General Law appears to be exactly
the antithesis of the decrees, proclamations and laws of the past, all of
which could be invoked to hinder the development of MIL. This is the very
first time in the recent history of Mexican language policy that legislation
is issued with the aim of protecting the dozens of languages still spoken in
the country. It is the direct opposite of the Leyes de Burgos (1512), the
decree promulgated by Ferdinand the Catholic for the recently discovered
territories of the New World, even before representatives of the Old World
reached the Mexican coasts. The authors of Legislating diversity in
twenty-first century Mexico employed all the primary sources available at
the time they prepared this significant contribution. This article in turn
becomes a major source and resource for interested scholars. Its relevance
cannot be overemphasized.
In this study, Pellicer, Cifuentes and Herrera discuss the details of the
new legislation in the context of linguistic diversity because in Mexico
there are more than 60 indigenous languages that co-exist with Spanish, the
transplanted language prevailing in all public and private domains as the
Big Brother. In quantitative terms, the speakers of MIL are at clear disad-
vantage, for they represent less than 10% of the total population of the
country. In addition, each of the Mesoamerican communities is not only
distinguished by its own ethnocultural and linguistic specificities but also
by the lack of political autonomy, peoples that are scattered throughout the
country, and a precarious economy. The imbalance of power, functions,
domains, and prestige between major and minor languages is not exclusive
to Mexico; it is instead a defining characteristic of Western colonial
expansion and the consolidation of modern national states which have sup-
ported the spread of one major, often the so-called, national language.
This unifying and centralist trend has had to confront the persistence of
linguistic diversity. The solution to the problem of linguistic diversity is
sought via three approaches: diversity that is banned; diversity that is
ignored; and diversity that is accepted. During the past thirty years the
demands over linguistic rights became part of the declarations in favor of
the indigenous peoples and against nation-states that foster assimilation. In
the 1990s, the issue of linguistic rights began to appear in international
forums and declarations. In Mexico, however, the general point of refer-
ence in the discussion over linguistic rights was the Declaracin Universal
de los Derechos Lingsticos de Barcelona (1996). The General Law on
Linguistic Rights of the Mexican Indigenous Peoples belongs to a series of
constitutional reforms put forward by indigenous movements in the past
decade. The detonators were the EZLN, the long-term demands of other
indigenous groups, and the promises that the Mexican Government made
before international organizations in order to promote a more favorable and
equitable legislation for indigenous populations.
The above-mentioned SALA (1996) proposed to renew the conditions
for a relationship between the indigenous peoples, the Mexican govern-
ment, and the Mexican society on the basis of respect for their differences,
identity, and forms of social organization; promotion and development of
their natural resources; consultation and agreement of the indigenous peo-
ples over the conception and evaluation of their political actions; decen-
tralization of the federal functions with respect to the municipalities and
indigenous communities. Once the SALA were signed, they were delivered
to the neo-zapatistas and to the different ministries. Representatives of the
major parties (Partido Revolucionario Institucional [PRI], Partido Accin
Nacional [PAN], and Partido de la Revolucin Democrtica [PRD])
belonging to the Commission of Concord and Pacification (COCOPA)
were in charge of elaborating the Bill of Indigenous Rights and Cultures.
The President took the initiative to modify it in reference to rights over
territory and autonomy, but the modifications were not accepted by the
PRI. The presidential proposal was turned over to the legislators, although
the intermediary, the COCOPA, failed to renew the dialog with the neo-
zapatistas.
The failure of the formerly invincible PRI to resolve the conflict in
Chiapas was, among other issues, one powerful intervening factor that led
to its defeat in the 2000 national election. The PRI (better known as the
official Party or the Party-in-power) lost the national election to the
right-wing Party known as PAN, whose candidate campaigned fiercely
against the official Party. President Vicente Fox made repeated promises
to resolve the issues brought up to the national agenda by the neo-
zapatistas. The new President was inaugurated in December 2000. Two
months later, in February 2001, the EZLN led a gigantic march from Chia-
pas to Mexico City. At this point various indigenous organizations and
members of the civil society at large supported the neo-zapatistas. On
March 29, 2001, in a nationally televised and unprecedented meeting, rep-
resentatives of the EZLN appeared before the Cmara de Diputados (Lower
House of Representatives). This in turn led the new President to urge the
legislators to approve the Bill of Rights of Indigenous Cultures. However,
the Senate modified this initiative and applied the changes to Articles 1, 2,
4, 18 and 114 of the Mexican Constitution. At this juncture the resolution
of the problem was turned to the Supreme Court. The opinions and reac-
tions towards the different initiatives were diverse. In this polemic scenario,
the indigenous groups supported by governmental institutions capitalized
on their connections and redirected their demands to less polemic issues
(such as linguistic rights and bilingual education). By May 2001, the
Commission for Indian Affairs of the Cmara de Diputados assumed the
responsibility of preparing the proposal on linguistic rights. The project
stemmed from two other motions: the Federal Law of Linguistic Rights and
the Declaration on Ethnolinguistic and Cultural Diversity, which follows to
an extent the guidelines of the SALA (1996).
Legislators from different parties, leaders of indigenous associations,
and other representatives intervened in the debate over the legislation for
linguistic rights. In the midst of controversy, the Commission for Indian
Affairs, the Commission on Public Education, and Educational Services
organized a series of platforms of consultation that gathered the authori-
tative opinions of scholars, teachers and legislators. By December 2002, the
General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples had been
approved; its text was published in the Diario Oficial in March 13, 2003.
This decree is significant in the context of constitutions that protect the
linguistic diversity of nation-states. It has two main sections: the first one
originates the Law of Linguistic Rights, while the second mandates the
reform to section IV of Article 7 of the General Law of Education. It con-
tains eight Transitorios that stipulate the future deadlines of the proclaimed
actions. Finally, it has four chapters with varied articles. The first eight
articles of Chapter I present the general notions about MIL at the same time
declaring that they are national languages similar to Spanish. The Second
Chapter (Articles 9 to 12) stipulates the specific rights proclaimed by the
Law. The Third Chapter (Article 13) delineates the responsibilities of the
federal, state, and municipal governments in order to achieve the goals
stated by the law. Finally, the Fourth Article proclaims the creation of the
Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indgenas (INALI), which is linked to the
Secretara de Educacin Pblica. The addendum to the second article
stipulates that education should promote the knowledge and respect toward
plurality and for speakers of MIL and that education should be bilingual-
intercultural. National indigenous languages is the most striking phrase-
expression that appears throughout the text of the decree. The emphasis on
the ranking of the many indigenous languages as national languages
seems to be in direct reaction to the demands for indigenous autonomy.
Some of the chapters of the Law, however, clearly stipulate that the new
legislation promotes respect for diversity and linguistic rights (Chapter II,
Article 11). In addition, Chapter III states that every effort should be made
in order to include plans and programs that protect, preserve, promote, and
develop the diverse national languages with the active participation of
indigenous peoples and communities (Chapter III, Article 13). This notion
is reiterated in Chapter IV (Article 14b), which asserts that the Law
promotes programs, projects, and actions to invigorate knowledge of the
national indigenous languages and cultures. Finally, another goal of this
piece of legislation is to broaden the social space for the use of the
national indigenous languages and promote access to their knowledge,
while stimulating their preservation and appreciation in public and private
spaces and the media. It need not be said that the approach to legislation
regarding MIL has created an additional bureaucratic apparatus that makes
ethnolinguistic groups dependent upon initiatives of the federal govern-
ment.
In sum, the context of the Mexican case is similar to others in which
discourses of language rights and survival have become prominent and
interact with local practices, assumptions, and language ideologies (Free-
land and Patrick 2004: 4). It is also similar to other cases in that the con-
cept of language rights is embedded in a legal discourse that starts from a
politics of the state () even the international legal instruments by which
rights are recognized depend on agreement among states, and therefore
only embody what states are prepared to concede (Freeland and Patrick
2004: 5).
5. Contr astive appr oaches
In the next article by Daniel Althoff, the reader can find the complete
English version of the Ley General de Derechos Lingsticos de los Pueb-
los Indgenas (2003). The translation of what the author simply calls the
General Law is impeccable. His comparative study highlights the different
approaches of two nations that have indigenous populations with ancestral
traditions which stand out vis--vis the Western or Westernized traditions
of speakers of transplanted languages: Spanish and English. Daniel Althoff
emphasizes the opposite (re)solutions given to the administration of indige-
nous affairs: while the Mexican system exerts control over the indigenous
languages from the center, the US system acknowledges the sovereignty of
each indigenous group in matters of local decision-making policy. The US
approach is however not radically different from the Mexican approach,
given that in neither country do the indigenous groups enjoy rights to
autonomous government, though the US system might be seen as quasi-
autonomous. For instance, the routine transactions and activities in the
State of Oklahoma exemplify the latitude that indigenous groups are given
to promote and preserve their cultural and linguistic heritage. The case of
Oklahoma leads us to pose relevant questions such as the relationship
between legislation and language maintenance. Which approach fosters
language loyalty? Do local initiatives promote attitudes and behaviors of
assimilation? Does autonomy guarantee language maintenance? Is protec-
tive legislation effective in the endeavors of reversing language shift?
6. T he national censuses: 19702000
In The Mexican indigenous languages and the national censuses: 1970
2000, Brbara Cifuentes and J os Luis Moctezuma advance an overview
of the language data derived from official census registers intending to
offer a more realistic survey of linguistic diversity than the preceding
sources. According to official language policy, monolingualism in the MIL
was the indicator of adherence to the indigenous cultures. Consequently,
census data served to identify the process of acculturation and the advances
of educational programs in the process of Hispanization. The design of the
official surveys highlighted the items referring to competence in Spanish
because trends of increasing bilingualism were considered favorable for a
nation-state which optimized its legitimization. In the new dichotomy the
language of the State was meant for progress while the indigenous lan-
guage belonged in the home domain. The official language policy was di-
rected towards the process of bilingualization by means of programs of
Spanish, which used mostly the direct method. Before 1970, the govern-
ment agencies were charged with underreporting the estimates of speakers
of MIL in order to promote programs of castellanizacin. As of 1970, cen-
sus figures are given for monolinguals and bilinguals of as many languages
as possible.
This article is a mini-catalog of the names and numbers of MIL and
their patterns of geographic distribution; in addition, it offers a preliminary
classification based on the quantitative criteria: 17 Large Indigenous Lan-
guages, 19 Medium Indigenous Languages, and 29 Small Indigenous Lan-
guages make up a total of 65 MIL that are classified according to typologi-
cal criteria. In addition, the authors opportunely identify the indicators that
are associated with patterns of language maintenance and shift associated
with 27 languages for which they found reliable data (19702000). The
most symptomatic factor associated with language shift is the incidence of
bilingualism, which is in effect an ascending trend in the vast majority of
language groups. Nonetheless, bilingualism is counterbalanced by the fol-
lowing factors: (1) use of the indigenous language in the home domain; (2)
the increasing rate of growth of speakers of indigenous languages (hence-
forth SIL) in the past three decades; and (3) permanence of SIL in their
own original settlements, that is, Mesoamerica. It is likely that all these
factors are closely interrelated, although each language group has its own
dynamic pattern. When the rate of bilingualism is independently examined,
three new language classifications emerge and a new degree of mainte-
nance or vitality can be approximately determined for each language. As a
case in point, eight languages with lower rates of bilingualism (ranging
from 52% to 69%) can be considered of high vitality. Amuzgo, Tzeltal,
Tzotzil, Tlapanec, Cora, Tojolabal, Chatino and Chol belong to Group 1. It
is pertinent to underscore that the four largest languages of Chiapas, i.e.,
Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Chol and Tojolabal, surface in this group. The second
group is comprised of 12 languages of medium vitality (Mazatec, Mixe,
Mixtec, Tarahumar, Huave, Nahuatl, Perhepecha, Chinantec, Totonac,
Zapotec, Zoque, Huastec) whose rates of bilingualism vary between 73.3%
an 88.7%). It is interesting to note that four of the so-called major MIL
which have been utilized to put in bold relief the symbols of national iden-
tity, i.e., Mixtec, Zapotec, Nahuatl and Purhepecha, belong in this group.
Finally, the ranking of the third group of seven languages of low vitality is
as follows: Cuicatec, Maya, Otomi, Yaqui, Tepehua, Mazahua and Mayo
(with rates of bilingualism ranging from 90.8% to 97%). These three
groups make up a total of 27 languages
When the indicator of language maintenance is examined, i.e., Use [of
the indigenous languages] in the home domain as claimed by SIL, the
results show that there is an inverse correlation between the rate of bilin-
gualism and Use in the home domain. The correspondence between these
two indicators is not perfect but the data show the consistency of the trends.
For the first group of languages, the Use in the home domain varies from
79% to 87%. For the second group, the same rate ranges from 65% to 80%;
and for the third group, the rates of Use in the home domain are as low as
38% and as high as 66%. Qualitative assessments and direct observation of
the language groups in question may corroborate the prevailing macro-
societal trends of the MIL. Another factor that could be associated to pat-
terns of language maintenance is the indicator identified as Permanence of
SIL in their original settlements. For example, from the data collected by
the authors, it can be gleaned that the SIL belonging to the Maya family
exhibit high rates of permanence; this is also true for SIL of the Yucatan
Peninsula and for those of the State of Chiapas, who do not
experience out-migration. In contrast, other groups are dispersed and their
struggle for language maintenance is the most difficult. As a case in point,
Mixtecs and Zapotecs from Oaxaca show the opposite trend, as they leave
their original settlements following the route along the Pacific Rim. Their
journey takes them the northern states of Sonora, Sinaloa and Baja Califor-
nia Norte; in the northernmost state, they work in agriculture, landscaping,
itinerant commerce, and the like. For many of them the final destination is
California, primarily San Diego and Los Angeles, but they can go beyond
California and may end up working in Oregon, Washington, New York,
and even Canada and Alaska. Finally, this article offers valuable informa-
tion on the geographic distribution of SIL by language family, State, rates
of permanence in their original settlements, and distribution according to
bilingualism, in addition to rates of growth during the last three decades of
the twentieth century. This appraisal of language maintenance and language
shift is not based on subjective indicators, but on the quantitative data pub-
lished by governmental and non-governmental sources. This analysis can
serve as a basis for more advanced qualitative and quantitative studies (e.g.,
those that are being prepared by the new INALI). The indicators presented
herein can turn into active variables that may shed light into the sociolin-
guistic dynamics of the many communities of speakers of MIL. Under the
new Law on Linguistic Rights, all the groups of speakers or communities
of speakers, or ethnolinguistic groups are in theory entitled to an equal
and/or proportional distribution of resources.
7. Bilingual education and bilingualism
An integral part of reversing language shift is the approach to programs of
bilingual education, a topic I had explored one decade ago, when models
promoting the teaching and learning of maintenance bilingual-bicultural
education were virtually inexistent. The only programs described in the
literature were based on the model of castellanizacin and alfabetizacin in
Spanish (cf. Hidalgo 1994a and b). The scenario and the advances in bilin-
gual-bicultural education after 1994 have moved from the traditions of
Hispanization to the innovations of direct and indirect intervention. This
section presents three models: (1) the revivalist official approach of the
Malinche Volcano area, which is derived from the official programs of the
Direccin General de Educacin Indgena (DGEI); (2) the Yucatan model
implemented by the Comisin Nacional de Fomento Educativo (CONAFE),
which is identified as the community education model; and (3) the
intervention model, advanced by the Centro de Investigaciones y Estu-
dios Superiores en Antropologa Social (CIESAS). The main purpose of
this section is to assess the goals and accomplishments of the models de-
scribed by the contributors.
7.1. Tlaxcalan Nahuatl
Local language promoters and new discursive spaces: Mexicano in and
out of schools in Tlaxcala by J acqueline Messing and Elsie Rockwell de-
scribes the approach in the area of the Malinche Volcano (State of Tlax-
cala), where the exclusive use of Spanish in official documents was
imposed as of the eighteenth century. When compared to other areas of
indigenous Mexico, both the sociolinguistic dynamics of this community of
Mexicano (i.e., Nahuatl) speakers and its history of bilingual education are
better known today. Although this region had been neglected by the educa-
tional authorities, it is interesting to note that here the DGEI began to act as
the official educational agency since 1970. The language policy of this area
was widely known for prohibiting the use of Nahuatl in public domains.
However, as of the 1980s, the discourse on cultural pluralism circulating
in international forums became in theory the philosophy advanced by the
centralized national agency. In this scenario, the authors distinguish multi-
ple language attitudes that emerge in everyday discourse: they can be either
positive or negative (i.e., forging ahead, promoting a positive attitude
toward or denigrating the indigenous identity).
Mexicano was used in both formal and informal domains in this area
until the early 1900s. However, during the twentieth century, the programs
administered by various official agencies consistently imposed the teaching
of Spanish in elementary schools in every town of the area but Mexicano
was used in private domains. The turning point in the approach to indige-
nous education was the advancement to transitional programs, which re-
quired the use of Nahuatl in public domains, particularly the school. By the
1980s the rejection of education in Mexicano still prevailed in some
schools of the region, although some speakers would use it occasionally in
certain public spheres. The notion of bilingual-bicultural education became
popular in the last decade of the twentieth century. This may explain why
the use of Mexicano finally surfaced spontaneously in local schools, where
at least some teachers are committed to develop instructional materials for a
bilingual-biliterate curriculum. These teachers also use the resources that
students bring to the classroom, involve the students families in assign-
ments, and allot time and space for the use of Mexicano in classroom
activities. In spite of the opposing forces prevailing in this area, there are
local language promoters who work within the centralized system with the
goal of re-evaluating and rescuing the heritage of the Mexicano speakers.
In sum, this article shows that the attitudes are changing in a positive direc-
tion to such extent that they have opened a new discursive space for
Nahuatl with or without institutional support. The ideological reorganiza-
tion of the local leaders is indeed the key in the planning and design of
activities conducive to revitalization.
7.2. Yucatec Maya
The community education model reported by Barbara Pfeiler and Lenka
Zmiov in Bilingual education. Strategy for language maintenance or
shift of Yucatec Maya? focuses on the short and long-term objectives and
methodological strategies of community education consisting of multi-level
instruction. This model is based on the notion that the pupil brings knowl-
edge from the community and from himself/herself in order to produce new
knowledge; that is, the young students are both sources and resources of
information. Instruction is progressive because the students begin with the
development of oral expression and comprehension in the mother tongue
and gradually build abilities in Spanish. The structure and organization of
the learning tasks are exemplified in one day of teaching in the region of
Valladolid (State of Yucatn), where pilot programs follow either the
methodological strategies of the CONAFE (exemplified in a slower impli-
cational transition to Spanish) or the alphabetization approach which
resorts indiscriminately to the use of all-Spanish instructional materials.
The CONAFE program is selective; it caters to small groups and fewer
students per teacher than the official program sponsored by the DGEI.
The former program serves the varied needs of the students, whose sched-
ules are made to accommodate the activities of their parents. All instructors
have earned Bachelors degrees and receive training and support in issues
of methodology, particularly through workshops on language and culture.
There are more instructors involved in the outside community and more of
them know Mayan. The long-term objective is to guide the students to a
style of bilingualism that is characterized as conscious bilingualism. The
final outcome is the rationalization of the language input provided in the
classroom, which eventually will make the use of Mayan a normal activity
in the daily life of the local community(ies).
7.3. Balsas Nahuatl
Finally, the intervention approach is presented by J os Antonio Flores
Farfn, who discusses the case of the Nahuatl-speaking areas of the Balsas
River in the State of Guerrero. In his Intevention in indigenous education.
Culturally-sensitive materials for bilingual Nahuatl speakers, the author
looks into prevailing research trends that point to linguistic diversification
and fragmentation of indigenous communities. Against the Babel ideology
and the research that rejects or overlooks language contact phenomena,
Flores Farfn explains the justification supporting the proposed solution
known as intervention. This approach intends to recover the local narra-
tives via different media and through a series of audio-visual materials. For
example, the production of bilingual books illustrated in painted bark-wood
paper by native artists of the local community results in the appropriation
and dissemination of culturally-sensitive materials. The pictorial art known
as amates de historias pertains to the most ancient pre-Hispanic tradi-
tions, as stories narrated in the amates are retrieved from sixteenth-century
sources. When a researcher intervenes in the local community, s/he serves
as an agent or promoter of its members legacy. As a case in point, the Bal-
sas River Nahuas have studied the taste and inclinations of the tourists who
consume the local crafts with the express purpose of transferring, recreat-
ing, and adapting their own skills to the current conditions of commercial
trends. In this way, instead of destroying their cultural and linguistic integ-
rity, these activities tend to reinforce them. At times their craftsmanship has
even been conceived as a vehicle that expresses political dissent.
Another project based on this model is the development of multi-media
corpus via co-participatory methodology. The presentation of the tri-
dimensional videos leads speakers into the process of re-acquisition of the
indigenous language and the elevation of its rank. Finally, the intervention
model also uses riddles in order to recreate the Mesoamerican legacy. Rid-
dles are language games that both capture and trigger cultural and linguistic
reflexivity in a stimulating manner. They are intended to recover local
models, which simultaneously promote entertainment and re-acquisition.
Two of the riddles selected for this volume are in Classical Nahuatl. The
materials utilized in the intervention approach can be located in the oppo-
site pole of traditional bilingual education, whose goal was to teach Span-
ish as a second language via methods used to teach foreign languages. This
intervention model approximates more closely the cultural and language
paradigm of the speakers, inasmuch as it stays at an arms length from the
conventional materials used in the national curricula.
7.4. The GIDS in the Mazahua communities
The Mazahua language belongs to the Otopamean family and is closely
related to Otomi. With only 133,413 speakers, it is ranked twelfth after the
largest MIL (e.g., Nahuatl, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, Tzotzil, Otomi, Tzeltal,
Totonac, Mazatec, Chol, and Huastec). Its cumulative growth rate between
1970 and 2000 was merely 27%, truly insignificant when compared with
Tzotzil or Tlapanec whose rate of growth reached astronomical proportions
in the latest census. Mazahuas rate of bilingualism is the second highest
(94.5%) of the 27 languages introduced in the article by Cifuentes and
Moctezuma; by the same token, the use of Mazahua in the home domain is
the second lowest at 45%. The rate of Mazahua permanence is average. The
data on Mazahua appear so disturbing that some scholars would be tempted
to consider it nearly extinct. While the demographic findings on Mazahua
point to its showing the weakest signs of vitality, the research on the stages
of bilingualism in San Ildefonso and San J uan de las Manzanas (State of
Mexico), describes the various uses of Mazahua and Spanish across genera-
tional lines and along the proposed GIDS model.
In this volume, Dora Pellicer skillfully integrates ethnographic and
sociolinguistic approaches in order to examine the diversity of situations
that may surface in each Stage of the GIDS. Mazahua speakers are located
by age group (older to younger) and by location (in the local intimate
community or the larger impersonal society). When all the variables are
mapped onto a single scenario, which is in essence, the universe of the
speakers, the proportion of Mazahua to Spanish emerges in the different
domains of interaction. Older Mazahuas are still Mazahua-dominant and
use their language for intra-group communication within the intimate
community, but also in their independent work domain, which is culturally-
bound. In contrast, the shift to Spanish is glaring when they migrate to
Mexico City and the metropolitan area. In the urban milieu, the use of
Mazahua alternates with Spanish among the old folks interacting around
the immigrant networks. In order to complement the examination of the
Mazahua-speaking communities, Pellicer includes the local conversational
practices among Mazahua women, who spontaneously express their views
on the evolution of language maintenance and shift. Despite the fact that it
is gradually declining, Mazahuas do not disparage their language. They are
aware that Mazahua competes with Spanish; that Mazahua is still used with
the elders; that Mazahua can be taught; and that Mazahua can be learned
just like English is learned. The awareness of language contact stems
from the fact that Mazahuas are among the groups that do migrate to other
regions of Mexico and to the mostly Anglophone North-American coun-
tries in search of work and better wages.
8. Conclusions
This volume explores the RLS theory in the Mexican scenario from various
viewpoints: the socio-historical perspective delves into the dynamics of
power that emerged in the Mexican colony as a result of the presence of
Spanish, which is today the dominant language in all public domains. After
almost five hundred years, the imbalance of power-sharing functions cre-
ated the need for structural changes that resulted in the new legislation of
2003. The need to quantify speakers of indigenous languages by language
or by ethnolinguistic group with relative precision is glaring, as is the need
to examine bilingual communities utilizing the notion of reversal. Finally,
my conclusion summarizes the language policy trends from 1521 to 2003.
This reconstruction is based on reliable secondary sources that frame lan-
guage policy within the conventional Mexican chronology: Colony, Inde-
pendence, and Revolution. However, I have pointed out that one major
contribution of this volume is the (re)consideration of early colonial
research within the RLS framework. Without the works of philology, his-
tory, religion, and literature of the Mexican mission, knowledge about
ancient Mexico would be extremely limited. This interpretation modifies
the chronology of language policy in order to return to this period of time
to find the inspiration that can move us forward. In addition, if we admit
that towards the end of the twentieth century, the indigenous peoples were
the agents of their own transformation, we can celebrate the new legislation
on indigenous language rights as though it were the beginning of RLS in
the twenty-first century. A significant task for those concerned with the
survival of indigenous languages is the promotion and development of
indigenous literacies, given that their status is linked to larger political,
economic, and attitudinal forces (Hornberger 1997: 358). Throughout the
American continent, these forces can be addressed from the bottom up
(Hornberger 1997: 358). In the multilingual Mexican scenario, language
maintenance and reversal program(s) are not impossible. The highly bilin-
gualized populations of indigenous descent can claim their right to main-
tain their rich linguistic capital using their own bilingualism as a point of
departure. Ideally, as befits RLS programs, they should transcend diglossia.
In reality, maintenance programs can be designed, now that the law is on
their side. RLS in twenty-first century Mexico is not spurious. The roots of
a pro-indigenous rights movement were planted early in the Mexican col-
ony with the work of Bartolom de las Casas, the first Bishop of Chiapas,
who stands out at present as the pioneer of human rights and linguistic
rights in the civilized world.
Refer ences
Aguirre Beltrn, Gonzalo
1983 Lenguas vernculas. Su uso y desuso en la enseanza. La experien-
cia de Mxico. Mexico: La Casa Chata.
Fishman, J oshua A.
1991 Reversing Language Shift. Theoretical and Empirical Foundations
of Assistance to Threatened Languages. Clevedon: Multilingual
Matters.
2001 Why is it so hard to save a threatened language? In Can Threatened
Languages be saved? Reversing Language Shift, Revisited: A 21st
Century Perspective, J oshua A. Fishman (ed.), 257282. Clevedon:
Multilingual Matters.
Freeland, J ane and Donna Patrick (eds.).
2004 Language rights and language survival. Sociolinguistic and so-
ciocultural perspectives. In Language Rights and Language Sur-
vival. Sociolinguistic and Sociocultural Perspectives, J ane Freeland
and Donna Patrick (eds.), 134. Manchester, UK and Northampton,
MA: St. J erome Publishing.
Gruzinski, Serge
1999 Entender el mestizaje. Letras Libres 1 (6): 3840.
Hidalgo, Margarita
1994a Mexicos language policy and diversity. Language Problems and
Language Planning 18(3).
1994b Nationalism, ethnicity and bilingual education in Mexico: From
theory to praxis. Language Problems and Language Planning 18
(3): 185207.
1994c A redefinition of sociolinguistic roles and identities: After NAFTA.
Third Annual University of New Mexico Conference on Ibero-
American Culture and Society. Hispanic Language and Social Iden-
tity. February 1012, Albuquerque.
2004 La promocin de la reversin del desplazamiento lingstico. Anua-
rio de Lingstica Hispnica. Forthcoming in vol. 19.
Hornberger, Nancy H.
1997 Language planning from the bottom up. In Indigenous literacies in
the Americas. Language planning from the bottom up, Nancy H.
Hornberger (ed.), 356366. (Contributions to the Sociology of Lan-
guage 75). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Chapter 2
The I ndianization of Spaniar ds in New Spain
Claudia Parodi
Abstr act
After the catastrophic losses of Mesoamerican peoples resulting from the
war in the surroundings of the Great Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec
Empire, Europeans were in charge of building or re-building institutions,
social organizations, and social networks in an area of the New World un-
known to Western civilization. The need to survive in the New World
motivated the Spanish-speaking pioneers to name, describe, and frequently
use the material and non-material objects they gradually encountered in
Mesoamerica, where the rich and diverse Aztec civilization was located.
Spaniards approached the Aztec civilization with differing attitudes. Some
of them expressed their empathy by assuming various roles and responsi-
bilities within the Indian communities. Others brought Amerindian cultural
items to the new Spanish society they were building. In order to show how
Spaniards absorbed and assimilated some of the traits of the Mesoamerican
civilization, I have excerpted relevant passages from the primary sources
using at all times the same stylistic devices that the actors/authors utilized
in colonial texts: narration, description, and exemplification. The passages
show the degree of knowledge, appreciation, or adaptation to the realities
of the New World. This process, which may be referred to as Indianization,
was mostly unconscious. It epitomizes the endeavors of Spaniards to sur-
vive in the New World by rescuing and maintaining some of the partially
destroyed objects of the non-Western civilization. I distinguish between
external and internal Indianization and apply the reversing language shift
framework in order to explain the changes of status of Nahuatl along the
proposed Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS) model. Over
time, this situation gave rise to a strong Indian substratum in Mexican soci-
ety, which I propose to incorporate as a new Stage 9 of the GIDS.
1. I ntr oduction
The purpose of my article is to show that prominent Spanish-speaking pro-
tagonists of the Mexican colonial period had sufficient exposure to the
30 Claudia Parodi
Mesoamerican languages and cultures to the extent that they modified the
habits of their daily lives. Spaniards went through relevant processes of
adaptation, accommodation and identity change, which I have subsumed in
one: Indianization. At the same time, Mesoamerican peoples experienced
significant changes due to their contact with Spaniards, although the
adverse conditions in which the natives of the area were forced to live fos-
tered processes of survival that can be identified as segregation, Westerni-
zation, and resistance. The focus of this article is, however, Indianization,
which I define herein as the adoption or appropriation of Mesoamerican
languages, cultural traits, and practices belonging to Indian cultures among
Spaniards living in the New World in different periods of the Mexican
colony. This process is indeed fruitful and its effect is tangible in cultural
outcomes such as bilingualism, linguistic borrowings, incorporation of pre-
Hispanic foods, and the corresponding words in the Spanish diet, in addi-
tion to decorative items, attire, healing practices, art, architecture, and so
forth.
Since the early years in the New World, the Spaniards used their various
Peninsular dialects and made them converge into a new speech form known
as the New World Spanish koine (see Parodi 1995, 2001; also Hidalgo
2001a). One of the significant strategies of accommodation of the resulting
koine was the incorporation of lexical borrowings pertaining to Amerindian
languages in general but mainly those belonging to Taino (now extinct),
Nahuatl or Quechua. Borrowing words for the newly discovered realities
(e.g., food, plants, animals, and other objects of material culture absent in
the European culture) was a common practice and a noticeable mode of
Indianization. These Amerindian objects were either adapted to the New
World with their original indigenous terminology or disguised with Span-
ish names.
In order to show the different processes of Indianization of Europeans
andcriollos (children of Europeans born in New Spain), I use the following
primary sources: Bernal Daz del Castillo ([1632] 1982 2000); Alonso de
Molina ([1571] 1972 1992) and Alonso de Molina ([1555] 2001); J ernimo
de Mendieta ([1604] 1870 1973); J uan de Palafox y Mendoza ([1762]
1994); Sor J uana Ins de la Cruz ([1689] 1948 1982); Carlos de Sigenza y
Gngora ([1680] 1928). These prominent chroniclers and scholars wrote in
New Spain between the beginning of the sixteenth century and the end of
the seventeenth century, reflecting different key moments of Indianization,
which was a generalized phenomenon among Spaniards living in the New
World. First, the Old-Castillian Bernal Daz del Castillo, one of the first
settlers in the New World, was also a soldier who stood by Hernn Corts
during the conquest of New Spain. He was in charge of the Captaincy of
Guatemala and was about eighty years old when he composed the Historia
verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva Espaa (The True History of the
Conquest of New Spain), whose first version was written between 1555 and
1574. The true history vividly narrates his adventures and his life in the
New World. His narration is sprinkled with many loanwords from Amerin-
dian languages, primarily Nahuatl. Second, the Franciscan Friar Alonso de
Molina was a proficient speaker of Nahuatl, as he learned it in his early
childhood. He published a Nahuatl grammar in 1571 and an extraordinary
Spanish-Nahuatl dictionary in 1555 and its corresponding Nahuatl-Spanish
part in 1571; both are known as Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexi-
cana y mexicana y castellana. Third, the Basque Friar J ernimo de
Mendieta moved to New Spain in 1554. He finished his Historia ecle-
sistica indiana in 1604, wherein he narrates with unique details the his-
tory, beliefs, and adventures of the Franciscan congregation in the New
World. He learned Nahuatl for preaching purposes in five years. Next, the
Navarrese-Aragonese Bishop of Puebla, J uan de Palafox y Mendoza, lived
in New Spain from 1640 to 1649, where he wrote several of his works. His
essay De la naturaleza del indio was composed during this period. It dem-
onstrates his interest and somewhat paternalistic love for the Nahuas,
whose language he learned as well. The New Spanish criolla Sor J uana
Ins de la Cruz knew the Nahuatl language and culture in depth and used
Nahuatl in some of her plays written between 1680 and 1691; additionally,
in her baroque poems she made insightful references to Nahuatl culture.
Finally, the criollo Carlos de Sigenza y Gngora also had in-depth knowl-
edge of Nahuatl language and culture and referred to the latter in an inno-
vative manner in his baroque arch Teatro de virtudes polticas (1680).
The process of Indianization began from the moment in which Span-
iards came to the New World and its continuity can be traced to modern
times. For example, as early as 1492, Columbus in his letter to the Queen
of Spain introduced the Caribbean words canoa canoe and cacique
chief; this is the first time that Amerindian words appeared in a Spanish
text. In 1575, the nephew of the conqueror Hernn Corts and the first-
generation criollo, J uan Surez de Peralta (born in 1537 in New Spain),
documented that the Indians trusted the criollos and were friendly with the
latter because they were children of the land and knew Nahuatl:
a los que nacemos all [en la Nueva Espaa], que [los indios] nos tienen
por hijos de la tierra y naturales, nos comunican muchas cosas y ms como
32 Claudia Parodi
sauemos la lengua es gran conformidad para ellos y amistad. (Libro de al-
beitera, in Perissinotto 1990: 25).
[we, the people who are born there [in New Spain], are considered children
of the land and native [by the Indians]; they tell us many things and, since
we know the language, it is of great contentment and friendship for them]).
In 1604, J ernimo de Mendieta described the situation of the Spanish
language in the Caribbean and in Mexico by stating that:
la tenemos medio corrupta con vocablos que a los nuestros se les pegaron
en las islas cuando se conquistaron y otros que ac se han tomado de la len-
gua mexicana. Y as podemos decir que de lenguas y costumbres y perso-
nas de diversas naciones se ha hecho en esta tierra una mixtura o quimera
(Mendieta [1870]1973 ii:120).
[our language is sort of corrupt with words that our ancestors learned in the
islands when they were conquered and with other words that they took from
the Mexican language [Nahuatl]. Thus, we may say that in this land there is
a mixture or chimera made from the languages, habits, and people from dif-
ferent nations].
For J ernimo de Mendieta, New World Spanish was an aberration because
it was mixed with Amerindian words. He disliked the traits that distin-
guished it from Peninsular Spanish, but New World Spanish language and
culture were already well Indianized when he wrote those words.
The examination of the texts of the above-mentioned authors lends sup-
port to my proposal on two types of Indianization during colonial times:
external Indianization and internal Indianization. In addition, towards the
end of the colony, and as a result of the increasingly wider distance
assumed from the authentic indigenous cultures by nationalist criollos and
mestizos, a third process of Indianization came into play. The appropriation
of significant residuals of the Aztec culture led to another type of mestizaje:
Indian substratum. While external Indianization is characterized by the
incorporation of loanwords from Amerindian languages, mainly from
Nahuatl, to the New World Spanish koine, internal Indianization consists of
the acquisition and profound knowledge of an indigenous language and its
culture, such as Nahuatl, within a criollo and mestizo Spanish-speaking
speech community. In New Spain, it began when the Spaniards, criollos,
andmestizos became Spanish-Nahuatl bilinguals in the early decades of the
sixteenth century. It reached its peak at the end of the seventeenth century,
when highly educated criollos, such as Sor J uana Ins de la Cruz and Car-
los de Sigenza y Gngora wrote their exceptional works of literature,
which transpire the knowledge of Nahuatl language and culture. External
and internal Indianization overlapped during the sixteenth century, when
the New World Spanish koine was in its formative stages (see Parodi 1995
and Hidalgo 2001b). Finally, what I have called Indian substratum appears
in the situation in which the residues of a language, such as Nahuatl,
remain after its usage is discontinued completely in a speech community,
such as the criollo and mestizo speech communities in New Spain. The loss
of Nahuatl among the criollo and mestizo speakers began by the mid-
eighteenth century, after Charles III prohibited the use of Amerindian lan-
guages as a means of Christianization in the New World. However, the loss
of Nahuatl within this particular speech community was a long process. Its
decline coincides with the beginning of a nationalist movement among the
members of the new criollo and mestizo society. At this point, Nahuatl was
restricted, with different degrees of proficiency, to the informal register.
Thus, mestizo homes and Spanish criollo households that had Indian ser-
vants used it in an informal setting (see Alberro 2002), together with Span-
ish. Nahuatl was not taught in schools any longer, while criollos and mes-
tizos abandoned it slowly. It went from GIDS 2 to GIDS 6 and beyond in
their speech community. Nahuatl, however, continued to be spoken in the
Nahua speech communities, which were ethnically Amerindian during
colonial times. At present, there are still active Nahuatl speech communi-
ties in Mexico, but Nahuatl is not spoken in mainstream Mexican society.
2. Exter nal I ndianization in New Spain
External Indianization was a very active process during the sixteenthand
seventeenth centuries in New Spain. Chronicles and other testimonial texts
attest to the contact of Spaniards with indigenous people. From the experi-
ential base of Spanish speakers living in the New World, a new process of
incorporation of material and non-material Amerindian objects and their
names into the earliest New World Spanish culture can be reconstructed.
Valuable data appear in the famous chronicle Historia verdadera de la
conquista de la Nueva Espaa, written between 1555 and 1584 by the Old-
Castilian conqueror Bernal Daz del Castillo (14961584), wherein the
author narrates how he and his Spanish companions adapted a considerable
number of Indian items into their new life in the recently discovered land.
Having begun since the very early contact with the indigenous peoples of
the Caribbean, their Indianization was both linguistic and cultural. As one
34 Claudia Parodi
of the survival strategies, the Spanish conquerors adapted to the new envi-
ronment by modifying their culture, their language, and their habits on a
continuous basis. This is why, when they arrived in Mesoamerica, they had
already borrowed many lexical items from the Caribbean languages, mainly
Taino, such as canoa canoe, cacique chief, and maiz corn into their
lexicon and, in addition, had created semantic extensions of Spanish words
to designate the newly discovered native items. For example, the Spanish
word perro, among other semantic extensions that I will show below, was
used to refer to the American escuintle, an eatable animal similar to a dog
that does not bark.
Since the borrowings were not random, they can be examined in light of
a model of cultural semantics, which explains the processes of definition
and redefinition of those who experienced the earliest stages of contact.
The model of cultural semantics that I hereby propose aids in the analysis
of this linguistic and cultural exchange which derives from perception of
linguistic and cultural referents in a language contact situation. Speakers
create new lexical items based on the forms and meanings of the two lan-
guages in contact. This allows us to reconstruct the perception of the Other
as opposed to the Self and to grasp the deep meaning of the cultural refer-
ent. Distance from or proximity to the other culture is reflected in the ways
in which new terms are introduced: borrowing and semantic extension (see
Bhabha 1994: 171).
In the specific case of the Spaniards, they had to deal with two opposite
cultures: the well-known European and the unknown New World. Using
strategies of linguistic innovation, Spaniards partially incorporated the
Indian world into their own and vice versa. In this manner, New World
Spanish began to distinguish itself from European Spanish in many ways
(see examples of internal phonological evolution in Parodi 1995). Several
changes, most of them lexical and semantic, occurred in New World Span-
ish due to the contact of Spaniards with indigenous speakers. As a case in
point, Nahuatl and other Amerindian lexical borrowings were first adopted
and later adapted to Spanish by way of two productive morphological proc-
esses: inflection and derivation. The first type of process is exemplified as
follows: (1) A Nahuatl word such as kakawa-tl, which was borrowed by
many Mesoamerican languages before the Spanish conquest without the
absolutive suffix -tl (cf. Dakin and Wichmann 2000: 66) is a loanword
from Mayan Yucatec kakaw, which in the Spanish language rendered
cacao cocoa seed (Santamara [1959] 1992). In Spanish, this item took
the masculine singular ending. (2) The original word quetzalli rendered
quetzal (brilliantly colored bird of the Trogon family, found in Central
America) in singular and quetzales in plural. (3) Chalchihuitl turned into
Spanishchalchiuite(s) jade, green stone; (4) and amatl >amate(s) bark-
wood paper, the last two words with the absolutive suffix -tl transformed
into -te. Finally, through a more complex process of derivation, the Spanish
causative suffix er was added to the Nahuatl compound kakaw + atl
coca beverage, which derives from kakaw cocoa seed and atl liquid,
rendering the Spanish word cacahuateras women who make cacao bever-
ages (Molina [1571] 1972 1992). These indigenous loanwords appear in
Bernal Daz del Castillos chronicle, wherein he describes the Antilles or
the Aztec world (e.g., Emperor Moctezumas lifestyle or the Tlatelolco
Market, to which he refers as early as 1520 or 1521). Even if Bernal Daz
del Castillo, the most celebrated and realistic eyewitness of the facts,
admired the Mexican emperor and truly enjoyed the Tlatelolco Market, he
distanced himself from the Indian world, i.e., the Other and unfamiliar,
through the Hispanization of Nahuatl etymologies. Loanwords referring to
the new realities were occasionally followed by a redundant clarification in
the language of the Other: calabazas que llaman ayotes, that is, squash,
that they call ayotes (Daz del Castillo [1632] 1982 2000 cxxviii: 475).
There were, however, some exceptions such as the Caribbean words maiz
corn and caabe cassava, which were used by the Spaniards to desig-
nate items used in both the Indian and Spanish New World contexts. Thus,
they did not need clarification. Moreover, when the Spaniards arrived to
Mexico, the word maiz (<Taino) had significant vitality, while the Nahuatl
term centli was rejected. The word caabe (<Taino) was, too, abandoned
in Colonial Mexico. Other loanwords and the object they refer to, such as
chile, (ji)tomate or tamal were slowly incorporated from the Indian world
into the Spanish-speaking New World culture. However, other potential
loanwords were rejected, even if the items they referred to were widely
accepted. Such is the case of tlaxcalli tortilla, which will be examined
below, and etl bean which was replacedwith the Spanish frijol.
The second strategy, semantic extension, was used to expand the origi-
nal meaning of Spanish words. Semantic extension is defined as the use of
an old word to refer to a new reality perceived or experienced by the
speaker. It is based on the implicit comparison of two referents with similar
though not identical characteristics. Each referent belongs in each of the
cultures that are in rather intense contact at specific junctures of time and
space. The resulting lexical items modified the Spanish language in a sub-
tle, almost invisible, way. For this reason, they are an important linguistic
36 Claudia Parodi
component of cultural semantics, a model which has been virtually unex-
plored. Some examples illustrate this relevant process: (1) tortilla, which
originally was an egg crepe or omelet, later became a corn crepe in Mexico
because the original Nahuatl word tlaxcalli was never used in New World
Spanish; (2) pan bread competed with tortilla for a while, but later re-
turned to its original, exclusive European meaning; (3) gallina hen meant
turkey before the loanword guajolote (<uexolotl) was borrowed; (4) pie-
dra stone was an instrument to grind corn to make the dough used to
manufacture tortillas. The word piedra was used before the Nahuatl word
metate was borrowed. The following quote contains most of the semantic
extensions I have mentioned:
haba mandado el Montezuma a sus mayordomos que a nuestro modo y
usanza estuvisemos provedos, que es maz, e piedras, e indias para hacer
pan e gallinas y fruta y mucha yerba para los caballos (Daz del Castillo
[1632] 1982 2000 lxxxix: 317).
[Montezuma had ordered his servants to provide us with supply, the way we
are used to, such as corn, stones, Indian women to make bread, hens, fruit
and a sufficient amount of grass for the horses]. (Emphasis mine).
This text can be paraphrased as for us to be provided with corn, metates,
and Indian cooks to make tortillas, and turkeys and fruit The quote illus-
trates the Spaniards life in the New World known at the time (Mexico and
the Caribbean). In this first stage of contact there is only Indianization of
the meaning, but over time Indianization would generalize into other areas
of the Spanish culture in the New World. This is the difference between
external Indianization and internal Indianization. Bernal Daz prefers
to use the subtle strategy of semantic extensions when he addresses the way
in which Spaniards begin to acquire, almost imperceptibly, the Indian cul-
ture in order to survive in the New World. This is an aspect of external or
superficial Indianization. Another common strategy was the extension of
meaning of a Spanish word by adding the phrase de la tierra of the land,
which stressed the reference to an item that was originally from the New
World, but analogous to another European item. This strategy, which con-
trasts Europe vis--vis the New World, is used mainly to describe objec-
tively, either the Amerindian or the Spanish experience and environment.
For example, Bernal Daz del Castillo refers to the pecar peccary, which
is a small swine that has a pouch on its back, as pigs of the land and the
turkey as hen of the land. Some of these phrases were lexicalized, such as
gallina de la tierra hen of the land, which is still used in New Mexico
instead of pavo or guajolote turkey. The method of innovative lexicaliza-
tion is revealed in the following quotes.
mataron dos puercos de la tierra, que tienen el ombligo en el espinazo
(Daz del Castillo [1632] 1982 2000 ix: 423). [they killed two pigs of the
land, which have the navel in the backbone area];
[tenan muchas gallinas de la tierra y pan de maz de lo que ellos suelen
comer e frutas que eran pifias e zapotes [they hay hens of the land (turkeys)
and corn bread, the kind they usually eat, and fruits such as bruised fruit
and zapote (Daz del Castillo [1632] 1982 2000 xiii: 94).
3. Exter nal H ispanization in Nahuatl
The linguistic innovations of Nahuatl speakers in contact with Spanish
during the early stage of colonization, i.e., sixteenth century, illustrate simi-
lar processes of borrowing and semantic extension which were used with
the same purpose: to adapt and adopt Spanish ways and culture. It is inter-
esting, however, that during the first fifty years, there are few Spanish
loanwords in Nahuatl written sources. Lockhart (1992: 263) suggests this
was the result of minimal contact. I would like to propose that in addition
to minimal contact, there was a sort of purism caused by resistance (cf.
Lastra 1992: 204). The conquest of the Spaniards was too recent and the
Nahuas refused to Hispanicize their language in the first stage of contact.
The main source of Nahuatl lexicon is found in Molinas Vocabulario
([1555] 2001, which captures the earliest contact between Spaniards and
Nahuas. The second edition of [1571] 1972 1992 contains more loanwords,
mainly hybrid compounds or loan-blends. The loanwords of the first edi-
tion refer to new objects or concepts brought by the Europeans (e.g., bota
boot; botn button; cristiano Christian). However, whenever possible,
Nahuas resort, too, to semantic extensions to designate the innovations,
such as uexolotl turkey, which actually designated the European rooster
and the Amerindian turkey. In the second edition, the two words are sepa-
rated, but a new entry, castilla[n] uexolotl, Castile turkey, is added for the
European rooster. In this stage, the contact between Nahuas and Spaniards
generated many Nahuatl semantic extensions. In this period we find words
such as (1) maatl deer used for the Spanish horse; (2) coyametl, pec-
cary, for the Spanish pig; and (3) ixcatl cotton for sheep, just to name a
few (cf. Lockhart 1992: 282). Later on, the equivalent Spanish loan-words
38 Claudia Parodi
caballo, cerdo and oveja would be used by Nahuatl speakers. The prefer-
ence for semantic extensions has the same separating effect in both Nahuatl
and Spanish. It is a strategy that makes the Spanish influence difficult to
identify in the Nahuatl world. This is an aspect of resistance combined with
external or superficial Hispanization. Moreover, in the same manner that
Spaniards over-emphasized some semantic extensions of Spanish words
with the clarifying phrase de la tierra, of the land, the Nahuas employed
the toponym Caxtilla[n], which means at the place of Caxtil (cf. Lockhart
1992: 277). Thus, (1) Caxtilla[n] tlaxcalli =Castile tortilla was Spanish
wheat bread; (2) Caxtilla[n] centli =Castile corn referred to wheat; and
(3) Caxtilla[n] chilli =Castile chile meant pepper. The introduction of
Caxtilla[n] had the function of highlighting the difference between Indian
and European items. This is external Hispanization among the Nahuas.
Even if external Indianization among Peninsular Spaniards in the New
World is superficial, it modified the culture and personality of the early
conquerors to the point that European Spaniards did not empathize with
New World conquistadors when they returned temporarily to Spain. Bernal
Daz del Castillo reports that the Spaniards from Europe ridiculed him,
ridiculed Corts, and ridiculed other conquerors by using the derogatory
term: indianos peruleros, Indianized Peruvians (Daz del Castillo [1632]
1982 2000 cci: 405). Peruleros (<Per) is itself another semantic extension
referring to any rich Spaniard transformed by the experience in the New
World. Furthermore, the Peninsular literature of the time makes many ref-
erences to the odd behavior of the indianos, that is, Spaniards who lived
in the New World. In fact, since the early times of the conquest and coloni-
zation, Peninsular Spaniards living in the New World changed their habits,
their customs, their art, and their lifestyle. From the European perspective
they were very Indianized, though they still kept a safe distance from the
Amerindian world. For this reason, they were externally Indianized. The
ambiguities that emerged in contexts of cultural transformation makes the
process of cultural translation a complex form of signification (Bhabha
1994: 172).
4. I nter nal I ndianization in New Spain
In addition to the incorporation of Amerindian lexical items into Spanish
vocabulary, internal Indianization entails a thorough knowledge of an
Indian language and its culture by Spaniards, criollos and mestizos. Thus,
internal Indianization usually coexists with external Indianization within an
ethnically mixed speech community. Nahuatl was the Amerindian language
widely spoken in New Spain by Indians, criollos, mestizos and Peninsular
Spaniards that emigrated during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
because it was the Mesoamerican lingua franca since pre-Hispanic times.
Once the Spaniards realized that Nahuatl was well spread in the region,
they learned it and promoted its usage among themselves. As a result,
Nahuatl was spoken in New Spain with different degrees of proficiency by
the Spanish-speaking mestizos, criollos and some Europeans. Among them,
there were two outstanding groups of proficient Spanish-Nahuatl bilingual
speakers. One group was composed of Spanish friars and priests who
learned Nahuatl to convert the Indians to Catholicism. The other group was
made up by criollo and mestizo scholars who used Nahuatl to take cultural
and identity stances. The former group includes several grammarians and
ethnographers who flourished mainly during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries (see references in Hernndez de Len-Portilla 1988). Two of
them, the Leonese ethnographer Bernardino de Sahagn (14991590) and
the Estremenian lexicographer and grammarian Alonso de Molina (1513
1579) attained the highest degree of oral and written proficiency in Na-
huatl. They were true promoters of reversing language shift, as they both
recovered the original sources of Nahuatl language and culture in the midst
of catastrophe, and consequently, elevated Nahuatl to Stage 2 of the GIDS.
It need not be said that Molina and Sahagn deserve a substantial study
from this perspective, which goes beyond the scope of this paper. However,
I will give herein an overview of their work on preserving Nahuatl. I will
address Sahaguns role in founding the Imperial Colegio de Santa Cruz de
Tlatelolco, and then I will discuss Molinas philological work.
4.1. Bernardino de Sahagn
Bernardino de Sahagn moved to Mexico as an adult in 1529 and became a
key figure in the foundation of the Imperial Colegio de Santa Cruz de
Tlaltelolco (between 1533 and 1536). The Colegio de Tlatelolco was mod-
eled after the pre-Hispanic school for the sons of the Aztec nobility
known as the Calmecac and the medieval Spanish Escuela de Traduc-
tores de Toledo. It was established with the goal of teaching the Aztec aris-
tocracy the trivium and quadrivium in Latin, as well as the writing of Span-
ish and Nahuatl Latin characters. In this unique academy, many friars in
40 Claudia Parodi
conjunction with their Indian students and informants composed the most
important grammars and books on Indian culture. At the Colegio de Tlal-
telolco Sahagn wrote in Spanish and Nahuatl arguably the most complete
colonial ethnographic and cultural work on the Nahuas, the Historia Gen-
eral de las cosas de la Nueva Espaa [General History of the Things of
New Spain] also known as the Florentine Codex. In Tlatelolco, Alonso de
Molina was assisted by Sahagn and the trilingual Colegio de Tlatelolcos
Indian student Hernando de Ribas in writing the 1555 version of his Span-
ish-Nahuatl Vocabulary. The role of the Colegio de Tlatelolco was crucial
in the dissemination and preservation of Nahuatl, Spanish, and Latin lan-
guages and cultures among the Indians, who became highly educated and
proficient in the three languages. The Indian students frequently competed
and surpassed in knowledge of Latin the most educated Spanish friars.
Thus, at the end of the sixteenth century, resentment towards theColegio
de Tlatelolco was common among friars (see Mendieta [1870] 1973 ii: 40
42). As a result, the Colegio was closed during the first half of the seven-
teenth century, ending the possibility for Nahuatl to reach Stage 1 of GIDS
in New Spain. From the moment of its closure, the long process of lan-
guage shift and subordination with respect to Spanish became inevitable.
4.2. Alonso de Molina
When he was a child, Alonso de Molina moved from Spain to the New
World during the first quarter of the sixteenth century, around 1524. In
New Spain, he learned Nahuatl from his Nahuatl-speaking playmates.
When the Franciscan friars heard of his outstanding competence in
Nahuatl, they requested his family and the governor, Hernn Corts, to
allow young Alonso to live with them. In this way he became a Spanish
interpreter for Nahuatlspeaking Indians and a Nahuatl instructor for the
Spaniards:
haciendo desde nio vida de viejofue maestro de los predicadores del
Evangelio porque l les ense la lengua [nhuatl]Cuando tuvo edad
tom el hbito de la orden (Mendieta [1870] 1973 i: xx).
[growing up before his time he was the instructor of the Catholic preach-
ers because he taught them the [Nahuatl] language When he was old
enough, he became a friar of the order].
Alonso de Molina became linguistically Indianized to the point that he was
a balanced bilingual with a positive attitude towards Nahuatl. In fact, in the
prologue of his Nahuatl-Spanish dictionary, Molina claims that Nahuatl
was the most beautiful and elegant language ever spoken. Despite the fact
that he used his linguistic skills to partially assimilate to the Mesoamerican
environment, he utilized his knowledge of Nahuatl mainly to integrate the
Indians into his culture, particularly to religion. He devoted his life to con-
vert the Indians to Catholicism. In order to facilitate conversion, he wrote a
catechism, a confessionary, a grammar, and a Spanish-Nahuatl dictionary,
which was published as early as 1555. However, in 1571 this dictionary
was revised and published again along with the new first edition of the
Nahuatl-Spanish part. Since that time, his work has been highly valued.
Modern scholars still use it because Molina went far beyond utilitarian
basics to include a vast range of vocabulary, making many subtle semantic
and grammatical distinctions (Lockhart 1992: 6).
The dictionary includes semantic extensions and loanwords, which
resulted from the contact of Nahuatl and Spanish cultures. Many neolo-
gisms are semantic extensions of old terms from Nahuatl and Spanish,
proving Molinas deep knowledge of both languages and their respective
culture. For example, he documents terms such as the Nahuatl word for
cotton, ichcatl, extending its meaning to designate the European sheep.
Moreover, he includes sixteenth century neologisms, such as the words
teyoia, teyolitla, that designate the Christian soul, which originally signi-
fied energizer (Len Portilla [1970] 1992: liv). Also, he uses the Spanish
word cereza cherry to allude to a Mexican small round black fruit
known as capulin. In the Nahuatl part of his dictionary, he paraphrases the
meaning of the Nahuatl word tamalli tamale as pan de maz embuelto en
hojas y cozido en olla [corn bread wrapped with leaves and cooked in a
pot]. Finally, he uses the loanword tamales, but he gives no further expla-
nation when he clarifies the Aztec numerical system in the Spanish part:
Para contar gallinas, huevos, cacao, tunas, tamales, panes de Castilla,
cerezas [capulines]xicamas, melones, libros o cosas redondas y rollizas,
[los nahuas] dizen de la manera siguiente: uno o una, cempantli (Molina
[1555] 1571 1972 1992: 119).
[to count hens, eggs, cacao, prickly pears, tamales, Castilian bread, cherries
[capulines] xicamas, cantaloupes, books or round and cylindrical things,
[the Nahuas] say it the following way: one, cempantli].
42 Claudia Parodi
This means that the Nahuatl loanword tamal was already incorporated into
the Spanish vocabulary of New Spain. The same is true for the Aztec loan-
words cacao and xicama jcama, a sweet potato-like root, and the
Taino loanword tuna mentioned in the same quote. Molina is aware of
cacao as an established loanword of Spanish, since he includes it in the
Castilian part of his dictionary: cacao, almendra y moneda; beuida ca-
cauatl (Molina [1571] 1972 1992: 23). Molinas analysis gives continuity
to several Caribbean loanwords of New World Spanish such as maz corn,
canoa canoe, maguey agave, and the aforementioned tuna prickly
pear, which were previously incorporated into the sixteenth century New
World Spanish koine. He uses Caribbean loanwords in order to explain
synonymous terms in Nahuatl. For example, his definition of metl is ma-
guey, centli is maiz and nochtli is tuna, as shown in the following defini-
tions: maguey, metl [maguey agave, metl] (Molina [1571] 1972
1992: 80), Maiz seco en maorcas, centli [Ear of dry corn, centli]
(Molina [1571] 1972 1992: 80). Tuna, nochtli, cierta fruta conocida [Tu-
na, nochtli, well-known fruit] (Molina [1571] 1972 1992: 115). Finally, he
describes the Nahuatl term chile, which is the word that remained in Mexi-
can Spanish for hot pepper, as the Caribbean aj, hot pepper: Chilli, axi
o pimienta de las Indias [Chilli, axi or pepper from the Indies] (Molina
[1571] 1972 1992: 21). Other borrowings from Nahuatl into Mexican Span-
ish such as tomate tomato, pinolli corn and sage flour, the aforemen-
tioned xicama jcama, a sweet potato like root, cacles sandals, and
several more are included in his dictionary, not only as entries, but as ele-
ments in the definitions. This means that they were part of Molinas every-
day speech. Molina was a bilingual Spanish-Nahuatl speaker who assimi-
lated Nahuatl language and its culture mostly to convert Indians. However,
his knowledge of Nahuatl and his usage of New World Spanish show that
he was internally Indianized to a very high degree, as were many other
friars. Thus, he typifies the perfect New Spanish sixteenth-century scholar.
At the time, most Spaniards living in the New World were externally
Indianized and knew some Nahuatl, perhaps only at the level of under-
standing and basic communication. In contrast, Molina was a true promoter
of reversing language shift that brought Nahuatl to Stage 2 of the GIDS. In
fact, he was the Nahuatl instructor for the majority of the mestizos, criollos
and Spanish friars who served after him and who became bilingual and
bicultural by studying Nahuatl language and culture for specific purposes.
If the Spanish Crown had envisioned a different language policy for New
Spain, such as ordering all Spaniards to learn Nahuatl, Molinas books
would have been the main sources that could have aided in the process of
Nahuatlization of the Spanish-speaking New Spanish society, thus making
it bilingual and bicultural.
4.3. Criollo scholars
The second group of outstanding and internally Indianized Spanish-
Nahuatl-Latin trilingual speakers consisted of criollo scholars. They used
the Nahuatl language and Aztec culture to take a stand with respect to their
identity, political viewpoints, or cultural situation. These criollo scholars
were born in New Spain in the seventeenth century. The most prominent
individuals of this group are Sor J uana Ins de la Cruz (16481695) and
her colleague Carlos de Sigenza y Gngora (16451700). In contrast to
their sixteenth century peers, they were not active promoters of reversing
language shift, since their production did not have didactic goals, such as
Sahaguns or Molinas. However, some of their works could have elevated
Nahuatl to Stage 2 of the GIDS as well.
Sor J uana Ins de la Cruz, the outstanding erudite criolla, wrote in
Latin, Spanish, and Nahuatl. Some of her literary works (loas, carols, son-
nets) explore the theme of the Indian and reflect her knowledge of pre-
Columbian Aztec history and culture, as well as the contemporary situation
of the Indians. Occasionally, she uses Nahuatl or Nahuatl-Spanish code-
switching in her poems although most of her works are in Spanish. More-
over, her writings reveal that she did not use Peninsular Spanish variants,
but preferred New World Spanish. I will discuss the manner in which pre-
Colombian Aztecs are depicted in her work and how she represents her
Indian contemporaries. In general, she chose to address topics related to the
Indians that she had contact with, rather than those of the ancestral civiliza-
tion. Nonetheless, her poems allude to the belief that the Aztecs originated
from the sun. Moreover, she associates outstanding figures of her time with
historical and mythological characters of the Nahuas. In this way, she por-
trays the viceroy of New Spain as Moctezuma and refers to the Portuguese
Duchess of Aveiro as Chicomecoatl, or the goddess of the earth. Sor J uana
introduces the newborn son of the viceroy, Toms de la Cerda, Marquis de
la Laguna, as a criollo successor of the great Moctezuma: donde yace la
grandeza / de gentiles Moctezumas, / nacen Catlicos Cerdas (Cruz [1689
1948: 250 [vv: 4344]). (I use vv: for verses of a poem) [where there is
grandeur of gentile Moctezumas, there are born Catholic Cerdas]. In her
44 Claudia Parodi
poem to the Duchess of Aveiro, Sor J uana claims that Que en ninguna
parte ms / se ostenta la tierra madre (Cruz [1689] 1948: 344, vv: 8687).
[in no other place does mother earth flaunts herself] alluding to the tierra
madre, Chicomecoatl, as Lafaye maintains (Lafaye 1976: 71).
Furthermore, Sor J uana introduced customary habits of her contempo-
rary Aztecs, who sang and danced to compositions known as tocotines,
whose lyrics were organized with rhyming lines containing a prescribed
number of syllables and stanzas (Lockhart 1992: 399400). According to
Lockhart, the tocotn may be a mixed genre that combines Aztec and Span-
ish traditions. El Divino Narciso contains tocotines that were performed
con plumas y sonajas en las manos [with feathers and rattles in their
hands] (Cruz [1689] 1955: 3). One of her tocotines is part of a long carol
offered to San Pedro Nolasco, where mixed ethnic groups or castas appear
honoring the saint while speaking Spanish, African Spanish, Latin, and
Nahuatl. An Indian, using a Spanish guitar, sings a tocotn in Nahuatl /
Spanishcode-switching. The lyrics reflect the abusive treatment the Indians
were receiving from the Spaniards: Tambin un topil / del gobernador / ca
ipampa tributo / prenderme mand (Cruz [1689] 1982: 342, vv: 111114).
[Also an officer of the governor ordered my arrest because of the tribute].
The other tocotn that Sor J uana wrote is part of a long carol devoted to the
Virgins Assumption, and consequently shows the devotion of the Indians
to the Virgin. The carol mixes several social registers and dialects of Span-
ish spoken in New Spain, but this tocotn is written entirely in Nahuatl. It
starts with the following verses: Tla ya timohuica/ to tlazo ziuapilli/ maca
amno tonantzin,/ totechmoilcahuiz (Cruz [1689] 1982: 358, vv: 4950).
[Now that you are leaving, oh our princess, we hope, our adored mother,
you will not forget us]. The African speaker uses the already widespread
mergers typical of New World Spanish koine: the /r/ and /l/ fusion, and the
/y / and // leveling; the latter renders a common trait known as yesmo:
pala qu yola, si eya sa contenta (Cruz 1689 [1982]: 356, vv: 1819).
[para qu llorar si ella est contenta? Why should we cry if she [the
Virgin] is happy?].
A completely different poetic style emerges in the plays, El Divino Nar-
ciso and El cetro de Jos. In the former, the ancestral Aztecs appear as
descendants of the sun: Nobles mexicanos, / cuya estirpe antigua / de las
claras luces / del sol se origina (Cruz [1689] 1955: 3 vv: 13). [Noble
Mexicans, whose ancient lineage originates from the light of the sun].
Moreover, in both plays, she analyzes in detail the role of cannibalism in
the Aztec world, which she compares with the Catholic communion. The
rite of giving human blood to the Aztec deity Huitzilopochtli, the god of
the seeds, is transformed within the Aztec culture after the Spanish con-
quest. As a result of Christianization, the personified New World (las In-
dias) understands the Eucharists mystery, and Christ takes the place of
Huitzilopochtli: ya / conocen las Indias / al que es verdadero / Dios de las
Semillas (Cruz [1689] 1955: 321 vv: 489492) [the Indies know already
who is the real God of the Seeds].
Sor J uana Ins takes a step farther than the critics, such as J uan de Pala-
fox and J ernimo de Mendieta (see Parodi 2002), in her condemnation of
the Spaniards greed and religious policy in the New Worlds conquest and
Christianization. In fact, in the two above-mentioned plays, she reveals the
viewpoint of the conquered Indians by portraying the Spaniards as brutal
invaders who used violence to impose their religion on the Mexican
indigenous people. In El Divino Narciso she depicts the Spaniards as vio-
lent people in passages such as: Qu Centauros monstrosos / contra mis
gentes militan? (Cruz [1689] 1955: 10 vv: 198199) [What monstrous
Centaurs fight against my people?]. In El Cetro de Jos she refers to the
Europeans lack of understanding of the Indian religion as no intentes con
violencia / inmutar la Antigua usanza / que en sus sacrificios tienen (Cruz
[1689] 1955: 193, vv: 277279) [do not try to alter with violence the
ancient practices they have in their sacrifices]. Furthermore, in her poem to
the Portuguese Duchess of Aveiro, Spaniards are portrayed as greedy
Europeans who bleed the Amerinidian land: En la America abundante
Europainsaciable / de sus abundantes venas / desangra los minerales
(Cruz [1689] 1948: 344 vv: 9294). [In opulent America, an insatiable
Europe bleeds the minerals of its rich veins].
Sor J uana Ins de la Cruz represents the quintessential New World
Indianizedcriolla, an artist and intellectual who not only understood Mex-
ico and its culture, but also the European civilization of her time. She is
proud that the New World allowed Columbus to show that the world was
bigger than previously thought: que hay ms mundos!, que hay Plus
ultra! (Cruz [1689] 1955: 107 v: 274) [that there are more worlds, that
there is Plus ultra!]. Her active knowledge of Nahuatl language and culture
was very deep, since she was well-informed about the Aztecs ancient his-
tory, the Spanish conquest, and the contemporary situation of the Indians.
She mastered Nahuatl to the point that she was able to integrate it into her
poetry. Usually, literature is written in a language that belongs in Stage 1 or
2 of the GIDS. However, during Sor J uanas era, many bilingual Spaniards
andcriollos used Nahuatl in the domestic domain most of the time, which,
46 Claudia Parodi
by the eighteenth century, had descended to Stage 6 of GIDS (cf. Rivers
1983). Thus, during the seventeenth century, with Sor J uana, as with
Molina and Sahagn in the sixteenth century, Nahuatl went to its highest
stage of the GIDS. The principal divergence between the criolla Sor J uana
Ins de la Cruz and the two Peninsular friars is that their works were differ-
ent in scope. While the friars had a religious goal in mind, Sor J uana util-
ized Nahuatl to create art, and she used her art to take a stand with
respect to her own identity as a Mexican criolla. In addition, she used
Nahuatl to assess the situation of the Indians in New Spain. Sor J uanas
internal Indianization enabled her to reach her goal and to become a leader
and a founding figure of a uniquely Indianized New World civilization. She
was and still is a role model who exceeded all the expectations of
her society.
By the mid-seventeenth century, the children of Spaniards born in New
Spain had created a new mainstream society that displayed ambivalent
attitudes towards the Indians. On the one hand, the Aztec imperial history
and their outstanding pre-Columbian civilization were always present in the
mind of the educated criollos and mestizos, most of whom knew Nahuatl
quite well (cf. Alberro 2002). They were so proud of the Aztec past that
they felt they were prolonging its grandiosity as though they themselves
were the Aztec successors. This was the attitude of Carlos de Sigenza in
hisArco triunfal. In his well-known Teatro de virtudes polticas (cf. Obras
[1680] 1928), he even proposes that the Viceroy Marquis de La Laguna
govern Mexico in keeping with the highest political virtues of the Aztec
emperors. Ironically, the new dominant society did not grant the Indians the
respect they deserved. As a case in point, the aforementioned J uan de Pala-
fox in De la naturaleza del indio, depicts his contemporary Aztec Indians
as ideal, almost perfect, human beings, due to their humble and stoic man-
ner of being (cf. Parodi 2002). This paradoxical attitude towards the Indi-
ans was maintained throughout the eighteenth century by the J esuits who
were expelled from New Spain (e.g., Francisco J avier Clavijero). In this
century, the effects of bilingualism and language contact in New Spanish
colonial society shifted the position of Nahuatl to something close to Stage
6 of the GIDS in the new mainstream society. This stage entails an inter-
generational informal oralcy and demographic concentration. According to
Fishman (1991: 94), it can be contemplated as a crucial stage, the stage of
daily intergenerational, informal oral interaction which requires full appre-
ciation and extra-careful attention. This circumstance, however, necessi-
tates further interpretation in the context of the Mexican colony.
During this stage, there was a diglossic situation between Nahuatl and
Spanish in the criollo and mestizo population. Spanish was not only spread-
ing rapidly, but was very well protected by the Spanish Crown; in contrast,
Nahuatl was spoken at home together with Spanish among different
female members of the extended family. Women were clearly contributing
to Nahuatl language maintenance. las sirvientas, las mancebas o las
esposas indias acogidas en los hogares criollos y mestizos introducan
insensiblemente sus idiomas autctonos (Zavala 1977: 38). [ the Indian
maids, the lovers or the wives welcomed in the criollo or mestizo homes
subtly introduced their native languages].
Moreover, the other domain in which Nahuatl was maintained was the
university, where the most educated members of the elite learned to read it
and write it in conjunction with Latin. This enabled them to Indianize
themselves and to Christianize the Indian population at the same time.
Thus, Nahuatl was not only a language spoken at home, but also a language
of colonization which the Catholic Church used in order to appropriate the
Indian culture, especially during periods in which Christianization took
place in the Indian languages, as opposed to Spanish. From that point on,
Nahuatl switched from Stage 2 to Stage 6 of the GIDS, back and forth; the
ups and downs of Nahuatl depended, of course, on the whimsical language
policy of the Spanish Crown.
5. I ndian substr atum or Stage 9
One of the consequences of pronounced language shift results in the crea-
tion of a substratum, a phenomenon surfacing when speakers abandon the
language commonly spoken in a speech community. This process occurred
in New Spain after the use of Nahuatl was relinquished among the mestizo
and criollo members of upper level mainstream, urban Mexican society,
and in several mestizo and criollo suburban and rural speech communities.
It was the outcome of a change in the language policy of the Spanish
Crown triggered by economic and political hardships. During the second
half of the eighteenth century, King Charles III consistently attempted to
eradicate the Amerindian languages by imposing Spanish (Bravo Ahuja
1977: 34). This situation explains why the expert on Nahuatl, the J esuit
Francisco J avier Clavijero, found that Nahuatl had deteriorated during
the eighteenth century, given that the Indians had incorporated many Span-
ish elements (Cifuentes 1998: 189). In addition, poverty, poor teaching, and
48 Claudia Parodi
a meager organization in schools for Indians and mestizos caused them to
abandon their native language, gradually shifting to Spanish. In spite of the
adverse conditions, their culture resisted, that is, it remained mostly Indian.
Diet, attire, agriculture, crafts, and religious charges continued to be Indian
in the countryside, whether the indigenous spoke an Indian language or not.
In the cities, Indian ceremonies resisted change; and today they are inte-
grated into contemporary rituals and traditions such as the Day of the Dead,
pilgrimages to sanctuaries, the conchero dancers, food, curative herbs, and
amulets to prevent evil doings (see Bonfil Batalla [1987] 1994: 78, 84).
The Indians and mestizos, in addition, adopted some European practices
such as Catholicism, which re-emerges in a syncretic and sui generis Indian
style along with plows, foods, plants, medicines, and certain aspects of
social organization. Finally, at present, the Mexican indigenous peoples
innovatively use components of the Western culture; for example, tire
treads to manufacture the soles of huaraches (sandals), cans for flower
pots, bicycle wheels as knife sharpeners, and so forth. A generalized
Indian-Spanish syncretism emerged in Westernized Mexican society with
different degrees of strength in its various communities. Nahuatl, however,
was abandoned among the late colonial mestizo and criollo Spanish-
speaking populations, leaving traces in the form of loanwords and occa-
sional pronunciation of Nahuatl toponyms that appear in modern Mexican
Spanish (cf. Hidalgo 2001b). The presence of isolated lexical Nahuatl items
among monolingual Spanish speakers in modern Mexico has demoted the
language to a Stage above Stage 8, which I introduce herein as Stage 9 of
the GIDS.
In Stage 9, language X is abandoned among speakers of the ancestral
language, but its cultural traits and some linguistic borrowings are present
among the speakers of language Y, the majority language. Speakers of
Stage 9 are monolingual speakers of language Y, but their language, and to
an extent, their culture have been relatively influenced by language and
culture X. Language Y speakers are less aware of the vestiges they preserve
from language and culture X than speakers belonging in Stage 8. The most
deteriorated Stage 9 implies that both Xish and Yish have been in contact at
a certain point in time. Sometimes the contact could have been remote and
the members of a group in Stage 9 have been exposed for generations to
only language Y. However, language X may be alive, spoken in geographi-
cally adjacent speech communities, although it may not be spoken any
longer in speech community Y. As a case in point, Nahuatl is spoken by
almost one-and-a-half million people in modern Mexico, whereas more
than 90 million people who might or might not have a Nahuatl ethnicity
speak Spanish only. Two hundred years ago Nahuatl was still spoken with
different degrees of proficiency by mainstream Spanish speakers, or mem-
bers of community Y. In order to make a change, reversing language shift-
ers would have to act according to a plan anticipated by policy makers of
language Y, the majority language, with the goal of recovering the lost
identity and its language. It is important to recognize Stage 9, because the
threatened language and the corresponding culture may have an impact on
speakers of Yish. More examples of this situation in Mexico are described,
using another framework by Bonfil Batalla ([1987] 1994), who contends
that there are many traits of the Mesoamerican culture, a deep Mexico,
among different groups of individuals who may or may not speak a
Mesoamerican language. In fact, most of them are Spanish speakers who
have lost the Indian collective identity at a conscious level but who still
acknowledge and preserve it at the level of substratum. They live either in
the cities or in the countryside and often migrate to the United States.
6. Conclusion
I have examined Mexican key periods and prominent literary figures of the
Mexican colonial period in order to show the different processes that take
place when there is linguistic and cultural contact in a colonized situation. I
have shown that a threatened language such as Nahuatl may have an impact
on a non-threatened language such as Spanish. Survival necessities in the
New World motivated the Spanish conquerors to name, describe, and most
frequently use the material and non-material objects they encountered in
the New World, when they were in contact with Nahuatl speakers. These
processes derived from the contact that brought a wide array of Amerindian
cultural items to the Spanish mainstream society under formation, including
the Nahuatl language. In order to show how Europeans absorbed and
assimilated some of the traits of the Mesoamerican civilization thus chang-
ing their identity, I have interpreted pertinent passages from primary
sources, which exemplify and illustrate the knowledge, appreciation, and
adaptation of the Spaniards to the realities of the New World. This process,
which I called Indianization, was mostly subconscious. External and inter-
nal Indianization was a survival strategy utilized by Europeans who
adopted objects and the words that named them in Mesoamerican lan-
guages; as a part of their survival strategies, they also appropriated cus-
50 Claudia Parodi
toms, healing practices, and even the language(s) of the non-Western civili-
zation. Over generations, this situation created a linguistic and a cultural
strong Indian substratum in Mexican society, which I propose to add as a
new Stage 9 of the GIDS or substratum Stage. In this stage, there are only
speakers of language Y, but their language and especially their culture is
affected by language and culture X, in this case Nahuatl. In sum, Indianiza-
tion is a process of reversal leading to the creation of a new syncretic cul-
ture. The precise degree of cultural influence requires further research. At
this point, the best way to recover language X in speech communities that
have reached Stage 9 of GIDS is to have language Y speakers promote the
teaching of language X, the ethnic language, as a second language to native
speakers of language Y.
Note
1. During the sixteenth century the words coco, cacao and cacaguate were used
as synonyms of cacao seed according to Fernandez de Oviedo, cited by
Corominas and Pascual 1980. The word cacaguate or cacahuate with the
meaning peanut is documented later, in 1653 (Corominas and Pascual 1980),
since the Antillean word man was commonly used for peanut. Cacahuate
peanut derives from the Nahuatl compound tlalcacahuatl (<tlalli land +
cacahuatl cacao seed) by aphaeresis or loss of tlal-. In Nhuatl, this word
meant cacao seed of the land. This etymology refers to the fact that the peanut
grows inside the ground while the cacao seeds grow on short stems close to the
trunk of the cacao tree (see Dakin and Wichmann 2000 for discussion of the
origin of the word cacao).
Refer ences
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[1992] 2002 Del gachupn al criollo. O de cmo los espaoles de Mxico de-
jaron de serlo. Mexico: El Colegio de Mxico.
Bhabha, Homi
1994 The Location of Culture. London and New York: Routledge.
Bonfil Batalla, Guillermo
[1987] 1994 Mxico profundo. Una civilizacin negada. Mexico: Grijalbo.
Bravo Ahuja, Gloria
1977 Los materiales didcticos para la enseaza del espaol a los
indgenas mexicanos. Mexico: El Colegio de Mxico.
Cifuentes, Brbara
1998 Letras sobre voces. Multilingismo a travs de la historia. Mexico:
Comisin Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes and Centro de Investi-
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america 11: 5575.
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[1632] 2000 Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva Espaa. Madrid:
DASTIN.
Fishman, J oshua A.
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1988 Tepuztlahcuilolli. Impresos en nhuatl. Historia y bibliografa.
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Molina, Fray Alonso de
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Parodi, Claudia
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Autnoma de Mxico.
2001 Contacto de lenguas y dialectos en el Nuevo Mundo: La vernaculi-
zacin del espaol en Amrica. International Journal of the Sociol-
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Bux (ed.), 5770. Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autnoma de
Mxico.
Perissinotto, Giorgio
1990 Estudio preliminar. J uan Surez de Peralta: Tratado del descu-
brimiento de las Yndias y su conquista. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
Rivers, Elas
1983 Diglossia in New Spain. University of Dayton Review 16: 912.
Santamara, Francisco J .
[1959] 1992 Diccionario de Mejicanismos. Mexico: Porra.
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Zavala, Silvio
1977 Castellano, lengua obligatoria? Mexico: Condumex.
Chapter 3
The multiple dimensions of language
maintenance and shift in colonial Mexico
Margarita Hidalgo
Abstract
This article explores the many dimensions of language maintenance and
shift in the socio-historical contexts of the Mexican colony. In retrospec-
tive, the case of Mexico is useful to delve into language contact, language
shift, and language maintenance from the time in which the Western civili-
zation came into contact with the Mesoamerican peoples. In this area of the
world, the necessary conditions are present to study the impact of the pres-
ence of Western civilization. This unprecedented encounter is known to
have begun with a demographic catastrophe of major proportions. Lan-
guage shift commences about the same time that the efforts to reverse it
began. The recovery mission of the Mexican indigenous languages (MIL)
was indeed remarkable because its promoters fostered maintenance and
reversal with the aim of converting the indigenous populations to Christian-
ity. Reversing language shift ended after fifty years of abundant productiv-
ity in indigenous languages, particularly Nahuatl, a language in which
major works of history, religion, and philology were written. From the time
in which the publications in vernacular languages were prohibited, MIL
experienced continual shift, descending from a relatively vigorous position
to different phases of decline. This deterioration is not only due to the
decimation of the indigenous population in the mid-sixteenth century, but
to the aggressive encroachment of Spanish in a significant number of
domains of colonial life: religion, education, government, literature, and
journalism, to name the most influential. In contrast, the functions of MIL
were restricted to functions of the religious domain and within it, two spe-
cific sub-domains were allocated: representation of autos sacramentales
(religious plays) and confession.
1. The clash of civilizations
The discovery of the American continent represents the take-off of the
worlds Westernization, that is, the spread of lifestyles and ways of think-
ing that appeared in Western Europe. According to Bernard and Gruzinski
(1991: 3), modern Europe was not born in the American continent, but the
American experience seen under the three-way filter of the Discovery, the
Conquest, and the colonization of the New World is indeed the founda-
tional stage. When the history of the New World is told or interpreted
through Eurocentric eyes, the American continent is still an enigma.
Nowhere in the New World was the clash of civilizations as appalling as
in the region known as Mesoamerica, where other civilizations the Aztec
and the Maya had flourished before 1492. By the time Europeans reached
the Yucatan Peninsula or the Maya Lowlands, the Maya civilization had
collapsed as a result of economic hardship, invasion, depopulation, eco-
logical disaster, or all of them in combination (cf. Culbert 1977). However,
the Aztec civilization was at its zenith while its writing system was neither
phonetic nor alphabetic. Instead, the pictorial and hieroglyphic systems of
Mesoamerican peoples were utilized to record and communicate forms of
knowledge which were inseparable from ideologies they were developed to
serve (Boone and Mignolo 1994). When confronted with the writing sys-
tem of Spanish, the Mesoamerican writing system not only began to trans-
form itself and adopt features of Spanish, but its former astounding produc-
tivity also began to decline (Gruzinski [1988] 1991).
All the Mesoamerican peoples were affected to different degrees by the
encounter with Europeans; this fact may explain why the reverberations of
the Aztec imperial experience are still fascinating. The tumultuous encoun-
ter of ruling Aztec warriors with Spanish soldiers has been documented in
innumerable sources. In comparison, the documentation of language losses
and/or gains as of 1492 is limited to inferential calculations and qualitative
appraisals based on colonial demography. (See my next article Socio-
historical determinants in the survival of Mexican indigenous languages in
this volume).
It is certain, however, that Mesoamerica was shattered by a quake of
major proportions, so much so that the catastrophic consequences are still
considered one of the major ecological disasters in the history of mankind.
This scenario is thus ideal to examine both diachronically and synchronic-
ally the ethno-cultural and language contact which resulted from this un-
suspected ordeal. The graded typology of threatened statuses or GIDS
serves as an instrument to assess the extent of the damages inflicted into
pre-Hispanic populations of the area. We thus resort to the operational
definitions and methodologies that are effective in interpreting the Mexican
Dimensions of language maintenance and shift in colonial Mexico 55
experience and the contact of Mexican indigenous languages (MIL) with
the superimposed European language, Spanish.
RLS theory, which derives from inquiries into language maintenance
and shift, stands out as a model of damage repair and remedies to the inju-
ries perpetrated by the all-encompassing cataclysm of the sixteenth century.
In retrospective, the Mexican experience proffers abundant data that helps
reconstruct and expound albeit partially the series of occurrences that
followed the catastrophe of the early 1500s. The metaphor of the earth-
quake proposed in RLS theory and the Richter scale as the attendant
measure of stronger-to-weaker intensity(ies) associated to major and
minor disruptions of ethno-cultural life (Fishman 1991: 87) is applicable to
the Mesoamerican scenario, if we depart from the assumption that the dam-
ages can be qualified and quantified in the highest end of the scale, which
points to severe deterioration. Assigning the highest number to the initial
situation allows us to consider the (re)arrangement of the new pieces of the
ecosystem and the resulting hierarchies, including the new sociolinguistic
profile that emerged almost immediately after the destruction of the Great
Tenochtitlan. Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec Empire and the lingua
franca of the Mesoamerican region became, in just a few years, a threat-
ened or endangered language. Despite the fact that Nahuatl is today the
largest MIL spoken in the country, from the viewpoint of language mainte-
nance and shift, it is still a threatened language which became an Xish lan-
guage vis--vis the transplanted European language, Spanish, which in turn
can be considered the Yish language. The many forms of dislocation
(physical, demographic, social and cultural) discussed in RLS theory
(Fishman 1991: 5567) occurred in Mesoamerica and contributed to drastic
language shift or shifts, since millions of speakers of many languages were
decimated in just a few decades. When the clash of civilizations approach
is applied to contact situations, both scholars and non-scholars anticipate
displacement rather than integration, survival, or revival. Displacement is
envisioned as a solution to the diminished options of survivors who have to
live with the stress(es) of post-traumatic conditions or disorders. The pat-
terns of social re-organization, religious adaptation, or political empower-
ment are better understood than the forms of expression that depend on the
use of natural languages. The clash of civilizations approach is well-
known through the work of Ricard (1933), whereas the most recent but
opposite view introduced in Mexico by Bonfil Batalla (1987), highlights
the pivotal role that the attitude of loyalty to the indigenous culture(s) had
in the preservation of the same. Between these two positions, scholars have
found it difficult to test complex hypotheses as whole entities that might
explain one of the resulting consequences of the clash of civilizations,
i.e., mestizaje, the trend that characterizes and defines Latin American life
and culture in the era of colonization. Particular traits of ethno-cultures
may overlap with one another to the extent that over time, the distinguish-
ing features of one are intermeshed with the other. The opposite is true
when individuals do detect and differentiate ways of speaking or behaviors
belonging to diverse ethnic or national groups. Mestizaje la Latino-
amricaine may help explain many of the transitional expressions of lan-
guage and culture that later became a permanent defining component of the
modern Mexican mainstream. This article thus explores the different
dimensions of language maintenance and shift in colonial Mexico: these
dimensions are not only linguistic and sociolinguistic per se, but belong too
in the realm of religion, politics, history, education, and socio-cultural prac-
tices.
2. The initial stages of the recovery mission
The magnitude of the disaster caused the recently established New Spanish
authorities to engage in thoughtful rescue missions as early as 1523 or
1524. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many members of
the mendicant orders were devoted to describing, using, promoting, and
translating the indigenous languages they gradually encountered in the
field. Understanding the indigenous population of Mexico and recording
their languages was an unparalleled endeavor undertaken by the Francis-
cans and their aides, who produced one work of philology after another.
Between the late 1540s and the late 1570s, the Franciscans wrote two
grammars, one Spanish-Nahuatl and Nahuatl-Spanish dictionary, and an
encyclopedic corpus covering every aspect of pre-conquest Nahua life in
Nahuatl texts written down by the indigenous aides and only later trans-
lated into Spanish (Lockhart 1992: 6).
The scientific studies conducted by those engaged in missionary linguis-
tics emphasized the exhaustive description of Nahuatl language, history,
cosmogony, and all aspects related to Nahua culture. During the sixteenth
century, Nahuatl was the language most frequently and widely spoken in
the Mesoamerican area. In spite of the calamitous experiences of the con-
quest, Nahuatl speakers were still the quantitative majority while the func-
tions of their language were being re-allocated to different functional
domains, primarily to the arena of Christianization. This was no small task,
for the missionaries in charge of the new colony confronted the resistance
of indigenous peoples and the different strategies they utilized to feign that
they were indeed accepting the values of the new ethno-culture. Influenced
by the auspicious reports of officials and priests to the Crown, wherein they
painted the revolutionary strides they were making in indigenous life,
scholars have been predisposed to see the quick replacements of indigenous
elements or structures by European equivalents (Lockhart 1992: 56). Offi-
cial documentations, voluminous correspondence, and chronicles written
by Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians tell how they converted
millions of Indians to Christianity and how they taught them the compo-
nents of European culture. Their accounts served as a model for construing
cultural interaction in Mexico and the rest of the New World.
The opposing view was held by institutional historians who introduced
the notion of separate societies, one for the Indians living in the towns and
villages, and another for Spaniards residing in the newly created Spanish
cities. This approach was congruous with that of twentieth century ethno-
graphers who found plenty of evidence of survival in religious beliefs,
kinship, medicinal practices, and material culture. More recently, other
scholars have shown that indigenous states in the valley of Mexico sur-
vived into the post-conquest period with their territories and many of their
internal mechanisms essentially intact; this permanence provided the basis
for all the organizational structures the Spaniards implanted throughout the
countryside (Lockhart 1992: 24). The original view about the swift His-
panization and Christianization resulting from the clash of civilizations
was questioned, inasmuch as the success of the mendicant orders depended
upon the acceptance and retention of indigenous elements and patterns that
were strikingly close to those of Europe. According to Lockhart (1992: 4),
Mesoamerican peoples were able to assimilate aspects of the Spanish heri-
tage because few innovations were completely new to them: crafts and
temples, calendars of religious festivities, processions, etc. The degree of
contact between the populations helped shape processes of transformation
that appeared entirely coherent. Scholars assume that Europeans and
indigenous peoples of the central areas had more in common than either did
with the other peoples of the hemisphere. In the early stages, what one
typically finds is the preliminary identification of indigenous elements,
which allow an indigenous concept or practice to operate in a familiar
manner under a Spanish-Christian overlay. By the late eighteenth century,
almost nothing in the entire indigenous cultural ensemble was left un-
touched, yet at the same time almost everything reverted in some form or
another to a pre-conquest antecedent (Lockhart 1992: 5).
The recovery mission undertaken by the mendicant orders is well
documented in numerous secondary sources (cf., e.g., Ricard 1933; Brice
Heath 1972; Cifuentes 1998; and my Socio-historical determinants in the
survival of Mexican indigenous languages in this volume), but interpreta-
tions vary according to the scholar who probes the history of the Mexican
mission. One innovation of this volume consists in examining the past
under the light of current RLS theory, which assumes a position of reversal
to the original ethno-culture. This proposal appears to be most expedient
and accommodating to speakers of Xish, but it does not necessarily exclude
speakers of Yish who are sympathetic to the language and culture of Xish.
Such process of reversal is uncommon but not impossible. As a case in
point, the Mexican scenario is useful to test the hypothesis of Indianiza-
tion advanced by Claudia Parodi (in this volume), who sees two major
procedures by which distinguished Spanish-speaking members of the New
Spanish society converted themselves to the culture of the Nahuas: external
Indianization and internal Indianization. The latter is of major significance,
because it implies a radical change of values and language choices that
inevitably compromise the individuals native language and culture.
While it is certain that the ascendance of Spanish in what soon became
the wealthiest colony of Spain was amazing and overpowering, it is also
true that in the central area of the former Aztec Empire, Nahuatl retained
many functions that it had before the arrival of the Spaniards. It was not
only the most spoken language of the new colony by native and non-native
speakers, but was taught in the new schools friars established for the chil-
dren of the nobility. Once Nahuatl was learned by the missionaries in
charge of evangelization, it was used in the pulpit, in the confessionary, and
in the many administrative affairs needed to document daily transactions
and deals (e.g., the execution of wills, sales of property, and the like).
These everyday activities are better documented in recent times by scholars
who have closely examined primary and secondary sources (cf. Cifuentes
1998; Lockhart 1992 and 1991). The recovery mission was however initi-
ated early in the Mexican colony by almost all friars who had training in
the study of languages and humanities. The endeavors of two friars who
served as philologists and linguists have been appraised by historians,
anthropologists and linguists, but not by sociolinguists. Introducing the
sociolinguistic dimension is not inconsequential, given that this perspective
allows us to see the position of MIL in the new colonial society.
Through the lives and works of Alonso de Molina and Bernardino de
Sahagn, for instance, we can reconstruct some of the scholarly endeavors
that prevented an even greater deterioration of Nahuatl and an even more
precipitous language shift. The transliteration of Nahuatl and other lan-
guages into Romanized writing was not the result of frivolous undertakings
but the outcome of meticulous scholarship. Although Christian orthodoxy
prescribed the use of Latin, which was part of the linguistic repertoire of
the friars, the innovations of the European Renaissance were indeed in-
strumental in conceiving a different role for what was known as vernacular
languages (i.e., all but Latin). The movement for the restoration of the lin-
gua materna was triumphant in emerging nations in which users and stu-
dents of Latin had declined long before the Discovery of the New World.
Writing in the vernaculars turned first into a fad and later into a legacy.
Italian and Spanish made inroads into this new tradition. Spanish was the
native language of every member of the mendicant orders arriving in New
Spain. It is difficult to imagine that they did not appreciate their own
mother tongue, but it is not impossible to understand that Christian dogma
was held above the love for it. Their primary assignment took precedence
over all the other considerations. With this purpose in mind and using their
own intellectual resources, they wrote the grammars, dictionaries, and the
books that rescued the history of the Nahuas and some other Mesoamerican
groups for posterity. Needless to say, their meager material resources con-
trast sharply with their accomplishments. Because of the enthusiasm and
zeal with which they conducted their work, they can be considered as the
reverse language shifters (par excellence) of the early colonial period. In
this context, I want to examine the multiple dimensions of language main-
tenance and shift. The beginning of the Mesoamerican catastrophe is better
explained in my following article, while this study aims to explore the
approximate duration of reversing language shift and the definitive com-
mencement of language shift.
2.1. Fray Bernardino de Sahagn
Friar Bernardino de Sahagn was born in Palencia (near the border with
Galicia) in 1499 or 1500. He was still a child when he professed in the
convent of Salamanca and later attended the University of the northern city,
where he received the degree of bachiller. At age 29 or 30, he was re-
cruited by Friar Antonio de Ciudad Rodrigo as a member of the clergy that
would convert the infidels of the New World to Christianity. From this
point on, Bernardino Ribeira de Sahagn was simply known as Bernardino
de Sahagn. He was assigned to the convent of Tlalmananco next to Ame-
cameca. In 1536, the first Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza,
founded the Imperial Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, where Sahagn
began to work as an instructor for the children of the Aztec nobility. The
college for noble children was a center of acculturation, where works of
scholarship were written and later became the sources for studies of accul-
turation, syncretism, and pre-Hispanic institutions. Between 1545 and
1557, he was working in Puebla, Xochimilco and Michoacan. In 1557,
Friar Francisco del Toral asked him to write in Nahuatl a summa indiana
on the life and culture of the Nahuas with the purpose of assisting other
priests in the mission of conversion. Sahagns research was conducted
with the goal of creating an appropriate instrument for preaching the Chris-
tian doctrine. This would prevent the return of idolatry while the extensive
Nahuatl vocabulary would aid in preaching the Word. In his view, a
preacher was like a doctor of the soul who administers medicine to the ill;
thus, preachers should be experienced in the medicines and illnesses for the
spirit. Sahagns goal was more far-reaching, for he wanted to establish the
Republic of Christ where young Indians could be re-taught the cultured
version of their own language (Lpez Austin 1974: 115).
Before developing a structured questionnaire, Sahagn prepared an out-
line describing his initial plan and then proceeded to request the services of
people knowledgeable about the history of the Aztecs. In order to carry out
this part of the project, he relocated to the village of Tepepulco, where he
interviewed ten or twelve knowledgeable elders willing to serve as infor-
mants and four youths willing to act as intermediary interpreters in the
process of data collection. Between 1558 and 1560, Sahagn administered
a pilot instrument in Tepepulco, where native Nahuatl speakers told him
without reservations everything they knew about their own people. His
disciples responded to the questions of his extensive survey by means of
paintings: the interpreters were saying them in their language while they
were writing the explanations to the statement beneath the painting. The
materials collected at this stage are known as Primeros Memoriales (also
known as books IV, V and VII of the Historia General de las cosas de la
Nueva Espaa). In the words of Sahagn, the Nahuas:
...had no letters or any characters, nor did they know how to read or write;
they communicated by means of images and paintings, and all their antiqui-
ties and the books they had about them were painted with figures and im-
ages in such a way that they knew and had memory of the things their an-
cestors had done and had left in their annals, more than a thousand years
before the arrival of the Spanish in this land (Sahagn 1956: 105106 in
Lpez Austin 1974: 116).
In 1560, Sahagn returned to Tlatelolco to revise his manuscripts from
beginning to end. Working closely with a few students who had previously
served as his indigenous informants, he prepared the second part of his
work which is known as Cdices Matritenses. Between 1565 and 1569, he
completed the encyclopedic corpus, the Historia General de las cosas de la
Nueva Espaa, also known since the nineteenth century as Cdice Floren-
tino (Florentine Codex). From 1574, he remained permanently in
Tlatelolco, where he was the administrator and survivor of the early group
of missionaries that arrived in New Spain. In 1577, his obra magna was
completed in both Nahuatl and Spanish. On February 5 or October 23,
1590, he died of a severe cold at the age of 90.
Sahagn obtained information directly from the pictorial codices and
used it to interview the Nahua elders. The work of Tepepulco laid the
foundation to amass a large body of data. He stayed in Tlatelolco three
more years working with college-trained grammarians who were fluent in
Latin, Nahuatl, and Spanish. There he revised all his manuscripts and
divided them into 12 books (Lpez Austin 1974: 117118). His master-
piece was completed between 1565 and 1567. Sahagns work is normally
divided into three major reconstructed parts: (a) the Tlatelolco drafts
(15471562); (b) the Madrid Codices (15621575); and (c) The Florentine
Codex (15751585). The collection of materials on the Nahuas is an ency-
clopedia of the Nahua people, which was developed with the information
from the material supplied by native elders who lived fully within the
world preceding the conquest (Lpez Austin 1974: 119). In spite of the
variations in the Franciscans plan of action, they followed a scholastic and
medieval hierarchy, which was accommodated to the religion and customs
of the ancient inhabitants of New Spain. Sahagn began with the gods,
continued with Heaven and Hell, went on to the lordships, and concluded
with earthly things (Lpez Austin 1974: 120). His three overriding pur-
poses to gain knowledge of the ancient religion, to create or elicit texts
from which a rich vocabulary could be obtained, and to record the Nahuas
great cultural possessions determined, to a great extent, the method he
followed. In spite of the succinctness of the data he retrieved in Tepepulco,
Sahagn developed a method which allowed him to formulate an interview
once he reached Mexico-Tlatelolco (Lpez Austin 1974: 122123). The
organization of his twelve books is based on the survey he devised.
Sahagns prolific work began with the description of the gods and contin-
ued with a wide range of subjects on religion, law, astrology, philosophy,
social organization, natural resources, sicknesses and medicines, flora, and
fauna, and the Nahuas version of the conquest of Mexico (Lpez Austin
1974: 122148). The method used by Sahagn cannot be regarded as the
transplantation of a Western mode of inquiry nor as the byproduct of the
millennial tradition of the Nahuas. It is instead the result of a new reality, a
source of knowledge about the Nahuatl man and about all men at the same
time (Lpez Austin 1974: 149). It is accepted that Sahagn stands out
among his contemporaries because he was both a humanist and a scientist.
(Bibliographic indices to his works are found in Edmonson 1974: 257273
and Quiones Keber 1988: 341345. For references to the many editions in
several languages and the whereabouts of the Sahaguntian manuscripts, see
Len-Portilla 1999: 221247).
2.2. The end of the recovery mission
Was Bernardino de Sahagn beset by his own endeavors, his faith, his
doubts, or his ardent desire to record the history of a civilization? The
answers to these queries are open to interpretations. While some modern
scholars with little experience in fieldwork may question his method of
data collection because it is strikingly similar to confessional practices
it is known that his rigorous procedures have not been replicated, notwith-
standing modern resources. However, in 1577, the year in which the His-
toria General de las cosas de la Nueva Espaa was completed, the Council
of the Indies definitively intervened and confiscated his manuscripts, which
were considered threatening due to the detailed descriptions of ancient in-
digenous practices. Sahagn complained about fellow Franciscans who
curtailed his work on the grounds that its cost was supposedly a contradic-
tion in terms with the Franciscan vows of poverty. A few years earlier, in
1570, the Provincial Friar Alonso de Escalona had scattered his manu-
scripts of the Historia general in the convents of the Franciscan province,
but Sahagn recovered them in 1574 thanks to the intervention of Friar
Miguel Navarro and Jernimo de Mendieta (Baudot 1988: 127); however,
the governing members of the Seraphic Order left the illustrious author
without monies to pay for scribes (Browne 2000: 97).
Friar Rodrigo de Sequera, a colleague and general commissary of the
Seraphic Order in New Spain, had taken certain precautions and salvaged
one copy and took it to Spain; this happened before the Edict of April 22,
1577 was made known in Mexico. In fact, the Historia General must have
been rescued three times by Friar Rodrigo de Sequera.
First, when he facilitated its complete redaction in 1575; second, when he
withdrew the text from the prohibition measures which he knew to be
imminent (in 1577); and third, when he kept it discreetly, without giving
further news of it to its author, because Sahagn had ingeniously turned
them in to Sequera (). This was Bernardino de Sahagns most elaborate
text, the text he had translated, even re-written, and that he had copied from
1575 to 1577, placing it in two columns that corresponded to Nahuatl and
Spanish (...) the ultimate version of the Historia General (Baudot 1988:
130).
Despite the fact that Sahagn struggled against indifference and internal
and external factions in the Franciscan Order, which laid out all kinds of
hurdles, his work is the single most important source of what was known
then and is known today about pre-Hispanic Nahuas. The Kings edict also
declared that any document about the life of the indigenous peoples was
prohibited in any language.
Virtually every biographical statement written on Sahagn takes up the
problem of why the government of Philip II confiscated Sahagns major
work (...). On April 22, 1577, Philip II ordered Martn Enrquez, the
viceroy of New Spain, to confiscate Sahagns magnum opus, the Flor-
entine Codex. In the same royal warrant, Philip II went on to order that no
further ethnographic work similar to Sahagns be written down. (Browne
2000: 26).
One line of reasoning suggests that the confiscation of the Historia General
coincided with a deliberate change in governmental policy advanced by
metropolitan rulers. It seems that Bernardino de Sahagn willingly and
happily revised and handed over his manuscript to Friar Rodrigo de Se-
quera. Sahagn was presumably unaware of the pernicious intent behind
the royal Edict and did not perceive the confiscation as a political maneu-
ver (Browne 2000: 29). At the same time, the Council of the Indies was
enacting important bureaucratic reforms that took the Spanish government
one step closer to its positivization. The Spanish government sent to New
World officials various guidelines that would improve the decision-making
process. The guidelines issued in 1573 consisted of 135 item-instructions
ordering verifications, descriptions, and accounts of the complete state of
affairs in the Indies and of each existing entity and all its parts. The instru-
ment asked for information on pre-Hispanic indigenous customs. Coinci-
dentally, this was exactly the kind of data that Sahagn was collecting for
his masterful work. In 1577, another set of guidelines consisting of just 50
succinct requests asked for brief and clear responses. As a result, the re-
quests were pared down and were more specific. The latter questionnaire
produced a large corpus of information on the New World, which is better
known as the Relaciones geogrficas (Browne 2000: 32). Sahagns manu-
script was confiscated because after having received notice of its existence,
the government of Philip II wished to incorporate it into its new project of
centralizing the production and processing of information about the new
continent. In this context, Sahagn can be perceived as being the victim of
an increasingly bureaucratic government that was relying on categorical-
decision making schemes, and Sahagn was apparently oblivious to the
potential consequences. Philip II ordered a laborious copy of Sahagns
work (known as the Tolosa Manuscript) in an attempt to preserve the non-
pictorial information it contained (Browne 2000: 34).
Another view of the motives for the confiscation situates Sahagn at the
center of an ideological controversy stemming, in my opinion, from the
clash of civilizations. The Franciscans were accused of wanting to con-
sider Mexico as an autonomous entity in both political and religious mat-
ters, and of desiring to make the viceroy its head (Baudot 1974: 169). Fur-
thermore, like many of his contemporaries Sahagn dreamed of an
autonomous native Mexico under the strong authority of a substantially
independent viceroy, structured and ruled by friars desirous of founding a
New Church based on the pre-Constantine modelall of this probably with
millenarian and apocalyptic ambitions (Baudot 1974: 178). The seizure of
all translations of sacred texts in indigenous languages was strongly reis-
sued and reinforced. Toward the end of 1578, the probable date when the
decisions of the Inquisition were known in New Spain, the seizure of the
works of Sahagn was executed and reached its full effect (Baudot 1988:
125). The translation of the Gospel and of the Epistles into indigenous lan-
guages was the principal point of contention. However, various versions of
the Gospel and the Epistles were left for the missionaries to use in the tasks
of Evangelization (Baudot 1988: 126). Fray Gernimo de Mendieta, author
of the Historia Eclesistica Indiana ([1596] 1870), knew the details of the
brutal change in New World policy begun by the Council of the Indies in
1575. But the policy of the metropolis was far-reaching, and Sahagn had
been its most visible victim. Known for his tenacity and persistence,
Sahagn returned to the writings remaining after the confiscation, to rescue
those he believed to be most fundamental. After 1584, he began the partial
reconstruction of his work with notes and transcripts he had left and with
the help of several loyal copyists, such as Martn Jacobita or Agustn de la
Fuente. The content of the partially rescued manuscripts was controversial,
for Sahagn had made modifications to the Gregorian calendar in order to
identify the pre-Hispanic Mexican holy days in the course of the year. The
subject matter chosen by him at this stage focused exclusively on the rescue
and re-elaboration of research on the most notable and spectacular aspects
of the pre-Hispanic religion. These selections may be related to his interest
in the conversion of the natives based on their own ethnographic and lin-
guistic reality. For all these reasons, he urged for a profound undertaking of
enormous scope based on the utilization of Mexican cultural patterns in
order to change the indigenous own reality and originality (Baudot 1974:
184185).
There is no doubt that Sahagn was seriously concerned because the
pre-Hispanic religious beliefs had remained alive even to the time and
because time pressed if one hoped to build a new Kingdom with the possi-
bility of success. (...) The extirpation of the pre-Hispanic religion was a
sine qua non for the construction of a millenarian, non-Hispanicized
autonomous Mexico (Baudot 1974: 185). It need not be said that he was
faced with the hostility of the colonial administrative machine of the Span-
ish settlers, whose influence was growing rapidly. To make things even
more complicated, he was an eye witness to the epidemics that decimated
the Mexican population and could not ignore its consequences. Sahagn
insisted so vehemently on the persistence of indigenous beliefs and rites
because he was attempting to prove that missionaries intimately associated
with the authentic native reality of Mexico were still needed in the Christi-
anization of the indigenous people (Baudot 1974: 186).
Two main issues loomed heavily in the early episodes of the recovery
mission: language and religion. We learn from the Mexican experience that
these culturally-bound traits appear to be non-negotiable at least in the ini-
tial stage of the cultural clash.
Sahagn was faced with a vast array of indigenous cultural information that
did not easily fit into a pre-existing Western schema. Once Sahagn noticed
what lay beneath the superficial compatibility of a few Christian and in-
digenous practices, everything was subject to reinterpretation. Hence, Sa-
hagn called his history universal in order to highlight his desire to com-
prehend the entirety of Nahua culture. In short, the crisis that drives all of
this work is his realization that the easy fit between Christian and Nahua
customs (...) was nothing more than a dream. (Browne 2000: 109110).
The discrepancies between the new religion and the indigenous beliefs
partially illustrate the proportions of the clash of civilizations. For
instance, a ritual of the new Christian practices required confession of sins.
Nahuas used confession as a way to exonerate themselves from offenses,
and frequently asked the priests for a note proving they had confessed.
Afterwards, they would repeat the offense without any remorse. Nahuas
assessed the seriousness (or lack thereof) of sinning in a manner that was
quite alien to them when they were asked how many times they had com-
mitted a particular sin (Browne 2000: 107). But confession could be seen,
too, as an experiment in fieldwork that imposed European categories while
permitting the extraction of detailed autochthonous information and ethno-
graphic writing, which in turn made possible realistic narratives penned by
natives in their own tongue. This fieldwork, however, made the native
voice important again in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth
century. Based on systematic fieldwork and objective descriptions, these
experiments gave birth in the sixteenth century to the first modern account
of native culture, genuinely earning for Sahagn the title of the father of
modern ethnography (Klor de Alva 1988: 52).
In the educational realm, Sahagn tells how the Franciscans who
founded the Imperial Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco took advantage
of pre-existing indigenous institutions (the Calmecac or school for noble
Indian children) to found their own college. The perception of similarities
between the two yielded to the opposing notion that Europeans and indige-
nous students were educationally incompatible because of different physio-
logical make-ups. Sahagns analysis reveals his growing awareness that
superficially similar concepts and institutions can mean entirely different
things in different cultures. Today it is taken for granted that each culture
will respond to and interpret novel concepts and situations according to the
boundaries and contours of its own preexisting structure (Browne 2000:
109). The experiment in RLS lasted more than five decades. By 1595, the
Imperial Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco had become merely an ele-
mentary school which was in total ruins (Mendieta [1596] 1870 in Brice
Heath 1972: 31). Writing the Historia General required the cooperation of
paid scribes and expensive writing materials. The end of the recovery mis-
sion in New Spain clearly marked the beginning of a new process: lan-
guage shift.
3. Language shift
Language shift was facilitated by the new stipulations of the Council of
Trent (15431565), the ecumenical assembly of the Roman Catholic
Church, known for its comprehensive reforms and dogmatic purports given
to the canons. The Council prohibited the publication of the Bible in the
Romance languages and the free circulation of religious books in languages
other than Latin; this prohibition marked a breakthrough in European cul-
ture and served as the transition from the Renaissance to the Modern Age
(Carrera de la Red 1988: 130, 149). To make things worse, the General
Council of the Inquisition ensured that this decision included the Amerin-
dian languages. In a letter dated May 10, 1576, the General Council had
asked the Holy Office of Mexico to proscribe the use of the handbook
known as Eclesiasts en lengua de los indios and any other sacred scripture
in said indigenous language or any another secular or vernacular. Interest-
ingly enough, Fray Bernardino de Sahagn and Alonso de Molina recom-
mended banning the harsh procedure and proposed instead the exclusive
use of these manuscripts in the indigenous languages only for missionary
duties. The inquisitors accepted their reasoning, but after several commu-
niqus between the General Council and representatives of the Mexican
mission, seizure of all translations of sacred texts in indigenous languages
was fervently renewed, as Indians could be taught the Christian doctrine by
any other means (Baudot 1988: 124125).
The reactions of Spanish authorities were justified on the grounds that
interpretation(s) of the Bible by Protestant precursors and religious leaders
of the New World did not adhere to the precepts of the Catholic Church.
These considerations were, however, insufficient to provoke a radical
change in the policy of the Catholic Church to thwart a secular movement
of significant proportions, which ultimately elevated Castilian to the rank
of Latin. Indeed, the prevailing considerations and linguistic prestige and
unification would aid in the cultural and political consolidation of the
Spanish territories (Carrera de la Red 1988: 75). This Renaissance attitude
played a significant role in the empowerment of the Romance languages,
although an anti-humanist trend represented in Gins de Seplveda was
influential in the prevailing judgments towards the languages discovered in
the New World. As a result of its restoration as a language of culture,
Latin was prescribed in university courses. Those who knew it well were
able to use it naturally and spontaneously. Towards the end of the sixteenth
century, the colloquial use of Latin was conducive to expanding the latni-
tas, which assumed its own process of maturation. The doble latinidad
envisioned by Elio Antonio de Nebrija, was no longer a predicament but a
well-defined attitude of the same historical moment. Spanish gained more
space in more spheres of interaction, while classical Latin supplanted
Medieval Latin in the endeavors of the humanists. In doing so, the antago-
nism between Latin and Romance, i.e., between the users of the two lan-
guages came to an end (Carrera de la Red 1988: 107108). The elevation of
Castilian to a vehicle of general communication in administration, preach-
ing, and poetry domains in which Spanish, an offshoot of Castilian Ro-
mance, had grown considerably occurred at the beginning of the sixteenth
century, whereas the spheres of international relations, education, sciences,
philosophy, and theology were designated to Latin. If Latin had been the
official language of the Roman Empire, Spanish would become the new
language of the Spanish Empire. The term Spanish had appeared in opposi-
tion to such terms as Castilian or Romance, and was more widespread than
Castilian. For this reason, Spanish became a mother tongue, a speech, a
vehicle of general communication, the koine that everyone knew and used.
Along with the mother tongue, the humanists were promoting artistically
elaborated and cultivated variants because they were not the exclusive pat-
rimony of any language (Carrera de la Red 1988: 159). The spread of Span-
ish beyond the Iberian Peninsula and its use in more and more prestigious
domains may be perceived as being a distant factor in the decline of Amer-
indian languages, but it cannot be underestimated. In the seventeenth cen-
tury, the Spanish language itself is the focus of an ideological debate
involving indirectly moriscos (i.e., Muslims in the South who were forcibly
baptized after the Reconquest). The central point of seventeenth-century
ideologists concerns the linguistic consequences of political conquest
whose outcome may be either language maintenance or shift. This debate
extends to the New World Amerindian populations (cf. Woolard 2002:
464468).
4. The power of the transplanted language
In Why is it so hard to save a threatened language? Fishman (2001: 1
22) introduces another metaphor that illustrates the competition between
strong and weak languages and the varying degrees of severity of changes
in the number and kinds of societal functions for which particular lan-
guages are utilized at specific historical junctures. The societal functions of
languages are endangered due to competition with another more powerful
language. The case of MIL is ideal to test a component of RLS theory, that
is, the omnipresence of the Big Brother which acts as an empowered bully
(Fishman 2001: 12) which, in turn, is viewed both as a constructive and
destructive force that unifies and divides speakers of adjacent communities.
This model helps understand that when members of the mendicant orders
were robbed of or lost the enthusiasm for reversing language shift, all MIL
and the reverse language shifters themselves ended up in disadvantageous
positions. They were so disaffected that they could not even strive to pro-
pose a project oriented towards language maintenance or to save the space
for the now threatened languages, all competing with Spanish. Addition-
ally, although they were quantitatively a minority, Spanish speakers had
become, in a matter of decades, representatives of a mainstream movement
promoting the new language of power and prestige.
RLS theory points to the societal functions of language, which can be
divided into powerful and non-powerful; ideally, powerful and non-
powerful languages could share some of the powerful functions (e.g., em-
ployment, higher education, mass media, education). The elevation of the
threatened language from un-empowered to empowered functions may not
succeed if its transmission is restricted to informal, spontaneous, intimate,
un-empowered functions (Fishman 2001: 2122). This model can be
applied to the Mexican colonial scenario, given that, as of the end of the
sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth century, Spanish
became the non-threatened language which detached itself from functional
compartmentalization and spread rapidly into higher domains and functions
in both rural and urban areas. At the time, the population of indigenous
origin or the agents acting on their behalf were no longer vigilant of the
continual and successful inroads that Spanish was making. In fact, re-
sources available to Spanish speakers of the colony were not meager; on
the contrary, they were significantly abundant. In contrast, MIL could not
regain the functions they lost because they did not have an equivalent plan
of action to compete in compartmentalized functions with the written lan-
guage that was gradually becoming standardized and disseminated
throughout the vast dominions of the Spanish Empire. The vitality of Span-
ish in the Mexican colony was not demographic. It was qualitative. Spanish
gained vitality by means of a system of social stratification which estab-
lished functions and favored domains that were almost universal (cf. Hi-
dalgo 2001b). Spanish went well beyond the oral functions. The existence
of a rich colonial literature and the thousands of colonial manuscripts scat-
tered at present throughout the country attest to the extension of Spanish in
differentiated domains. The lives and works of major seventeenth century
scholars discussed by Claudia Parodi (in this volume) explain the transient
nature of indigenous languages in the colonial scenario. According to her
interpretation, Nahuatl was going from Stage 6 to Stage 2 of the GIDS and
back again.
4.1. Spanish in colonial domains
The life and society of one poet is sufficient to illustrate the functional
diversification that the Spanish language attained in the seventeenth cen-
tury. Sor Juana Ins de la Cruz (16481695) was a precocious criolla (the
child of Spaniards born and raised in New Spain) from the Nahuatl-
speaking area of Chimalhuacn, who lived and enjoyed the vitality and
excitement of a productive society in the realm of literature and the arts.
Her generation is known for the curiosity and desire for learning. Situated
between two worlds, it represents a new society distinguished by syncre-
tism and by the awakening of the criollo spirit. Criollos expressed their
identity and philosophical and religious speculations by which the image of
New Spain emerges, to a certain extent, as the Other Spain, for they felt
they were the heirs of both the Aztec and Spanish Empires. Their dreams
and aspirations expressed their need to immerse themselves in the New
World while maintaining loyalty to the Spanish Crown, their Catholic faith,
and their vehemence to legitimize their presence in the most lavish Spanish
colony. Their ambitions would have never been formulated or materialized
without the intervention of the Society of Jesus. The members of this con-
gregation awakened the criollo spirit and served as their spokespersons and
their conscience. Due to the close association with this emergent class, the
Jesuits became the most influential order in New Spain (Paz 1982: 5558).
Jesuit syncretism melded with emerging criollo patriotism, which not
only modified traditional attitudes about indigenous civilization but also
motivated a kind of resurrection of the Aztec world. These two trends had a
common denominator: they were embracing of all societies and all cultures.
This explains why Jesuit syncretism was capable of engendering and
inspiring both national and separatist tendencies simultaneously. The appa-
rition of the Virgin of Guadalupe authenticated the uniqueness of New
Spain, and although devotion to the Virgin was common before the seven-
teenth century, it was in this century that became a national cult and a point
of union among criollos, mestizos, and Indians (Paz 1982: 5657, 64).
The literary endeavors of seventeenth century Spanish speakers were
equally synergistic. It is interesting to note that the literary works were
written mostly in Spanish by men to be read by other men, but the most
illustrious and influential writer was a woman. Though neither the univer-
sity nor any other school of higher learning permitted entrance to women,
men and women could engage in intellectual and aesthetic communication
in the convent and the palace. In spite of the orthodoxy, New Spain was
receptive to new ideas; in fact, many books forbidden by the Inquisition
were widely read (Paz 1982: 6970). In this intellectual climate, the ba-
roque style became the most fertile manifestation of extreme and diverse
emotional states and perceptions of the infinite. Originating in the Western
culture, the baroque gives continuity to the adoration of antiquity. In the
Mexican colony, baroque was conspicuously original and assimilated na-
tive elementsout of devotion to the aesthetic of the unique and the exotic.
Finally, Baroque was the preferred form of expression that glorified the
nationalist tendencies of the criollos (Paz 1982: 8586).
Baroque poetry was transplanted in New Spain with literary models of
the great Spanish writers of the Golden Age: Luis de Gngora y Argote,
Caldern de la Barca, and Lope de Vega. Still other brilliant and captivat-
ing thinkers inspired Sor Juana Ins de la Cruz. As a case in point, the
German Jesuit Athanasius Kircher (16011680) represented the fusion
between hermeticism and Egyptianism. Kircher believed that in the Egyp-
tian civilization he had found the universal key for deciphering all enigmas
of history. His book Oedipus Aegytiacus (1652) contains a chapter on the
parallelism between Egyptian and Amerindian religions. Jesuit syncretism
thus represents the archetype that embraces all times and all places. Catho-
lic Rome was the center toward which all religions gravitated while the
predecessor of that center a true bridge between Christianity and other
religions was ancient Egypt (Paz 1982: 225). Sor Juana knew of these
ideas indirectly through syncretic treatises on mythology, Kirchers books,
and other works influenced to a lesser or greater extent by the speculations
of Neo-platonism and hermeticism. In this cultural atmosphere, Egyptoma-
nia was one of the intellectual diseases of her age (Paz 1982: 236). Works
of Kircherian inspiration associate Sor Juana to a universal tradition that
has stimulated the poets of the Western civilization from the Renaissance to
contemporary times.
4.2. A necessary digression. How far can a transplanted language go?
In Mexico, this universal tradition can be traced to one of the most com-
plex, rigorous, and intellectually rich texts of Spanish-language poetry,
First Dream (Primero Sueo), also known as El Sueo, which was pub-
lished for the first time in 1692. It is a silva of 975 verses in seven- and
eleven-syllable lines with no fixed rhyme, i.e., a forceful discourse on an
conceptual theme (Paz 1982: 483). Sor Juanas predecessor, Luis de Gn-
gora y Argote (15611627) and Sor Juana herself made use of extraordi-
nary configurations such as topicalization, emphasis, or disambiguation. By
doing so, these poets placed special demands on the readers ability to
process the text. The reader of Primero Sueo may be challenged by the so-
called Latinate syntax. Due to a complex system of stylistic resources,
which serve as communicative devices, such as anastrophe (or simple in-
version) and hyperbaton (transgressio or overstepping of boundaries), the
reader is obliged to restructure the ordering of grammatical units (Hensey
1992: 390395).
Sor Juanas twentieth century biographer, Octavio Paz, explains and re-
interprets the meaning(s) of First Dream (Fifth Part, chapter 6: 469510).
The poet tells a single story with several episodes, each of which is a spiri-
tual experience of celestial spaces: sea, mountain, river, trees and beasts,
which are transformed into geometric figures: pyramids, towers, obelisks.
Suspended on the heights of her pyramid of vanities, the soul finds a bot-
tomless abyss. The space revealed by the poet is an abstraction that can be
seized. The soul is alonenot before God but before a nameless and limit-
less space. She recounts her flight through the superlunary spheres while
her body slept. The belief of the soul as a reality separate from the body
was an additional component in the vast production of Greek culture (Paz
1982: 472473). This is the tradition to which First Dream belongs. Be-
cause her treatment of the theme differs considerably from that of her
predecessors, it has been asserted that her First Dream both gives continu-
ity and alters the tradition. There may be a precedent in Kirchers astro-
nomical voyage, Iter Exstaticum (Paz 1982: 475). First Dream is imper-
sonal because the protagonist has no name, age, or gender; it is simply the
human soul. In First Dream, the author relates that her soul ascended to the
upper sphere, where the soul had a vision so intense and incandescent that
she became sightless. Once recovered, she paused only to ascend again,
gradually, although she was unable to; and as she was vacillating about
other paths she might take, the sun rose and the authors body awakened.
There are three parts of the souls voyage: the ascent of the soul and its
visions; its fall and its attempt to climb the pyramid of knowledge in
strides; its doubts and the unsuccessful efforts to get close to God, exempli-
fied in the story of the hero Phaethon. First Dream is the elevation of the
human soul liberated from its bodily chains (Paz 1982: 482485).
In a passage of First Dream, Sor Juana refers to a pyramid of light rep-
resenting the souls ascent, which stands in opposition to the pyramid of
shadow. Gods first creation in Genesis was Lux, the light of the sensible
soul depicting images in the light of the rational soul. Intellect, in the wings
of the souls immaterial being sees in itself a spark of the Supreme Being
a prime cause, and an author of the world which does not speak of God, the
Savior or Jesus. Suspended at its zenith, the soul gazes at the movement of
the stars and the celestial sphere. Sor Juana compares the soul with the two
pyramids of Memphis or perhaps the pyramids of Teotihuacan, although
she does not refer to the latter intently. The Egyptian pyramids appear as
allegories of the soul while rising toward the light (Paz 1982: 489491).
Like concrete expressions of the human mind, the pyramids rise towards
their apex and the mind yearns for the Prime Cause, an image representing
one of the axes of Sor Juanas thought when the soul has reached a position
higher than the pyramid and the tower of Babel (Paz 1982: 491492). The
peak of its own soaring is on the apex of its mental pyramid, which has
left its self behind and entered the region of the Supreme Being. Sor
Juana seeks contemplation of the Supreme Being through knowledge of the
universe. Contemplating the essence of the Supreme Being is like seeing
the stars in their movement, while she casts her gaze of beauty, and Intel-
lect embraces all creation and dizziness brings the vision to an end. Over-
whelmed by the immensity of the universe and by the diversity of its com-
ponents, Reason has been defeated. Incapable of finding a path, the soul
stumbles in the sea of mystification. Then cautiously, it emerges from the
sea and clings to the mental shore. Literally reanimated, the soul sets out to
climb, in steps, from the mineral realm to the vegetal, and from the vegetal
to the animal (Paz 1982: 492493). For the duration of the ideal night, in a
consciously abstract manner, Sor Juana recounts her intellectual life. The
abrupt awakening brings the dream to an end, but not to the intellectual
escapade of the soul. The failure of her desire to learn epitomizes the col-
lapse of the human condition, a reflection on the limitations of reason (Paz
1982: 496497).
4.3. The meaning of writing in Spanish
4.3.1. Power, prestige, and money
Sor Juana Ins used all the genres available at the time including the litur-
gical villancicos that were sung on holy days in the cathedral of Mexico
City and the other great churches of New Spain. Villancicos derived from
Galician-Portuguese cantigas de estribillo, whose origins can be traced to
the Mozarabic zjel, a poem in short lines, which can be secular amatory or
religious, popular, and erudite. While the court paid her for her loas (brief
theatrical pieces performed as introduction to a principal play, often in
praise of newly arrived notables), bailes (dances), and other spectacles, the
Church compensated her for the villancicos and sacred lyrics. The jcara is
an derisive ballad written in the socio-ethnic varieties of the braggers and
rogues, and the ensalada was a mixture of meters and, especially, of ethnic
varieties speech (blacks, Moors, Basques, Galicians, and Portuguese). Sor
Juana also composed tocotines, which contained lyrics written in Nahuatl
(see The Indianization of Spaniards in New Spain by Claudia Parodi in
this volume). All these works, in addition to sonnets and secular plays were
written upon request. Writing for the Church was not gratuitous; it was paid
with genuine money and provided, in addition, power and prestige. Official
poetry was the result of a system of rewards and punishments: on the one
hand, writers could count on the protection of the palace and the Church;
on the other, they could be reprised by the Inquisition (Paz 1982: 414).
In her autobiography in prose, Sor Juana admitted that she was gener-
ously recompensed for her work. All her compositions were commissioned,
except First Dream. Moreover, her essay known as Respuesta a Sor Filotea
reveals that First Dream was voluntarily written March 1, 1691. The for-
mer is a letter of reply to the Bishop of Puebla, Antonio Nez de Miranda,
wherein she accounts of the everyday labors of the mind; told in direct and
familiar prose, it is also a defense of secular letters. The parallel between
First Dream and the Response is unequivocal. In the letter, written years
after the poem, Sor Juana states that she will continue to write (Paz 1982:
534537), in spite of the hostile reactions that she confronted in her mature
years. The Respuesta a Sor Filotea addressed the need to establish univer-
sal education for women, a major responsibility of educated women. She
even argued that women should also be taught the sciences and secular
letters (...) because direct knowledge of the Scriptures was unfeasible with-
out the study of history, law, arithmetic, logic, rhetoric, and music. She
disdains the notion that women are intellectually inferior and puts forward
the following argument: as stupidity is not limited to women, neither is
intelligence an attribute only for men (Paz 1982: 546548). Moreover, she
contends with the prelates arguing that their opinions are not articles of
faith and complains that one of her critics has considered her letter rash and
heretical. Because writing poetry was not at odds with religious obliga-
tions, she re-asserted that her verses were never written by her own will,
but under the requests of others. Furthermore, the only piece she remem-
bers having written for her own pleasure was a little thing they call El
Sueo or Primero Sueo, that is, her spiritual autobiography (Paz 1982:
549550).
4.3.2. Appropriating the transplanted language
Because Sor Juanas poetry is abundant, versatile, and outstanding, she is
placed alongside Luis de Gngora and Lope de Vega. She cultivated every
genre of her era and carried them to ultimate perfection. Her contemporar-
ies praised her for having followed Gngoras influence, which was deep
and broad. On the one hand, she appropriated many of Gngoras tech-
niques: syntactic inversion, arcane terminology, periphrasis, antithesis, and
metaphors. From Caldern, she learned the method, the manner, and the
mechanisms of poetry. According to her biographer, however, the best
works are those that are her own, the ones only she could have written (Paz
1982: 481). Only in the richest colony of Spain could a woman have af-
forded the luxury of learning and writing secular works. Only in the
wealthiest colony of Spain, an exceptional and gifted woman was able to
transform her own convent cell into the intellectual center of her times,
where she amassed a personal fortune in books and musical and scientific
instruments. Only in the wealthiest colony of Spain, the human talent re-
joiced in the exquisite and the rare: while First Dream represents the grati-
fication of the mind, the Response to Sor Filotea entails a contestation of
major proportions and consequences. The latter piece still is a quasi-
feminist manifesto.
The life and works of Sor Juana illustrate the significance given to
speaking and writing in Spanish in the Mexican colonial period. Through-
out the seventeenth century, many others attempted to attain prestige and
power and to gain material riches through their Spanish writings. The
abundance of criollos participating in literary tournaments is impressive;
this is partially due to the fact this group made up the student body in col-
leges and seminaries, and the poetic practice was a requirement. It is thus
possible to affirm that any educated person was able to express him/herself
in both verse and prose. There was, however, an additional incentive to
participate in the verbal competitions: the victorious poets could achieve
distinction in their community and could also climb the hierarchy of the
State or the Church and obtain important positions (Von der Walde 1990:
124). The literary endeavors of professional writers commenced early in
the colonial period (ca.1543) and turned out to be amazingly fertile because
all the favorable conditions were present at the time. The stability of the
Spanish Empire was conducive to support the abundance of writers in the
new national language to the extent that the resulting productivity in the
history of Spanish is known as the Golden Age. For all these reasons, the
criollo intellectuals of the Spanish colonies and the common individuals
could count on superior models. The privileged criollos not only took full
advantage of the linguistic resources coming from the metropolis and from
those emerging in the new adopted nation, but also created sufficient mate-
rials in the transplanted language, a code quantitatively inferior vis--vis
the numerous indigenous languages of the Mesoamerican area.
Spanish gained native speakers very slowly, but its prestige as the
unifying language of Spain and the Spanish territorial possessions was
unsurpassed. By the mid-seventeenth century, Spanish was no longer a
struggling koine in either Spain or the New World. On the contrary, Span-
ish was an imperial language that had become diversified and sophisticated.
The features of the original New World Spanish koine, mostly coming
from southern Spain, were already well spread throughout the continent.
While the features of the original New World Spanish koine (except for
seseo and yesmo) distinguished the speech of Spanish speakers belonging
to lower social strata, the process of monocentric standardization was very
advanced in the New Spanish capital. By the mid-seventeenth century, a
cultured variety of Spanish was well established in the capital of New
Spain due to the presence and activities of a plethora of writers, preachers,
and administrators (cf. Hidalgo 2001a and b). A good sample of documents
demonstrating the diversity of writings of the ordinary individuals of dif-
ferent social strata, regions, ethnic backgrounds, and ages is available in
Company Company (1994). Finally, the socio-ethnic varieties of marginal
speakers also appear in compilations of colonial manuscripts as well as in
the villancicos written by Sor Juana, who, in contrast to her contemporar-
ies, does not satirize speakers of marginal varieties because her villancicos
were composed to be sung in the formal domain of Church.
5. The imbalance of power-sharing functions
From mid-sixteenth century onward, the literature in Spanish written in
Mexico was abundant and diverse. The only genre that was not cultivated
was the novel. The prohibition to publish the novella was issued in man-
dates of 1532 and 1543. From the perspective of the Church, the publica-
tion and circulation of libros de romances in the New World, was simply
undesirable because of its profane content and fictitious stories (Henrquez
Urea 1984: 85). New World Spanish did not need the genre because it was
firmly entrenched in all domains of power and prestige: Church, court,
administration, education, entertainment, politics, personal correspondence,
and journalism. Mexican literature in Spanish soon became a product of the
new mainstream, a precious commodity that had varied functions: it was
vital to those who aspire to social mobility and was valuable in the daily
amusements of individuals of privileged status. In sum, New World Span-
ish was held in high esteem for both its integrative and instrumental attrib-
utes. The attitudes of criollos towards the mother tongue of their parents
were not purist; on the other hand, they were accommodating to their New
World environment. This is one reason the criollos succeeded in dissemi-
nating their own variety throughout the confines of New Spain.
5.1. Journalism
With few exceptions (cf. Nio-Murcia 2001), the sociolinguistics of jour-
nalism in the Spanish-American colonies has not been carefully examined.
However, this genre is important in New Spain because it contributed to the
spread of the Spanish language since 1541, that is, two years after the ad-
vent of the printing press. News appeared intermittently in flyers or loose
leaflets, the oldest flyer dated September 10, 1541. This collection of mate-
rials is known as relaciones, nuevas, noticias, sucesos or traslados and
represent the origin of journalism, although they were not strictly speak-
ing periodical publications. In 1667, however, the first newspaper entitled
Gaceta was published on a regular monthly basis. In the following century,
with the authorization of the Viceroy of New Spain, a second newspaper
known as the Gaceta de Mxico y Noticias de la Nueva Espaa, was
printed regularly since 1722 (edited by Father Juan Ignacio Castorena y
Ursa). This new genre turned into a bureaucratic practice vulnerable to the
censorship of the times. Despite these limitations, the continual develop-
ment of this publication stimulated the dissemination of news and informa-
tion on scientific, literary, economic, commercial, and religious issues
(Ruiz Castaeda 1990: 1; Ruiz Castaeda 1995: 5060). An innovation
coming from Spain, the Gazeta de Mxico, was published between 1728
and 1742; as of 1742, it changed its title to El Mercurio de Mxico. The
colonial period ends with the publication of the last gazette, the Gazeta de
Mxico, which appeared in January 1748 and ended in 1821, the year in
which the Independence of Mexico was consummated.
6. The domains of the Mexican indigenous languages
As Spanish was gaining speakers, prestige and domains, the MIL were
losing them. The demographic losses of MIL are discussed in my next arti-
cle (Socio-historical determinants in the survival of Mexican indigenous
languages in this volume and in the contribution by Cifuentes and Mocte-
zuma, also in this volume). However, I do not attempt to equate the role of
indigenous languages with the dramatic decimation of their speakers. The
quantitative imbalance between MIL and Spanish was tilting in favor of the
former, but the domains allocated to Spanish during the colonial period
exceeded the wishes and expectations of the early colonists. This explains
the fact that the roles of the MIL were restricted to the domain of religion.
After the collapse of the Imperial Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco,
where Bernardino de Sahagn, Alonso de Molina, and other scholars strove
to record and rescue for posterity the language and culture of the Nahuas,
the works of philology were considerably reduced. Moreover, the seven-
teenth century of the Mexican colony does not attest to the existence of a
single grammarian such as Friar Bernardino de Sahagn, Alonso de
Molina, Andrs de Olmos, or any other thinker of the previous century. It
seems that those in charge of the Mexican mission were resting on the lau-
rels of the sixteenth-century scholars; indeed, the production of grammars
and vocabularies in MIL declined significantly. It was common to re-edit
the grammars of the large languages: Purhepecha, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec,
Otomi and Nahuatl. Materials designed to learn the languages of the sur-
rounding areas in the northern provinces of New Spain were also produced.
In addition, the grammars offered a more detailed analysis of the phono-
logical and morphological traits of each language (Cifuentes 1998: 186
188). Finally, some works were ex professo created to perpetuate the art of
confession by eliciting information from the indigenous population (Rus
1989; Ngera Yanguas 1621).
The enthusiasm, zeal, and devotion of the reverse language shifters of
the sixteenth century disappeared in the following century, because the
language policy of the Crown was better defined for the advancement of
Spanish. In 1612, Philip III mandated education for girls in Spanish with
the goal of preparing them in both religious and secular literature. In 1634,
Philip IV confirmed the need to teach Spanish to the indigenous popula-
tions; to this effect, he ordered that the priests in charge of missions and
churches motivate them to learn Spanish. This would result in placing Indi-
ans under the control of Spanish authorities and would also facilitate the
communication between Spaniards and Indians. The mandates were ig-
nored for a few decades until King Charles II intervened directly and re-
minded the clerical authorities that Spanish was necessary for teaching of
matters dealing with the Catholic faith. In 1686, Charles II had mandated
the teaching of Spanish to the Indians. In 1688, his mandate was responded
by the Bishop of Oaxaca, who said that he had obeyed his mandate of
1686; at the same time he informed the King that the indigenous peoples
respected the local authorities. Acting on this information, Charles II issued
another decree in 1691 reiterating his mandates of 1686. Finally, in 1693 he
told the Viceroy that the program of implementation should be scrutinized
and evaluated. Nonetheless, the local decision-makers were adamantly
opposed to the teaching of Spanish to the Indians and the programs did not
succeed (cf. Brice Heath 1972: chapter 3). The criticism from above and
below made the provision of real assistance to MIL all the more difficult.
The decrees issued from Spain and internal conflicts among locals in
charge of colonial affairs exacerbated the already disadvantageous condi-
tions surrounding the MIL. Just a few theatrical pieces have been recorded
for the seventeenth century. One of them was staged in Nahuatl in 1690.
The existence of these works confirms that the domain of the MIL was
restricted to religious activities selected by the authorities in charge of the
local mission. Some works written in indigenous languages, e.g., the autos
sacramentales also known as ejemplos or dechados (neixcuitilli) were nor-
mally staged on Sundays after the homilies. Precise information on the
languages and titles of the autos sacramentales is speculative. Pedro Hen-
rquez Urea (1984) believes that Friar Juan Bautista wrote three volumes
of comedies possibly in Nahuatl. Seven of them were published in the
nineteenth century by researcher Francisco del Paso y Troncoso, but two
belong to the beginning seventeenth century: La destruccin de Jerusalem
and El Sacrificio de Isaac [1678] by Agustn de la Fuente, native from
Tlatelolco. Two more autos were written in Chocha, Mixtec, and Tarascan.
Other classic plays written by the authors of the Spanish Golden Age were
translated into indigenous languages. In 1641, Bartolom de Alba, descen-
dant of the kings of Texcoco, translated two of the religious plays by Lope
de Vega, La madre de la mejor and El animal profeta. He may have also
translated El gran teatro del mundo by Caldern de la Barca (Henrquez
Urea 1984: 109111).
It was hard to strengthen the MIL not because they were dissociated
from the traditional ethnoculture, but because activism on their behalf was
contra-indicated and because their functions, far from being differentiated
and/or shared with its robust competitor, were relegated to the religious
domain. Within this domain, the local Spanish authorities re-assigned the
MIL to sub-domains: representation of religious plays and confession.
Manuals written for the purpose of confession appeared in Mazahua and
the languages of Chiapas (Ngera Yanguas 1621; Rus 1989). In this fash-
ion, the functions were not even partially recovered, much less reinforced
by the speakers themselves or by the authorities in charge of secular and
religious education.
Finally, the eighteenth century is well-known for having one representa-
tive, Francisco Xavier Clavijero, who revamped the studies of Nahuatl. A
Jesuit by training and vocation, Clavijero brought to an end the colonial
enterprise in the areas of language and history of the ancient Mexicans. The
work of the Jesuits culminated towards the end of the colonial period, in-
asmuch as they became the most outspoken instigators of the War of Inde-
pendence against the former mother country, Spain. The nationalist
endeavors of the Jesuits are pre-modern or quasi-modern, if we ponder
nationalism in modern terms, i.e., from the nineteenth century on. In this
vein, Fishman (1972) has defined the roles of nationalist proto-elites that
are:
the essential synthesizers, separators, popularizers, and organizers on whom
the spread of nationalism depends. They not only create or further the
broader unity and heightened authenticity that they seek, but they plant an
awareness of both of those desiderata in a population that is becoming in-
creasingly receptive to unifying and activating solutions of many kinds;
they point to the success of nationalist struggles in distant cultures and in
other times with which the ordinary man would hardly be familiar; they
spread the views of spokesmen that might otherwise remain unnoticed, and
in general, they heighten awareness that are only latent, so that not only will
masses come to feel that they constitute a nationality but that they will also
be willing to act upon the basis of that feeling (16).
7. Conclusions
Assessing language maintenance and shift in the multilingual and multicul-
tural scenario of the Mexican colony helps to elucidate the dynamics of
languages and cultures in contact, although the Westernization of Meso-
america is not complete. The contact of Western culture with the non-
Western cultures provoked a clash of civilizations that may be interpreted
in different ways: (1) The clash polarized the two civilizations to the extent
that indigenous peoples sought marginal and often barren areas in order to
isolate themselves from the new emerging society. In spite of the deleteri-
ous conditions imposed upon them, they still maintain a visible adherence
to their own culture. (2) Another interpretation puts forth that the Meso-
american and Spanish cultures had similarities that made the contact much
easier, and that to this day, the cultures overlap in some areas more than in
others. (3) Still a more radical and paradoxical view proposes that the clash
of civilizations explains both the fusion and juxtaposition of Western and
non-Western civilizations in Mesoamerica.
The examination of language maintenance and language shift in the
colonial space aids in discerning the present-day situation within a socio-
historical perspective. While the rescue mission of the sixteenth century
can be seen as the untiring work of reverse language shifters truncated by
both the Old World and the New World Spanish authorities language
shift proceeded intermittently in the seventeenth century. Sixteenth century
nationalists and reverse language shifters with ideals of autonomy were
supplanted by the leading seventeenth century Jesuits who articulated a
synergistic strategy that appropriated the symbols of the Aztec civilization
and fused them with those of the emergent New World Spanish civiliza-
tion. This plan of action favored the Spanish language to the extent that the
new society created its own privileged spaces, while the MIL were over-
powered by the transplanted language. The history of Spanish in the Mexi-
can colony is not parallel to the history of indigenous languages, inasmuch
as the latter have their own tradition, which is explored in the next article.
However, the synergistic plan, better known in Latin American history as
mestizaje, was so successful that it rendered a mainstream society that is
still impacted albeit superficially by the traditions of the original in-
digenous cultures. This Indianized society still carries vestiges of pre-
Hispanic cultures and languages. In these particular groups of Mexican
Spanish speakers, Claudia Parodi (in this volume) identifies an additional
Stage 9 or substratum Stage which goes beyond the eight Stages pro-
posed in RSL theory and which describes a more deteriorated cultural
and linguistic position of the society in question.
Note
1. Juan Gins de Seplveda (14941573) was a Spanish philosopher and theolo-
gian known for his Demcrates Segundo; o de las Justas causas de la guerra
contra los indios, and also for his debate with Bartolom de las Casas (1484
1566). Organized by Charles V, the great debate of 1550 between las Casas
and the colonists advocate, took place in Valladolid, capital of Spain, before
the Council of the Indies. For five days, las Casas and Seplveda debated on
Spains treatment of Amerindians; while las Casas denounced the abusive sys-
tem established by the colonists, Seplveda based his opinions on Aristotles
Politics. This was the first debate in the world about human rights. (For thor-
ough information on the subject, see Hanke [1974] 1994).
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Chapter 4
Socio-histor ical deter minants in the
sur vival of M exican indigenous languages
Margarita Hidalgo
Abstr act
This article explores the various factors that have impinged on the survival
of Mexican indigenous languages from the early times of the conquest and
colonization of Mesoamerica to the present. Scholarship in and about
indigenous language began early in the era of colonization; evangelization
in indigenous peoples was conducted, too, in some of the most accessible
and prestigious languages. Many Mexican indigenous languages have sur-
vived after major population losses, an early discourse of transculturation,
and a language policy favoring Spanish in selective colonial domains. The
slow process of recovery is related to demographic recovery, socio-reli-
gious movements, rebellion, and confrontation. Throughout the centuries,
speakers have used different strategies of survival ranging from resistance
to language maintenance with bilingualism and language shift with culture
preservation. The causes of the Chiapas uprising are discussed in connec-
tion with the language attitudes of the indigenous peoples of the state. In
the past three decades, a single trend of maintenance and shift can be iden-
tified and interpreted as survival and stabilization. Given the advances in
sociolinguistics, linguistic rights of regional and/or autochthonous peoples,
and uncensored communication via cyberspace, post-modern history may
be more promising to indigenous populations.
1. L anguage sur vival
Language survival is defined herein as the balance of language mainte-
nance and language shift when the latter is the outcome of a major disrup-
tion. The conquest of Mexico is considered the beginning of the catastro-
phic loss of millions of speakers of Mesoamerican languages. From that
point onwards, language maintenance and shift have become one single
dynamic pattern. The socio-historical factors that have impinged on the
preservation or demise of Mexican indigenous languages are explored in
light of the reversing language shift (RLS) framework, which considers
physical and demographic dislocation equivalent or translatable to lan-
guage-in-culture dislocation. The cases examined within this framework
are either Western or at least substantially impacted by greater exposure to
Western-derived values, processes and dislocations (Fishman 1991: 7),
although the model of RLS has usually been applied to modern industrial-
ized societies.
The process of colonization of the Mesoamerican peoples which
followed the conquest fostered language-in-culture contact, which in turn
altered many expressions of material and non-material culture. While many
socio-cultural and linguistic dislocations have adversely affected the Meso-
american peoples, several strategies of survival have been recorded for
posterity by certain agents of change. Language survival is tantamount to
culture survival, although some non-linguistic dimensions of culture may
last longer than their respective languages. The losses in speakers, domains,
and/or functions of a given language is known as language shift, whereas
preservation is known as language maintenance. Quantifying losses and
gains with relative accuracy poses a scientific challenge for both govern-
mental agencies and researchers interested in describing the precise demo-
graphic behavior(s) of complex entities. When bilingualism or multilin-
gualism are the end-result of catastrophe, language maintenance and shift
are more inter-dependent or co-dependent than observers and speakers are
willing to admit, because the perception of a change in the direction of
assimilation to the victorious language seems to prevail. This article does
not intend to highlight the quantitative or even qualitative facets of lan-
guage shift in Mexico. It attempts to explore retrospectively the strategies
of survival that have deterred an even more pronounced language shift after
the apocalyptic encounter between Spaniards and Mesoamericans. Speakers
of Mesoamerican languages began to shift to Spanish since the early days
of the conquest of Mexico, but language shift has been gradual and selec-
tive. Paradoxically, the Mesoamerican languages were instrumental in the
conquest of Mexico because Spaniards tenaciously sought communication
in them due to the high degree of political and socio-cultural development
reached by the millenary pre-Hispanic societies. Spaniards discovered the
indigenous languages as they discovered the new lands, and from the onset,
it was clear that they needed to use them for different functions.
Determinants in the survival of Mexican indigenous languages 89
2. Sur vival str ategies
In this scenario, various dramatic catalysts are responsible for initiating a
language shift of major consequences: first, drastic population losses result-
ing from disease, warfare, and natural disasters; second, an early discourse
of transculturation; and third, a tenacious language policy launched by the
Spanish Crown (via a strong system of social stratification) for the recently
discovered territories of the New World. These ominous conditions were
countervailed by less inimical determinants that were conducive to lan-
guage maintenance, that is, the recovery of the population, the rescue mis-
sion initiated by sixteenth century humanists, the rebellions propelled by
socio-religious movements, and the recent post-modern confrontation with
the modern Mexican nation-state. Survival is a cultural phenomenon origi-
nating under adverse conditions such as those imposed on the Meso-
american peoples; it still occurs in connection with the many cultural
changes that have affected the Mesoamerican civilization throughout centu-
ries of contact with the Western civilization. As a case in point, the persis-
tence of various traits of the Mesoamerican civilization under conditions of
stress have resulted from adherence to the cultura propia (Bonfil Batalla
1987). While it is difficult to reconstruct the historical sequences of previ-
ous ethno-linguistic and cultural expressions and forms, the preservation of
the cultura propia can be explained by different strategies of survival.
These strategies are derived primarily from the Mesoamerican civilization,
which is not represented by one skimpy group lacking cultural maturation,
but by a large conglomerate of peoples which attained diverse degrees of
cultural development and varied resources.
A civilization is not an aggregate of isolated cultural traits but a vital
scheme that gives significance to the acts of human beings who are, in turn,
positioned in a peculiar relation with mother nature and the universe. This
relationship is a larger, more stable, and more permanent framework in
which several cultures are accommodated and several histories are under-
stood. The testimonies of this long civilizing process surround the descen-
dants of the Mesoamerican peoples; for instance, agro-products invented
or domesticated in the region (e.g., maize, beans, squash, pepper, tomato,
avocado, cacao, and cotton) have become general products of consumption
in many areas of the world (Bonfil Batalla [1987] 1995: 3234). The
attitude towards mother nature is so significant that it may determine the
adequate selection of the seeds to be sowed simultaneously with the cele-
bration of a propitiatory ritual; it also explains why land may not be treated
as a mere commodity but as a common territory. Ancient practices include
the manufacturing of material objects such as houses, public places, ceme-
teries, sacred sites, in addition to forms of social organization, codes of
communication, and the like. The cultura propia is accessed by the proprie-
tors that identify with it. Language is, too, part of the patrimony of the cul-
tura propia (Bonfil Batalla [1987] 1995: 4849). The territorial distribution
of the indigenous population shows a denser concentration in those areas
that had reached a visible cultural development before the European inva-
sion, although there is not an absolute correspondence between the two.
The conglomerate of peoples known as Mesoamerica tends to be self-
sufficient in different arenas: family, lineage, headquarters, and commu-
nity. Due to social pressures, endogamy is commonly practiced in order to
ensure self-sufficiency (Bonfil Batalla [1987] 1995: 5759), but this is not
an absolute condition, inasmuch as exchanges between groups and other
sectors of the dominant society exist in different ways and with unequal
intensity. The weekly tianguis (open market) or the annual fair are institu-
tions used to facilitate the circulation of products. There is also a steady
flow of arts and crafts, and some communities have specialties in some
specific crafts; some have a longer tradition, for their technology can be
pre-Hispanic while many others have been modified throughout the entire
colony (Bonfil Batalla [1987] 1995: 63). Craftsmanship and agriculture are
reinforced by means of regional trade. For many decades some groups use
both components in their daily lives: those of the cultura propia and some
of the imposed culture. However, some cultural traits may be rejected by
the dominant society, e.g., clothing, language, housing, rituals, and other
customs.
In addition to objects of material culture, Mesoamerican peoples partici-
pate in a scheme of social complexities that is not readily appreciated. Indi-
viduals perform diverse occupations and activities, and even possess spe-
cialized knowledge. Medicine, for example, involves practices that belong
to the public domain and that are used to treat common sickness, but there
exist specialists who preserve ancestral traditions to treat illnesses that are
severe. In combination with rituals prescribed by tradition, a more pro-
found knowledge of therapeutic properties of herbs and other products
caters to both body and soul. There are also symbolic elements belonging
to the culture that are put in motion in order to re-establish health. Commu-
nities can count on specialists in house-building, manufacturing of agricul-
tural tools, or weather forecast administrators who work according to the
season of storms and rains. All these practices build the capacity for self-
sufficiency. In terms of social organization, the authority is linked to social
prestige, which is demonstrated via service to the community and assumed
responsibilities known as cargos (Bonfil Batalla [1987] 1995: 6567).
Time and the supernatural are not interpreted according to the views of
Western society. In the Mesoamerican civilization, time is cyclical, not
linear. The universe elapses in a series of cycles that are not identical, but
go through the same stages in an endless spiral. When a cycle ends, another
similar cycle begins. Human beings complete, too, their own cycle, which
is in harmony with the other cycles of the universe; the needed harmony is
expressed in rituals of the agro-calendar that symbolizes the renovation of
life in which human beings participate. The cyclic notion is present, too, in
the awareness of history: the ancestral past which was free of colonial
domination, and which is at present the foundation of hope in the cycle of
time the golden age that will return one day (Bonfil Batalla [1987]
1995: 71).
In spite of its many variations, the Mesoamerican civilization consists of
a set of cultures whose diversity is visible within its basic unity; the coher-
ence of its traits is disturbed or dislocated when it comes in contact with
new ideas, objects, or peoples belonging to the other culture. Self-
sufficiency can be restricted by contact with a dominant culture lacking the
coherence or unity that Mesoamerican cultures have. Moreover, the notion
of an autonomous culture upon which a cultural heritage rests is advanced
in order to explain how Mesoamerican peoples confront the new situations,
world changes, and the connections that each group establishes with the
world. From this perspective, there is adaptation, resistance, appropriation,
invention, and new strategies of accommodation that allow them to survive.
This is only a small part of their patrimony, of their reality, but in this small
part lies the reason for their existence (Bonfil Batalla [1987] 1995: 72).
Indigenous groups remain as differentiated social units with their own iden-
tity that is based on a particular culture. Their many ways of resistance
configure an intricate network of strategies occupying an ample space in
their culture and daily life. A tradition of resistance makes the cultures
permanent, while their dynamics is understood within the framework of
colonial domination that limits and distorts their own developmental trans-
formation (Bonfil Batalla [1987] 1995: 191). They survive because they
selectively utilize some of the cultural components of the dominant culture
and adapt them creatively to suit their own needs. In this context, I attempt
to explore issues related to language maintenance and shift, for they
approximately reveal the extent to which languages might have been
affected and/or the circumstances in which they were affected, given that
the Mesoamerican civilization and its languages were not completely
destroyed. I also attempt to respond to questions such as: What was the
impact of the early discourse on transculturation? Have the strategies of
survival been effective to restore and recondition the previous stages of
language-in-culture shift? What are the most effective forms of resistance?
3. I nitial stages of the beginning catastr ophe
The realization of the conquest rested on the political crisis within the
Aztec empire, the virulent eruption of epidemics resulting from contact
between Amerindians and the newly arrived Europeans, and the improvisa-
tion of a team of native interpreters. Hernn Corts, the forerunner of
Mexicos conquest, was fortunate to have been introduced at the outset to
Malintzin, also known as doa Marina (her christened name) or la
Malinche (her pejorative name), who soon became his interpreter, advisor,
and companion. The dazzling career of Corts in his campaign against the
Aztecs has been assessed in connection with his ability to rely upon a team
of loyal interpreters; the most outstanding of all was the Nahuatl-Mayan
bilingual princess, Malintzin, who had been sold as a slave on various
occasions in spite of her noble origins. The first allusion to Malintzin
appeared in 1520 in the Cartas de Relacin by Hernn Corts himself,
where he refers to her as his interpreter (Corts [1520] 1866). Malintzin
knew Mayan, which was also spoken by J ernimo de Aguilar a surviving
Spaniard of a shipwreck enslaved by the Yucatec Mayas who was found
accidentally and successfully rescued by Corts. Both J ernimo de Aguilar
and Malintzin became the trusted interpreters of Corts. Malintzin commu-
nicated with J ernimo de Aguilar in Mayan, and Aguilar in turn communi-
cated in Spanish with Corts. Aguilar conveyed to Malintzin the messages
that Corts wanted to deliver to Montezuma (the penultimate Aztec em-
peror). This triangular system of communication was expanded to include
one more language (Totonac) and proved to be cost-efficient, for Malintzin
and Aguilar gave Corts valuable information about his unknown adversar-
ies (the Aztecs), the exotic capital of their empire, and the system of subju-
gated provinces.
Malintzin remained in proximity to the Spanish warriors throughout the
conquest of the Aztec Empire: the expedition along the gulf of Mexico, the
city-state of Tlaxcala, the city-state of Tenochtitlan where Montezuma
ruled and the city of Cholula. When Corts finally reached Tenochtitlan,
Malintzin was at his side as interpreter (Kartunnen 1994: 11). She
addressed Montezuma in what is known in Nahuatl as lordly speech.
That she dared to address herself directly to Montezuma in order to trans-
late for Corts bespeaks raw courage, for none of his own courtiers dared
even to think of looking him in the face but kept their eyes lowered with
great reverence (Karttunen 1994: 11). Apparently Malintzin knew that her
audacity had instilled terror in the Aztec leaders. Shortly after this encoun-
ter, Montezuma was taken hostage. During his captivity, a Spanish boy
named Orteguilla who was picking up Nahuatl as quickly as Malintzin
was acquiring Spanish assisted Corts at all times (Karttunen 1996: 13).
Orteguillas task was to double-check the messages conveyed to and
received by Corts.
Leaving the city-state of Texcoco on April 6, 1521, the Spaniards pro-
ceeded to attack Tenochtitlan; with this purpose in mind, they engaged in
intense battles for the following five months until they seized the splendid
capital, where the Aztec leaders were awaiting them. While the Spaniards
were involved in perilous tasks on the southeast plains of the city where
the lakes could diminish their artillery and cavalry the allied troops led by
the Aztecs attempted to assault them by the rear. In the meantime, the
Aztec warriors would rush them in a pincer move. This strategy failed
because at this point the Aztecs encountered the smallpox virus left behind
by the receding Spanish soldiers. As they were being debilitated by the
spreading disease inside their own city walls the Aztecs realized that
their strength was, too, dwindling beyond the confines of their capital.
Scholars agree that both disease and political disarray defeated the Aztecs:
smallpox killed the Tenochtitlans, the Tlaxcalans, and the Texcocans while
many of the allied groups deserted the remaining leaders of the falling
Aztec empire. Tenochtitlan was finally destroyed on August 13, 1521,
when Corts retook the capital. According to the chronicler Lpez de
Gmara the enemy lost 100,000 men, or many more, according to others,
but I am not including those who died of hunger and the pestilence (in
Cook 1998: 68). The sad outcomes resulting from disease only prolonged
the agony of the native population, for no one remained to provide water
and food for those infected and convalescing. Nor was anyone available to
tend to the normal agricultural tasks. The immediate consequence was
excessive mortality, followed by a year of famine and starvation, and a
subsequent passage of another killer pandemic, exacerbating mortality
(Cook 1998: 202).
In the midst of annihilation, Malintzin had seen it all, been in the thick
of everything, called on at any hour to interpret between Corts and the
most intimidating people one could imagine. She had not been taken pris-
oner and sacrificed at the top of a pyramid, as some of the Spaniards had
been. She had not been killed in the flight from Tenochtitlan. She had not
drowned in the lake. She had not died of smallpox (Karttunen 1994: 16).
Others interpretations of Malintzins actions make her the central figure of
the conquest, for she inaugurated a new discourse of transculturation (Bau-
dot 1996: 300). Malintzin was indeed the most celebrated survivor of one
of the most bewildering cataclysms in the history of humanity. The ques-
tion that should be raised at this juncture is: Can Malintzin be considered
the first language shifter after the Spanish conquest? All sources indicate
that she used her linguistic abilities to the service of the Conquest; but her
swift exposure to and acquisition of Spanish is part of a legend and not a
determining factor or the most important indicator of language shift. None-
theless, Malintzin and other interpreters are partially responsible for the fall
of the Aztec Empire and indirectly related to the trend of language shift that
could have been more pronounced, had the mendicant orders not intervened
to mitigate the dramatic losses (see my contribution The multiple dimen-
sions of language maintenance in colonial Mexico in this volume).
4. Sur vival str ategies: A glimpse at demogr aphic tr ends
One of the most complex phenomena in Mexican prehistory is the peopling
of ancient Mesoamerica, whose greatest success in terms of demographic
density is found in the Central Mexican Basin, and for which scholars have
pieced together a series of population estimates stretching over three mil-
lennia. Regional trends summarize a myriad of local experiences, well-
documented in the Teotihuacn valley; they show how difficult it was to
win the demographic lottery in ancient Mesoamerica, for the disappear-
ances of many ancient civilizations have provoked much speculation about
their causes (McCaa 2000: 245246). Scholars suggest that the question
about Mesoamerica should be stated not in terms of the decline of cities,
cultures, or peoples, but about the forms of survival. Bio-archaeological
records reveal that Mesoamerican populations like most ancient peoples
were fragile, weakened by physical and physiological stress and other ad-
verse conditions, although somewhat less so than most other peoples of
North America. In addition, paleo-demography corroborates the findings of
short life expectancy (McCaa 2000: 247). For instance, the Nahua civiliza-
tion survived and thrived by means of a high-pressure demographic sys-
tem: high mortality and higher fertility with growth rates triple those of
most paleo-populations (McCaa 2000: 251). The contact with another
civilization prompted a catastrophe of major proportions and led to the
death of millions from disease, exploitation, environmental degradation,
and warfare. There is a consensus that the sixteenth century was a demo-
graphic disaster for Mesoamericans (McCaa 2000: 252).
Estimates for the magnitude of the disaster vary so widely that at least
three schools of thought attempt to interpret the losses: catastrophists, mod-
erates, and minimalists. The catastrophists or maximalists place the scale of
demographic disaster at 90% or more and calculate a large native popula-
tion at contact, exceeding ten, twenty, or even thirty million. The second
group of scholars detects decreases of 5085%, but favor smaller popula-
tions at contact (510 million), while minimalists perceive the scale of the
disaster on the order of 25% (McCaa 2000: 244252). It is estimated that
the population of Mexico must at contact have been no less than the mini-
malist estimate of 4 to 5 million and was likely double and possibly even
triple that figure (McCaa 2000: 253). Recovery of the native population
began by the middle of the seventeenth century; some scholars place the
nadir at 3.4 million Indians around 1650 whereas others estimate the figure
at only 1.3 million. Under such circumstances, the recovery was accompa-
nied by considerable mixing of peoples of various ethnic backgrounds,
although Indians always comprised the majority of the population of colo-
nial Mexico; people solely African or European constituted a very small
subpopulation. By the end of the sixteenth century, the second largest
group was that of Spanish speakers of mixed European and Indian stock
raised in a Spanish environment (euromestizos); mixed stock of Indians and
Europeans raised in an indigenous environment (indomestizos); and Spa-
nish-speaking mixed groups with an African component (afromestizos)
who also made up a considerable fraction of the population (McCaa 2000:
262265). Even in this calamitous era, scholars find a subtle correspon-
dence between the powerful external determinants (e.g., the late 1570s
epidemics) and language changes. For instance, a peak of post-conquest
Nahuatl alphabetic writing was developed by a new generation [ca. 1580
1610], which had had no real experience with the initial stage (1519-ca.
15451550) of the great revolution, reorientations, and catastrophes (Lock-
hart 1992: 428429; 433434).
By the late eighteenth century, improvements in census taking give the
impression of a rapid increase in all groups. The most dramatic change
was the growth of mestizos, who constituted about 25% of the population,
rising to 40% in 1810 (McCaa 2000: 265). The nineteenth century wit-
nessed a natural increase of the general population with little immigration
and proved to exceed the population record for any other period of Mexi-
can history prior to the demographic revolution of the twentieth century.
From 5 million inhabitants in 1800, Mexico grew to 8 million by 1855, and
to over 15 million in 1910, tripling in just over one hundred years. The
worst decades of that century were those of war: 1810, 1840 and 1860,
whereas the 1820s and 1830s were periods of higher than average growth
(Mc Caa 2000: 279280). The results of the first official census of inde-
pendent Mexico appeared in 1895; they are derived from state censuses,
information collected by prominent individuals and data documented in
church records (Brachet 1976: 1314). Little is known, however, about the
general demographic trends of the indigenous peoples, although the most
reliable sources point to a trend towards assimilation. Entire language
groups disappeared in the North and the South (e.g., Californian, Lipano,
Comanche, Concho, Chucona, Guasave, Opata, Tubar, Pochuteco and
Chiapaneco). In addition, many indigenous groups participated in the new
occupational activities such as mining, oil and textile industries, railroad
construction, and military instruction areas, where they were more exposed
to Spanish (Cifuentes and Pellicer 1989: 1213).
Finally, between 1921 and 1970, Mexico experienced a demographic
transformation. The population increased considerably, from an annual rate
of 1.7% during the 1920s to 3.3% during the 1960s. In fact, it had one of
the fastest-growing populations in the world during the 1960s, almost three
times the annual growth rate (1.2%) of the United States, and almost two
times the annual growth rate of Canada (1.8%). Much of the increase in
population from 1921 to 1970 was due to a large decrease in mortality
rates; reductions in infant mortality greatly contributed to the decline in
mortality rates while high fertility rates became moderate. Regressions
suggest that states with a lower reduction in the proportion of indigenous
population had also lower reductions in their fertility rates. Regression
results also show that regions with a large proportion of indigenous popula-
tion still have higher mortality and fertility rates nonetheless. The indige-
nous populations are highly concentrated by region (see The Mexican
indigenous languages and the national censuses: 19792000 by Cifuentes
and Moctezuma, in this volume). In the South of Mexico, over 40% of the
population spoke an indigenous language in 1930; this figure decreased to
25% in 1990 (Feliciano 2000: 604612).
5. T he twentieth centur y: Bilingualism and language maintenance
Throughout the twentieth century, scholars have looked into the changes of
monolingual and bilingual speakers of Mexican indigenous languages
(henceforth MIL). For example, Martnez Ruiz (1986) focused exclusively
on monolingual speakers reported by the 1970 census. Absolute and rela-
tive figures for the ten most Indianized states are given by Brice Heath
(1972), who directly measured results of language policy changes. Between
1940 and 1970, absolute figures show that bilinguals increased in every
state from 19401950, and in seven states from 19501960 and from 1960
1970. The most complete appraisals of the absolute and proportional de-
creases and increases are found in the works of Valds and Menndez
(1987) and Valds (1989 and 1995), who reconstructed the data on speak-
ers of MIL from 1910 through 1990. Valds analysis (1989) is concerned
with the interpretation of changes that occurred as a response to external
influences. The most important variable in identifying ethnicity and ethnic
group is language. The data show that the dynamics of maintenance and
shift is consistent, but the magnitude of the losses is gleaned through com-
parisons with the growth of the Spanish-speaking population, though the
proportion of speakers of MIL (over 5 years of age) has remained below
15% during the past six decades. Table 1 shows the total population of the
country (19302000); the total population over five years of age; and the
total population of speakers of indigenous languages (henceforth SIL). The
four columns from the far right show the percentage of SIL over 5 years of
age, percentage of SIL relative to the total population, percentage of mono-
linguals, and percentage of bilinguals. Table 1 shows a consistent decline
between 1930 and 1960; however, as of the decade of 1970, the gains and
losses point to a clear trend of bilingualism, because the decline in the
number of monolinguals is in direct proportion to the increase of bilinguals.
The 1990 census added another variable, which included the number of SIL
aged 04 who lived in a household where the head of household or spouse
was a speaker of a SIL. The 1990 census registered 1,129,625 individuals;
of these 975,276 were bilingual (Valds 1995: 73).
Table 1. The population of Mexico relative to the population of SIL: 19302000
Year Total Population Population 5+ SIL 5+ %
1
%
2
%
3
%
4
1930 16 552 722 14 042 201 2 251 086 13.6 16.0 53 47
1940 19 653 552 16 788 660 2 490 909 12.7 14.8 50 53
1950 25 791 017 21 821 026 2 447 609 9.5 11.2 33 67
1960 34 923 129 29 146 382 3 030 254 8.7 10.4 36 64
1970 48 225 238 40 057 748 3 111 415 6.5 7.8 28 72
1980 66 846 833 57 498 965 5 181 038 7.8 9.0 23 71.4
1990 81 249 645 70 562 202 5 282 347 6.7 7.5 16 80
2000 97 483 412 84 794 454 6 044 547 6.2 7.1 18.5 81.5
1. Percentage of population of SIL 5 +; 2. Percentage of SIL in proportion to the total population;
3. Percentageof monolingual SIL; 4. Percentageof bilingual SIL
Source: Valds (1995: 68) and INEGI (2001: 267)
When the raw figures by language group are examined, the losses are again
apparent among monolinguals while the gains tend to favor bilinguals. The
growth of bilingualism is more apparent among the largest language
groups: Mexica or Nahuatl, Maya, Zapotecan, Mixtec, Otomi, and Totonac
(see Table 2). In contrast, some small language groups such as Tlapanec
have experienced noticeable increases in recent decades, whereas some
others such as Mixe show insignificant changes in the final analysis (cf.
Valds 1995 and INEGI 2001). The balance between language maintenance
and shift is the most significant component of language survival. Finally,
when bilinguals are added to the raw figures of monolinguals, most lan-
guages look more robust (see Tables 2 and 3). The differentials between
bilinguals and monolinguals are normally larger among the largest lan-
guage groups, whereas the same differentials among smaller language
groups are less pronounced.
The total number of SIL extrapolated from Table 3 (19702000) minus
the total number of monolinguals which appears in Table 2 for the same
period (19702000) show a consistent trend of increasing bilingualism.
Table 4 shows the differentials in percentages. The persistence of some
language groups can also be assessed taking into account the percent
change of each language group according to fertility, mortality, and natural
growth. For instance, the growth rate for 19801985 for language groups
such as Nahuatl, Maya, Mixtec, Otomi, Zapotec, Mazahua, Tzeltal, Tzotzil,
Totonac, Mazatec, Tarascan, Chol, Huastec, Mixe, Tlapanecan, and others,
was 2.9%. The difference between fertility and mortality is considered the
growth rate, which in these years is slightly higher than the national growth
rate of 2.3% (Valds 1989: 115).
Table 2. Examples of monolingual language groups by decade: 19302000
Year Nahuatl Maya Zapotecan Mixtec Otomi Totonac
1930 355 295 131 836 111 660 111 391 94 693 58 561
1940 360 071 114 011 104 661 124 994 87 404 59 242
1950 212 813 50 012 60 680 76 946 57 559 54 333
1960 297 285 81 013 78 763 106 545 57 721 63 794
1970 227 757 68 459 149 652 79 332 37 701 42 262
1980 289 124 89 887 67 032 94 539 46 979 58 538
1990 179 320 54 739 43 911 81 144 18 640 39 208
2000 195 934 65 061 42 756 99 680 16 836 38 489
Source: Valds and Menndez (1987: 17); Valds (1995: 89); INEGI (2001:267)
Table 3. Examples of monolingual and bilingual language groups: 19702000
Year Nahuatl Maya Zapotecan Mixtec Otomi Totonac
1970 799 394 454 675 283 345 233 235 221 062 124 840
1980 1 376 989 665 377 422 937 323 137 306 190 196 003
1990 1 197 328 713 520 380 690 386 874 280 238 207 876
2000 1 448 936 880 291 451 038 437 873 291 722 240 034
Source: Valds (1995: 89); INEGI (2001: 267)
Table 4. Percent of bilinguals: Six major language groups: 19702000
Year Nahuatl Maya Zapotec Mixtec Otomi Totonac
1970 71.5 86.4 47.2 65.9 82.9 66.1
1980 63.8 86.4 84.1 70.7 84.6 70.1
1990 86.9 92.3 89.1 79.0 93.3 83.6
2000 86.4 92.6 84.1 86.9 90.8 83.9
6. L anguage sur vival and the r ecover y mission of the sixteenth
centur y
The detriment to the native populations was directly responsible for initiat-
ing a trend of language shift. The adverse conditions following the Meso-
american catastrophe were promptly mitigated by favorable language poli-
cies advanced by the mendicant orders, whose members promoted, to a
certain extent, language-in-culture maintenance. Between disaster and
recovery, I identify an intermediate mechanism of survival, which is the
end-result of the tensions between the two. Before 1524, several isolated
friars preached the word of the Christian God to the indigenous peoples of
Mexico. Hernn Corts himself insisted upon the necessity to send mis-
sionaries to convert them. The famous mission of the Twelve Friars Minor
of the Observance (better known as the Twelve Apostles) reached the
coasts of Mexico on May 13 or 14, 1524 and arrived at the Great Tenochtit-
lan on J une 17 or 18 of the same year. Their arrival meant the beginning of
methodical evangelization, for they immediately trained themselves in eth-
nography and linguistics, and learned in addition the native languages of
the regions they gradually discovered. Once the native language was mas-
tered, the problem of explaining religious dogma became paramount. In
order to resolve it, they adopted two complementary solutions: one group
introduced into the Mesoamerican languages all the European words they
thought necessary, while another group translated and avoided paraphras-
ing. The two methods were eventually fused into one, although the former
was preferred. The principal result of the former was that texts written in
the Mesoamerican languages were sprinkled with Latin and Spanish words
(Ricard 1933).
In religious matters, the Mexican mission adopted the concept of the
tabula rasa, given the insistence of the religious orders to suppress the
practices of autochthonous religions. According to Ricard (1933), their
work of translation respected the native personality and soul. Scholarship
initiated early in the colonial period laid the foundation for a rich produc-
tion of texts in and about indigenous languages. The indigenous languages
were perceived as being the most desirable vehicle to spread the Catholic
faith. The scholarship in or about indigenous languages (between 1524 and
1572) amounts to 109 works written by the Franciscans, Dominicans,
Augustinians, and anonymous writers. The recovery mission was intense,
insofar as Nahuatl was used in the domains of education, Christian religion,
scholarship, and local administrative affairs. Although the political puis-
sance of the Nahuas had been considerably diminished, the endeavors of
the mendicant orders were effective in the partial restoration of the Meso-
american languages, especially Nahuatl. Moreover, in the early stage of
missionary linguistics, the friars accomplished a great deal, as they intro-
duced the Latin alphabet and adapted the indigenous languages to reading,
writing, and grammatization. In this period, Nahuatl, Otomi, Matlalzinca,
Totonac, Tarascan, Mixtec, Zapotec, Zoque, and Huastec were covered
(Ricard 1933: 344352). In the century that followed, the polyglot friars
expanded their scholarship in many other languages. By the end of the sev-
enteenth century, scholarly production in Mesoamerican languages began
to decline, although it was still common to re-edit grammars of some of the
largest languages (Cifuentes 1998: 186). These works reflect the erudition
of the times in the areas of philology, lexicography, ethnography, history,
and religion. In this vein, Ricard (1933), Zavala (1996), and Cifuentes
(1998) stress the results of the recovery mission initiated in the sixteenth
century; in contrast, the work of Brice Heath (1972) underscores the trend
of language shift resulting from colonial policy. While the policy of the
Spanish Crown was resolute in promoting Spanish in spite of a period of
tolerance towards Nahuatl many works of scholarship highlight the lan-
guage maintenance trend. In addition to the 109 works above mentioned,
Cifuentes (1998) includes the analysis of grammars, vocabularies, and
descriptions of indigenous languages published throughout the colony. The
manner of writing (from pictographic to alphabetic) and forms of expres-
sion such as songs, theater, titles, art and architecture are also well docu-
mented (Lockhart 1992: 326426).
According to Ricard (1933: ix), the beginning trends of recovery in the
Mexican colony explain the subsequent development of the country: Tout
dabord, le XVIe sicle est la priode fundamentale dans lhistorie et la
formation du Mexique posthispanique: cest la priode o a lieu, sous sa
form la plus aigu, ce clash des civilisations dont aiment parler les eth-
nologues, o tantt se fondent et tantt se juxtaposent les lments amri-
cains et les apports espagnols dont le rapprochement a confr au Mexique
sa personalit actuelle; elle contient en germe toute levolution ultrieure
du pays. [To begin with, the sixteenth century is the fundamental period in
the history and configuration of pre-Hispanic Mexico: it is the period where
the clash of civilizations takes place in its most acute form, where accord-
ing to ethnologists, the New World components and the Spanish contribu-
tions are both fused and juxtaposed, and whose convergence has given
Mexico its present personality. This contains the seed of all the subsequent
evolution of the country]. The new civilization that fused or juxtaposed
Mesoamerican and Western contributions mitigated the outcomes of the
catastrophe. But nowhere was the clash of civilizations more apparent
than in the ways of using language(s) and perceiving religious practices.
Alphabetic writing in the Western tradition is an ancestral practice,
whereas literacy in Romanized indigenous languages was not timely or
opportunely rooted among their speakers, much less widespread. New
forms of writing preserved the codes of the oral languages but dissolved the
relationship that they maintained with their culture and thought, that is,
with orality. Textual materials used for religious instruction alienated the
Indians from their own languages because the religious mission appropri-
ated them one by one in order to give them an alphabetic form completely
distanced from the cultural heritage in which orality was contained. Writing
in indigenous languages turned into a privilege that was the patrimony of
the Church (Pellicer 1993: 25). In this vein, Pellicer (1993: 20) has under-
scored that orality has remained within the group of native speakers for
whom it has been a means of communication, identity, cohesion, and cul-
tural resistance. The varieties used for rituals had the function of reinforc-
ing their social organization as well as the omnipresence of their symbolic
resources. The role of language lay in the interaction of man with his dei-
ties, because placing language at the service of their own culture was more
important than using it to control others culture. The act of governing was
closely linked with the gift of eloquence, as there were social spaces ar-
ranged for use in discursive virtuosity. The skillfully weaved orality had
the function of transmitting inter-generationally the laws, norms, and val-
ues that ensured collective identity. For all these reasons, the ritualized and
cultured varieties of Nahuatl and other indigenous languages became
invaluable tools of catechization. Some of these forms of discourse were
modified with different lexicon, but they retained their structure and liter-
ary style (Pellicer 1993: 21).
In contrast to the evolution of orality, the development of indigenous
writing was determined by the demands of evangelization. Once they knew
the language, missionaries represented its written form in the Latin alpha-
bet. The relative ease with which they imposed an alphabet rooted in a cul-
tural tradition wholly detached from the Mesoamerican civilization was
conducive to symbolic oppression. To an extent, writing was an offensive
strategy that truncated the development of patrimonial writing of the great
Mesoamerican civilization. From then on, these practices can be considered
part of linguistic colonialism (Pellicer 1993: 2425). The colonialism of the
written word did not halt against the steadfastness of the alphabet, given
that changes were introduced in the social functions and in the contents of
the indigenous languages. Words, metaphors and other figures of speech
were given new meanings in order to disseminate the Pater Noster, Salve
Reginas, and all sorts of doctrines and confession books (Pellicer
1993: 25).
Ironically, these texts in the Romanized indigenous languages rescued
pre-Hispanic history, which was narrated by speakers in the native cultured
varieties and rigorously transcribed. It is worth noting, however, that in the
context of the power struggle between civil, religious, and secular authori-
ties, writing in indigenous languages was restricted to functions dealing
with religion and linguistics per se. Indigenous language literacy was
mainly devoted to Christianization designs. This explains why ecclesiastic
colonialism produced hundreds of grammars, dictionaries, and religious
texts in and about indigenous languages. All of them contributed to the
expansion of the precepts of the Church, but the indigenous languages did
not attain a status comparable to Latin or Spanish (Pellicer 1993: 27).
Despite the many restrictions imposed on the education of Indians, some
were able to read, only a few were able to write, and even fewer had access
to prominent roles in the Church that appropriated their languages. For this
reason, they were deprived of an opportunity to participate in activities
conducive to develop literacy in their own languages. In contrast to the
instrumental and informative role to which they were confined, the indige-
nous languages preserved their space in the daily lives of their communi-
ties. As of the seventeenth century, they were vigorously linked to move-
ments of resistance against the vice-regal authorities. In this way,
indigenous literature is linked to orality, and as a consequence, it preserved
traditional values and beliefs, ceremonial styles, symbolic force in thera-
peutic rituals, and also contributed in inaugurating and preserving prophe-
cies that became part of subversive socio-religious movements throughout
the colony (Pellicer 1993: 31). (See also Boone and Mignolo 1994).
7. Confr ontation and r esistance
TheConcilios Provinciales of 1565 and 1585 prohibited the indiscriminate
translation of the gospel into indigenous languages; other restrictions in-
cluded the prohibition to publish books dealing with the government, ritu-
als, and beliefs of indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples were not only
deprived of some of their material commodities, but were also deprived of
their right to have access to knowledge about their own autochthonous
religion and about the newly implanted religion, unless the information
were conveyed in Spanish. These drastic measures may explain why so
many indigenous groups embraced socio-religious movements that are
considered utopian projects and whose aspirations are seen as dimensions
of possible futures that will grant social justice, well-being, and happiness
on earth. Utopias stem from autochthonous peoples and represent their
hopes of transformation of the world; they are endorsed by mythical, pro-
phetic or messianic traditions which are mediated by collective participa-
tion and have become part of the project of de-colonization. Barabas looks
into those that are exclusively rural and that were initiated by indigenous
groups, for they represent both cultural and political resistance. These
movements are not restricted to Mexico, but are the global expression of
Latin American rebellion (e.g., Paraguay, Peru, Guatemala, Colombia, Bra-
zil, and Bolivia). Success of the utopia is a victory of cultural survival, of
never forgotten hopes that are always postponed (1987: 10).
The concept of a tradition awaiting a golden age of a thousand years (a
millennium) in which God will reign, is based on the Apocalypse and the
Revelations of St. J ohn. The millenarian belief is collective, terrene, immi-
nent, ultimate, and catastrophic. Some of these movements have been
labeled millenarian, revivalist, messianic, or nativist. In Latin America,
they are not thoughtless revolts but conscious projects, meditated searches
of material resources and implementation of cultural knowledge conducive
to long-awaited achievements (e.g., the disappearance of colonizers and the
recovery of the life truncated by the conquest). They are the result of inter-
cultural contact situations that assume processes of change (Barabas 1987:
4142). Although it is not necessarily in conflict with the nativist move-
ment, acculturation is carried out by syncretism, while the myth plays a
significant role in the movement because contact provokes a leap to the
past (Barabas 1987: 53). The persistence of millenarian expectations can be
explained by contextual situations of multiple deprivation. The actualiza-
tion of the expectation in concrete junctures of colonial history appears to
be connected to detonators that vary according to culture and context.
These detonators can turn the existence and relationship between groups
into critical situations. Multiple deprivation is the combined effect of pov-
erty and powerlessness. This is not, however, the main factor explaining
the evolution of millenarian movements; the disproportionate relationship
between the expectations of change and the material resources available to
attain them seems to be the major factor. In this scenario, religion provides
sacred means that are perceived as infallible to supersede religion itself.
Deprivation can be, too, psychological, given that the validity of one cul-
ture and one identity is questioned by another dominant culture and identity
(Barabas 1987). Between the sixteenth and the twentieth century, the num-
ber of socio-religious movements that attempted to re-evaluate the culture
and identity of the Mesoamerican peoples and to restore their historical
roots curbed by colonialism amounts to 52. These movements took place
between 1531 and 1761 in the states of Yucatan, Campeche, Quintana Roo,
Chiapas and Tabasco where speakers of Maya predominate. They also
occurred in the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero where speakers of Zapo-
tecan, Mixtecan, Mixe and Chontal can be found as well as in the North
of Mexico (Nayarit, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Sonora, Baja California, Durango
and New Mexico) in addition to San Luis Potos and J alisco (Barabas 1987:
109264). These old-fashioned rebellions are the direct testimony of a cul-
ture of resistance and survival, where orality has endured.
8. T he Souther n fr ontier and post-moder n confr ontation
The regions of Chiapa and Soconusco (see Maps 1 and 2 based on Le Bot
1997: 39, 162) have a history of depopulation similar to that of central
Mexico. In 1528, these areas were inhabited by approximately 220,000
indigenous persons, the number of which diminished considerably due to
epidemics, warfare, and famine. Between 152931 and 1823, more than
twenty epidemics have been documented. The first national census of 1895
reported an indigenous population of 160,000 vis--vis a growing popula-
tion of mixed origin reaching almost 118,000 (De Vos 1994a: 6164). By
the end of the nineteenth century, the groups residing in Chiapas were sig-
nificantly reduced both demographically and psychologically. Tzeltales,
Tzotziles, Tojolabales and Choles were secluded in reducciones (camps
or reservations) where they were isolated from one another and divided to
the extent that their languages have become understood locally as dialects
while other signs of ethnic identity were either drastically transformed or
completely eradicated. Groups of Mayan origin, the Tzeltales and
Tzotziles, have staunchly adhered to their language(s) and culture(s) for
about five hundred years. Only in recent times, however, have these groups
questioned their own identities due primarily to the presence of religious
sects, which have divided them in their own towns and villages (Fbregas
Puig 1994). The aggressive Spanish penetration in this area occurred suc-
cessively in 1524, 1526, 1527, 1528, 1536, 1542, 1559, and 1586 until the
indigenous groups were subdued in 1695. In each of these violent
encroachments, one entire region or one entire community responded with
armed resistance, which then turned into outright insurrection. The insur-
rections are registered as follows: chiapanecas and zoques (15321534);
cancuqueros and other groups of the Zendales (<Tzeltales) (1712); chamu-
las and neighboring Tzotzil-speaking communities (186970) (De Vos
1994a: 68). Other local revolts are also well-known to historians (cf..Garca
de Len 1984; Moscoso 1992). The reprisals imposed after each insurrec-
tion or revolt caused these groups to seek refuge in their homes and rural
fields, where their languages and religion found more favorable conditions
to survive (De Vos 1994a: 71).
The history of independent Chiapas is not necessarily similar to that of
independent Mexico. In 1821, Guatemala gained its sovereignty from Spain
at the same time that it split from Mexico. Chiapas attempted to follow the
Guatemalan route, but failed to become a sovereign nation. In 1824, Chia-
pas was annexed by Mexico while the Spanish-speaking emergent group in
power promoted Spanish in public education and launched a campaign
against the Indian. In contrast to the rest of Mexico where Indians began
to (re)gain rights in landholdings and education the indigenous peoples
from Chiapas turned into quasi-captive slaves in the fincas (farms) of the
local hacendados (landowners) (De Vos 1994b: 151). Some native groups
of the area could escape the intolerable conditions imposed by the hacen-
dados, and as a result, they secluded themselves in the mountains or the
forest. In their isolated enclaves, the same groups rioting in the colony
organized conspiracies that were again extinguished with undue force.
Since the 1930s, indigenous peoples (speakers of Tzetzal, Tzotzil, Chol,
Tojolabal, and others) have steadily migrated to the subregion of La
Lacandona known as Las Caadas (The Canyons). The majority of
the new migrants or colonos escaped the opprobrious conditions of the
fincas in which they were working. Consequently, the population of the
Lacandona (see Maps 1 and 2) has grown dramatically since 1920 when the
small towns of Altamirano, Las Margaritas, Ocosingo and Palenque were
inhabited by less than 11,000 people. The total population of these four
municipalities in 1920 was merely 20,089; in 2000, it reached 376,515.
The accelerated growth of the region stands in direct proportion to its
ecological deterioration (De Vos 2002: 3637). An interesting aspect of the
indigenous peoples of Chiapas is their religious diversity. Since the 1970s
the number of individuals of Catholic affiliation began to decline in direct
proportion to the increase of those identified as Protestant or Evangelical,
Map 1. Regions, ethnic groups, and migrations in Chiapas
Map 2. The scenario of the zapatista uprising
or others (Leyva and Ascensio 1996: 6869). Formerly separated from one
other, today these groups identify themselves around a common denomina-
tor: ancestral oppression. A new identity has emerged vis--vis the cattle
owners and hacendados of Spanish origin (historically known as kax-
lanes (< castellanos). The movement for the new ethnicity became active
in the 1970s; those involved in the movement had assimilated all sorts of
political and religious ideologies ranging from Maoism to liberation theol-
ogy.
9. T he languages of Chiapas
In 1990, immediately before the zapatista uprising, the indigenous lan-
guages of Chiapas in descending quantitative order were the following:
Tzeltal (258,153), Tzotzil (226,681) Chol (114,460), Tojolabal (35,567),
Zoque (34,810), Kanjobal (10,349), Mam (8,725), Zapotec (2,721), and
some others with less than 1000 speakers (e.g., J acaltec, Mayan, Nahuatl).
In 1990, eighteen languages are identified while two groups are unspecified
making a total of 716,012 speakers; 169,593 more were added, inasmuch as
the 1990 census appended a new variable that read occupants of a house-
hold aged 04 where the head of household or spouse was a speaker of an
indigenous languages (Valds 1995: 126). Ten years later, the XII Censo
general (INEGI 2001: 27172, 292) registered 52 languages and three un-
specified language groups making a total of 809,592 speakers over five
years plus 170,022 aged 04. Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Chol, and Tojolabal are the
largest language groups (belonging to the Maya family) at the end of the
twentieth century (see Table 5). Tzotziles are found in the highlands or Los
Altos and spread out towards the Northeast near the border with Tabasco.
They are concentrated in Chamula, Zinacantn, Chenalh, and Simojovel
and have the most effective territorial mobility in the state. Their language
is closely related to Tzeltal and distantly related to Yucatec Mayan and
Lacandon. Tzeltal represents the largest language group in Chiapas. Tzel-
tales are found in the municipalities of Ocosingo, Chiln, and Altamirano,
but also in Tenejapa and Oxchuc, and are inclined towards Protestantism.
Choles are found in Tila, Tumbal, Sabanilla, Palenque, and Salto de Agua.
Chol belongs to the Maya family and is related to Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Lacan-
don, Tojolabal, and Yucatec Mayan. There are three varieties of Chol
(spoken in Tila, Tumbal and Sabanilla) which are mutually intelligible. In
addition, Tojolabales are found in the municipios of Las Margaritas but
also in Comitn, Trinitaria, Altamirano and La Independencia; Tojolabal is
related to Kanjobal, but also to Tzeltal and Tzotzil. Finally, Zoque does not
belong to the Mayan family but is related to Mixe on the border with Oax-
aca and Veracruz (Fbregas 1994). (See also the The Mexican indigenous
languages and the national censuses: 19702000 by Cifuentes and Monte-
zuma in this volume).
Table 5. Monolingual language groups (mostly spoken in Chiapas): National
data: (19302000)
Year Tzeltal Tzotzil Chol Tojolabal Zoque
1930 32 359 26 013 15 125 4 771 9 151
1940 34 502 49 194 19 499 6 882 6 581
1950 31 856 44 103 18 898 n.a. 4 804
1960 55 951 57 235 32 815 3 779 7 683
1970 57 314 50 329 30 434 4 296 7 560
1980 101 108 58 073 38 169 6 810 5 103
1990 94 560 78 158 38 204 7 707 4 576
2000 115 295 118 037 47 490 11 174 4 714
Source: Valds and Menndez(1987: 37); Valds (1995: 89); INEGI (2001 : 267)
For many decades, Chiapas has ranked among the ten most indianized
states, but has never been second or third. Between 1930 and 2000, states
such as Campeche, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, or Yucatan have been ranked
above Chiapas. Quantitative data on SIL between 1930 and 2000 indicate
that Spanish is not drastically displacing the indigenous languages. Surpris-
ingly, the indigenous languages keep growing, especially among those
groups which have had a long history of resistance. Table 5 shows that the
major languages of Chiapas have experienced losses and gains, only to
recover (except for Zoque) sizeable groups of full-fledged monolinguals
between 19702000. In the case of Tzeltal, the number of speakers more
than doubled between 1970 and 1980 and its growth was sustained in the
next two decades. The growth looks even healthier when the number of
monolinguals and bilinguals is examined (see Table 6). The increases of
Tzotzil, Chol and Tojolabal were less dramatic. The changes in the decade
19701980 may be explained by deficiencies in the census data-taking,
given that the estimates for Tzeltal and Tzotzil were underreported in 1970
(Valds 1989: 177). Nevertheless, the official estimates for monolinguals
and bilinguals in the past 30 years show changes that may be interpreted as
bilingualism with language maintenance rather than bilingualism with lan-
guage shift (see Tables 5 and 6). Questions about the communities of sur-
vivors, their language characteristics, and the local circumstances which led
them to maintain their language(s) and culture(s) can be raised, for there is
a tendency towards bilingualism rather than unidirectional language shift.
Table 6. Monolingual and bilingual language groups (mostly spoken in Chiapas):
National data: (19702000)
Year Tzeltal Tzotzil Chol Tojolabal Zoque
1970 99 412 95 383 73 253 13 303 58 452
1980 215 145 133 389 96 776 22 331 5 040
1990 261 084 229 303 128 240 36 011 43 160
2000 284 826 297 561 161 766 37 986 51 464
Source: a. 1970 and 1980 data derived fromValds (1987: 37). b. 1990 data derived fromValds (1995: 89);
c. 2000 data derived fromINEGI (2001: 267).
The differentials between bilinguals and monolinguals amongst the largest
language groups of SIL nationwide are larger than amongst the language
groups in Chiapas. As a case in point, Nahuatl, Maya Yucatec, Zapotec,
Mixtec, Otomi, and Totonac have higher ratios of bilinguals than the lan-
guage groups in Chiapas (cf. Table 4). In contrast, the raw figures from
Table 6 for the decades 19702000 show the totals of monolinguals and
bilinguals; when monolinguals from Table 6 are subtracted from monolin-
guals in Table 5, the percentage of bilingual speakers is revealed in Table
7. For example, in 1980, the total for Tzeltal was 215,145; when this total
is subtracted from the raw figure of monolinguals, we have a difference of
101,108, which represents 53%. In the following decade, the growth rate of
Tzeltal bilinguals increased to 63.8%, but decreased to 59.6% according to
the 2000 report. The descending trend of bilinguals is true for Tzotlzil and
Tojolabal.
There are some other interesting trends among the SIL of Chiapas. Men
tend to be more bilingual than women. Whereas the largest language
groups introduced in Table 2 and 3 are more balanced when it comes to the
differentials of bilingualism by gender, the languages of Chiapas show
larger differentials. For example, in the 2000 report, of the total bilingual
speakers of Chol (92,160), 53,463 are men and only 38,697 are women.
Similarly, of the 157,027 Tzeltal bilinguals, 91,563 are men and 65,464 are
women; in like manner, bilingual speakers of Tzotzil amount to 167,154; of
these 99,764 are men and 67,390 are women; finally, of the 25,479 Tojola-
bales, 14,604 are men and 10,875 are women (INEGI 2001: 271272).
Table 7. Percent of bilinguals of the languages of Chiapas. National data:
(19702000)
Year Tzeltal Tzotzil Chol Tojolabal
1970 42.3 47.2 58.5 67.7
1980 53.0 56.5 60.5 69.5
1990 63.8 65.9 70.2 78.5
2000 59.6 60.3 70.6 70.5
10. Chiapas. T he counter point
Samuel Ruiz Garca was the thirty-fourth bishop of San Cristbal de las
Casas (cultural capital of Chiapas), where he began to envision the end of
ecclesiastical imperialism in the Third World. The Second Vatican Council
(196265) and the Medelln Conference of Latin American bishops (1968)
opened new horizons for the peoples of Chiapas, who thus responded to an
invitation to tell him what they expected of the church (National Catholic
Reporter 2000: 1). In three days of discussion in four Mayan languages, the
1250 delegates to the Congress of the Indigenous (1974) defined a cate-
chesis that would encourage the recovery of and respect for the peoples
historical memory, its ministries, symbols and values, and specifically the
development of indigenous clergy (National Catholic Reporter 2000: 1
2). The option for the poor as an inescapable element of the Christian
commitment merged as a dominant theme amongst the bishops of Latin
America. The longstanding practice of imposing European forms in the
evangelization of other cultures was openly questioned (MacEoin 1996:
24). The renewed commitment of the Diocese was to incarnate the gospel
in the cultures of the various communities, even if the linguistic diversity of
the state was in itself a challenge. Gods salvific plan was revealed to the
people of Chiapas so they could become agents of their own historical lib-
eration. These views were recently and publicly reiterated by former
Bishop Samuel Ruiz (Ruiz 2002). Since the 1970s the rights of the indige-
nous peoples to obtain land, education, and health, to organize their own
cooperatives, to secure adequate transport from farm to market, and to
process and commercialize their products was proclaimed by the Congress
of the Indigenous. They were the same demands the Zapatista rebels
would formulate 20 years later (National Catholic Reporter 2000: 2).
Indeed, twenty years later, the same day that the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was enacted (J anuary 1, 1994), an indigenous
guerrilla army in Chiapas declared war on the Mexican government. Rebels
from the Zapatista National Liberation Army (Ejrcito Zapatista de Lib-
eracin Nacional, known as EZLN or simply EZ) took over the mayoral
offices of Altamirano, Chanal, Huitan, Ocosingo, Oxchuc, San Cristbal de
las Casas, and Las Margaritas (De Vos 2002: Map 38). The unexpected
declaration of war was followed by a proclamation of the EZLN in the
Tzotzil language (followed by the Spanish version) emphasizing that the
war was the last resort, given that the Mexican government had been carry-
ing out an undeclared war for decades. The reaction of the local Roman
Catholic officials was to offer to mediate between the rebels and the
authorities, in spite of the fact that the latter accused the members of the
clergy of being followers and instigators of the theology of liberation
movement. Bishop Samuel Ruiz became the peacemaker and his prompt
intervention helped to prevent increasing violence.
11. M ultiple depr ivation
The reasons behind the uprising lay in the awareness of multiple depriva-
tion. While governmental policy favored large-scale producers to the det-
riment of small-scale producers, privatization led to exclusion of small-
business owners and workers. Additionally, the withering away of ejidos
(common land shares) was not only linked to basic survival but also to
religious and cultural identity; finally, crop price supports and subsidization
of primary goods were part of the new economic order linked to NAFTA.
Multiple deprivation is more far-reaching, insofar as the state of Chiapas is
well known for being heavily endowed with natural resources. It contains
untapped petroleum fields and reserves of oil; for example, between 1984
and 1992, Petrleos Mexicanos drilled 19 oil wells in the Lacandona (De
Vos 2002: 54). In this region, there are also precious woods, marketable
flora and fauna, hydrocarbons, and minerals (De Vos 2002: 49). Twenty
hydroelectric plants were recently built. Gas and minerals such as uranium,
iron, aluminum, copper, and others, can be found, too, in the state. In addi-
tion, Chiapas provides 55% of the national hydroelectric power; it has 30%
of the water resources nationwide; and it is a major producer of coffee,
corn, and cattle. Finally, its biodiversity makes it an attractive laboratory
for experimentation with data on the planets environmental imbalances,
erosion of natural species, genetic engineering, pharmaceutical products,
and the like.
In sharp contrast to the richness of the state, in 1990, 30% of all homes
and 90% of indigenous households of Chiapas were without electricity;
also, 90% of indigenous households were without running water. The 1990
statistics on educational attainment are equally deplorable: the average
number of years of schooling only four represented the absolutely low-
est in the country, three years below the national average and five full years
below Mexico City. Illiteracy rates reached 30% of the population age 15
and older; 32% did not complete elementary school; 30% of children
between the ages of six and 14 did not attend school; and only 18% of the
population age 15 and older had completed secondary school (Pra 1994:
310311).
Celebrating Mexicos entry to North American democracy and mod-
ernity, the neo-indigenous rebels attracted the attention of the world be-
cause they were searching to re-invent themselves. Many thought the con-
flict would go on for a long period, but according to former Bishop Ruiz,
no one was able to foresee the real magnitude of the event and we [were]
surprised when it lasted 11 days actually eight days (Muoz 1998). The
armed conflict was short because the Zapatistas never tried to gain power
as the other guerrilla movements did. What they were trying to do was to
shake up the socio-political conscience of the citizens of this country (...).
They had the social and political power to be heard by Mexican and inter-
national public opinion (Muoz 1998).
The Chiapas confrontation does not originate, however, from the socio-
religious movements of the past, although the notion of multiple depriva-
tion is put in bold relief in their demands. The neo-zapatista uprising
belongs to the lineage of movements of indigenous liberation that emerged
in Latin America during the past three decades (i.e., Shuar in Ecuador,
Katar in Bolivia; Consejo Regional Indgena in Colombia; or Rigoberta
Manch in Guatemala). Their common denominator is the notion of a new
modernity which links identity and integration; culture and economy; uto-
pia and pragmatism; reason and heart; peculiarity and universality (Le Bot
1997: 19). The political roots of the Chiapas insurrection can be traced to
Votn (the legendary leader of some indigenous Chiapas groups) and Emil-
iano Zapata (18791919), the southern agrarian leader who played a key
role in the Mexican Revolution (19101921) (Le Bot 1997: 74). The long-
range neo-zapatista agenda was better articulated in reference to political
power, democracy, civil society, community, nation, and the emergence of
the indigenous individual as a new subject of reflection. The political
leader of the neo-zapatistas still is the mysterious Sub-Commander Marcos
(an urbane intellectual with training in guerrilla movements); their short-
range goal was to design new ways of organizing the democracia comuni-
taria in communities which had only had experience with a traditional
authoritarian model (Le Bot 1997: 83). Some of the internal contradictions
of the neo-zapatistas were confronted and resolved via pragmatic solutions
such as the inclusion of women and the consideration of diverse view-
points, practices which were at times in conflict with local customs. Pre-
sumably, the neo-zapatismo was an actor in the process of democratization
and contributed to its advancement. The long-term goal was the construc-
tion of a plural democracy resulting from the convergence of two move-
ments: democratization of indigenous communities and democratization of
the national society. The latter movement led to a reform of the political
system, which in turn embraced the legitimate competition of more than
two major parties (Le Bot 1997: 8494). A multi-party system has indeed
transformed the nation, thanks in part to the awakening of the national con-
science resulting from the Chiapas uprising and from the civic movement
of the Mexican northern states (particularly Chihuahua and Baja California
Norte). The electoral reform of the late 1980s leading to a multi-party
system was pioneered in Cd. J urez, Chihuahua and consummated in 2000.
The most dynamic issue in the post-1994 Mexico continues to be Mexi-
can identity, inasmuch as the neo-zapatistas claimed to be Mexican indige-
nous before claiming to be Mayas. The intense discussion over cultural and
political autonomy, recognition of the democracia comunitaria, consue-
tudinary law, and bilingual education resulted in a document known as
Acuerdos de San Andrs Larrinzar or San Andrs Larrinzar Accords
(henceforthSALA) which was endorsed by the EZLN and representatives of
the federal government on February 16, 1996. The federal government
soon noticed, however, that putting the SALA into practice would hinder
the privatization and de-nationalization of the rich natural resources of the
state, and consequently, reneged on its own commitment. This brought the
peace negotiations to a standstill (see also Pellicer et al. in this volume).
12. T he content of the San Andr s L ar r inzar Accor ds (1996)
TheSALA are proposed constitutional amendments in the state of Chiapas
dealing with issues ranging from human rights to the administration of
natural resources. I highlight herein only those proposals that are directly or
indirectly related to language and culture. These commitments make con-
cessions in the following areas: Recognition of the indigenous peoples
right to self-determination and autonomy as collective entities with differ-
ent cultures. Promotion of autonomy in accordance with the additions and
amendments to the General Constitution of the Republic; recognition of the
multicultural composition of the state of Chiapas, which originates from the
presence of the indigenous peoples (entities which enjoy historical conti-
nuities with the pre-Columbian societies and which maintain their own
identity on the basis of their own territory, culture, and economic character-
istics). The SALA give rights to use, promote, and develop the languages,
cultures, customs and traditions of the state; in addition, rights are granted
to use and enjoy the natural resources of their territories. Rights are given
to indigenous women, on an equal footing with men, in all matters dealing
with the governance and development of indigenous peoples. In addition,
guarantees are given to the indigenous peoples to use their own mother
tongue in statements and affidavits, which must be recorded with a transla-
tion into Spanish. These statements and affidavits in indigenous languages
shall be recorded on audio tape, which shall be in turn attached to the cor-
responding file. Guarantees are also given to appoint interpreters who
command both Spanish and indigenous languages; the interpreters are re-
quired to share and respect the culture and the indigenous juridical system.
With respect to bilingual education, the SALA declare the recognition of the
multicultural nature of the state; the right of the indigenous peoples to pro-
mote and spread the components which make up their culture, thus creating
the need to establish bilingual and intercultural educational programs.
Finally, the Mexican State guarantees an education that is respectful of
their knowledge, traditions, and forms of organization. The indigenous
peoples have priority in the decision-making process involving content
associated with regional and cultural diversity of school programs (For a
full text of the SALA, see Instituto Nacional Indigenista (2000) or
www.ezln.org/san_andres/acuerdos.enhtm).
13. Resistance, social change and language change
It has been a decade now since the short-lived insurrection in Chiapas took
place. J ournalism and scholarship on the topic of Chiapas have promoted
an editorial boom of unprecedented proportions. It is thus worthwhile to
explore the question of whether the persistence of some of the languages of
Chiapas is only coincidental, or if it is associated with the socio-historical
determinants of survival. Moreover, in spite of the deleterious conditions
imposed on the peoples of Chiapas, the population of SIL keeps growing
and makes a sizeable fraction of the total population of the state. In 1990,
immediately before the insurrection, it was as high as in 1930 (see Table 8).
The decade 19902000 witnessed, however, a significant decrease of 6%,
but the losses are compensated by the decrease of bilinguals amongst the
two major groups: Tzeltal and Tzotzil (see Table 7 above).
Table 8. SIL and total population of Chiapas: 19302000
Year Total Population Speakers of IL 5+ % Total Population
1930 529 983 139 532 26.3
1940 679 885 187 139 32.0
1950 907 026 198 087 26.2
1960 1 210 870 381 757 38.0
1970 1 569 053 287 836 22.2
1980 2 084 717 492 700 27.7
1990 3 210 496 716 012 26.4
2000 3 920 892 809 592 20.6
Source: a.193080 data derived fromValds (1995: 2126) b. 1990 data derived fromValds (1995: 7476)
c. 2000 data derived fromINEGI (2001: 267).
Bilingualism with language maintenance is a trend prevailing in Chiapas
more so than in the rest of the country, but in the context of survival it is
even more significant, given that the conditions of multiple deprivation
have been exacerbated for centuries. The raw figures of Table 8 clearly
show that the two major languages of Chiapas have ascended quantitatively
between 1930 and 2000 while Table 9 shows the growth of monolinguals
and bilinguals in the period 19802000 (see Maps 1 and 2).
Table 9. Monolinguals and bilinguals: State of Chiapas estimates: 19802000
Year Tzeltal Tzotzil Chol Tojolabal
1980 212 520 133 825 76 959 22 222
1990 258 153 226 681 114 468 35 567
2000 278 577 291 550 140 806 37 667
Source: Valds (1987: Cuadro XV); Valds (1995: 9496) and INEGI (2001: 267)
Finally, the significance of bilingualism with language maintenance may be
examined in the specific communities where the insurrection took place.
The municipalities mentioned as foci, loci or simply related to the 1994
insurrection are the following: Altamirano, Chamula, Chanal, Larrinzar,
Las Margaritas, Ocosingo, Palenque, Sabanilla, San Cristbal de Las Casas,
Simojovel, where speakers of Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Tojolabal, Zoque, Chol or
Kanjobal are either bilingual or monolingual. In Palenque and
Sabanilla the predominant language is Chol; in Las Margaritas is Tojolabal;
Tzotzil prevails in Chamula, Larrinzar, San Cristbal and Simojovel;
while Tzeltal is the predominant language in Altamirano, Chanal and
Ocosingo.
In 1990, the total population of these municipalities ranged from
121,012 in Ocosingo to 7,159 in Chanal. Some of the municipalities (e.g.,
Larrinzar) and others (e.g., Chenalh, Ocotepec, and Zinacantn) are
100% populated with SIL. This is not, however, the most important vari-
able explaining their resistance to a pronounced language shift, given that
there are other municipalities in the country that are entirely populated by
indigenous people (in the states of Oaxaca, Veracruz and Yucatn, to name
a few examples). Adherence to the cultura propia and the historical experi-
ence with resistance may explain language maintenance with moderate
rates of bilingualism. Adherence to the cultura propia and the attitude of
resistance may be considered one variable, which is coupled with the con-
ditions of multiple deprivation. When all these variables are factored in, the
explanation underlying language maintenance comes to light. Some may
argue that the proportion of monolinguals is clearly lower than that of
bilinguals and that the process of language shift is incessant. This is the
preferred interpretation among those who consider language shift as a proc-
ess apart from language maintenance. In my view, maintenance and shift
are equivalent to bilingualism with maintenance or one single macro-
societal trend of stable bilingualism. Language functions and language
attitudes are as important or more important than demographic growth. In
this connection, it is also significant to explore these two phenomena.
The multilingual and multicultural milieu of Chiapas has contributed to
creating a scenario in which languages and dialects play their own roles
and have their own functions. Reports about the region of La Lacandona
reveal intriguing sociolinguistic patterns (Leyva and Ascencio 1996: 96
103). In these diverse communities, inter-ethnic marriages are not only
common but display interesting tendencies. In a nuclear family, for exam-
ple, the mother uses her own language in domestic domains and with her
children, but she has to learn her husbands language and use it when he is
the interlocutor. In this way, the husbands language becomes the wifes
second language. The child of bilingual or multilingual homes can distin-
guish the role(s) of three languages; for example, he/she can use Chol with
his/her mother; Tzeltal in the community, and Spanish with the teacher (in
a classroom setting).
Women are not as multilingual as men tend to be, except when they live
in areas with accessible roads. In contrast, men are more often engaged in
political or religious activities that require fluency in several languages. For
example, a Tzotzil coming from the highlands is elected in his community
as pre-deacon, but his parishioners and catechists may be speakers of Tzel-
tal. In a case like this, he would have to study Tzeltal as an adult. But a
Chol speaker involved in political leadership may end up learning Tzeltal,
even though he might have been previously acquainted with Tzotzil. At the
level of the community, the majority group puts pressure on speakers so
that the majority language is used in public domains (e.g., the sports court,
church, store or school). The majority language can vary according to re-
gion or sub-region. The language of the classroom may be Casta (< cas-
tilla), i.e., the socio-ethnic regional variety of Spanish. In some regions or
subregions, the lingua franca can be Tzeltal or Spanish. For example,
members of the general assembly of the Union of Unions of ejidatarios
(<ejido) discuss their business in Tzeltal simply because there are more
speakers of Tzeltal or militant Tzeltaleros. This language represents the
needed cohesion in confronting Spanish speakers. In this context, Tzeltal
can be conceived as an instrument of cultural and political autonomy
(Leyva and Ascencio 1996: 101). Finally, indigenous languages are
learned, too, by caxlanes (Spanish-speaking intermediaries) who are always
willing and ready to negotiate the price of agro-products.
14. L anguage attitudes
The indigenous peoples from Chiapas had been working on consciousness
raising for several decades: one strain of this process came from the libera-
tion theology movement of the 1970s, which helped communities and
individuals to give careful consideration to reflection on the individual,
collective self, and the definition of a reality for each existential situation.
The other strains originate from different ideologies which infiltrated the
communities. The indigenous peoples of Chiapas have been historically
resistant in assimilating to the Mexican mainstream. The conditions
described above fortified their attitude of loyalty to their ancestral lan-
guage(s) even when they tend to be bilingual. This attitude of resistance
appears in the SALA, in which they demand rights to take control of their
own cultures and languages in various domains. The unprecedented claims
clearly show that individuals and groups working together in their commu-
nities had developed the needed awareness of the roles that their languages
could play in the process of democratization. Cultural democracy for them-
selves and for future generations was one of the goals of their struggle. But
they did not get to this stage by pure chance. The attitudes of loyalty to-
gether with the conditions of multiple deprivation were conducive to con-
ceiving a Stage 1, similar to that proposed in the model of reversing lan-
guage shift, the ideal stage representing the attainment of cultural
democracy in the GIDS scale. The SALA reveal this philosophy. By ques-
tioning the Mexican Establishment and its links to the international econ-
omy, the indigenous peoples of Chiapas resolved to demand their right to
return to their autochthonous lifestyles in order to (re)assert their languages
and ethnicities. In this connection, historians have already documented the
existence of autonomous municipalities that emerged in the late 1990s, to
wit: Libertad de los Pueblos Mayas, San Pedro Michoacn, Tierra y Liber-
tad, 17 de Noviembre, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Ernesto Che Guevara,
Maya, Francisco Gmez, Flores Magn, San Manuel, San Salvador, and
J os Mara Morelos y Pavn (De Vos 2002: 380). Self-proclaimed autono-
mous communities have the right to implement their own bilingual-
intercultural programs of bilingual education. Although Mexican law
accords certain kinds of autonomy to municipalities and other entities, the
notion of autonomy was not discussed in Mexico before 1994. While it is
true that indigenous communities in Mexico enjoy a certain degree of de
facto autonomy in the practices of customary law (ley de usos y costum-
bres) inherited from the colonial era, the government found it convenient to
allow them to run some of their internal affairs under traditional authorities.
The idea of legally recognized collective rights of autonomy was the
most subversive issue that gained momentum in the last decade of the
twentieth century.
15. Conclusion
I have explored the socio-historical determinants that have impinged upon
the survival of Mexican indigenous languages from the time of the major
catastrophe of Tenochtitlan. First, the early discourse of transculturation
initiated during the conquest does not seem to be directly or indirectly
related to language shift. There is not a single piece of evidence indicating
that such discourse accelerated or even affected the process of translingui-
fication. In fact, the conquest of Mexico is followed by a prolific scholar-
ship in and about indigenous languages. The track record of the recovery
mission is so impressive that the experts of today still rely upon the original
colonial sources in order to retrieve solid information on the indigenous
languages. Nonetheless, as of the end of the sixteenth century, colonial
erudition was effective in the process of disenfranchisement of speakers of
indigenous languages who were not en masse trained in writing their own
languages despite the fact that many were reconditioned and readapted to
fit Westernized codes.
Second, socio-religious movements became the preferred outlets for
discontent that speakers of indigenous languages expressed, and who con-
tinually dreamed of recovering the past free of colonial domination. This
strategy seems to have been a more effective plan of survival, which in
effect, helped maintain language and culture. The demographic recovery of
speakers of MIL after the catastrophe of Tenochtitlan has not been com-
mensurate with the irreparable losses of the past 500 years. However,
speakers of indigenous languages have resorted to two equally effective
strategies of survival: language maintenance and language shift. Given that
bilinguals are normally distinguished nationwide from Spanish-only speak-
ers, maintenance with bilingualism is a dual strategy of survival associated
with resistance on the one hand, and adaptation to the environment, on the
other. It need not be said that different degrees of bilingualism can be in-
terpreted as different degrees of adaptation and resistance. Finally, the
short-lived uprising in Chiapas was introduced in this article as a case of
post-modern confrontation pursuing both autonomy and cultural democ-
racy. In order to pursue these two goals, the powerless indigenous peoples
from Chiapas were forced to seriously question the notion of national
identity.
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Par t I I . L anguage policy
Chapter 5
Legislating diver sity in twenty-fir st centur y M exico
Dora Pellicer, Brbara Cifuentes and Carmen Herrera
Abstr act
This article contextualizes and examines the General Law on Linguistic
Rights of Indigenous Peoples (LGDLPI) which has been in effect as of
March 2003. The Law derives from a double juncture: firstly, the emer-
gence of international and national declarations in favor of rights for minor-
ity groups and the creation of equal legislation; secondly, the negotiations
of the Project for the Legislation of Indian Rights and Cultures (1996),
which was elaborated with the participation of representatives from, and
sympathizers of Mexicos indigenous peoples movements, brought to-
gether by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, and the Commission
for Concordance and Pacification (COCOPA) as the governmental repre-
sentative. The rejection of this Project of Law by the Mexican Senate gave
rise to the Constitutional Reforms on Indian Affairs (2001), which finally
became law in 2002. The LGDLPIs activities within Mexicos Chamber of
Congress began against a backdrop of tension, aroused by this new legisla-
tive basis for indigenous peoples. Such activities made use of two pre-
existent proposals in this area. In its definitive version, the LGDLPI clearly
reflects pronouncements calling for equality, acknowledgment and respect
for all languages, as well as the universal nature of linguistic rights. This
legislation also includes some of the most deeply felt demands amongst the
Indian teachers and intellectuals who collaborated in its design: the obliga-
tory nature of bilingual schooling, the use of Mexican indigenous lan-
guages in legal affairs, their standardization, and their usage in the mass
media. Despite such innovations, many of the rights and considerations laid
down by the LGDLPI ignore the adverse environment faced by such lan-
guages and the minoritized populations who employ them, while providing
scarce resources to overcome discrimination, fragmentation, and language
shift in the end. The Laws limited scope derives from its subordinate posi-
tion to the Reforms in Indian Affairs, the normativity and structure of the
Ministry for Public Education, and the Federal Radio and Television Legis-
lations. Finally, it should be noted that the participation of Indian peoples
and communities in official plans and programs destined for the preserva-
128 Dora Pellicer, Brbara Cifuentes and Carmen Herrera
tion and development of indigenous languages remains largely conditioned
to the nature of specific elected government officials. Paradoxically, the
responsibility for the maintenance of indigenous tongues continues to re-
dound fundamentally on their users.
1. I ntr oduction
Recent estimates suggest that there are over six thousand tongues scattered
around the approximately 200 States, which make up the contemporary
political planet. The same estimates also suggest that 50% of the global
population uses no more than 20 of these languages, and that 300 at best
are used by over a million speakers. It should be noted that an average of
25 of the so-called minority languages disappear every year (Matthews
1996). Faced by an increasingly hostile environment and the pervasive
pressure of majority tongues, not only by official State governments, but
also by the globalization of cultures and economies, in recent decades many
of the affected groups have called for the type of legislation that might
stimulate the peaceful co-existence of communities. These groups ac-
knowledge the universal validity of both individual and collective linguistic
rights
Mexico is certainly no stranger to this landscape. Currently, Spanish is
the countrys dominant language in demographic, economic and cultural
terms, although it co-exists with over 60 indigenous languages, employed
by some 10% of the total population (see Cifuentes and Moctezuma, in this
collection). The majority of Amerindian peoples still lack a standardized
written system and school grammars for their languages, whose oral use is
as best limited to communal and family circles, while remaining wholly
absent from the broader context of national life. Such features are the result
of a persistent asymmetry in terms of relations and communicative contacts
between Spanish and indigenous language speakers during an initial period
of Spanish colonialism, and a subsequent era which witnessed the birth of a
monolingual, centralized national State.
Almost two centuries after the establishment of a Mexican State (1821),
its legislature has finally acknowledged the issue of plurilingualism through
the General Law on Linguistic Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Ley General
de Derechos Lingsticos de los Pueblos Indgenas, or LGDLPI), which
came into force on March 13, 2003. This law was born amidst a heated
process of discussion and mobilization regarding the presence of indige-
nous peoples in the national political and economic arenas, and the search
for a fairer, more equalized legislation. This article explores the challenges
faced by the LGDLPI, its limitations, particularly in view of international
proposals regarding linguistic rights, its trajectory and evolution, and fi-
nally, the extent of the commitments acquired by the Mexican State.
2. T he tr eatment of linguistic diver sity in national states
Linguistic displacement is not a natural phenomenon. Todays dispropor-
tionately high rate of multilingualism in the Western world is largely a
result of the processes of minorization undergone by languages over centu-
ries of Colonial expansion together with the consolidation of modern na-
tional states. The linguistic nationalism that characterize such states have,
more than at any other time, propitiated the gradual disappearance of num-
berless cultural and linguistic codes of symbolic value, employed by their
users as a means to interact with the world and with society. The loss of
every single language entails the disappearance of discursive practices that
form a part of the shared memories of speakers, the basis of their sense of
belonging and identity.
Faced with the cultural and linguistic diversity of the populations settled
across the national territories, modern legislations have favored the estab-
lishment of single languages as a means to construct shared values and
practices. The promotion of a legislative system based around the individ-
ual, with an aspiration for egalitarianism among all members of a national
state, also resulted in the extension of a common language. As the tongue
of the most powerful and prestigious social sectors, its obligatory nature
derived legitimacy from its status as an emblem of national authenticity.
Such premises were designed to weaken particular forms of social differen-
tiation, while strengthening the uniformity of those communicative inter-
changes required for the maintenance of the State and the consolidation of a
national community.
This centralizing and unifying conception has nonetheless tolerated the
persistence of linguistic diversity. An overview of modern constitutions
will allow us to distinguish at least three avenues, which have been ex-
plored as means to solve the problems raised by linguistic plurality: (a)
Forbidden diversity, in which the uses and functions of any language other
than the official are forbidden throughout a national territory. An example
is the Turkish Constitution of 1982: Articles 28/2, 42/9, which prohibit the
teaching, publication and transmission of any mother tongue other than
Turkish. At the end of 1991, the governmental coalition formed by conser-
vatives and social democrats, proposed a revision of the laws concerning
education and the media; however, since 1994 those having to do with de-
terring terrorism that particularly affect Kurd minorities have constituted a
barrier against any means of linguistic democracy (Gauthier et al. 1993;
Skutnabb-Kangas et al. 1994). (b) Ignored diversity, which is the position
taken by all those constitutions which lack any form of linguistic disposi-
tion, either with respect to the official language or to that of immigrant or
autochtonous minorities within its territory. These are the cases, among
others, of the Chilean constitution (1988) and the United States Constitu-
tion (1789) (Gauthier et al. 1993). (c) Accepted diversity, in which the State
is forced to accept that the imposition of a single language does not con-
solidate, but divides the people and their nation, deepening inequalities
among the range of ethnic groups that configure the total community. We
can identify three specific scenarios of the latter type: (1) Officialized
plurilingualism between languages and communities on similar socioeco-
nomic levels, the historic trajectory of standardized tongues. Examples of
this include the Canadian Constitutional Law (1982) that recognized the
official status of English and French, and Article 3 of the Spanish Constitu-
tion (1978), which acknowledges the co-official status of autonomous lin-
guistic communities (Gauthier et al. 1993). (2) The acceptance of mi-
norized languages under certain conditions as in the last Peruvian
Constitution written in the 1990s where Quechua and Aymara are official
only in the areas where there are high concentration of indigenous speak-
ers. (3) The constitutional establishment of linguistic equality between
communities or peoples from radically different social and cultural back-
grounds. Such is the case of Mexico, which has recently passed new legis-
lation on linguistic rights where indigenous languages as well as Spanish
are declared national languages. Some challenges deriving from this con-
stitutional text are the social and cultural disparity of most indigenous peo-
ples with the dominant models of modernity and the geographic dispersion
of this conglomerate.
3. Human r ights and linguistic r ights
The acceptance of linguistic diversity forms part of a continuing history of
struggle against discrimination and inequality. The acknowledgment of the
universal nature of human rights in the eighteenth century marked a break
from the granting of privileges, in exchange for loyalties or material retri-
butions, which characterized the Middle Ages. Religious minorities were
the first to benefit from those treaties that stipulated a right to worship,
giving rise to a certain level of tolerance and diversity. Linguistic minori-
ties, however, were not as fortunate, for they remained submitted to the
homogeneity imposed by national States. Although the declarations of citi-
zens rights effectively buried the medieval charters, the freedoms and ob-
ligations that they proclaimed were transmitted through official State lan-
guages.
The transition from an acknowledgment of religious differences to the
protection of human rights and a tolerance of ethnic differences was an
important step taken by many European societies during the nineteenth
century. This was the result of certain philosophical and ethical principles
and a political need for pacts of equality and union among the members of
nations. An early example can be found in the Final Act of the Vienna Con-
gress of 1815, which acknowledged the rights of minority groups in seven
countries, these being also linguistic minorities. Due to its own ethnic com-
position and political organization, fifty years later the Austro-Hungarian
Empire advanced the right of ethnic minorities within its territory (e.g.,
German, Hungarian, Polish, Czech, Slovakian, Croatian, Serb, Italian,
Slovenian, Bulgarian) to receive education in their own tongues, as estab-
lished by Article 19 of its Constitution and against the prevailing tendency
towards monolingualism in other European countries.
Throughout the twentieth century, linguistic rights gradually crept into
formulations on human rights, intended to guarantee civil and political
freedoms, to the extent that their absence became glaringly evident within
the context of democratic nations. Nonetheless, specialists agree that social,
economic and cultural rights have so far been only broadly and sketchily
outlined, although in certain international forums, such as the Inter-
American Court of J ustice, they have been accorded an expansive charac-
ter, and they may, as a result, be reformulated or broadened. In this sense,
the Court has revised and recognized the effectiveness of certain indige-
nous costums with regard to labor practices.
The concern for linguistic rights waxed and waned throughout the twen-
tieth century. They were, for example, not accorded a specific role within
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948; instead, they were
seen as part and parcel of more general demands for non-discrimination on
the basis of colour, sex, religion, political opinion, or social and national
origins. Towards the end of the twentieth century, languages made a grad-
ual appearance within declarations seeking to prevent the assimilation of
indigenous peoples through the processes of globalization. During the
1980s, the importance of early-age education in childrens indigenous lan-
guages was emphasized at UNESCO meetings in Mexico, Peru and Chile.
Minority languages were also in the agenda at the United Nations Conven-
tion on the Rights of the Child (1989) and again at the International Labor
Organizations Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples
in Independent Countries, endorsed by Mexico in 1990. Among other de-
mands, the United Nations Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indige-
nous peoples (draft, 1991) called for an educational model which encour-
aged the promotion, rather than the deterioration of group identities and
languages. But it was not until the final decade of the twentieth century that
linguistic rights were acknowledged as a specific issue in international
documents, which were largely the result of scientific, ethical and political
arguments. Their debate was supported, among others, by the works of
Phillipson (1992), Fishman (1991), Wurm (1993), Skutnabb-Kangas and
Phillipson (1994), among others, who respectively acknowledged and
demonstrated the notion of linguistic equality. The Declaration of the Tal-
linn Symposium on Linguistic Human Rights, in 1991, the European Char-
ter for Regional or Minority Languages in 1992 and the draft articles for A
Universal Charter of Basic Human Language Rights prepared by the Living
Languages Teachers International Federation warned about the status of
threatened languages in the world and proposed actions to avoid their dis-
appearance. In particular, the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights of
Barcelona (1996) better known as The Barcelona Declaration, which con-
templates the inclusion of all minority tongues, and not only those spoken
by indigenous peoples, establishes clear concepts and principles that out-
line the scope of linguistic rights. This Declaration became a general refer-
ence point for the evolution and discussion of linguistic rights in Mexico.
4. Chr onicle of an indigenous call for equality: L inguistic r ights
The General Law on Linguistic Rights for Indigenous Peoples (2003)
forms part of a broader context of constitutional reforms stemming from the
demands issued by Mexicos Indian social movements over the past dec-
ade. The pivotal catalysts were the social demands initiated by the Zapatista
Army for National Liberation (Ejrcito Zapatista de Liberacin Nacional,
or EZLN), the long-standing claims of other indigenous groups, and the
growing calls for the Mexican government to adhere to the commitments
undertaken before international organizations in favor of a fairer and more
egalitarian legislation for indigenous peoples. Within this context, linguis-
tic issues were viewed against a broader background of demands regarding
the self-determination and autonomy of indigenous populations.
4.1. The Law of Indian Rights and Culture
The social political and economic conflicts of Mexican Indian peoples were
thrown into bold relief when on J anuary 1, 1994. The implementation of
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) coincided with upris-
ing of the EZLN, which launched an armed insurrection in Southeastern
Mexico, which was in turn confronted by the Mexican Army. A few weeks
later, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari,
2
was pressured to call a cease-fire
and to present a project of Law for Concord and Pacification, which was
submitted before the Mexican Congress. Following its approval, the Com-
mission for Concord and Pacification (Comisin de Concordia y Pacifica-
cin or COCOPA) was established, formed by members of Mexicos three
most important political parties: Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI,
National Action Party or PAN, and Democratic Revolution Party or PRD.
Two years later, as the corollary for a series of dialogues between the EZLN
and representatives of the Federal Government, the Accords for Concord
and Pacification with J ustice and Dignity (Acuerdos de Concordia y Pacifi-
cacin con Justicia y Dignidad) were signed in San Andrs Larrinzar.
(Ce-Acatl,1996: 2754) and known since then as Acuerdos de San Andrs
Larrinzar (San Andrs Larrinzar Accords or SALA). The Zapatistas were
advised in this dialogue by sympathizers of the Council of Indian Peoples
(Consejo Nacional Indgena or CNI), academics, both Indian and mestizos
3
,
and members of the Catholic Church involved in the defense of Indian
rights. The Federal Government counted on the advice from other groups
of academics and other indigenous organizations. Based on five central
principles, the accords proposed a new relationship between Indian peo-
ples, the government, and society: (a) the respect for differences, based on
the assumption of equality; (b) the respect for Indian identities as well as
self-determination in terms of social organization; (c) the promotion of
sustainable development of natural resources as a means to preserve cul-
tures; (d) consultation and agreement with Indian peoples regarding the
implementation of public actions or legislations with possible consequences
for their situation; and (e), the decentralization of Federal faculties and
functions of relevance for the Indian municipalities and communities.
4
The
scope of the SALA included the fields of justice, media, political participa-
tion and representation, the situation of women, Indian territories and
autonomy, in addition to language, education and culture.
Throughout this document, language was not treated as a specific, iso-
lated issue; on the contrary, linguistic concerns were rather a part of the
whole spirit of the above social principles. The SALA demanded that an
equal social value be assigned to Spanish and indigenous languages, as a
backbone for policies which both cultivate and protect the latter, while
preserving the mandatory character of teaching the former. An appropria-
tion of the nations plurilingual potential was posited as a means for society
as a whole to gain a greater awareness of Indian peoples and cultures while
simultaneously allowing the latter to enrich their interaction with the coun-
trys different groups and social sectors. Finally, the participation of in-
digenous communities in the planning and determination of the regional
contents of education was advanced both as a right and as means to revital-
ize Indian tongues.
Once the SALA were signed, the two groups of signatory representatives
transferred the documents back to the Zapatistas, for discussion and deci-
sion-making within their base communities; and government officials, for
consideration by the relevant Ministries of State. Upon approval by these
instances, the COCOPA Congressmen were charged with elaborating an
initiative for a Law of Indian Rights and Culture (Ley de Derechos y Cul-
tura Indgenas), which after a series of negotiations, became identified as
theCOCOPA Legislative Proposal (Propuesta de ley de la COCOPA). This
initiative was submitted for its review to the then-President Ernesto Zedillo
also affiliated with the PRI. During the review process, the text underwent
a series of transformations particularly with respect to the issues of territory
and autonomy. As a result, the Presidential proposal known as Government
Observations to the Law of Indigenous Rights and Culture (Observaciones
del Gobierno a la Ley de Derechos y Cultura Indgena, www.ezln.org De-
cember 20, 1996) was rejected by the EZLN.
It was in the above circumstances that the document was turned over to
the Legislative Branch, without the negotiating body the COCOPA
being able to reopen negotiations with the EZLN. The conflict remained
latent and relatively ignored by the government over the ensuing three
years. However, the SALA retained a high public profile both nationally
and internationally, nurtured by non-governmental organizations (NGOs),
Mexican and foreing academics, members of the Mexican Catholic Church,
and sectors of civil society.
Vicente Fox was elected President in 2000, having risen through the
ranks of Mexicos most conservative political party, the PAN. However,
the PRI which had previously enjoyed an unbroken seven decade stint at
the nations helm was not wholly unseated, retaining a majority presence
in the Congress. Nonetheless, the transformation of political agents favored
a renewed dialogue concerning the unsettled issues of indigenous demands.
In February 2001, the EZLN organized and headed a march from the na-
tions Southeast to Mexico City, joined by the Indigenous National Council
(Consejo Nacional Indgena or CNI). This mobilization, which received
ample media coverage, garnered exceptional levels of support and solidar-
ity among broad sectors of the Mexican population, culminating with the
EZLNs appearance before the Chamber of Congress on March 29, 2001,
despite a series of obstacles raised by a number of parties, PAN and PRI
being the most powerful, within the national government. After this
achievement, President Fox was pressured to urge Congress to vote for the
standing COCOPA Legislative Proposal. The Senate, which was in charge
of the task, did not accept the original text of this proposal and voted in
favor of a Statement on Indian Affairs (Dictamen en Materia Indgena),
leading to a series of Reforms to Articles 1, 2, 4, 18 and 115 of the Mexi-
can Constitution. Issued on April 27 of the same year, this unilateral deci-
sion which was widely criticized by the majority of concerned groups, and
by a number of legislators was soon besieged by over three hundred in-
junctions and controversies arising mostly from Indian municipalities in the
states where indigenous organizations and movements are more vigorous,
i.e., Puebla, Oaxaca, Michoacan, Guerrero, Chiapas, Morelos and J alisco.
Following an unprecedented strategy, this crucial problem was brought
before the National Supreme Court of J ustice (Corte Suprema de Justicia
de la Nacin) on May 2, 2002. Given that within the regulations of the
Inter-American Court of J ustice, rights concerning culture are not viewed
as a closed catalog (Garca Ramrez 1998), the magistrates of the Supreme
Court were presented with an opportunity to reopen negotiations while
laying the foundations for a more inclusive and plural exercise in democ-
racy (Villoro 2002). According to declarations made by its own president,
they opted instead to rule in agreement with their role as guardians of the
Constitution,
5
and the Reforms were officially accepted on August 14 of
the same year as indicated in the Official Gazette (Diario Oficial de la Fed-
eracin) 2003.
The heated polemic that ensued from the abandonment of a fairer legis-
lation for Indian peoples continued to rage among a broad spectrum of the
Mexican population, though largely confined to the media. It was, how-
ever, those Indian groups already organized and enjoying governmental
support or representation who decided to spread the scope of their demands
into what they considered less contentious areas such as linguistic rights
and bilingual education, modalities already sanctioned by the State.
4.2. The General Law on Linguistic Rights of Indigenous Peoples
It was in this climate of opinion that on May 9, 2001, the Chamber of Con-
gress Commission for Indian Affairs (Comisin de Asuntos Indgenas de
la Cmara de Diputados or CAI) undertook the responsibility of elaborat-
ing a law on linguistic rights, based on principles from two projects, which
had emerged from Indian organizations. One was the initiative for a Federal
Law on Linguistic Rights (Ley Federal de Derechos Linguisticos) submit-
ted in April 2001, by a legislator of Mayan origin representing the Democ-
ratic Revolution Party (PRD)
6.
This initiative argued that Indian languages
should be classified as national languages with an official status within
their own territories, where they would alternate with Spanish in conditions
of equality. The second project came from the Association of Indian Lan-
guage Writers (Asociacin de Escritores Indgenas or AELI), which had
drafted a Declaration Regarding Linguistic and Cultural Ethnic Diversityin
1997, echoing the petitions expressed in the SALA. Within a year, this first
document was transformed into a proposal of Law on Linguistic Rights for
the Indian Peoples of Mexico (Ley de Derechos Lingusticos de los Pueblos
Indgenas de Mxico), whose demands were to some extent informed by
the Barcelona Declaration. In this second proposal, AELI incorporated a
long-standing project of the National Institute for Indigenous Peoples (In-
stituto Nacional Indigenista or INI), which was the creation of a center for
linguistic studies and planning, while allowing for the Ministry of Educa-
tion (Secretara de Educacin Pblica or SEP) to retain an exclusive re-
sponsibility for decision making in the area of education for Indian peoples.
It is worth noticing that at the very start of discussions concerning this
legislation, the then-president of the CAI
7
, a PRD party member of Zapo-
tecan origin, insisted on the disconformities that had been expressed against
the Dictum on Indian Affairs. However, lacking the legal option to re-open
the subject on indigenous matters, this proposal was finally rooted in this
Dictum, which was already stated in the Political Constitution of the United
Mexican States (Constitucin Poltica de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos):
the right of Indian peoples to preserve and enrich their languages and to
receive assistance from interpreters and translators in legal processes; the
States commitment to the promotion of bilingual education, as well as a
broadened Indian presence in the mass media.
8
This normativity eventually led the CAI to merge with the Commission
for Public Education and Educational Services (Comisin de Educacin
Pblica y Servicios Educativos or CEPSE), and to embark upon the task of
elaborating a single initiative for a Law on Linguistic Rights. The Mother
Tongue International Day (Da Internacional de la Lengua Materna), insti-
tuted in Mexico in February 2002, served as a backdrop to the report
drafted by the two commissions. The CAIs president was able to combine
most of AELIs original proposal, including the creation of a National Insti-
tute for Indigenous Languages (Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indgenas or
INALI) with the PRDs suggestion that Indian tongues should enjoy an
official status equal to that of Spanish within their own territories. The pre-
ceding initiatives were joined, two months later, by a proposal from the
PAN, which appropriated a variety of arguments from the documents de-
scribed above,
9
but it restricted the linguistic rights jurisdiction to munici-
palities with an Indian majority, and proposed that the most widely spoken
tongue, Spanish, had the status of official language. Both proposals clearly
limited the objective of indigenous linguistc rights.
In search for consensus regarding this initiative of law, the CAI and the
CEPSE organized a public consultation between J une and J uly 2002
through ten forums, in ten different cities from the northwest to the south-
east of the country. The Laws main proposals were examined while old
issues regarding the nature and extent of spaces for the use of tongues were
raised. Though such events asked for the participation of some specialists
in linguistic, cultural and legal affairs as well as traditional Indigenous or-
ganizations, it was the official authorities and the bilingual indigenous in-
structors affiliated with the Ministry of Education, who made up the largest
sector. Therefore, the contributions regarding linguistic legislation which
emerged from these scenarios had a mostly political purpose, serving to
validate the process initiated by the CAI and the CEPSE.
Negotiations among the different parliamentary fractions eventually led
to a definitive legislative proposal which was brought and voted within its
general terms on December 15, 2002 before a full Congressional gathering
at the Chamber of Deputies. The General Law on Linguistic Rights of
Indigenous Peoples (Ley General de Derechos Lingsticos de los Pueblos
Indgenas (LGDLPI) came into force with its publication in the Official
Gazette(Diario Oficial de la Federacin) on March 13, 2003 (See Appen-
dix I).
5. L ey Gener al de Der echos L ingsticos de los Pueblos I ndgenas or
L GDL PI
The LGDLPI is a legislative text with a substantial dimension within the
context of Constitutions which favor the protection of linguistic diversity
within national states. Its Decree consists of two sections: the First Article
creates a Law of Linguistic Rights while the Second Article establishes a
Reform to the IV Fraction of the 7
th
Article of the General Educational
Law. Eight transitory stipulations supplement these two articles, mostly to
establish a schedule for the future implementation of these actions.
The LGDLPI includes four Chapters. Chapter I (Articles 1 through 8)
set down general guidelines on Mexican indigenous languages, awarding
them a full status as national tongues alongside Spanish; Chapter II (Arti-
cles 9 through 12) stipulates the specific Rights established by this Law;
Chapter III (Article 13) delimits the competences of the three governmental
levels federal, state and municipal in the implementation of this Law.
Finally, Chapter IV (Articles 14 through 25) decrees the creation of the
INALI, which is organically tied to the Ministry for Education andintended
to articulate the policies required to uphold the Law. The Reform in the
Second Article stipulates that education must promote knowledge and re-
spect for plurality amongst the population as a whole: it also mandates that
it must be bilingual for the Indian population.
6. T he challenges of linguistic diver sity
The LGDLPI faces an important challenge, which is to establish guidelines
for action within a heterogeneous and complex linguistic universe whose
surface has merely been scratched in terms of research or other sources
which might provide a general diagnosis regarding the diversity of tongues,
or the number and geographical distribution of their speakers, such as lin-
guistic classifications or a national census of the population. Despite our
view, which is that the latter sheds little light upon the qualitative dimen-
sions of diversity, the information it contains will prove vital for the solu-
tion of a fundamental problem that linguistic policies must somehow solve,
which is the delimitation of communities, both in the present and in the
future.
Attempts to reconstruct the world of Amerindian languages have re-
sulted in a range of classificatory studies which date back to the second half
of the nineteenth century (Cifuentes 1998). Despite a patent interest in the
relationship between these languages and their groupings, a uniform lin-
guistic criterion that might account for this intricate linguistic tapestry has
yet to arise. The two main tendencies genetic and typological differ with
respect to the delimitation of linguistic families, groups and languages, as is
evinced by the works of Swadesh (1959), Kauffman (1974), Surez (1983),
Manrique (1990) and Lastra (2001).
The classifications by Manrique (1990) and Lastra (2001) maintain cer-
tain differences both in scope and in linguistic foundation. On the one
hand, Manrtiques Chart 1 (in this article) aims to account for the totality of
indigenous languages presently spoken within the political borders of the
Mexican territory; his classification comprising twelve linguistic families
and their sub-families has guided the statistical recounts of the National
Population Census. On the other hand, Lastras classification which ap-
pears in Cifuentes and Moctezuma in this collection adheres to the Meso-
american cultural area proposal and incorporates languages from North
America, Central America and the Caribbean, as well as extinct languages
from this area. However, this classification does not comprise the Hokan
Coahuiltec phylum, which includes languages from the Yumana, the Seri
and the Tequistlatecan families because it does not belong to the specified
Mesoamerican area, although languages pertaining to these families are still
spoken in Mexico. For the same reason, it does not include the Kickapoo, a
language of the Algonquian family, which was brought into the Mexican
territory during the nineteenth century with the arrival of a community of
its native speakers.
In linguistic terms, Lastra agrees with Rensch (1967), who sustains the
validity of the Otomanguean phylum which integrates the Otopamean,
Popolocan and Chatino-Zapotecan macro groups. She acknowledges the
contributions of Surez (1983) and Kaufman (1974) to this phylum but
indicates that ...much descriptive work on Otomanguean is needed in or-
der to refine the proposed reconstructions (Lastra 2001: 127). On the other
hand, Manrique follows Swadesh (1967) glottochronological calculations
which do not sustain the Otomanguean hypothesis. The Chart that we pre-
sent in this article accounts for the Otopamean family, which includes the
Pamean, Chichimecan, Otomian and Matlatzinca subfamilies, the Oaxacan
family, with its Zapotecan Mixtecan and Mazatecan sub-families. Manrique
(1988) recognized that not all specialists agreed with this separation of the
Otomanguean phylum, but he also made it clear that there was no absolute
evidence of its components. This article does not attempt to bridge the lin-
guistic criteria that separate the above classifications. Instead, we have
opted to include Manriques classification, which seems to be the most
convenient for the development of a legislation given that it does includes
the indigenous languages of Baja California Norte on the political border
with the United States.
The statistical recounts provided by the National Population Census,
maintained in the country since 1895, are another source of information
about the MIL and their speakers. Regardless of the subjective factors that
the record of quantitative demographic data involve, the linguistic parame-
ter is the one used to register the diversity of the Mexican population.
Among other data, the National Population Census offers an approximate
overview of the main linguistic communities and their quantitative signifi-
cance. It also provides a quantitative overview of indigenous language
speakers throughout the Mexican territory (see Cifuentes and Moctezuma,
Table 1 in this collection). The same source reveals traces of languages
spoken by at least one hundred individuals (mostly over 40). This double
circumstance places them within the group of endangered languages (Rob-
ins et al. 2000, UNESCO 2003) (see Table 1).
Table 1. Endangered languages
Language Total speakers (2000) Percent over 40 years of age
Cochimi 82 57%
Aguacatec 23 57%
Kiliwa 52 69%
Lacandon 40 78%
6.1. The challenges of bilingualism
Mexicos linguistic situation is not made up solely by Indian languages, but
also by Spanish, the tongue spoken by 81.4% of the population, with di-
verse degrees of bilingualism (see Table 2).
Table 2. Indigenous languages by number of speakers and percentage of bilin-
guals
Number of Speakers Bilinguals %
Total
6,044,547 4,924,412

Nahuatl languages 1,448,936 1,224,587 84.41
Maya 800,291 729,029 91.09
Zapotec languages 451,038 396,905 87.99
Mixtec languages 440,796 334,254 75.82
Tzotzil 297,561 172,564 57.99
Otomi 291,722 267,409 91.66
Tzeltal 284,826 162,863 57.17
Totonac 240,034 196,660 87.93
Mazatec 214,447 157,192 73.30
Chol 161,766 111,621 69.00
Huastec 150,257 133,417 88.79
Mazahua 133,413 126,076 94.50
Chinantec languages 133,374 113,972 85.45
Purhepecha 121,409 103,161 84.97
Mixe 118,924 88,193 74.15
Tlapanec 99,389 66,407 66.81
Tarahumaran languages 75,545 60,091 79.54
Zoque 51,464 45,584 88.57
Amuzgo 41,455 21,679 52.29
Chatino 40,722 27,882 68.46
Chontal Tabasco 38,561 37,203 96.47
Popoluca 38,139 34,503 90.46
Tojolabal 37,986 25,790 67.89
Mayo 31,513 30,808 97.00
Huichol 30,686 25,450 82.93
Tepehuan 25,544 19,836 77.65
Trique 20,712 15,312 73.92
guals (continued)
Popoloc 16,468 15,078 91.55
Cora 16,410 10,993 66.98
Huave 14,224 11,800 82.95
Cuicatec 13,425 12,194 90.83
Yaqui 13,317 12,412 93.20
Tepehua 9,435 8,813 93.40
Kanjobal 9,015 7,947 88.15
Pame 8,312 6,369 76.62
Mame 7,580 7,141 94.20
Oaxaca Chontal 4,959 4,747 95.72
Tacuate 1,738 1,516 87.22
Chuj 1,796 1,585 88.25
Guarijio 1,671 1,552 92.87
Chichimec 1,641 1,562 95.18
Matlatzinca 1,302 1,254 96.31
Chocho 992 954 96.16
Pima 741 721 97.30
Kekchi 677 606 89.51
J acaltec 529 494 93.38
Ocuiltec 466 439 94.20
Seri 458 450 98.25
Ixcatec 351 318 90.59
Quiche 246 238 96.74
Cackchiquel 210 204 97.14
Pai Pai 201 196 97.51
Cucapa 178 171 96.06
Motocintlec 174 174 100.00
Kumiai 161 159 98.75
Papago 141 140 99.29
guals (continued)
Kikapu 138 114 82.60
Ixil 90 88 97.77
Cochimi 82 82 100.00
Kiliwa 52 47 90.38
Lacandon 40 40 100.00
Aguacatec 23 22 95.65
Soltec 06 06 100.00
Papabuc 05 03 60.00
Opata 04 03 75.00
Other Indigenous
Languages in Mexico
278 258 92.80
Other Indigenous
Languages in the
Americas
411 405 98.54
Unspecified 89,539 83,433 93.18
Source: XII censo general de poblacin y vivienda (2001)
Historical data reveal that the power and expansion of pre-Hispanic peoples
was usually unequal, giving rise to differing situations of political eco-
nomic and linguistic domination. During the first decades after the Con-
quest, Spanish had little choice but to compete with the functions of those
Indian languages with the greatest distribution and prestige. Communica-
tive needs obliged the colonial administration to adopt and adapt the most
widely used language to the point that the legal institutions implanted in
New Spain at one stage privileged the use of Nahuatl which brought about
the creation of a written Nahuatl. (See Claudia Parodi's The Indianiza-
tion of Spaniards in New Spain and Margarita Hidalgos The multiple
dimensions of language maintenance and language shift in colonial Mex-
ico, in this collection; see also Herrera et al. to appear).
However, throughout three centuries, Spanish, the language of colonial
authorities, gradually disempowered the Nahuatl language and reduced and
weakened on the whole, the sociocultural force of the dozens of indigenous
languages spoken in the conquered territories. As Bastardas (1996) has
pointed out from a socio-cognitive perspective, the political and economic
context in which languages participate plays a determining role in the atti-
tudes of prestige and stigma towards the languages involved in bilingual
situations. Consequently, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, an
expansion of the institutionalized functions of Spanish had a detrimental
effect upon the symbolic meanings and representations that the Indian
speakers themselves associated with their mother tongues and finally
eroded the ecosystem of linguistic plurality in Mexico. Throughout this
process, Spanish-speaking monolingualism and Indian bilingualism became
the norm, the former as a right, and the latter as an obligation and as the
only viable option for participation in national life. The statistics for the
past five decades confirm this phenomenon (see Table 3).
Table 3. Growth of bilingual indigenous population
Year % Monolinguals % Bilinguals
1950 33.0 67.0
1960 36.0 64.0
1970 28.0 72.0
1980 23.0 71.4
1990 16.0 80.0
2000 16.5 81.4
In spite of the fact that demographic indicators provide an initial quantita-
tive overview concerning the effects of contact between indigenous lan-
guages and Spanish, they fail to account for the formers enduring vitality,
which may result from a range of factors, including the type of bilingual-
ism, the concentration or territorial dispersion of the linguistic community,
and the multiple social and political factors that encourage either loyalty
towards or rejection of the mother tongue. As Romaine (1995) has correctly
pointed out, the broad scale of polls provide a profile of the linguistic situa-
tion that differs from that which might arise from ethnographic studies
whose data, albeit less ponderable, might well reveal more about the spe-
cific situations undergone by minority languages and their speakers. The
ethnography of communication allows us to distinguish a broad spectrum
of linguistic competences, which range from an incipient Spanish to a stan-
dardized Spanish in its different styles (Pellicer 2001). Furthermore, socio-
linguistic research and contact studies have provided important clues con-
cerning the heterogeneity of situations, which take place not only with
Spanish speakers but also with those of other Indian languages (Flores Far-
fn 1992; Lastra 1994).
Many Indian peoples remain in their home territories, maintaining their
frontiers of identity; consequently, although bilingualism tends to eradicate
the spaces of usage for MIL, the latter frequently retain cultural, social and
political functions within the intimate community and in many instances, in
theimpersonal society as well (Fishman, 1991:6). However, this linguistic
vitality varies according to a range of factors that favor the use of Spanish,
including migration and education. The former is propitiated as much by
the direct challenges of survival as by an absence of governmental incen-
tives in Mexicos rural communities. The Spanish-oriented nature of tradi-
tional scholastic structures, on its part, reinforces the cultural and genera-
tional gaps that distance a younger generation of Indians from the usage of
their mother tongue.
In brief, the situation of contact that characterizes the Mexican diversity
at present is marked by the conflict and interaction of objective factors
(linguistic, demographic, territorial, cultural, economic), and some others
that are most certainly subjective. This complex reality, both past and pre-
sent, has to reckon with a law whose political existence is founded on an
aspiration for linguistic equality. Nonetheless, the full exercise of these
rights will, in practice, undoubtedly depend upon a broader characterization
of MIL, in view of the nature of their full social context.
6.2. The Law and its object
A glance at the set of statements which constitute the LGDLPI reveals a
pervasive vagueness in the definition of those very entities which constitute
the object of these rights. Although Chapter I Article 4 indicates that the
Law will acknowledge which are the Mexican indigenous languages, a
further section signals that the INALI will elaborate within two years a
sociolinguistic census and a catalog of indigenous languages with this
purpose (LGDLPI, Chapter IV, Articles 14(h) and 20 and 3
rd
Transitory).
Both the census and the catalog are conceived as being isolated from the
contributions of pre-existing language classification systems, although a
vision of linguistic diversity had already been presented at the CAI as a
necessary precondition to the Laws realization (Lastra 2002). Moreover,
the strategy outlined for the INALIs delimitation of indigenous communi-
ties pivots around the collaboration of academic institutions and commu-
nity groups whose interests and fulfillment with regards to languages are
not by definition similar (LGDLPI, Chapter IV Articles 14 (h) and 20). A
clear recognition of MIL to be acknowledged by participants of such di-
verse and fragmented natures might yet prove unattainable.
In our view, the present classifications and the census data could help to
build an initial nomenclature of MIL. The identification of grammatized
and abstract entities is of fundamental importance but it calls for a labori-
ous of long-term linguistic planning, so that the determination of dialect
frontiers for each language would entail an operational strategy. This
should be sustained on common grounds, allowing us to identify dynamic
communities of speakers while guaranteeing their persistence and co-
existence, appealing to their metalinguistic awareness. This is to say, a
shared knowledge as regards the differences and similarities between
speaking communities, their stylistic variants, and the local criteria for
normativity and adequation. The scope for such a catalog, sustained on
social and communitary criteria, would extend much further than the initial
nomenclature.
6.3. The national languages
The national indigenous languages are defined in the Law in terms of a
range of juxtaposed ideas of territorial, historic, and linguistic orders, their
place of origin, their role in the founding of the nation, their structure and
functionality among other criteria (LGDLPI, Chapter I Articles 1 to 4).
Ideas concerning the social surroundings (Mackey 1994: 39) and the
communities of speakers, which are precisely those spaces where group
interactions take place, are beyond its consideration. The heterogeneity of
situations and the impact of subtractive bilingualism are part of the sur-
roundings inherent complexity. We must also bear in mind that linguistic
disparity coincides with economic disparity, and that it is those groups
which concentrate the lowest levels of development that are also character-
ized by the usage of MIL. The Law attempts to place socially unequal com-
munities on an equal level confering the same value to Spanish and to
MIL through the epithet national languages (LGDLPI: Chapter I,
Article 4).
Paradoxically, the Laws very title, Linguistic Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, excludes the Spanish speakers, which are not subject to any of
the linguistic rights and obligations stipulated in this text. They are merely
receivers of certain educational guidelines, which sometimes implicitly and
other times indirectly, serve to remind them of the fact that Mexico is a
plural nation (LGDLPI: Chapter II Article 9 and LGE: Reform to Article 7,
Fraction IV). The exclusion of the Spanish-speaking society in the title and
the text of the Law maintains the compensatory nature of minority rights
(Pellicer 1999) while emphasizing the minoritized status of Indian popula-
tions.
The acceptance of MIL in services and in public information (cf. Chap-
ter I (Articles 6, 7) depends upon the principle of equality, as well as the
foundation for increased levels of governmental participation and consulta-
tion amongst the Indigenous communities, as necessary conditions for the
protection and promotion of their languages. Unfortunately, we can see that
these dispositions are not covered in Chapter II, which is devoted to the
formulation of the rights of Indian speakers. Here, the States commitment
is circumscribed to two obligations, which in any case have long applied to
all Mexicans as part of the National Constitution: the right to free basic
education which currently covers the first nine years of schooling and the
right to obtain justice in ones own mother tongue.
6.4. The Law on Education and the procurement of justice
Public and bilingual education for indigenous communities has been the
goal of prior legislations and practices, which date back to the 1940s. A
range of diversely entitled programs for bilingual education has emerged
from the Ministry of Education under the Federal Law for Education since
1973. However, it was not until 1983 that such programs began to acquire a
greater importance within official plans and programs for development,
which acknowledged the importance of bilingual and bicultural educa-
tion as an adequate means to maintain the identity of these populations
while preventing their cultural assimilation (Secretara de Educacin
Pblica 1985). Curricula designed to this end were largely limited to al-
phabetization in the MIL and to the creation of mostly literary texts for
elementary grade education. In some isolated instances, some States have
implemented the teaching of MIL throughout basic education. A new term,
bilingual intercultural education, has been recently coined by a new
branch of the Ministry for Education for this form and level of education.
In spite of the fact that it has not been mirrored by any substantial changes
in terms of policy and contents, this is the denomination employed by the
Law when it poses education in the indigenous mother tongues as a right
and as an obligation for the three levels of government (LGDLPI, Captulo
II Artculo 11).
Elementary schools, which are still conceived as the main linguistic
concession to minority requirements, are required to act as the most impor-
tant arena for the promotion and recovery of indigenous language use. In
view of this preeminent goal, the role of indigenous bilingual teachers is of
considerable importance. Nonetheless, proposed curricula for the training
of these teachers seem unable to generate the levels of linguistic compe-
tence demanded from them (LGDLPI, Chapter III, Article 13 IV and VI).
For teachers to fully carry out their duties would presuppose, at the very
least, some level of metalinguistic knowledge, which is scarcely consoli-
dated or even widespread within the educational curriculum, and the circu-
lation of a writing system which has yet to be socialized, even in stages
prior to standardization.
Writing is, furthermore, a central precondition for the satisfaction of two
of the most important commitments of this Law. The first consists in the
public distribution of decrees, laws, programs and governmental services in
the MIL (LGDLPI, Chapter I Article (b), Chapter II, Article 13.II. The
second, a responsibility of the juridical power, mandates the assistance of
interpreters and defenders versed in the language and culture of those ac-
cused or otherwise involved in trials or other legal proceedings, be they
individuals or peoples. Both tasks face formidable challenges, including the
translation of a cultural universe founded on oral traditions and common
law into a world that pivots around the written word and the Roman law.
The temporal dimension of these complex cultural transformations is ex-
emplified by historical studies which clearly reveal that when two lan-
guages and two judicial systems confront one another, the conciliation of
linguistic and behavioral norms is an extremely long-term process
(Bouthiller and Meynaud 1972). Particularly unequal are the instances
where the minoritized languages lack the kind of standardized writing re-
quired for participation in the legislative system. The correlation of forces
in such processes is beyond the scope of legislative statements, and the
Law limits itself to an immediate solution: support for the professionaliza-
tion of bilingual interpreters and translators (LGDLPI, Chapter III, Article
13.XI). Furthermore, the oral and written translation of bilingual legislative
interlocutions entails the development of specialized genres: neologisms
and terminologies for legal realities, as well as the argumentative genres
required by two very different and distant universes. The experience related
by Aubry (2003) concerning the translation of the SALA in ten indigenous
languages of the state of Chiapas demonstrates the complicated nature of
this process, which can not be solved with the exclusive aid of dictionaries
and grammars, but requires the knowledge of culture and traditions to-
gether with the consensus of the speakers. The INALI, whose task it is to
train such specialists (LGDLPI, Chapter IV, Article 14 (d, e, f)), should
have to bear in mind that the certification and accreditation of bilingual
technicians and professionals presupposes, not only an ethical responsibil-
ity, but also the creation of a solid technical infrastructure.
The preceding considerations indicate that a text concerning the rights
of Indian speakers cannot be rooted in the cultural unilaterality of Western
thought. In particular the educational and legal rights have to bridge two
different traditions, one oral, one based on the written word. We observe
however that the rights posed in this Law are couched fundamentally in
writing, a practice which, on the one hand, is not shared by all indigenous
communities and, on the other, tends to undermine orally transmitted sys-
tems of knowledge. The educational levels considered either fail to ac-
knowledge or actively discourage oral traditions, which should be an inal-
ienable right for indigenous cultures, especially in light of the fact that such
traditions lie at the heart of both their daily and ritual practices, and of their
collective memories. In our judgment, a truly effective law must recover
this right; it must also acknowledge indigenous systems for decision mak-
ing and consensus as vital references for the proper administration of jus-
tice in the MIL.
6.5. The Law and the mass media
In the LGDLPI, dispositions regarding the use of the mass media are in a
somewhat peculiar situation. Although they appear from the very first
chapter, they are not considered within the section that outlines specific
rights (LGDLPI, Chapter 1, Article 6; Chapter II, Article 13.II; Chapter IV,
Article 14(c)). This absence is disappointing, because the media could pro-
vide fertile grounds for an exercise in the principle that all of the nations
languages should be equal upon the public arena. To amplify the presence
of MIL in the mass media would be an achievement that could easily out-
strip the results provided by bilingual schools circumscribed to rural in-
digenous communities. The mass media provide an extremely balanced
forum, which could allow indigenous voices to be heard in their own vil-
lages while raising awareness among the Spanish-speaking population of
their countrys linguistic diversity.
Unfortunately, the States limited authority over the media prevents the
implementation of alternative policies that might compensate for the ab-
sence of Indigenous languages upon the stage that Fishman (1991) defines
as the impersonal society. The media are presently designed solely to pro-
mote the economic and cultural interests of their awardees. The State has
yielded to private initiative, against its own interests, their time jurisdic-
tions (Villanueva 2002), and it is only allotted a daily space of eighteen
minutes on television and thirty-five on radio. In view of such restrictions,
the idea that the State is aptly placed to promote linguistic diversity as
mandated by the new Law seems wieldly improbable. The search for new
regulatory mechanisms for the media, such as a plural council that has been
under discussion for some time now, should include the Indian populations
(Villanueva 2002). According to the democratic aspirations of present-day
society, resources would have to be found and allocated so that, as is estab-
lished by the Reforms to the 2
nd
Article of the Constitution, Indian peoples
and communities are able to acquire, operate and administrate their own
communications media (LGDLPI, Article 2, Section B, Clause VI). At
present, the indigenous communities have yet to acquire any significant
level of control over their rights concerning the media (LGDLPI, Chapter
II, Article 12; Chapter III, Article 13.XIV).
In brief, the revitalization of the indigenous languages must begin
within the indigenous communities, so that it can be transferred without
linguistic loss into the impersonal bilingual community. The route will
depend upon the elaboration of negotiated, sensible, and balanced linguistic
policies that consider both the private and public domains of languages,
without ignoring the different expressive ranges of both the oral and the
written traditions.
7. Conclusions
In this article we have covered the broad political events that led to the
design and approval of the LGDLPI. This Law is a step forward in terms of
linguistic rights to the extent that it places Spanish and the MIL upon the
same legal footing. However, its potential impact upon the future of na-
tional linguistic policies will largely depend upon the specific interpretation
and implementation of its statements.
In our view, an adequate exercise of the rights outlined in the LGDLPI
will depend on a much broader characterization of MIL and the inclusion
of myriad aspects of the social context that surrounds them. In this sense,
we must not forget that a linguistic policy for the reactivation of minorized
languages, many already deteriorating, can pose a critical dilemma for their
speakers: to maintain a linguistic community that has, so far, been synony-
mous with marginalization, or to adopt the cultural guidelines needed for
survival as part of a contemporary labor market. This conflict can only be
avoided through a carefully planned, protected bilingualism, that is, devel-
opment of a diglossic situation that can actually contribute to the mainte-
nance of differentiated social functions for languages in contact. As part of
this process, those languages that have suffered the stigma of marginaliza-
tion must recover their historic memories and future expectations. Simi-
larly, within the context of their communicative practices, the MIL must be
integrated simultaneously to the gradual broadening of their contact with
plurality. On their part, the Spanish speaking communities must be exposed
to this plurality, both through education and through the mass media.
Notes
1. We wish to express our gratitude to Leonardo Manrique Castaeda for his
contributions to this article, which he offered a few weeks before his death. Dr.
Manrique provided both the map and the classification of Mexican indigenous
languages. These two sources have not been published elsewhere. We also
want to thank J os Luis Moctezuma and Alfredo Ramrez Celestino for their
comments during the beginning stages of this article.
2. Carlos Salinas de Gortari, affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party
(PRI) was President of Mexico from 1988 to 1994. He was also responsible for
the negotiations of the North American Trade Agreement.
3. The Mexican population is considered to be either mestizo (Indigenous and
European mixed-blood) or indigenous..
4. Cf. Ce-Acatl. 1996. 7879, 2754.
5. The President of the Supreme Court of J ustice, Genaro David Gngora, de-
clared that he would act based on technical scaffolding, as deemed necessary
by the Supreme Courts magistrates, in agreement with their role as guardian
of the Constitution. Cf. La Jornada, May 6, 2002, p. 3.
6. Cf. Uuc-Kib Espadas. 2001. Initiative for the Federal Law for Linguistic
Rights.
7. Cf. Hctor Snchez. 2002. Contributions to the discussion of the initiative for
the Federal Law of Linguistic Rights. Da Internacional de la Lengua
Materna.
8. Cf. Second Article, Section A, Parts 4 and 8, and Section B, Parts 2 and 6 of
the Mexican Constitution.
9. Cf. Gumercindo Alvarez Sotelo. 2002. Iniciativa de Ley General de Lenguas
Indgenas.
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Appendix I I I
Textual references
1. Repor t on indigenous matter s. Diario Oficial, Apr il 25, 2001
Second Article.
The Mexican Nation is one and indivisible.
The Nation has a multicultural composition based originally on its indigenous
peoples, who are those descendants of populations that inhabited the current terri-
tory that makes up the country, at the beginning of a colonial period, and they
preserve their own social, economic, cultural, and political institutions, or at least
partially.
The consciousness of their indigenous identity should be the fundamental criteria
for determining to whom the decrees about indigenous peoples should be applied.
Those communities that form a social, economic, and cultural unity, seated in a
territory, and recognizing their own authorities in agreement with their uses and
costumes are considered as integrating a distinctive indigenous population.
A. This Constitution recognizes and guarantees the rights of the indigenous peo-
ples and communities to the free determination, and as a consequence, the auton-
omy to:
IV. Preserve and enrich their languages, knowledge and all the elements that con-
stitute their culture and identity...
VIII. Have full access to the jurisdiction of the State. In order to guarantee this
right, in all the judgments and proceedings which they are part of, individually or
collectively, their customs and culturally-specific aspects should be taken into
account, respecting the precepts of this Constitution. The indigenous people have,
at any given time, the right to be assisted by interpreters and counselors for the
defense who are versed in the knowledge of their language and culture.
The constitutions and laws of the federal entities will establish the characteristics
of free determination and autonomy that best express the situations and aspirations
of the indigenous peoples of each entity, as well as the norms for recognizing the
indigenous communities as entities of public interest.
B. The Federation, the States, and the Municipalities, in order to promote equal
opportunities for the indigenous populations and eliminate any discriminatory
practice, will establish institutions and determine the necessary politics for guaran-
teeing the validity of the rights of the indigenous populations and the integral de-
velopment of its villages and communities, which should be designed and operated
in conjunction with them. In order to shoot down deficiencies and backwardness
that affect the indigenous populations and communities such authorities have the
obligation to:
II. Guarantee and increase the levels of education, favoring bilingual and intercul-
tural education, literacy, and whole basic education for everyone, productive quali-
fication, and higher education. Establish a scholarship system for indigenous stu-
dents at all levels. Define and develop educational programs with regional content
able to recognize the cultural heritage of the people, in agreement with the laws
and under consultation with the indigenous communities. Promote the respect and
the knowledge of the diversity of cultures that exist in the nation...
VI. Extend the communication network that would permit the integration of com-
munities by means of the construction and enlargement of communications and
telecommunication channels. Establish conditions that allow indigenous people
and communities to acquire, operate and administer media communications in
terms determined by law.
Appendix I V. Gener al L aw on L inguistic Rights of I ndigenous Peoples
(Title page)
Appendix I V. Gener al L aw on L inguistic Rights of I ndigenous Peoples
(continued)(Page 1)
Appendix V. Spanish abbr eviations used in this ar ticle
AELI Association of Indigenous Language Writers
ASAL San Andrs Larrainzar Agreements
CAI Commission of Indigenous Affairs
CEPSE Commission of Public Education and Services
COCOPA Commission for Concord and Pacification
DGEI General Office for Indigenous Education
EZLN Zapatista Army of National Liberation
INI National Institute for Indigenous Peoples
INALI National Institute of Indigenous Languages
LGDLPI General Law on Linguistic Rights of Indigenous
Peoples
PAN National Action Party
PRD Democratic Revolutionary Party
PRI Institutional Revolutionary Party
SEP Public Education Ministery
SCJ N Supreme Court of J ustice of the Nation
TLC National Free Trade Agreement
Chapter 6
Centr alization vs. local initiatives. M exican and U.S.
legislation of Amer indian languages
F. Daniel Althoff
Abstr act
This paper compares and contrasts the approaches of two North American
countries in the area of indigenous language rights. The enactment in 2003
of comprehensive indigenous language rights legislation in Mexico stands
in contrast to the legislative approach taken in the USA where 1990 federal
legislation in that area is much more modest. It is suggested that the cen-
tralizing approach of the Mexican government in this area is the outcome of
historical interactions between the indigenous peoples and the post-
Independence central government which refused to recognize indigenous
corporate sovereignty. By the same token, it is argued that the localized
approach to indigenous languages rights favored in the USA stems from the
fact that the USA government has historically recognized indigenous peo-
ples as sovereign nations, and that Native American tribal governments
have a high degree of autonomy not found in Mexico.
1. I ntr oduction
As the end of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (1995
2004) coincidentally approached, the Congress of Mexico undertook to
pass one of the most comprehensive pieces of national linguistic legislation
proposed in North America: the General Law on the Linguistic Rights of
Indigenous Peoples (hereinafter General Law). In this volume, Pellicer et
al. thoroughly situated and contextualized how this remarkable General
Law came about. To paraphrase their account, following close on the heels
of the neo-revolutionary armed uprising led by the Ejrcito Zapatista de
Liberacin Nacional (Zapatista National Liberation Army or EZLN) in the
southern state of Chiapas in 1994, the demands for justice and equitable
treatment for the indigenous people of Mexico received substantial and
favorable coverage from domestic and international media. In a climate of
heightened scrutiny from the media and human rights organizations, repre-
168 F. Daniel Althoff
sentatives from EZLN forces and the Mexican government produced a set
of proposals that became a bill sent before the Mexican Congress. This bill
addressing the rights and culture of indigenous peoples was defeated in
the Senate. That defeat, however, gave rise instead to a series of constitu-
tional reforms
1
which in turn led to another bill being introduced in the
Lower House of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies. This bill, now re-
duced in scope to addressing the language rights of indigenous peoples,
was enacted by the Congress and took effect in March 2003.
2. T he Gener al L aw
Limited though it may be to matters of linguistic rights, the text of the Gen-
eral Law is comprehensive, thorough, and detailed (see the appended Eng-
lish translation). The text of the legislation is written under two Articles:
Article the First consists of four Chapters which include 25 (sub)articles.
Article the Second is a brief statement which amends the text of another
piece of legislation, the General Law on Education. The final section of the
General Law, consisting of eight points, is entitled Transitorios (translated
as Enabling Legislation). These eight transitory points prescribe the
timelines by which the events and institutions created by the text of the
General Law are to be carried out.
Appearing under Article the First, Chapter 1 of the General Law defines
the term indigenous languages and indicates that the Mexican federal
government will recognize them as national languages on a par with
Spanish where there are communities speaking an indigenous language as a
majority. The General Law also requires the government to broadcast in
indigenous languages (using an undefined percentage of its statutorily
allotted daily time), and requires state and local governments to make gov-
ernment services accessible in indigenous languages. Chapter 2 of the Gen-
eral Law details those rights enjoyed by speakers of indigenous languages,
including the right to bilingual education in Spanish and their first lan-
guage. Notably, Chapter 2 assigns equal responsibility for achieving the
General Laws objectives to society and residents and institutions of
indigenous towns and communities; they are deemed corresponsables.
As the General Law enters into even more specifics, Chapter 3 requires
the federal government to account for the linguistic and cultural distinc-
tions of the indigenous people in matters of justice, including the admini-
stration and prosecution of law; the same requirement applies to state and
Mexican and U.S. legislation of Amerindian languages 169
local governments where indigenous languages predominate. This particu-
lar Chapter consists entirely of one article (Article 13) detailing 14 items as
the States special areas of competence and obligation, including the avail-
ability of specially trained bilingual faculty and government employees as
well as the repeated requirement of broadcasts in Mexican indigenous lan-
guages (hereinafter MIL). Numerous articles refer to including, promoting,
encouraging, and fostering the dissemination and preservation of indige-
nous languages, with special reference to educational and research institu-
tions, civic associations, libraries, and public school curricula.
Central to achieving the General Laws goals is the establishment of a
new federal agency, the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indgenas (Na-
tional Institute of Indigenous Languages, henceforth INALI). The INALI is
created in Chapter 4 of the General Law, under Article 14. This article also
defines the functions of the agency, including the design and implementa-
tion of a sociolinguistic census to be carried out in coordination with Mex-
icos census bureau, the Instituto Nacional de Estadstica, Geografa e
Informtica (INEGI). The first sociolinguistic census will serve to establish
the areas where the use of MIL is greatest; subsequent sociolinguistic cen-
suses will be concurrent with general censuses of the population. The IN-
ALI is created to be an independent agency with its own budget, personnel,
resources, and internal governing structure. Moreover, the General Law
mandates that the headquarters of INALI be located in the capital, Mexico
City.
The creation of INALI as an agency of the national government reflects
the key role that the federal capital has always played in Mexican civic life.
Although the official name of the country is Estados Unidos Mexicanos
(United Mexican States) and this phrase appears emblazoned on the coin-
age and government aircraft, the reality is that the federal system as prac-
ticed in Mexico differs in important ways from the federalism of the United
States of America. One small but telling example of this difference in-
volves the case of individual state identities. Each of the 50 states in the
USA has a separate flag which typically flies underneath the national stan-
dard. In Mexico, state flags are non-existent, although each state or fed-
erative entity in the common constitutional phrase has its own official
seal or coat of arms. There is no flag of any entidad federativa either to
compete with or complement the national banner. Another instance illus-
trating the longer reach and greater authority of the Mexican federal gov-
ernment is in the area of professional licensing. In the USA, the individual
states through their own accrediting bodies and boards, regulate and license
the various professions: attorneys, physicians, teachers, etc. In contrast,
professional licensing and regulations are controlled by the central gov-
ernment in Mexico City; the various agencies and federal departments are
charged with issuing the license (or cdula) to each professional practitio-
ner. This focus on the capital as the hub of authority dates at least to the
days of the Viceroyalty of New Spain (ca.15231821); it is entirely too
easy to overlook the existing pre-Conquest concentration of authority in the
earlier Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City). The national
expectations for the central governments role in legislative and regulatory
issues are vastly different in the two countries.
3. T he United States appr oach to legislation of Amer indian languages
In the USA, there is no piece of federal legislation exactly analogous to the
2003 General Law in Mexico. The Native American Languages Act of
1990 (Public Law 101477), however, comes closest to addressing the
points found in the Mexican law. In contrast to the lengthy and detailed text
of the Mexican General Law, the Native American Languages Act (NALA)
is much shorter and much more broadly worded (see Appendix II). It con-
sists only of six sections corresponding broadly to the Articles in the
Mexican text. These six sections are further divided under six headings.
After a technical entry which allows Public Law 101477 to be cited as the
NALA, the text begins with the Findings of the Congress; these will
serve as a rationale for the Acts few actual provisions. The Definitions
section immediately following Findings is again more technical; the in-
digenous peoples of the United States are therein defined in terms of previ-
ous federal legislation.
2
The Declaration of Policy in the NALA reflects
generally the same policy as that elaborated in the Mexican General Law.
The USA text defines a national policy to preserve, protect, and promote
the rights and freedom of Native Americans to use, practice, and develop
Native American languages. The provisions of the NALAs Declaration
of Policy are much more limited in scope in comparison to those found in
the Mexican General Law. Whereas the Mexican General Law makes spe-
cific requirements on federal, state, and local governments for providing
indigenous language-speaking interpreters in court proceedings; for provid-
ing indigenous language-speaking teachers in bilingual classrooms; for
disseminating and broadcasting the content of government services and
programs in indigenous languages, etc. the NALA speaks only to the
educational realm. We find that NALA will allow exceptions to teacher
certification requirements for Federal programs for instruction in Native
American languages when such teacher certification requirements hinder
the employment of qualified teachers who teach in Native American lan-
guages. Similarly, NALA recognizes the right of indigenous people to
use Native American languages as a medium of instruction in all schools
funded by the Secretary of the Interior. More broadly and vaguely, NALA
seeks to encourage state and local educational programs to work with
Native American governments to implement programs favoring the policies
established in NALA. We find support for granting academic credit for
proficiency in indigenous languages, and the federal government will again
encourage Native American languages to be included in school curricula
at all levels of instruction with the same academic credit accorded to in-
digenous languages as to foreign languages.
The fifth section of NALA, entitled No Restrictions, asserts the abso-
lute right of Native Americans to express themselves in their own language
in any public proceeding. There is no requirement, however, that the same
public proceeding have interpreters available, or that it be carried out, in
whole or in part, in any indigenous language. Finally, the sixth section
(Evaluations) is directed to the President of the United States. This item
requires him to direct the heads of federal departments and agencies to
evaluate their policies and procedures in order to determine and im-
plement changes needed to bring the policies and procedures into compli-
ance with the provisions of this title.
3
4. Similar ities and differ ences
What accounts for the significant differences in similarly intended, and
even similarly worded, legislation in the two countries? Why, in the case of
Mexico, is a new bureaucracy erected while the USA contents itself with
what appears primarily to be a statement of good wishes? Apart from the
long-standing preference for centralized control in Mexico, we can view
these texts as being the direct results of the historical interaction between
the two independent nations and their indigenous peoples. Although the
Spanish colonial government recognized the existence and authority of
indigenous governments as repblicas de indios, the independent Mexican
government recognized no authority other than its own. As noted by Leticia
Reina (2002: 49), the Constitution of 1824 decreed equality among citi-
zens, which was the equivalent of the legal disappearance of the indigenous
population. She observes, moreover, that the entire body of laws enacted by
the liberal nineteenth-century Mexican State was intended not only to put
an end to indigenous autonomy granted by the Spanish crown, but also to
remove them from their lands by passing the Leyes de Reforma (Laws of
Reform). All of this was occurring while the government attempted to
simultaneously exterminate indigenous cultures (Reina 2002: 50). The
Mexican government, however, was never able to completely eliminate the
indigenous peoples whether de jure or de facto. Indeed, much of Mexican
national identity depends on the continued existence of the Indian. Arti-
cle 2 of the Mexican Constitution
4
refers to the Mexican Nation as pluri-
cultural, being built originally upon its indigenous peoples, i.e., those who
descend from peoples who inhabited the present-day territory of the coun-
try at the onset of colonization, and who preserve their own social, eco-
nomic, cultural, and political institutions, or part of them. Very signifi-
cantly, a self-awareness of indigenous identity is key to determining to
whom government regulations concerning indigenous affairs will apply.
The modern Mexican State now has an array of services and institutions
intended to serve indigenous peoples needs and interests. Chief among
these is the Comisin Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos
Indgenas (National Commission for Indigenous Peoples Development
or CDI). The CDI was established in mid 2003; it is the direct descendant
and institutional successor of the venerable Instituto Nacional Indigenista
(National Indigenous Institute) which existed for over 50 years. There is
also an office for indigenous representation (Oficina para el Desarrollo de
los Pueblos Indgenas) in the Presidency. Current President Vicente Fox
Quesada proclaims his commitment to the inclusion and development of
native peoples on the opening page of that website (http://indigenas.presi-
dencia.gob.mx).
The estimates of the indigenous population in Mexico in the year 2000
can range considerably, depending on the source consulted. The Instituto
Nacional de Geografa, Estadstica e Informtica (2004), the agency
charged with carrying out the decennial census, gives a figure of 6,044,547;
this number does not include those indigenous people who do not speak an
indigenous language. The number of indigenous people is therefore a mini-
mum of 6.2% of the 97,483,412 estimated population, so it is not surprising
to see governmental agencies responding to the indigenous presence in
various modalities. Despite the numerous ways in which the indigenous
population is targeted for services, however, there is very little indication
that the indigenous communities and peoples are recognized as discrete
groups or corporate entities, apart from speaking distinct languages. This, I
believe, is one the most important facts motivating the different levels of
national linguistic legislation in the USA and Mexico.
The past policies of the United States towards the native peoples in-
cluding removal, genocide, cultural annihilation will not be defended
here; there is no defense for them. Those crimes are openly acknowledged.
The crimes of the Mexican government against the indigenous peoples of
that country are also acknowledged. What appears to be relevant to this
discussion of indigenous language rights in the two countries is the fact the
United States, in contrast to Mexico, understood that its agreements and
dealings were always with sovereign nations. Again, these agreements and
dealings expressed in treaties and pacts were more often honored in the
breach, but there was a legal precedent established: the sovereign govern-
ment of the United States made agreements with the various sovereign
governments of the indigenous nations. The more powerful USA govern-
ment, of course, was most often in the position to dictate terms and condi-
tions, yet there has always been the official cachet of government-to-
government agreements. Through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), an
agency of the Department of the Interior, the federal government of the
United States currently recognizes 562 tribal governments. The very exis-
tence of sovereign, indigenous governments is something that powerfully
and, I would argue, positively affects the development of the indigenous
peoples in the United States, and aids in their struggle to use and preserve
their heritage languages.
Tribal governments in the United States typically exercise a wide range
of sovereign powers, although some of these such as minting money are
reserved exclusively to the USA federal government. Among their most
common characteristics, tribal governments are democratically elected;
have law enforcement authority on tribal lands; conduct trials; may issue
car license plates; offer social and medical benefits to their members; en-
gage in commercial enterprises, sometimes on a very large scale; and oper-
ate schools and colleges. The high degree of autonomy of the American
Indian nations, however, does not place them among the privileged mem-
bers of USA society: as a group, the indigenous peoples of the United
States still suffer most disproportionately from alcoholism, unemployment,
poverty, infant mortality, and a variety of other social and health-related
disorders. Their autonomy, however, allows the indigenous nations the
freedom to set tribal priorities for the well being of their members, includ-
ing the preservation of traditional culture and language.
5. Oklahoma indigenous language initiatives
Oklahoma, the state in which I reside, is second only to California in the
number of indigenous people in its population.
5
Although there are literally
dozens of federally recognized tribes resident in Oklahoma, the best known
of these have historically been referred to as the Five Civilized Tribes: the
Cherokee Nation, the Chickasaw Nation, the Choctaw Nation, the Musco-
gee (Creek) Nation, and the Seminole Nation. These nations are at the fore-
front of Native American issues in Oklahoma and are generally well repre-
sented in the state legislature; they are the most visible tribal entities due to
the number of their members-citizens; and they maintain an active presence
on the World Wide Web. The Five Civilized Tribes consequently serve as
frequent reference points and as bellwethers. With that in mind, we will see
that the importance of indigenous language preservation and development,
as tribal priorities, varies widely.
The Cherokee Nation has a long tradition of native language literacy,
and after the Navajo people, it is the second most numerous tribal group in
the United States. The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, headquartered in
Tahlequah, is taking important steps to preserve and strengthen the living
language. The website of the Cherokee Nation offers online language les-
sons, and the Cherokee government has produced a proposal for a 10 year
plan for revitalizing the Cherokee language. An important feature of that
proposal is the use of two professional linguists as consultants and plan-
ners. It should be noted that Northeastern State University, a regional pub-
lic university located in Tahlequah, also offers numerous courses in Chero-
kee, including a B.S. degree in Bilingual Cherokee Elementary Education.
The Choctaw Nation, with its tribal government complex located in Du-
rant, is deeply involved in language preservation and development. There is
a Choctaw Language Department, and courses in Choctaw are offered via
distance learning as well as at community centers at various locations in
Oklahoma (and even one in Anaheim, California). There is a recently de-
veloped Choctaw language and culture text, Chahta Anumpa (2001) au-
thored by a professional linguist in consultation with a fluent native
speaker. Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant now offers a
limited number of college-level Choctaw courses in partnership with quali-
fied instructors provided by the Choctaw Nation.
The Chickasaw Nation, headquartered in Ada (approximately 60 miles
north of Durant), often works in close collaboration with the Choctaw Na-
tion. For example, due to the fact that the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribal
jurisdictions abut each other, there are joint Chickasaw-Choctaw health
care clinics available to members of either nation. The Chickasaw and
Choctaw languages are so closely related that the Chickasaw Nation web-
site refers indigenous language questions to the Choctaw Nation, noting
that there are only minor dialectal differences between the two. The
Chickasaw Nations website, in fact, offers a Choctaw translation of the
23
rd
Psalm as an appropriate illustration of Chickasaw language.
The remaining two of the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma are at more
modest levels of language preservation. The Muscogee (Creek) Nation,
with tribal seat in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, has a Cultural Preservation Office
and has prepared Introductory Muscogee (Creek) language materials for
primary education (K3) which are available online.
Finally, the Seminole Nation in Wewoka offers online information that
is currently split between two different websites. The older but more infor-
mative of the two identifies Seminole as a Muscogean language that is fac-
ing challenges to its survival, but that there are steps being taken to intro-
duce it and teach it to young children. Unfortunately, further details
concerning language planning and preservation for Seminole speakers is
not available at either website, nor is there any identifiable office within the
Seminole Nation administration responsible for cultural preservation, in-
cluding language issues. It should be noted, however, that any lack of web-
based references does not necessarily indicate a lack of interest or dedica-
tion to language preservation on the part of any tribal government. We
should bear in mind that the human and capital resources of each American
Indian Nation vary just as they do within modern nation-states, i.e. from the
populous and wealthy to the populous and poor; from the small and
wealthy, to the small and poor.
6. Conclusion
The national legislation in Mexico and the USA related to the preservation
and promotion of indigenous languages and indigenous language rights has
much phraseology in common. What distinguishes the approaches taken in
both countries is the historical and constitutional setting: since before its
national independence, Mexico has looked toward the central government
to take initiatives in many areas that are reserved to the individual states in
the USA. As Mexico has not generally regarded the indigenous peoples as
corporate and sovereign entities, the federal government in recent years has
instituted numerous programs to de-marginalize the native peoples and
ensure the recognition of their individual and collective rights. From the
Mexican perspective, this would almost naturally require a new federal
bureaucracy. In light of the fact that greater than 6% of the population is
indigenous, establishing a new National Institute of Indigenous Languages
indeed appears inevitable.
Despite its well-known crimes and offenses against the native peoples,
the federal government of the United States has historically maintained a
policy of acknowledging the sovereignty of American Indian nations. The
(federally recognized) native peoples have consequently established nations
within a nation, which include most of the apparatuses of sovereign gov-
ernments. The USA government has generally left the question of preserv-
ing and developing native languages to the individual tribal governments;
we have seen how the level of commitment towards their language can vary
widely among the Nations. The federal NALA of 1990 does little more
than offer encouragement to the American Indian governments in protect-
ing native languages, but it does at least recognize the right of American
Indians to express themselves in their language in any public proceeding,
including publicly supported education programs.
6
In their analysis of the Mexican General Law, Pellicer et al. (in this vol-
ume) warn that the MIL are threatened by increasing bilingualism and
Spanish monolingualism; this is occurring even though a substantial num-
ber of Mexicos inhabitants are indigenous and many live in relative isola-
tion. The indigenous population of the United States is tiny in comparison
to that of Mexico: approximately 1.5% of the USA population in the 2000
census claimed Native identity. Although the tribal governments in the
USA have a great deal of autonomy, and many of them have their own
lands and territories (reservations), the native peoples in the USA face
many of the same problems as their indigenous counterparts elsewhere: the
growing dependence on a culturally-dominant language and the subsequent
loss of the traditional language.
The two responses to the question of indigenous language rights, as il-
lustrated by the national legislation cited here, could hardly be more polar.
In Mexico, the challenge has been taken up by the federal government on
behalf of indigenous peoples, who for years, have not existed as individ-
ual ethnicities, and who have never been able to express their collective
sovereign will in the face of a powerful, centralizing federal government. In
the United States, there is a tradition of recognizing indigenous national
sovereignty. American Indian sovereignty has perhaps never been more
fully exercised, or more fully honored by the US government, than in the
past 30 years. Although this more-complete indigenous sovereignty has not
exorcised the social ills plaguing Native Americans or erased the effects of
neglect and abuse by the federal government, tribal governments have the
legal authority and capacity to set their own priorities. More so than ever
before, American Indian nations are in control of their own social and fi-
nancial destiny. They have their own resources intellectual, social, and
capital to bring to bear on their own challenges. The NALA of 1990 rec-
ognizes the historical moment, both of increased self-determination and the
threat posed against native languages by the dominant English-speaking
culture. The central control approach as deployed in Mexico and the lo-
cal control approach in the United States speak to the historical and actual
circumstances of indigenous peoples in both countries. Both approaches
seek to strengthen indigenous cultures and languages. How successful they
are will depend in large measure on the effort of the indigenous people
themselves in the face of the global marginalization and disappearance of
minority languages in general.
Notes
1. Derechos de los pueblos y comunidades indgenas en la Constitucin Poltica
de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos (Rights of the indigenous peoples and com-
munities in the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States), signed by
President Vicente Fox Quesada, August 3, 2001.
2. In the NALA (1990), indigenous peoples (Native Americans) are identified
as (American) Indian, Native Hawaiian, or Native American Pacific Islander.
3. The President was to have submitted a report to that effect to the US Congress
by October 1991. I have been unable to determine if such a report was in fact
submitted.
4. La Nacin Mexicana es nica e indivisible. La Nacin tiene una composicin
pluricultural sustentada originalmente en sus pueblos indgenas que son aque-
llos que descienden de poblaciones que habitaban en el territorio actual del pas
al iniciarse la colonizacin y que conservan sus propias instituciones sociales,
econmicas, culturales y polticas, o parte de ellas. La conciencia de su identi-
dad indgena deber ser criterio fundamental para determinar a quienes se apli-
can las disposiciones sobre pueblos indgenas.
5. In descending order, the 10 states with the greatest number of indigenous peo-
ple are: California, Oklahoma, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, New York,
Washington, North Carolina, Michigan, and Alaska.
6. In further developments, the Native American Languages Act of 1992 (Public
Law102-524) establishes a federal grants program for the preservation and de-
velopment of indigenous languages, as well as an Administration for Native
Americans within the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Cherokee Nation has ap-
plied to this federal program to help fund implementation of its ambitious lan-
guage revitalization effort. A bill to amend the NALA of 1990 to provide for
the support of Native American language survival schools was introduced in
the USA Senate in March 2003 (108
th
Congress, Senate Bill 575), and in the
USA House of Representatives in J une 2003 (108
th
Congress, House Resolu-
tion 2362). Each legislative chamber referred the proposal to subcommittees;
no legislation was passed.
Refer ences
Cherokee Nation
2004 www.cherokee.org
Chickasaw Nation
2004 www.chickasaw.net
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
2004 www.choctawnation.com.
Diario Oficial de la Federacin
2003 Decreto que crea la Ley General de Derechos Lingsticos de los
Pueblos Indgenas de Mxico y Reforma la Fraccin IV del Artculo
7 de la Ley General de Educacin. Mexico City (March 13).
Haig, Marcia and Henry Willis
2001 Choctaw Language and Culture: Chahta anumpa. Norman: Univer-
sity of Oklahoma Press.
Instituto Nacional de Estadstica, Geografa e Informtica (INEGI).
2004 www.inegi.gob.mx.
Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma
2004 www.muscogeenation-nsn.gov.
Reina, Leticia
2002 Reindianizacin: paradoja del liberalismo. Mexico Indgena (Nueva
Epoca) 1: 4956.
Seminole Nation of Oklahoma
2004 www.cowboy.net/native/old-seminole-old.
2004 www.seminole.com
Appendix I
The General Law on Linguistic Rights of Indigenous Peoples
(English version)
Thursday, 13 March 2003 Official Daily (First section)
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DECREE by which the General Law on the Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples is
created and Section IV of Article 7 of the General Law on Education is reformed.
In the margin a stamp with the National Seal which reads: United Mexican States Presi-
dency of the Republic.
VICENTE FOX QUESADA, President of the United Mexican States, to its inhabitants,
be it known:
That the Honorable Congress of the Union has seen fit to direct to me the following
DECREE
THE GENERAL CONGRESS OF THE UNITED MEXICAN STATES DECREES
THE GENERAL LAW ON THE LINGUISTIC RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IS
CREATED. IT REFORMS SECTION IV OF ARTICLE 7 OF THE GENERAL LAW ON EDU-
CATION
ARTICLE THE FIRST. The General Law on the Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples
is created According to the following text
GENERAL LAW ON LINGUISTIC RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Chapter I
GENERAL DISPOSITIONS
ARTICLE 1. The present law belongs to the public order or social interest, is of general
observance in the United Mexican States and has as its purpose regulating the recognition
and protection of individual and collective linguistic rights of the indigenous peoples and
communities, as well as promoting the use and development of indigenous languages.
ARTICLE 2. Indigenous languages are those that proceed from the peoples existing
within the national territory before the establishment of the Mexican State, in addition to
those proceeding from other Indo-American peoples, likewise preexisting, which later have
taken root within the national territory and are recognized as possessing an ordered and
systematic complex of functional and symbolic oral forms.
ARTICLE 3. The indigenous languages are an integral part of the national cultural and
linguistic patrimony. The plurality of indigenous languages is one of the chief expressions of
the multicultural composition of the Mexican Nation.
ARTICLE 4. The indigenous languages that are recognized in terms of the present Law
and Spanish are national languages due to their historic origin. And they have the same
validity in their territory, locale, and context in which they may be spoken.
ARTICLE 5. The State through its orders of government--the Federation, States, and
municipalities--in the areas of their respective competencies will recognize, protect, and
promote the preservation, development, and use of national indigenous languages.
ARTICLE 6. The State will adopt and implement the necessary means to assure that the
mass media will broadcast the reality and linguistic and cultural diversity of the Mexican
Nation. Additionally, it will devote a percentage of the time available to it in the licensed
mass media, in accordance with applicable legislation, for broadcasting programs in the
diverse national languages spoken in their area of coverage, and cultural programs promot-
ing the literature, oral traditions and the use of national indigenous languages in the diverse
regions of the country.
ARTICLE 7. The indigenous languages will be valid, as is Spanish, for any matter or
transaction of a public nature, as well as for having full access to any procedures, services
and public information. It is incumbent upon the State to guarantee the exercise of the rights
foreseen in this article, in accordance with the following.
a).- In the Federal District and in the other States with districts having municipalities
which speak indigenous languages, the corresponding Governments, in consultation with
local and migrant indigenous communities, will determine which of its agencies will adopt
and implement means so that the required authorities may attend to and resolve the matters
submitted to them in indigenous languages.
b).- In the municipalities with communities that speak indigenous languages, the meas-
ures referred to in the previous paragraph will be adopted and implemented in all instances.
The Federation and States will have available and will disseminate by means of texts,
audiovisual and computer media, laws and regulations as well as the contents of programs,
public works and services directed to indigenous communities in the language of the corre-
sponding beneficiaries.
ARTICLE 8. No person will be subject to any type of discrimination on account of or by
virtue of the language he or she speaks.
Chapter II
ON THE RIGHTS OF THE SPEAKERS OF INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES
ARTICLE 9. It is the right of every Mexican to communicate in the language of which he
or she is a speaker, without restrictions, in the public or private sphere, in oral or written
form, in all social, economic, political, cultural, religious and any other activities.
ARTICLE 10. The State will guarantee the right of indigenous peoples and communities
to access to the jurisdiction of the State in the national indigenous language of which they
are speakers. In order to guarantee that right, in all trials and legal processes to which they
are party, individually or collectively, their customs and cultural distinctions must be taken
into account, respecting the precepts of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican
States. The federal authorities responsible for the prosecution and administration of justice,
including agrarian and labor law, will provide what is necessary so that in the trials they
conduct indigenous people will be assisted free of charge, at all times, by interpreters and
defense counsel who have knowledge of their indigenous language and culture.
In terms of Article 5, in the States and municipalities with communities that speak in-
digenous languages, the measures referred to in the previous paragraph will be adopted
and implemented in the instances that may be required.
ARTICLE 11. Federal and State educational authorities will guarantee that the indige-
nous population will have access to obligatory, bilingual and intercultural education and will
adopt the necessary means so that within the educational system respect for the dignity and
identity of persons is assured, independently of their language. Likewise at intermediate and
upper levels, interculturalism, multilingualism and respect for diversity and linguistic rights
will be promoted.
ARTICLE 12. Society and especially the residents and institutions of indigenous towns
and communities will be equally responsible for achieving the objectives of this Law, and
active participants in the use and teaching of languages in family, community and regional
settings towards the goal of linguistic rehabilitation.
Chapter III
ON THE DISTRIBUTION, CONCURRENCE, AND COORDINATION OF COMPETENCIES
ARTICLE 13. It is the States duty, through its distinctive orders of government in their
respective areas of competency, to create institutions and undertake activities in order to
achieve the general objectives of the present Law, and in particular the following
I. To include in national, state, and municipal plans and programs dealing with in-
digenous education and culture those policies and actions tending to protect, pre-
serve, promote, and develop the diverse national indigenous languages, with the
participation of indigenous peoples and communities;
II. To disseminate the content of programs, public works, and services directed to in-
digenous communities in the national indigenous languages of the beneficiaries;
III. To broadcast the national indigenous languages of the region through the media in
order to promote their use and development;
IV. To include the origin and evolution of national indigenous languages, as well as
their contributions to national culture, in the basic education curricula and teacher
preparation programs;
V. To oversee that interculturalism, multilingualism, and respect for linguistic diversity
are promoted or implemented in public and private education in order to contribute
to the preservation, study, and development of national indigenous languages and
their literature;
VI. To guarantee that the faculty who attend to basic bilingual education in indigenous
communities speak and write the local language and are familiar with the culture of
the indigenous people in question;
VII. To promote policies of research, dissemination, study, and documentation of na-
tional indigenous languages and their literary expressions;
VIII. To create libraries, periodical collections, cultural centers or other depository insti-
tutions that will preserve linguistic materials in national indigenous languages;
IX. To endeavor to set aside a space in public libraries for preserving the most repre-
sentative information and documentation of national indigenous languages and
their literature;
X. To support public and private institutions, as well as legally constituted civil asso-
ciations, that carry out ethnolinguistic research in everything related to fulfilling the
objectives of this Law;
XI. To support the professional formation and accreditation of interpreters and transla-
tors in national indigenous languages and Spanish;
XII. To guarantee that public institutions, agencies, and offices have personnel knowl-
edgeable in the national indigenous languages required in their respective territo-
ries;
XIII. To establish policies, actions, and ways to protect and preserve the use of national
languages and cultures among migratory indigenous people within the national ter-
ritory and abroad a and
XIV. To favor and encourage the participation of speakers of national indigenous lan-
guages in policies which will promote studies to be carried out in the diverse
branches of government and in academic and research settings.
Chapter IV
ON THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES
ARTICLE 14. The National Institute of Indigenous Languages is hereby created as a
decentralized organ of the Federal Public Administration to be of public and social service,
with its own legal status and budget, located within the Department of Public Education,
whose purpose is to promote the strengthening, preservation, and development of the
indigenous languages spoken within the national territory, the knowledge and enjoyment of
the Nations cultural riches, and to advise the three orders of government in articulating
public policies in that area. To the fulfillment of that purpose, the Institute will have the fol-
lowing characteristics and functions:
a) To design strategies and instruments for the development of national indigenous
languages in coordination with the three orders of government and the indigenous
peoples and communities.
b) To promote programs, projects, and actions to invigorate knowledge of national in-
digenous languages and cultures.
c) To broaden the social space for the use of national indigenous languages and
promote access to their knowledge, stimulate the preservation, knowledge, and
appreciation of indigenous languages in public spaces and the media, according to
the norms and regulations in this area.
d) To establish standards and formulate programs to certify and accredit bilingual
technicians and professionals; to promote the training of specialists in this area
who will likewise be familiar with the culture involved, linking their activities with un-
dergraduate and graduate studies, certificate studies, and courses for specializa-
tion, updating, and professional preparation.
e) To formulate and carry out projects in linguistic, literary, and educational develop-
ment.
f) To design and promote grammar production, standardization of writing, and read-
ing and writing skills in national indigenous languages.
g) To carry out and promote basic and applied research for the greater knowledge of
national indigenous languages and to promote their dissemination.
h) To carry out research to determine the diversity of national indigenous languages
and support the National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics to de-
sign the methodology for undertaking the sociolinguistic census to learn the num-
ber and distribution of their speakers.
i) To act as consulting and advising organ in this field to the agencies and entities of
the Federal Public Administration as well as units of the Legislative and Judicial
Branches, to state and municipal governments, and public and private institutions
and non-profit organizations.
j) To report on the application of what the Constitution, international treaties ratified
by Mexico, and this Law specify with regard to indigenous languages, and to issue
to the three orders of government the recommendations and pertinent means to
guarantee their preservation and development.
k) To promote and support the creation and function of institutes in the states and
municipalities in conformance with the applicable law of the states, based on the
presence of national indigenous languages in their respective territories.
l) To sign agreements, in accordance with the Political Constitution of the United
Mexican States, with natural persons or legal entities, and with national, interna-
tional or foreign organizations, public or private, according to the activities proper to
the Institute and applicable regulations.
ARTICLE 15. The administration of the National Institute of Indigenous Languages will
be under the charge of a National Council as its collective governing body, and a Director
General responsible for the functioning of the same Institute. The legal seat of the Institute
will be Mexico City, Federal District.
ARTICLE 16. The National Council shall be composed of: seven representatives from
the Federal Public Administration, three representatives from schools, institutions of higher
education and indigenous universities, and three representatives from academic institutions
and civil organizations which have distinguished themselves in promoting, preserving, and
defending the use of indigenous languages.
The representatives from the Federal Public Administration are the following:
1) The Secretary of Public Education who will preside in his role as head of the coor-
dinating body of the sector, with authority as established by the Federal Law on
Public Sector Entities.
2) A representative from the Department of Treasury and Public Credit at the level of
undersecretary.
3) A representative from the Department of Social Development.
4) A representative from the Department of Highways and Transportation.
5) A representative from the National Council for Culture and the Arts.
6) A representative from the National Indigenous Institute.
7) A representative from the Department of Foreign Relations.
The Director General will be designated by the President of the United Mexican States
from a list presented by the National Council and will remain in the position for a maximum
period of 6 years; will preferably be a native speaker of some indigenous language; with
experience related to some substantive activity of the Institute and will enjoy recognized
professional and academic prestige in the research, development, dissemination, and use
of indigenous languages.
ARTICLE 17. The functioning rules of the governing body, the operating and administra-
tive structure, as well as the powers and operating procedures of the governing body will be
established in the Internal Regulations of the unit which will be issued by the National Coun-
cil.
The governing body, composed of the majority of its members, will meet ordinarily every
six months, and extraordinarily whenever it is convened by its President, and its decisions
will be made by the majority of those present.
ARTICLE 18. To fulfill his duties, the Director General will have the powers of adminis-
trative oversight and to attend to lawsuits and collections, including those which require a
special legal clause, with no limitations beyond those which may be imposed generally by
statute or ad hoc regulations by the National Council.
ARTICLE 19. The auditing body of the National Institute of Indigenous Languages will
be comprised of a Public Property Commissioner and a deputy named by the Department of
Comptroller and Administrative Development.
ARTICLE 20. The National Council of the National Institute of Indigenous Languages,
after previously consulting the particular studies of the National Institute of Anthropology
and History and the National Institute of Statistics, Geography, and Informatics, with the
joint proposal of the representatives from indigenous peoples and communities and the
academic institutions which form part of the Council itself, will make the catalogue of indige-
nous languages; the catalogue will be published in the Official Daily of the Federation.
ARTICLE 21. The capital resources of the National Institute of Languages will be com-
prised of the goods enumerated as follows:
I. The amount the Federal Government annually fixes for it as subsidy through its
Expenditures Budget;
II. The products obtained through public works it carries out and the sale of its publi-
cations;
III. Those it may acquire through inheritance, bequests, donations or any other title
from individuals or institutions, public or private.
ARTICLE 22. To guarantee the fulfillment of the obligations and functions indicated in
this Law and, in conformity to that which is disposed in the penultimate paragraph of Section
B, of Article 2 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States regarding indigenous
culture, the Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of the Union, the Legislatures of the
States and Municipal Governments, in the areas of their respective competencies, will es-
tablish the specific entries in the expenditures budgets they approve in order to protect,
promote, preserve, use, and develop indigenous languages.
ARTICLE 23. Labor relations between the National Institute of Indigenous Languages
and its workers will be governed by the Federal Law on Workers in the Service of the State,
obligatory under Section A of Constitutional Article 123.
ARTICLE 24. The National Institute of Indigenous Languages and its corresponding
state branches, in their turn, will urge the appropriate authorities to promulgate laws that
sanction and penalize the commission of any type of discrimination, exclusion and exploita-
tion of people speaking national indigenous languages, or that violate the provisions which
establish rights in favor of the speakers of national indigenous languages enshrined in this
Law.
ARTICLE 25. The authorities, institutions, servants and public officials who violate the
provisions of the present Law will be subject to liability according to what is envisioned in the
Fourth Title of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States and its regulatory laws
with regard to the liability of public servants.
ARTICLE THE SECOND. Section IV of Article 7 of the General Law on Education has been
amended to be as follows:
ARTICLE 7.
IV. To promote through education knowledge of the linguistic pluralism of the Nation
and respect for the linguistic rights of the indigenous peoples.
The speakers of indigenous languages will have access to obligatory education in their
own language and in Spanish.
ENABLING LEGLISLATION
First. The present Decree will go into effect the day following its publication in the Official
Daily of the Federation.
Second. The National Council of the National Institute of Indigenous Languages will
become constituted within six months following the publication of this Decree in the Official
Daily of the Federation. To that end, the Secretary of the Department of Public Education
will convene directors and principals of schools, institutions of higher education, and indige-
nous universities, academic institutions, including among these specifically the Center for
Research and Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology, as well as civic organizations, so
that they may propose their respective representatives to form the National Council of the
National Institute of Indigenous Languages. Once these proposals are received, the Secre-
tary of Public Education, the representatives of the Departments of Treasury and Public
Credit, of Social Development, of the Department of Highways and Transportation, of the
National Council for Culture and the Arts, of the National Indigenous Institute, and of the
Department of Foreign Relations will determine the composition of the first National Council
of the Institute which will function for the period of one year. At the end of this period, the
National Council must be composed in the terms of the Statute which the first National
Council must issue within a period of six months, beginning from its installation.
Third. The catalogue referred to in Article 20 of the General Law on the Linguistic Rights
of Indigenous Peoples shall be made within the period of one year following the date on
which the National Council of the National Institute of Indigenous Languages is constituted,
in conformance with the previous article of enabling legislation.
Fourth. The first sociolinguistic census shall be taken and published within the period of
two years beginning from the effective date of this Decree. Subsequent sociolinguistic cen-
suses shall be taken together with the General Census of Population and Housing.
Fifth. The Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of the Union shall establish within the
Expenditures Budget the entry corresponding to the National Institute of Indigenous Lan-
guages so that it may fulfill the objectives established in the present Law.
Sixth. The state legislatures shall analyze, according to their own ethnolinguistic compo-
sitions, the appropriate adaptation of the corresponding laws in accordance with what is
established in this Law.
Seventh. With regard to Section VI of Article 13 of the present Law, in case the compe-
tent educational authorities do not have trained personnel immediately available, they shall
have a period of two years, beginning with the publication of the present Law, to train the
necessary staff. To the end of complying thoroughly with said provision, teacher training
institutions shall include the undergraduate degree in indigenous education
Eighth. All provisions contravening the present Decree are repealed.
Mexico City, Federal District, December 15, 2002.- Senator Enrique Jackson Ramrez,
President Deputy Beatriz Paredes Rangel, President Senator. Mrs. I. Castellanos
Corts, Secretary Deputy Adela Cerezo Bautista, Secretary Signatures.
In compliance with the provisions of Section I, Article 89 of the Political Constitution of
the United Mexican States, and for its due publication and observance, I issue the present
Decree at the Residence of the Federal Executive Branch, in Mexico City, Federal District,
on the tenth day of the month of March of two thousand three Vicente Fox Quesada
Signature The Secretary of State, Santiago Creel Miranda Signature.
Appendix I I
Native American Languages Act of 1990
P.L. 101-477 (October 30, 1990)
This federal policy statement recognizing the language rights of American Indians, Alaska
Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders was quietly enacted in the waning hours of
the 101st Congress. Sponsored by Senator Daniel Inouye, Democrat of Hawaii, the bill
passed on a voice vote in both House and Senate without hearings or any vocal opposition.
It authorizes no new programs for Native Americans, nor additional funding for existing
ones, but is expected to facilitate efforts to preserve indigenous languages.
SHORT TITLE
SEC. 101. This title may be cited as the "Native American Languages Act."
FINDINGS
SEC. 102. The Congress finds that
(1) the status of the cultures and languages of Native Americans is unique and the United
States has the responsibility to act together with Native Americans to ensure the survival of
these unique cultures and languages;
(2) special status is accorded Native Americans in the United States, a status that recog-
nizes distinct cultural and political rights, including the right to continue separate identities;
(3) the traditional languages of Native Americans are an integral part of their cultures and
identities and form the basic medium for the transmission, and thus survival, of Native
American cultures, literatures, histories, religions, political institutions, and values;
(4) there is a widespread practice of treating Native American languages as if they were
anachronisms;
(5) there is a lack of clear, comprehensive, and consistent Federal policy on treatment of
Native American languages which has often resulted in acts of suppression and extermina-
tion of Native American languages and cultures;
(6) there is convincing evidence that student achievement and performance, community and
school pride, and educational opportunity is clearly and directly tied to respect for, and
support of, the first language of the child or student;
(7) it is clearly in the interests of the United States, individual States, and territories to en-
courage the full academic and human potential achievements of all students and citizens
and to take step to realize these ends;
(8) acts of suppression and extermination directed against Native American languages and
cultures are in conflict with the United States policy of self-determination for Native Ameri-
cans;
(9) languages are the means of communication for the full range of human experiences and
are critical to the survival of cultural and political integrity of any people; and
(10) language provides a direct and powerful means of promoting international communica-
tion by people who share languages.
DEFINITIONS
SEC. 103. For purposes of this title
(1) The term "Native American" means an Indian, Native Hawaiian, or Native American
Pacific Islander.
(2) The term "Indian" has the meaning given to such term under section 5351(4) of the
Indian Education Act of 1988 (25 U.S.C. 2651(4)).
(3) The term "Native Hawaiian" has the meaning given to such term by section 4009 of
Public Law 100-297 (20 U.S.C. 4909).
(4) The term "Native American Pacific Islander" means any descendant of the aboriginal
people of any island in the Pacific Ocean that is a territory or possession of the United
States.
(5) The terms "Indian tribe" and "tribal organization" have the respective meaning given to
each of such terms under section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Educational Assis-
tance Act (25 U.S.C. 450b).
(6) The term "Native American language" means the historical, traditional languages spoken
by Native Americans.
(7) The term "traditional leaders" includes Native Americans who have special expertise in
Native American culture and Native American languages.
(8) The term "Indian reservation" has the same meaning given to the term "reservation"
under section 3 of the Indian Financing Act of 1974 (25 U.S.C. 1452).
DECLARATION OF POLICY
SEC. 104. It is the policy of the United States to
(1) preserve, protect, and promote the rights and freedom of Native Americans to use,
practice, and develop Native American languages;
(2) allow exceptions to teacher certification requirements for Federal programs and pro-
grams funded in whole or in part by the Federal Government, for instruction in Native
American languages when such teacher certification requirements hinder the employment
of qualified teachers who teach in Native American languages, and to encourage State and
territorial governments to make similar exceptions;
(3) encourage and support the use of Native American languages as a medium of instruc-
tion in order to encourage and support
(a) Native American language survival,
(b) equal educational opportunity,
(c) increased student success and performance,
(d) increased student awareness and knowledge of their culture and history, and
(e) increased student and community pride;
(4) encourage State and local education programs to work with Native American parents,
educators, Indian tribes, and other Native American governing bodies in the implementation
of programs to put this policy into effect;
(5) recognize the right of Indian tribes and other Native American governing bodies to use
the Native American languages as a medium of instruction in all schools funded by the
Secretary of the Interior;
(6) fully recognize the inherent right of Indian tribes and other Native American governing
bodies, States, territories, and possessions of the United States to take action on, and give
official status to, their Native American languages for the purpose of conducting their own
business;
(7) support the granting of comparable proficiency achieved through course work in a Native
American language the same academic credit as comparable proficiency achieved through
course work in a foreign language, with recognition of such Native American language
proficiency by institutions of higher education as fulfilling foreign language entrance or de-
gree requirements; and
(8) encourage all institutions of elementary, secondary, and higher education, where appro-
priate, to include Native American languages in the curriculum in the same manner as for-
eign languages and to grant proficiency in Native American languages the same full aca-
demic credit as proficiency in foreign languages.
NO RESTRICTIONS
SEC. 105. The right of Native Americans to express themselves through the use of Native
American languages shall not be restricted in any public proceeding, including publicly
supported education programs.
EVALUATIONS
SEC. 106. (a) The President shall direct the heads of the various Federal departments,
agencies, and instrumentalities to
(1) evaluate their policies and procedures in consultation with Indian tribes and other
Native American governing bodies as well as traditional leaders and educators in
order to determine and implement changes needed to bring the policies and proce-
dures into compliance with the provisions of this Act;
(2) give the greatest effect possible in making such evaluations, absent a clear specific
Federal statutory requirement to the contrary, to the policies and procedures which
will give the broadest effect to the provisions of this Act; and
(3) evaluate the laws which they administer and make recommendations to the Presi-
dent on amendments needed to bring such laws into compliance with the provi-
sions of this Act.
(b) By no later than the date that is one year after the date of enactment of this Act, the
President shall submit to Congress a report containing recommendations for amendments
to Federal laws that are needed to bring such laws into compliance with the provisions of
this Act.
USE OF ENGLISH
SEC. 107. Nothing in this Act shall be construed as precluding the use of Federal funds to
teach English to Native Americans.
Chapter 7
The M exican indigenous languages and
the national censuses: 19702000
Brbara Cifuentes and Jos Luis Moctezuma
Abstr act
Mexicos linguistic diversity has been acknowledged throughout the centu-
ries. Despite this continuity, the information regarding multilingualism has
undergone numerous changes, due either to the assumptions and intentions
that have motivated official re-counts or to the methods used to reconstruct
and define the languages in question. Regional outlines of languages began
in the sixteenth century, while both the classifications and series of statis-
tics had their start in the nineteenth century. During the twentieth century,
the data collected by the national censuses were in fact the means of recog-
nizing and differentiating the Mexican indigenous population. In spite of
the many limitations, they still represent the official estimates and are in
addition the only resource available that allows us to have a general, en-
compassing panorama of the indigenous languages spoken in Mexico.
Based on census information from the last three decades, we offer an over-
view of the maintenance and shift trends of the 27 most widely spoken
languages. In order to achieve this purpose, four indicators have been ex-
amined: (1) Permanency of speakers of indigenous language (SIL) in their
ancestral settlements; (2) rate of growth of the SIL; (3) rate of Spanish /
indigenous language bilingualism; and (4) and use of the SIL in the home
domain. The data analyzed for the decades 19702000 help identify those
groups that show a tendency towards language maintenance or towards
language shift.
1. I ntr oduction
The purpose of this article is to offer an overview of the Mexican indige-
nous languages (henceforth MIL) through the information gathered by the
national censuses (19702000). The estimates of the indigenous population
are not new; on the contrary, colonial authorities were able and willing to
gather data utilizing different methods (e.g., direct observation, reports
192 Brbara Cifuentes and Jos Luis Moctezuma
from religious authorities, original surveys). In modern times, the methods
and goals that have motivated the qualitative and quantitative recognition
of existing multilingualism in the country point to the notion that in the
national surveys there is the underlying assumption indicating that the in-
digenous languages constitute the most reliable means of identifying the
indigenous population. The available information about the amount of
speakers of indigenous languages (henceforth SIL) has been utilized to
gauge the degree of cultural heterogeneity prevailing among Mexicans. In
like manner, this article reviews the continuities and changes that appear in
the census registers of the twentieth century: both the names and the num-
bers of the languages and the criteria that motivated the re-counts have
changed (e.g., quantity of SIL, monolingualism; bilingualism; use of the
indigenous languages in the home domain). In order to interpret these in-
teresting changes, we take into consideration the different approaches of
the language policies, better known as indigenismo.
The estimates on MIL derived from the data gathered and organized by
theInstituto Nacional de Estadstica, Geografa e Informtica (INEGI) in
the past three decades (19702000). For the XII Censo general de po-
blacin y vivienda which provides the data for the decade 19902000
we use the compact disc known as Tabulados bsicos nacionales y por
entidad federativa. Base de datos y tabuladores de la muestra censal
(2002) prepared by the INEGI. We have consulted the Chapter Indigenous
Language, which has four distinct sections about the categories mentioned
below:
1. Population over 5 years by State, sex, and age (by quinquennial groups)
and its distribution according to their condition of SIL or Spanish
speaker;
2. Population over 5 years who speaks an indigenous language by sex and
type of language, and its distribution according to age (by quinquennial
groups);
3. Population over 5 years who speaks an indigenous language by State
and type of language, and its distribution according to their condition of
Spanish speaker and sex; and
4. Population 04 years living in a household where the head of household
and/or spouse speaks an indigenous language (by State and type of lan-
guage).
In addition, we have utilized the estimate known as Poblacin indgena
por lengua, segn condicin de habla de indgena por porcin de hablantes
(2003), gathered by the Sistema Nacional de Indicadores para la Po-
blacin Indgena and interpreted according to Serrano (2003). Finally, the
The Mexican indigenous languages and the national censuses: 19702000 193
census data corresponding to the decades 1970, 1980 and 1990 have been
taken from the following secondary reconstructed sources: Hablantes de
lengua indgena en Mxico (Horcasitas y Crespo 1979); La poblacin y las
lenguas de Mxico en 1970 (Olivera et al. 1982); Dinmica de la poblacin
de habla indgena (Valds and Menndez 1987); El perfil demogrfico de
los indios mexicanos (Valds 1988); and Los indios en los censos de po-
blacin (Valds1995).
The data selected for this article are herein analyzed in light of sociolin-
guistic theories and methodologies; we are interested primarily in the proc-
esses that are actively involved in the growth of the SIL and in the process
of bilingualization during the decades 19702000. The purpose of this
examination is to identify the trends that define either language mainte-
nance or language shift in this period. This analysis offers the needed over-
view of a macro-societal occurrence, that is, multilingualism in each of the
31 States of the country (see Map 1).
With this purpose in mind, we highlight the most noticeable differences
among those states which have been the traditional residence of Meso-
american ethnolinguistic groups and those that are the recipients of large
groups of indigenous immigrants. Our detailed analysis leads to the presen-
tation of the 27 languages for which we found statistical series and whose
number of speakers exceeds 0.1% of the total population of SIL. This
analysis takes into consideration the data on the volume of their respective
SIL, bilingual individuals, age groups, places of residence, and use of the
indigenous language in the home domain. These data are complemented
with those corresponding to the growth and bilingualization of the SIL in
the past three decades. The final analysis establishes a tripartite division of
this universe, that is, a distinction corresponding to the main tendencies that
are currently observed with respect to vitality of MIL, the different dimen-
sions of bilingualism amongst SIL, and the factors that either hamper or
foster language maintenance or language shift.
2. Ear ly appr oaches to multilingualism
The earliest inquiries on the linguistic diversity of New Spain were con-
ducted by the Catholic Church. During three centuries of colonial life, this
was the only institution that had an interest in gathering realistic notes on
the variety and spread of the existing languages in the territories of the
mission.
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The organization of the tasks of cathechesis made access to this knowledge
indispensable. Retrospectively, the information stemming from the Church
administration and the literature prepared by the mission (e.g., grammars,
vocabularies, and religious materials) is a valuable source of information
that aids in the design of the regional maps about the language diversity of
the past. This information sheds light on the ethnolinguistic groups that
were assigned in the area of influence of each of the religous orders, as well
as on the similarities and differences of linguistic nature that were detected
by the missionaries established in the (research) fields.
The examination of the colonial sources has helped in the understanding
of the magnitude and proportions of multilingualism at the moment of con-
tact with the Western civilization and the re-configuration of the linguistic
mosaic that followed. During the sixteenth century, the indigenous popula-
tion suffered considerable losses due to war, disease, and re-arrangements
in the system of social organization. It is estimated that the final balance of
the demographic decay resulted in a population loss of millions of people
in Central Mxico, the most densely populated site stretching from the
broad area of the Tehuantepec Isthmus to the frontier with the Chichimec
peoples. The proportion of losses reported for other Provinces are equally
catastrophic (Cook and Borah 1989: 215221; Snchez Albornoz 2000:
1623). It is also estimated that about 113 languages spoken by the no-
madic and semi-nomadic groups of the Northern and Western regions were
extinct in the sixteenth century (Swadesh 1959: 3638). In contrast, the
languages of sedentary groups, mostly settled in the Center, South and
Southwest regions, displayed higher ratios of survival (cf. Garza and Lastra
1991).
The re-counts of the colonial administration differentiated the indige-
nous population according to the condition adjudicated to the casts. It is
estimated that by 1810, the population of New Spain was composed of
6,122,354 people whose distribution by race was as follows: 10,000 Afri-
cans; 15,000 Europeans; 3,367,281 Indians; 642,461 afromestizos (Span-
ish-speaking mixed groups with an African component); 704,245 indomes-
tizos (Spanish speakers of Indian and European stock raised in an Indian
environment); and 1,092,369 euromestizos (Spanish speakers of European
and Indian stock raised in a Spanish environment) (Aguirre Beltrn 1946:
237). These figures suggest that by the time of Independence (18101821),
the proportion of SIL ranged between 55% and 72% of the total population
of the country. During the nineteenth century, the queries about linguistic
diversity were utilized to complete two urgent tasks of the Mexican gov-
ernments, i.e., the design of national statistics and the construction of the
history of the Nation. The early findings endorsed the racial and cultural
criteria in order to differentiate and calculate the population. By 1894, as a
result of the institutionalization of the national censuses, official statistics
resorted to the indigenous languages as the primary criterion that would
identify the indigenous population. This methodology was supported by
ethnographic and linguistic queries which compared the data of preceding
decades. On the one hand, the ethnographic classifications acknowledged
the existence of 182 hablas (i.e., languages and dialects); of these, 108
made up a total of 11 language families. The remaining 74 hablas were
excluded from this classification (Orozco y Berra 1864). Linguistic classi-
fication estimated that there were 108 languages belonging to 19 families
and four grammatical typologies (Pimentel 1875; Cifuentes 1994).
Based on the reconstruction of linguistic evidence, the two above-
mentined reports substantiated the interpretation about the origin and his-
tory of the indigenous peoples; in addition, the chronological and spatial
mobility of the speakers was traced. The combination of linguistic data
(typological and lexical) with geographic and historical testimonies (cus-
toms, political systems, extension of settlements, migrations and contacts)
led to the acknowledgement of the main pre-Hispanic civilizations (Mexica
or Aztec, Mayan, Tarascan, Zapotecan and Mixtecan) and of the other in-
digenous peoples that did not exhibit a prominent process of political and
intellectual development. These inquiries integrated the survey of cultures
and languages as well as the hierarchy established among them in the an-
cient history of the Nation (Cifuentes 2002). According to nineteenth cen-
tury intellectuals and government officials, the survival of indigenous lan-
guages was interpreted under a different light. The existing multilingualism
in the country was a major cause of concern, given that the vitality of the
MIL attested to the relevance and significance that the traditions and pre-
Hispanic customs still had in an ample sector of the population. In their
eyes, linguistic diversity fostered resentment among indigenous peoples
and lack of union among Mexicans. Therefore, the spread of Spanish was
the only means to transform Mxico into a modern, culturally cohesive
nation (Pimentel 1903).
The statistical studies preceding the 1895 census revealed the total
number of speakers of MIL and their standards of living. These calculations
pointed to the fact that the pure indigenous race made up of impoverished
peasants reached 3,800,000 individuals or more than a third of the entire
population of the country (Garca Cubas 1880: 156). This population dis-
played the highest ratios of malnourishment and the lowest rates of growth
and literacy. It was also pointed out that the disappearance of the indige-
nous peoples and languages was an irreversible process when such process
was examined under Darwinist laws. Moreover, the only possibility of sur-
vival could be accomplished via their integration into the national society
and the rights and obligations established by law for all the citizens. These
views justified the foundation of the Direccin General de Estadstica
(1882), a government-sponsored agency that assumed the responsibility of
designing, administering, and analyzing the national censuses. Counting on
linguistic, ethnographic and demographic studies of the indigenous popula-
tion, the first national census included a question related to linguistic self-
adscription. At present, this indicator is still utilized to identify the demo-
graphic trends of the indigenous population and to assess the linguistic and
cultural homogeneity of the Mexican people.
3. I ndigenous languages and SI L in the national censuses
The twentieth century national censuses exhibit both continuity and inno-
vation. These registers still differentiate the Mexican population through
their respective languages and maintain two restricting criteria to calculate
the indigenous linguistic diversity: (1) the age of the user; and (2) the selec-
tion of the language(s) spoken by the user. However, some innovations
have been introduced in recent decades: (3) the inclusion of bilingual SIL
under 5; and (4) the use of the indigenous language in the home domain. In
addition, the total number of MIL that emerged throughout the decades
stands out as a major disparity of the census registers. Fifty-two languages
were counted at the time of the first national census was administered. In
1910, two languages were lost and the census registered only 50; seven
more disappeared in 1921, and only 43 were documented; the losses con-
tinued in 1930, when the number of languages went down to 36; the declin-
ing trend continued in 1940 with 33 languages and in 1950 with 29. In the
past four decades, the recovery is not only continuous but dramatic: In
1960, the census documented 30 languages; in 1970, there were 31 lan-
guages; in 1980, they added 9 more languages and counted a total of 40; in
1990, the number was incremented to 92; finally, in the 2000 report, the
number of languages decreased to 86. The inconsistency about the number
of languages is coupled with the inconsistency about their identification by
name.
3.1. Names and number of languages
In spite of the deficiencies of the national census data, three groups of lan-
guages can be distinguished consistently. The first one includes an assort-
ment of languages that appear regularly throughout the censuses and whose
existence and designations are recognized by both the speakers and special-
ized scholars. The first group of 22 languages is well-documented with the
following names: Amuzgo, Cora, Chatino, Chinantec, Huastec, Huichol,
Maya, Mayo, Mazahua, Mazatec, Mixe, Mixtec, Nahuatl or Mexicano,
Otomi, Purhepecha or Tarascan, Tarahumar, Totonac, Tzeltal or Tzendal,
Tzotzil, Yaqui, Zapotec and Zoque. In contrast, the documentation of the
second group has been asystematic (Seri, Guarijio, Trique, Cocopa, Tojo-
labal), or very recent (e.g., Aguacatec, Ixil, Chuj). Finally, the third group
is made of extinct languages that still appear in the census lists: Chiapanec,
Chicomuceltec, Opata and Tepecan and others that can no longer be identi-
fied with a speech community (e.g., Yuma) (Manrique 1997: 5456).
The census registers show, too, a variety of denominations. Therefore,
there are multiple errors resulting from the similarities of designations, e.g.,
Mayo and Maya; Popoluca and Popoloca; Tepehua and Tepehuan, or
names that appear identical (Oaxaca Chontal or Tabasco Chontal; South-
ern Tepehuan or Northern Tepehuan). Other confusing reports are due to
the distinction or significance assigned to some languages by interested
scholars, although in some cases, these names are not used or recognized
by the speakers themeselves; for example, speakers of Tohono O'odham or
Papago do not know their language as Pima Alto, which is derived from
their toponym. The speakers of Yaqui and Mayo identify themselves as
members of specific speech communities and reject the generic denomina-
tion of Cahita, a colonial designation that named a cluster of languages of
the region (cf. Reff 1991 and Moctezuma 2001). Furthermore, the incom-
patibility among the different names led to the creation of other categories,
which read as: languages with no classification, other languages,
other Mexican languages, and insufficiently specified. The estimate in
this category increased to about 90,000 individuals in the 2000 census
report.
Another irregularity of the census list can be found in the diversity of
criteria used to designate dialect variations. The most recent language cata-
logs and dialectological studies estimate that there are approximately 63
living languages (see Chart 1). This precision leads scholars to state that the
generic denomination assigned to Nahuatl, Tarahumar, Totonac, Tepehua,
Popoloca, Mazatec, Mixtec, Chatino, Zapotec, Mixe, Popoluca, Zoque, and
Chinantec actually corresponds to thirteen macro-linguistic groups whose
variants present different degrees of intelligibility. Due to the impossible
task of establishing precise limits between languages and dialects, official
surveys are known for offering one single option or one single name for
entities that are quite complex.
The conspicuous increment of languages as of the 1980 census is asso-
ciated with the independent denominations given to variants of macro-
groups and to the incorporation of the languages that have a reduced num-
ber of speakers. For this reason we found, for example, that the census reg-
istered the Chinantec, Mixtec, and Zapotec languages with the generic
name, although a variable indicating secondary peculiarities was intro-
duced. In the case of Zapotec, the census included two dialects as inde-
pendent languages (Papabuco and Soltec); the same applies to Tacuate
when it is differentiated from Mixtec. Although the introduction of small
languages was initiated in 1980, the next census included the vast majority
of them. Languages belonging to this group are found in different locations
of the country. In the Center, Matlatzinca and Ocuiltec can be found; in the
East, Pame and Chichimeco; in the Southeast, some Guatemalan languages
are still spoken (e.g., Mam, Ixcatec, Jacaltec, Kanjobal, Lacandon, Moto-
cintlec, Acateco), whereas in the Northwest, Kiliwa, Cochimi, Pai-Pai and
Seri are still identified.
Chart 1. Mexican indigenous languages
Hokan Uto-Aztecan
Totonac-
Tepehua
Otomanguean
Mixe-
Zoquean
Mayan
Pai-pai
Kiliwa
Cochimi
Cocopa
Kumiai
Seri
PIMIC
Papago or
tohono
odham
Pima
Northern
Tepehuan
Southern
Tepehuan
Totonacan
Totonac*
Tepehua
Tepehua*
OTOPAMEAN
Pamean
Pame
Chichimeco-
J onaz
Otomian
Otomi-
mazahua
Otomi
Mazahua
MIXEAN
Mixe*
Popoluca*
Zoquean
Zoque*
Huastecan
Huastec
Chicomuceltec
+
Yucatecan
Yucatec
Lacandon
GREATER
TZELTALAN
Cholan
Chol
Chart 1. Mexican indigenous languages (continued)
Hokan Uto-Aztecan
Totonac-
Tepehua
Otomanguean
Mixe-
Zoquean
Mayan
TARACAHITIC
Tarahumar*
Guarijio
Opata+
Yaqui
Mayo
CORACHOL
Cora
Huichol
AZTECAN
Nahuatl*
Matlatzinca-
Ocuiltec
Matlatzinca
Ocuiltec
POPOLOCAN
Popoloca-
Ixacatec
Popoloca*
Chocho
Ixcatec
Mazatecan
Mazatec *
Subtiaba-
Tlapanec
Tlapanec
Amuzgan
Amuzgo
Mixtecan
Mixtec*
including
Tacuate
Cuicatec
Trique
CHATINO-
ZAPOTECAN
Chatinan
Chatino*
Zapotecan
Zapotec*
including
Papabuc and
Soltec
Tabasco
Chontal
Tzeltalan
Tzeltal
Tzotzil
GREATER
KANJ OBAL
Chujean
Chuj
Tojolabal
Kanjobalan
Kanjobal
J acaltec
Motocintlec
GREATER
MAM
Mamean
Mam
Teco
Ixilian
Ixil
Aguacatec
GREATER
QUICHEAN
Quichean
Quiche
Cackchiquel
Kekchi
Kekchi
+Extinct
* Macro-group
ALGONQUIAN:
-Kickapoo
TEQUISTLATECAN-
J ICAQUEAN:
- Tequistlatec or Oaxaca
Chontal
Isolated Languages:
- Purhepecha
- Huave
Chart 1. Mexican indigenous languages (continued)
Hokan Uto-Aztecan
Totonac-
Tepehua
Otomanguean
Mixe-
Zoquean
Mayan
Chinantecan
Chinantec *
Chiapanec-
manguean
Chiapanec+
The collection of an increasing number of languages is enhanced not only
by the design of more efficient statistical instruments but also by the de-
mands of emergent indigenous groups and organizations who insist on be-
ing acknowledged due to their sociocultural and linguistic specificity.
Against the statistical genocide that characterized the census registers for a
long time, the last three decades of the twentieth century attempt to offer a
more realistic scenario of linguistic plurality. In spite of these endeavors,
the information gathered to date barely allows us to glimpse at the variety
and vastness of the linguistic patrimony of the country.
3.2. Quantifying the SIL
The national censuses have modified the criteria to enumerate the MIL and
their users. These modifications are in consonance with the cultural, educa-
tional, and linguistic policies that prevailed during the twentieth century.
The initial interest for the differentiation between Spanish speakers and SIL
is followed by the concern for quantifying monolinguals and bilinguals.
Recently, these queries have been oriented towards the acknowledgement
of the vitality of the languages among indigenous groups. The census logs
of 1895, 1910, 1921 and 1930 established a tripartite division which
marked a basic difference between (1) those who spoke Spanish or not;
(2) those who spoke indigenous languages or not; and (3) those who
spoke foreign languages (Parra 1950: 13). Between 1930 and 1960, the
census data collection focused on monolingual speakers of each language
while the data related to bilingual individuals appeared exclusively in the
national, state, or municipal estimates without specifying the precise lan-
guages of the surveyed individuals. Finally, the last three decades (1970
2000) are distinguished by the inclusion of estimates of both monolinguals
and bilinguals and by the integration of new dimensions that help deter-
mine the numbers of SIL and the numbers of Spanish speakers in the
homes of indigenous peoples.
3.3. Monolingual SIL
The concern with monolingualism in indigenous languages has been de-
emphasized in order to orient the census surveys to collect data on bilin-
gualism. Between 1930 and 1960, the study of monolingualism was the
focus of attention of governmental and educational institutions. Govern-
ment officials and academics alike addressed the limited influences of the
State over the indigenous population. The promoters of official indige-
nismo indicated that, in spite of the Mexican Revolution (19101921),
which focused on agrarian reforms, the Mexican nation continued to be
divided because it encompassed different cultures and lifestyles that were
not related to one another, and the most backward of all was the indige-
nous (Villoro 2000: 35). Inspired by a nationalist spirit, anthropologists
and educators assumed the most urgent task, which consisted in taking to
the indigenous communities the technical components of modernity
including the Spanish language. This would not preclude the respect for
their culture and ways of authentic expression. Governmental programs
catering to the indigenous peoples had as a goal their social and spiritual
recovery within the cloisters of a unified nation.
Emphasizing the relationship between language and culture, the pro-
moters of official indigenismo considered that monolingualism was the
most significant symptom of the deeply rooted indigenous customs and
worldviews. This presupposition was matched with another one of psycho-
logical order: in combination, the two presuppositions caused them to as-
sert that [the individual] who uses an indigenous languages exclusively
must be the one who feels to be indigenous (Caso 1948 in Parra 1950: 14).
Not knowing Spanish was interpreted as an attitude of resistance against
discrimination and exploitation. This conviction was reinforced with the
following arguments: the Indian prefers the security awarded to him/her
by the full participation of the native culture to the fortuitous advantages
derived from his/her entrance into a culture which is presumably better
provided the conditions are equal (Aguirre Beltrn 1972: 4).
One of the priorities of the indigenist programs during their first 30
years was to overcome the monolingualism that prevailed in the indigenous
population(s). Educational agencies were created with the explicit goal of
teaching Spanish; for this reason, their programs chose the direct method
known as castellanizacin or the programs of alfabetizacin in the
mother tongue (Brice Heath 1972: 218222). Census data on bilingualism
were useful to trace the process of acculturation and mestizaje, and in par-
ticular, the advances that were being observed in the educational programs.
The design of the census survey in these decades highlighted the informa-
tion related to the mastery of Spanish. The first question that appeared in
the survey instrument was, Do you speak Spanish?; if affirmative, the
second question was, What other language or dialect do you speak?
(Parra 1950: 14). Ironically, the exhortative declarations of the pioneers of
indigenismo in support for the respect of the cultures and lifestyles of the
Mexican indigenous peoples were not intended to strengthen their lan-
guages. On the contrary, the increment of bilingualism was considered
favorable to the nation and the most positive option for the indigenous peo-
ples. This optimist perspective on bilingualism justified a new dichotomy:
the language of the State was meant for progress and the indigenous lan-
guages for the domestic domain.
3.4. Monolingual and bilingual SIL
The constant condemnation of the under-reporting practices related to the
indigenous population and the trends favoring programs of bilingual educa-
tion were considerably influential in the modification that follows in the
census design. In response to these demands, the 1970 census log included
for the first time the enumeration of monolingual and bilingual individuals
for each language. However, this modification in the calculating methods
which had as a goal the increment of SIL did not immediately yield the
desired results, given that the final estimates revealed negligible variations
between 1970 and 1980 (see Graph 1). The most drastic changes were no-
ticed however in the 1980 census, in which subdivisions of macro-
linguistic groups and small languages were tallied. In addition, the SIL
appeared for the first time in quinquennial groups. The high rates of growth
reported by this census log were sufficient to question the validity of the
official data. The lack of credibility of the results is obvious; for example,
the growth of Huichol is documented at 750%; Tepehuan at 316%; Tara-
humar at 144%; Mazahua at 85%, and the like). To these unsuspected re-
sults, we can add the negative growth reported in the following decade
4
7
.
3
5
%
5
0
.
3
4
%
5
2
.
0
3
%
6
7
.
5
1
%
6
3
.
5
4
%
7
2
.
3
6
%
7
1
.
7
4
%
8
0
.
2
3
%
8
1
.
4
7
%
3
7
.
7
3
%
5
2
.
6
5
%
4
9
.
6
6
%
3
2
.
4
8
%
3
6
.
4
6
%
2
7
.
6
4
%
2
2
.
6
5
%
1
5
.
8
3
%
1
6
.
5
8
%
1921 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Monolinguals
Bilinguals
1,185,162
1,065,924
1,237,018
1,253,891
795,069
1,652,341
1,104,955
1,925,299
859,854
2,251,561
1,174,594
3,699,653
836,224
4,237,962
1,002,236
4,920,261 Bilinguals
Monolinguals
Graph 1. Bilingualism and monolingualism (19212000)
(19801990): presumably, Zapotec and Otomi decreased to 0.08% and -
0.12%, respectively. In view of these irregularities, the demographers cor-
rected the data by comparing the figures collected for the decades 1970
1980 and 19801990 (Valds and Menndez 1987: 16 and Valds 1995:
31). The following decade (i.e., 1990) the census documented 92 lan-
guages. Likewise, it introduced new pieces of information for the indige-
nous population 04 years old with residence in houses in which the head
of household happened to be a SIL. In addition, it specified the relationship
of the speakers living in the same house. The results of this innovation
were presented independently of the results calculated for the SIL over 5
years. With the inclusion of this new data, the sum of the SIL increased
over 20%. The quest for coherence and reliability oriented the census-
takers to design a new methodology that was applied in the Conteo de po-
blacin y vivienda (1995) [Counting of Population and Housing], which
registered 78 indigenous languages. The innnovation consisted in counting
the population below 5 years by home instead of housing; a home was
defined by the common expenses and by the language of thehead of
household or spouse. Finally, the 2000 census documented 86 languages,
retained the data by quinquennial groups, and made corrections to data
related to speakers between 0 and 4 years of age. The unit of analysis was
the home, given that the home was the privileged space in which biologi-
cal and social reproduction of the indigenous population was to be exam-
ined (Fernndez Ham 2000: 3940).
It is worth-mentioning the research that has been recently promoted by the
National System of Indicators of the Indigenous Population (henceforth
NSIIP), an organization that connects the Commision for the Development
of the Indigenous Population (formerly the Instituto Nacional Indigenista,
the Program of the United Nations for Development, and the National
Council of Population). One of the objectives of the NSIIP is to identify the
degree of vitality of the MIL for each of the indigenous groups. This statis-
tical program designed by the demographers and anthropologists of the
NSIIP corroborates that the total number of SIL reported by the national
census does not coincide with the data reported by individuals who per-
ceive themselves as being members of the Mexican indigenous collectivity.
For this reason, when the two criteria are combined in one, a new compos-
ite known as Ethnolinguistic Group (EG) is used in order to probe into each
community according to ethnolinguistic category. For each EG, the total
number of speakers over 5 years living at homes where the head of
household, spouse or any of the relatives: father, mother, mother-in-law,
father-in-law and granparents are identified as SIL (Serrano 2003: 68).
In order to report the index of languages of each EG, the program dif-
ferentiates the SIL and the Spanish speakers who live in the same home.
The basic distinction is the affirmative response vis--vis the negative re-
sponse to the question related to the use of the indigenous language in the
home domain. Once the information was appraised, it was determined that
the national average of use of the indigenous language of the EG was
32.6%. On the basis of these results, the statistical program of the NSIIP
established three degress of vitality: (1) high vitality (when the number of
SIL is higher than 50%); (2) medium vitality (when the number of SIL
ranges between 32% and 50%); and (3) low vitality (when the users of the
indigenosu languages rank below 32%) (Serrano 2003). The data gathered
for the EG point to the fact that in the indigenous homes there are different
groups of speakers: monolinguals in indigenous languages, bilinguals, and
monolinguals in Spanish, even when this methodology does not intend to
gauge linguistic competencies. This approach suggests that all the members
of the homes where an indigenous language is spoken might know super-
ficially or passively an indigenous language, and even when there is no
knowldege at all, members of the indigenous home most likely identify
themselves with their EG. Finally, the results complement the data on bi-
lingualism, age groups, and rates of language shift.
The re-counts of the last three decades show an increasing interest to
offer a complete scenario of multilingualism. Until now, the focus of the
census has been the variety of languages and the state of affairs with re-
spect to increasing trends of bilingualism. Nonetheless, it is also possible to
observe that the queries are more distanced from their initial objective,
which is the identification of indigenous people. The current academic
debates question the significance of the language indicator as a differenti-
ator and quantifier of the indigenous groups, given that not all of them
maintain the language of their ancestors. The spread of bilingualism and
Spanish monolingualism questions the relative inadequacy of the language
criterion as the sole identifier of ethnic group. Whereas anthropologists
propose the integration of the criterion of ethnic self-adscription as a
basis to identify ethnic groups (Barabas 1996: 4748), promoters of in-
digenous demography continue to search positive indicators conducive to
define this population. In sum, the diverse trends of the official language
data pose new challenges. In the case of multilingualism, the quest for a
renewed analysis demands explorations on the realm of language mainte-
nance and shift.
4. Sur vey of linguistic diver sity: national census data (19702000)
According to the INEGI (2001), the total population of Mexico in the year
2000 was 97,483 412. The total of SIL over 5 years is 6,044,547 individu-
als, which represents 7.12% of the total population of over 5. It is estimated
that the total number of monolinguals is merely 1,002,236 or 16.58% of the
SIL. Nowadays the largest concentrations of SIL are located in the Center,
the South, and the Southeast regions of the country where the early settle-
ments of indigenous populations were found in pre-Hispanic times, i.e.,
Mesoamerica. Another concentration can be found along the Northwest
coast, the Tarahumara Sierra, and the zone of the Great Nayar (Northern
J alisco and Southern Nayarit) (see Map 1). In both cases, the settlements of
SIL are located in towns and villages that are normally in unhospitable
expanses and small intra-mountainous valleys. In contrast to this relative
homogeneity, in large urban areas and surroundings as well as in the agri-
cultural areas distinguished by the cultivation of export products (e.g, to-
mato, avocado in Sinaloa, Sonora and Baja California), numerous groups of
SIL belonging to different groups can be found.
4.1. Multilingualism by state
In each state of the country, the proportion of SIL relative to the Spanish-
speaking population presents relevant differences. According to the INEGI
(2001), the states with a higher proportion of SIL are: Yucatan, Oaxaca,
Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Hidalgo, Campeche, Guerrero, Puebla, San Luis
Potosi and Veracruz, where the highest percentages of SIL range from 37%
in Yucatan to 10.35% in Veracruz (all of them in the Mesoamerican area).
Other states located in the ancient Mesoamerican area with lower propor-
tions of SIL are: Tabasco, Michoacan, state of Mxico, Tlaxcala, Morelos,
Queretaro and Mexico City, all of which have 3.7% of SIL or lower. Fi-
nally, the states of the Northern region with the highest ratios of SIL are
Nayarit, Chihuahua, Sonora, Sinaloa and Durango. Table 1 shows the total
population, total population over 5 years, SIL over 5 years, and percentage
of SIL by state in descending order (see also Map 1).
Table 1. Speakers of indigenous language (SIL) by state: Total population, popu-
lation over 5 years, SIL over 5 years, SIL %
STATE Total Population
Total Population
5 +years
Total SIL
5 +years
% SIL
TOTAL 97 483 412 84 794 454 6 044 547 7.12
Oaxaca 3 438 765 3 019 103 1 120 312 37.1
Chiapas 3 920 892 2 288 963 809 592 35.3
Veracruz 6 908 975 6 118 108 633 372 10.3
Puebla 5 076 686 4 337 362 565 509 13.0
Yucatan 1 658 210 1 472 683 549 532 37.3
Guerrero 3 079 649 2 646 137 367 110 13.8
State of Mexico 13 096 686 11 097 516 361 972 3.2
Hidalgo 2 235 591 1 973 968 339 866 17.2
San Luis Potosi 2 299 360 2 010 539 235 253 11.7
Quintana Roo 874 963 755 442 173 592 22.9
Federal District 8 605 239 7 738 307 141 710 1.8
Michoacan 3 985 667 3 479 357 121 849 3.5
Campeche 690 689 606 699 93 765 15.4
Chihuahua 3 052 907 2 621 057 84 086 3.2
Tabasco 1 891 829 1 664 366 62 027 3.7
Sonora 2 216 969 1 956 617 55 694 2.8
Sinaloa 2 536 844 2 241 296 49 744 2.2
Table 1. Speakers of indigenous language (SIL) by state: Total population, popu-
lation over 5 years, SIL over 5 years, SIL % (continued)
STATE Total Population
Total Population
5 +years
Total SIL
5 +years
% SIL
J alisco 6 322 002 5 541 480 39 259 0.7
Baja California N. 2 487 367 2 010 869 37 685 1.8
Nayarit 920 185 815 263 37 206 4.5
Morelos 1 555 296 1 334 892 30 896 2.3
Tlaxcala 962 646 846 877 26 662 3.1
Queretaro 1 404 306 1 224 088 25 269 2.0
Durango 1 448 661 1 264 011 24 934 1.9
Tamaulipas 2 753 222 2 427 309 17 118 0.7
Nuevo Leon 3 834 141 3 392 025 15 446 0.4
Guanajuato 4 663 032 4 049 950 10 598 0.2
Baja California S. 424 041 374 215 5 353 1.4
Coahuila 2 298 070 2 018 053 3 032 0.1
Colima 542 627 457 777 2 932 0.6
Zacatecas 1 353 610 1 188 724 1 837 0.1
Aguascalientes 994 285 821 404 1 224 0.1
The highest rates of growth of the SIL in the past three decades (1970
2000) were documented in the states that attract a considerable proportion
of migrant workers, but which originally had a nil or extremely low
authentic population of indigenous origin. The demand for cheap agricul-
tural labor and the proximity to the United States augmented the flow of
migrant workers most of the time temporary to the Northern states of
Baja California Sur, Baja California Norte, Sonora, Sinaloa, Nuevo Leon
and Tamaulipas (see Map 1). The increment of SIL in these states and in
Colima and J alisco, both located along the Pacific Rim reaches more than
600%. In contrast, the states which were the ancestral residence of the in-
digenous population show an increment as high as 181.2%. This is the case
of Chiapas, while the state of Tlaxcala reaches a growth rate of only 34%.
The noticeable exception among the traditionally-indigenous states is
Quintana Roo whose increment of 350% is justified by the migration of
Maya speakers of neighboring states (i.e., Yucatan and Campeche) to this
tourist center where Cancn is located due mainly to the fact that the
economic boom of this region occurred precisely between 1970 and 2000.
A regular pattern observed in the states that attract migrants who happen to
be SIL is the growing bilingualism. However, the Northern states of Baja
California Norte, Baja California Sur, Sonora and Sinaloa show a relevant
proportion of monolingual SIL. Monolingualism is not typical of the native
groups of the region (Mayos and Yaquis), but it does define the group of
migrants from Oaxaca who work in agriculture (Mixtecs, Zapotecs and
Triques). Migrants from Oaxaca tend to migrate with family members; for
this reason, children and the elderly are registered as being monolingual.
The percentage of bilingual SIL in the states that comprise the tradi-
tional settlements of indigenous peoples varies widely. Table 2 shows the
absolute numbers of SIL by state in alphabetical order and the increment of
SIL nationwide between 1970 and 2000. The growth rates are immoderate
in some states, for example, Aguascalientes, whose bilingual SIL increased
more than 30% and Zacatecas almost 60%. Those states with a large in-
digenous population display increments ranging from 16.7% in Guerrero to
12.5% in Chiapas, 10% in Oaxaca, and 11.5% in San Luis Potosi. Bilingual
SIL are higher in Tabasco and Yucatan as well as in the Central states and
the Federal District (i.e., Mexico City). Survey data show that the most
accelerated increments of bilingualism in the past three decades appeared in
the States of Hidalgo ranging from 61.3% to 81.4%, the difference being
20%. The state of Hidalgo is followed by Guerrero (46.9% to 63.6%), Pue-
bla (72.8% to 84.4%), San Luis Potosi (77.2% to 88.7%), Oaxaca (69.5%
to 79.5%), Quintana Roo (78.7% to 91.6%) and Veracruz (75.1% to
84.4%). Other states had gone through the process of bilingualism in previ-
ous decades when they reached an all-time high of 80% in 1970. This
explains that by the year 2000 they grew only 9.1%.
Table 2. SIL by state: 19702000 and bilingualism: 19702000
SIL Bilinguals
State
1970 2000
Growth
19702000
1970 2000
Growth
19702000
Total Mexico 3 111 415 6 044 547 94.27% 72.3% 81.4% 9.1%
Aguascalients 283 1 224 332.5 61.4 97.6 36.2
Baja Calif. Norte 2 096 37 685 1 697.9 77.1 91.5 14.4
Baja Calif. Sur 119 5 353 4 398.3 74.7 93.1 18.4
Table 2. SIL by state: 19702000 and bilingualism: 19702000 (continued)
SIL Bilinguals
State
1970 2000
Growth
19702000
1970 2000
Growth
19702000
Campeche 57 031 93 765 64.4 89.6 92.9 6.3
Coahuila 581 3 032 421.8 73.1 95.7 22.6
Colima 406 2 932 622.1 76.6 90.5 13.9
Chiapas 287 836 809 562 181.1 48.7 61.2 12.5
Chihuahua 26 309 84 086 219.6 67.0 80.2 15.2
Federal District 68 660 141 710 106.3 97.8 97.1 -0.7
Durango 4 848 24 934 414.3 71.8 79.8 8.0
Guanajuato 2 272 10 598 366.8 81.8 93.5 11.7
Guerrero 160 182 367 110 129.1 46.9 63.6 16.7
Hidalgo 201 368 339 866 68.7 61.3 81.4 20.1
J alisco 5 559 39 256 606.1 62.3 88.0 25.7
State of Mexico 200 729 361 972 80.3 89.7 95.5 5.8
Michoacan 6 2851 121 869 93.9 80.4 84.9 4.5
Morelos 16 354 30 896 88.9 90.9 93.0 2.1
Nayarit 9 476 37 206 392.6 67.1 79.4 12.3
Nuevo Leon 787 15 446 1 862.0 82.1 97.3 15.2
Oaxaca 677 347 112 0312 65.3 69.5 79.5 10.0
Puebla 346 140 565 509 63.3 72.8 84.4 11.6
Queretaro 11 660 25 259 116.6 78.3 90.6 12.3
Quintana Roo 38 529 173 592 350.5 78.7 91.6 12.9
San Luis Potosi 113 898 235 253 106.5 77.2 88.7 11.5
Sinaloa 11 979 49 744 315.2 94.9 84.4 -10.5
Sonora 29 116 55 694 91.2 92.8 95.2 2.4
Tabasco 34 188 62 027 81.4 93.6 95.4 1.8
Tamaulipas 2 346 17 118 629.6 72.0 96.8 24.8
Tlaxcala 19 886 26 662 34.0 95.1 95.0 -0.1
Veracruz 360 309 63 3372 75.7 75.1 84.0 8.9
Yucatan 357 270 549 532 53.8 84.2 90.5 6.3
Zacatecas 1 000 1 222 22.2 30.9 90.1 59.2
5. T he diver sity of indigenous languages
The census data for the year 2000 indicate that the national growth rate of
bilingual SIL reached 81.4%. The states with the largest indigenous popu-
lations show a variation of 30% of bilingual SIL. The highest rates of bilin-
gual SIL are found in the States of Tabasco (95.4%), Tlaxcala (95%),
Campeche (92.9%), Yucatan (90.5%) and Quintana Roo (91.6%). These
states are followed by those located in the East and West: San Luis Potosi
(88.7%), Veracruz (84%), Puebla (84.4%), Hidalgo (81.4%), Michoacan
(84.9%). Finally, the rate of bilingual SIL drops in the Southern region:
Oaxaca (79.5%), Guerrero (63.6%), and Chiapas (61.2%). (See Map 1 for
location of states).
On the other hand, Table 2 shows that between 1970 and 2000, the
number of bilingual SIL increased 9.1% nationwide. During this period,
two states are distinguished for being the hosts of indigenous migrant
workers: Zacatecas (59.2%) and Aguascalientes (36.2%). However, in the
states with a significant numbers of indigenous-origin individuals, two
situations are observed: the first one is represented by the states which in
1970 registered more than 80% of bilingual SIL and whose increment of
bilinguals in 2000 was under the national average. This is the case of Yuca-
tan and Campeche with a growth rate of 6.3%; Michoacan (4.5%); Tabasco
(1.8%) and Tlaxcala (-0.1%). The second situation is illustrated by the
states in which bilingual SIL were reported under 80% in 1970, and which
in the year 2000 were under the national average: Oaxaca (10%); San Luis
Potosi (11.5%); Puebla (11.6%); Chiapas (12.5%); Quintana Roo (12.6%);
Guerrero (16.7%); and Hidalgo (20.1%).
These figures indicate that the states of the second group, that is, those
whose rate of bilingualism in 1970 was under 80% (Oaxaca, San Luis Po-
tosi, Puebla, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Guerrero and Hidalgo) are presently
going through an intense and accelerated process of bilingualization. In
contrast, those of the first group, which had a rate of bilingualism over 80%
(e.g., Yucatan and Campeche) had already experienced a drop in the num-
ber of SIL before 1970. Against these two trends, we find that the state of
Veracruz is the exception, since it had a rate of bilingualism of 84% and an
increment of bilingualism of 8.9%.
5.1. Large Indigenous Languages by state
It has been pointed out that the linguistic diversity is found in the Center,
South and Southeast of the country. However, each state varies considera-
bly according to the number of languages spoken and the number of their
respective SIL. Yucatan and Quintana Roo stand out from the rest of the
Mexican states due to the prevailing presence of the ancestral Maya lan-
fuage. Increasing diversity is found in the remaining 15 states in which
Large Indigenous Languages are mostly spoken, as illustrated by the re-
spective charts. Of the languages documented in Oaxaca and the Federal
District, nine are used by more than 1% of the population. Eight are spoken
in Veracruz; only six in Puebla, Tabasco and the state of Mexico; five in
Chiapas; four in Campeche, Morelos and Guerrero; three in Michoacan,
San Luis Potosi, Tlaxcala and Queretaro; and two in Hidalgo. (See Map 1
for location of states).
This geographic distribution of the SIL not only shows those individuals
that remain in their ancestral territory but also the mobility to the nearest
urban centers. This type of migration generally ends up in a permanent
change of residence, which contrasts with the migration to the North of
Mexico. The languages of the state of Oaxaca that are spoken in Mexico
City, Morelos, and the state of Mexico, and the extremely high rates of
bilingualism reported, are the result of a process of recent migration.
Campeche
SIL: 93 765
Maya
80.0%
Chol
9.4%
Tzeltal
1.8%
Others
8.8%
Chiapas
SIL: 809 592
Tzotzil
36.0%
Chol
17.3%
Tzeltal
34.4%
Others
2.6%
Zoque
5.1%
Tojolabal
4.6%
Federal District
SIL: 141 712
Nahuatl
26.4%
Zapotec
9.9%
Others
19.4%
Mazahua
6.7%
Totonac
3.3%
Mazatec
6.0%
Mixe
2.4%
Chinantec
2.4%
Otomi
12.0%
Mixtec
11.5%
Guerrero
SIL: 367 110
Nahuatl
37.2%
Amuzgo
9.4%
Others
0.8%
Mixtec
28.0%
Tlapanec
24.6%
Hidalgo
SIL: 339 866
Nahuatl
65.2%
Otomi
33.5%
Others
1.3%
Mexico
SIL: 361 972
Mazahua
31.3%
Otomi
28.8%
Nahuatl
15.4%
Totonac
3.3%
Others
9.1%
Zapotec
4.6%
Mixtec
7.5%
Michoacan
SIL: 121 829
Nahuatl
4%
Others
3%
Mazahua
4%
Morelos
SIL: 30 896
Nahuatl
60.3%
Tlapanec
4.5%
Others
20.7%
Zapotec
2.0%
Mixtec
12.5%
Oaxaca
(SIL 1 120 312)
Zapotec
33.7%
Mixtec
21.7%
Mazatec
15.5%
Chinantec
9.5%
Others
3.4%
Mixe
9.4%
Trique
1.3%
Chatino
3.3%
Huave
1.2%
Cuicatec
1.0%
Puebla
SIL: 565 509
Nahuatl
73.7%
Popoloca
2.6%
Totonac
17.7%
Mixtec
1.4%
Others
1.1%
Otomi
1.4%
Mazatec
2.1%
Queretaro
SIL: 25 269
Otomi
87.3%
Nahuatl
4.2%
Others
7.2%
Mazahua
1.3%
Quintana Roo
SIL: 173 594
Maya
94.1%
Others
5.9%
San Luis Potosi
SIL: 235 253
Nahuatl
58.8%
Huastec
37.1%
Pame
3.3%
Others
0.8%
Tabasco
SIL: 62 027
Tzeltal
3.0%
Chol
16.1%
Zoque
1.1%
Others
14.8%
Tzotzil
1.4%
Maya
1.9%
Chontal
61.7%
Tlaxcala
SIL:26 662
Nahuatl
89.0%
Totonac
4.5%
Others
3.4%
Otomi
3.1%
Veracruz
(SIL 633 372)
Totonac
18.9%
Huastec
8.1%
Popoluca
5.7%
Nahuatl
53.4%
Others
3.2%
Mazatec
1.8%
Chinantec
3.0%
Otomi
2.7%
Zapotec
3.2%
Yucatan
SIL: 549 532
Maya
99.5%
Others
0.5%
5.2. Indigenous languages by quantity of SIL
TheXII Censo general de poblacin (INEGI 2001) documented 86 indige-
nous languages and added the following categories: Other Mexican lan-
guages; Other Amerindian languages; and Not specified. Using the
quantitative criterion, three major groups are distinguished: (1) Lenguas
Indgenas Mayores or LIMA (Large Indigenous Languages [LIL]) shown
in Graph 2; Lenguas Indgenas Medianas or LIME (Medium Indigenous
Languages [MedIL]) shown in Graph 3, and Lenguas Indgenas Pequeas
or LIPE (Small Indigenous Languages [SMIL]) shown in Graph 4. Each of
the 17 LIL has a number of users higher than 1% of the total of SIL. In
combination, these LIL make 90% of the total of all SIL. On the other
hand, the number of users of the 19 MedIL is limited to a miniscule propor-
tion of speakers fluctuating between 1% and 0.1% of the total SIL; these 19
languages represent merely 7.6% of the total number of SIL. Not all the
MedIL were reported systematically (e.g., Tabasco Chontal, Trique, Popo-
luca, Popoloca, Kanjobal, Pame and Mam); moreover, some of them dis-
play an increase that is superior to the mean of the rest of the languages
(Huichol and Tepehuan). For these reasons, the balance includes only 10 of
them. Finally, the SMIL group is made of 29 languages that have only less
1,448,936
800,291
451,038
440,796
297,561
291,722
284,826
240,034
214,447
161,766
150,257
133,413
133,374
121,409
118,924
99,389
75,545
0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000 1,200,000 1,400,000 1,600,000
Nahuatl
Maya
Zapotec
Mixtec
Tzotzil
Otomi
Tzeltal
Totonac
Mazatec
Chol
Huastec
Mazahua
Chinantec
Purhepecha
Mixe
Tlapanec
Tarahumar
Number of speakers
Graph 2. Large Indigenous Languages (more than 1% of the Total SIL). XII
National Census (2000)
than 0.1% of the total number of speakers; in combination, they represent
2.4% of the total SIL. Their recent inclusion in the census register makes it
impossible to trace them beyond one or two decades. For this reason they
are not discussed herein.
5.3. Indigenous languages and language families
The languages included in this section belong to the different families (or
phyla). The Mayan family has five LIL (Maya, Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Chol and
Huastec) and one MedIL (Tojolabal). In the Otomaguean family, we found
seven LIL (Zapotec, Mixtec, Mazatec, Chinantec, Otomi, Mazahua and
Tlapanec) and three MedIL (Amuzgo, Cuicatec and Chatino); in the To-
tonac-Tepehua family, we found one LIL (Totonac) and one MedIL (Tepe-
hua); in the Mixe-Zoque, we found a LIL (Mixe) and a MedIL (Zoque).
Finally, in the Uto-Aztecan family there are two LIL (Nahuatl and Tarahu-
51,464
41,455
40,722
38,561
38,139
37,986
31,513
30,686
25,544
20,712
16,468
16,410
14,224
13,425
13,317
9,435
9,015
8,312
7,580
0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000
Zoque
Chatino
Popoloca
Mayo
Tepehuan
Popoloca
Huave
Yaqui
Kanjobal
Mam
Number of Speakers
Graph 3. Medium Indigenous Languages (less than 1% and more than .1% of
Total SIL). XII National Census (2000)
mar) and three MedIL (Mayo, Yaqui and Cora). Two isolated languages are
included (Purhepecha and Huave) in this group. In thirteen cases (Nahuatl,
Tarahumar, Totonac, Tepehua, Mazatec, Popoloca, Mixtec, Zapotec,
Chatino, Chinantec, Mixe, Popoluca and Zoque), we are dealing with
macro-linguistic groups that form dialect concatenations or series with dif-
ferent degrees of intelligibility.
5.4. Geographic distribution and permanence of SIL
The data of the XII Censo general de poblacin (INEGI 2001) leads us to
infer that the main nuclei of indigenous population maintain their ancestral
territories. In these rural localities, mostly disperse, the increment of SIL is
greater. In addition, the rates of bilingualism are lower, although higher in
4959
1,796
1,738
1,671
1,641
1,302
992
741
677
529
466
458
351
246
210
201
178
174
161
141
138
90
82
52
40
23
5
4
6
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Oaxaca Chontal
Tacuate
Chichimeco
Chocho
Kekchi
Ocuiltec
Ixcatec
Cakchiquel
Cocopa
Kumiai
Kickapoo
Cochimi
Lacandon
Soltec
Opata
Number of Speakers
Graph 4. Small Indigenous Languages (less than .1% of Total SIL). XII National
Census (2000)
those in which the SIL residence is recent. According to the same source,
the geographic distribution of the SIL of the 27 languages studied in this
section is the following (see Charts 2 and 3):
(a) The languages of the Mayan family are located in the South and
Southeast of the country. Maya is the most common language of the
region and almost exclusive to the three states that make the Yucatan
Peninsula. Its distribution is the following: Yucatan, 69.3%; Quintana
Roo, 20.4%; Campeche, 9.8%. Additionally, four Mayan languages
are located in Chiapas. The proportion of the respective SIL residing
in this state is as follows: Tojolabal (99.1%); Tzeltal (97.8%); Tzotzil
(97%); Chol (87.4%). Huastec belongs, too, in the same family while
the distribution of its users corresponds to 58.1% in San Luis Potosi
and 34.3% in Veracruz.
(b) The main settlements of the Otomanguean family are in Oaxaca, Ve-
racruz, Guerrero, Mexico, Hidalgo and Queretaro. A full 90% of SIL
of Cuicatec reside in Oaxaca and virtually all the speakers of Chatino,
i.e., 98.2%. Three other languages are spoken in Oaxaca and Ve-
racruz: Mazatec has 72.2% and 4.8% SIL, while Zapotec has 83.7%
and 4.5%; Chinantec has 80.2% and 14.6%, respectively. On the other
hand, the vast majority of the Mixtec and Amuzgo speakers are lo-
cated in Oaxaca (with 53.3% and 23.4%) and Guerrero (with 11.6%
and 83.4%), respectively. A full 90.9% of Tlapanecs reside in Guer-
rero. In the state of Mexico, 85% of the Mazahuas are located while
35.7% of Otomis reside in this state. Otomis are also found in Hidalgo
(39%), Queretaro (7.5%), and Veracruz (6.0%). (See Map 1 for loca-
tion of states).
(c) Members of the Totonac-Tepehua family are distributed in three
states: Puebla, Veracruz and Hidalgo; 41.8% of the speakers of To-
tonac reside in Puebla and 49.9% in Veracruz. In Veracruz, 64.6% of
Tepehuas can be found whereas 19.5% of the same group resides in
Hidalgo. On the other hand, the principal settlements of the Mixe-
Zoque family are located in three states: Oaxaca, Chiapas and Ve-
racruz. In Oaxaca, there can be found 88.6% of the speakers of Mixe
with Chiapas being the territory of 80.8% of speakers of Zoque,
which is also spoken in Veracruz by merely 5.4%. Finally, a full 90%
of speakers of Purhepecha live in the state of Michoacan and 96.1%
of Huave speakers live in Oaxaca.
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(d) Of the five languages of the Uto-Aztecan family, Nahuatl is distin-
guished by the vast extension covered and the uneven spread of their
communities of speakers. The main settlements of the SIL are located
in Puebla (28.7%); Veracruz (23.3%); Hidalgo (15.3%); San Luis Po-
tosi (9.5%) and Guerrero (9.4%) in addition to the Federal District
(2.5). The other four languages of this family are found in the north-
ern region of the country: 93% of Tarahumar speakers reside in Chi-
huahua; the same percentage of Yaquis reside in Sonora and also the
same percentage of Cora speakers reside in Nayarit. Mayos residing
in Sonora make 75.6% while those residing in Sinaloa make 21.7%.
Chart 2 shows the current distribution of 27 languages by state. It also
shows the percentage of SIL that remain in their ancestral territories (see
pecent in bold). For example, speakers of Maya reside in Yucatan,
Quintana Roo, and Campeche; this is true for speakers of Tzotzil and Tzel-
tal who reside primarily in Chiapas. It also shows the proportions of SIL
who reside out of their original settlements. These two figures for each
language are conducive to establishing three categories of SIL according to
the patterns of permanency in their traditional settlements: Low Perma-
nency (less than 80%); Medium Permanency (from 80% to 89%); and High
Permanency (higher than 90%). The percentages of SIL for each state tra-
ditionally considered ancestral settlement for each language was added in
order to determine the overall score of each language. For example, Mix-
tecs in the State of Oaxaca amount to 55.3% and the same group in the
State of Guerrero amounts to 23.4%. Mixtec then belongs in the category
of low permanency with 78.7% along with Mazatec (77.7%). An example
of a language falling in the medium permanency group is Zapotec (with
83.7% of the original SIL in Oaxaca and 4.5% in Veracruz). The total per-
manency of Zapotec is 88%. Other languages that belong to the second
category are: Otomi and Mixe (88%), Chol (87%), Mazahua (85%), Tepe-
hua (84%), Zoque (86%), and Nahuatl (86%). The languages of high per-
manency are: Maya (99.5), Tojolabal and Tzotzil (99%), Tzeltal (97%),
Mayo and Chatino (98%), Huave (96%), Amuzgo (95%), Chinanctec
(94%), Huastec (92%), Cuicatec, Tlapanec and Purhepecha (90%), Totonac
(91%), and the Uto-Aztecanlanguages in the Northern region: Tarahumar,
Cora and Yaqui (93%) and Mayo (98%). Likewise, these three types corre-
spond to lower or higher degree of recent migration, a phenomenon that
can be validated by looking into the degree of bilingualism for those SIL
residing outside of their ancestral territories.
5.5. Geographic distribution, permanence of SIL, and bilingualism
The rates of bilingualism vary considerably according to the original set-
tlements of the SIL. Chart 3 shows the current distribution of Large and
Medium Languages by State. The percentage score which appears in bold
in Chart 3 highlights the states that are the ancestral settlements for each
language. For example, Maya in the States of Campeche, Yucatan and
Quintana Roo is as high as 93.1% and as low as 86.1%. In the case of
Huastec, the highest rate is registered in Veracruz (92.4%) and the lowest
in San Luis Potosi (85.4%). Among SIL of Zapotec, Chinantec, and Mixe,
bilingualism is higher in Veracruz (96%, 94% and 93%, respectively) than
in Oaxaca (86%, 83% and 71%, respectively); bilingual speakers of Mixtec
and Amuzgo are higher in Oaxaca (78% and 74%) than those reported for
Guerrero (56% and 49%, respectively). Bilingualism among Otomis in the
state of Mexico is very high (95%), while the highest rates of Nahuatl bi-
linguals appear in San Luis Potosi (91.4%) and Puebla (86.2%) but de-
crease in Veracruz (83%), Hidalgo (76.1), and Guerrero (73.6). The rates of
bilingualism higher than 90% are not exclusive to the regions that receive
indigenous populations; these high rates can also be found in some of the
traditional settlements of the SIL. These are the cases of Sonora where
Mayo and Yaqui are found with 97% and 92%, respectively; Sinaloa with
Mayo (97%); Veracruz (with Chinantec at 94% and Huastec and Zoque at
92%). These and other high rates of bilingualism are similar to those en-
countered in Mexico City and the state of Mexico, the areas of intense as-
similation.
The data on bilingualism in the traditional settlements of the SIL pro-
vide additional information on those cases in which the rates of bilingual-
ism are lower than those reported by state (see Table 2). For example, in
the case of Chiapas, the total rate of bilingualism reaches 61%, but the rate
of bilingualism amongst Tzotzil and Tzeltal is lower (57.3% and 56.3%,
respectively). In the State of Veracruz, the total rate is 84%, but the rate is
lower among Otomi and Nahuatl SIL.
6. Gr owth of SI L and bilingualism
According to the data of the past three decades (19702000), all the lan-
guages mentioned in this study increased the number of users. Table 4
shows the accumulated growth rate of 30 of the 66 languages listed.
Wheras Chatino, Tlapanec, Chol, and Tzoltil triplicated the total number of
SIL, others grew between 100% and 199%: Amuzgo, Tarahumar, Tzeltal,
Tojolabal, Cora, Chinantec, Huastec, Mixe, Mazatec, and Purhepecha. Fi-
nally, those that grew at a rate below 100% were: Totonac, Huave, Zoque,
Mixtec, Yaqui, Nahuatl, Maya, Tepehua, Zapotec, Otomi, Cuicatec, Maza-
hua, and Mayo. This survey shows that the four largest languages (Nahuatl,
Maya, Zapotec and Mixtec) did not increase at all. Of the LIL, only Tzoltil,
Tlapanec and Chol increased 200%. A larger increment was reported for
one MIL: Chatino. The four languages with a larger SIL growth rate are
located in the States of Oaxaca, Chiapas and Guerrero (see Table 4).
Table 4. MIL and SIL: 19702000
Languages 1970 1980 1990 2000 Growth rate %
TOTALS 3 111 415 5 181 038 5 282 347 6 044 547 94.27

Nahuatl 799 394 1 376 989 1 197 328 1 448 936 81.2
Maya 454 675 665 377 713 520 800 291 76.0
Zapotec 283 345 442 937 403 457 451 038 59.1
Mixtec 233 235 323 137 386 874 440 796 88.9
Tzotzil 95 383 133 389 229 203 297 561 211.9
Otomi 221 062 306 190 280 238 291 722 31.9
Tzeltal 99 412 215 145 261 084 284 826 186.5
Totonac 124 840 196 003 207 876 240 034 92.2
Mazatec 101 541 124 176 168 374 214 447 111.1
Chol 73 253 96 773 128 240 161 766 220.8
Huastec 66 091 103 788 120 739 150 257 127.3
Mazahua 104 729 194 125 127 826 133 413 27.3
Chinantec 54 145 77 087 109 100 133 374 146.3
Purhepecha 60 411 118 614 94 835 121 409 100.9
Mixe 54 403 74 087 95 264 118 924 118.5
Tlapenec 30 804 55 068 68 483 99 389 222.6
Tarahumar 25 479 62 419 54 431 75 545 196.4
Zoque 27 140 30 995 43 161 51 464 89.6
Table 4. MIL and SIL: 19702000 (continued)
Amuzgo 13 883 18 659 28 228 41 455 198.6
Chatino 11 773 20 543 28 987 40 722 245.8
Tabasco Chontal 28 948 10 256 38 561
Popoluca 27 818 23 762 31 250 38 139 37.1
Tojolabal 13 303 22 331 36 011 37 986 185.5
Mayo 27 848 56 387 37 410 31 513 13.1
Huichol 6 874 51 850 19 363 30 686 346.4
Tepehuan 5 617 17 802 18 469 25 544 354.7
Triqui 8 408 14 981 20 712
Popoloca 16 468
Cora 6 242 12 240 11 223 16 410 162.8
Huave 7 442 9 972 11 955 14 224 91.1
Cuicatec 10 192 14 155 12 667 13 425 31.7
Yaqui 7 080 9 282 10 980 13 337 87.9
Tepehua 5 545 8 487 8 702 9 435 70.1
Kanjobal 14 325 9 015
Pame 5 649 5 732 8 312
Languages 1 970 1980 1990 2000
Mam 3 711 13 168 7 580
Oaxaca Chontal 8 086 2 232 4 959
Tacuate 1 738
Chuj 1 796
Guarijio 1 671
Chichimeco-jonaz 1 582 1 641
Matlatzinca 1 452 1 302
Chocho 12 310 12 553 992*
Pima 553 860 741
Kekchi 677
J acaltec 1 263 529
Table 4. MIL and SIL: 19702000 (continued)
Ocuiltec 755 466
Seri 486 561 458
Ixcatec 1 220 351
Quiche 246
Cackchiquel 220
Pai-Pai 223 201
Cocopa 136 178
Motocintlec 235 174
Kumiai 161
Papago or Tohono
Oodham
236 141
Kickapoo 232 138
Ixil 90
Cochimi 148 82
Kiliwa 41 52
Lacandon 104 40
Aguacatec 23
Soltec 06
Papabuc 05
Opata 04
Yuma 609 26
The data gathered by the national censuses (19702000) lead us to substan-
tiate the existing trend towards bilingualization, a phenomenon that is
herein defined as a resulting consequence of the thorough-going policy of
Hispanization of the Mesoamerican population during the twentieth cen-
tury. However, the accelerated shift towards bilingualism shows significant
variations. Those SIL that showed the lowest rates of bilingualism thirty
years ago experienced a drastic and accelerated process of bilingualization.
In contrast, languages that had an already high rate of bilingualism exhibit
less drastic changes. The languages that in 1970 showed the lowest rates of
bilingualism were: Amuzgo 36.1%; Tzeltal 42.3%; Tlapanec 43.8%; Ma-
zatec 46.5%; Tzotzil 47.2%; Chatino 51.7%; and Chol 58%. When the
percent change of bilingualism between 1970 and 2000 is compared, we
observed that Mazatec (26.8%) and Tlapanec (23%) experienced the most
drastic changes, while the other languages display an increase between
10% and 16% (see Table 5).
Table 5. Growth of bilingualism by language: 19702000
Language
% Bilingualism
1970
% Bilingualism
2000
% Growth of
bilingualism
Mazatec 46.5 73.3 26.8
Tlapanec 43.8 66.8 23.0
Totonac 66.1 87.9 21.8
Huave 62.6 82.9 20.3
Chatino 51.7 68.5 16.7
Zoque 72.4 88.5 16.1
Amuzgo 36.1 52.1 16.0
Tzeltal 42.3 57.1 14.8
Tepehua 79.8 93.4 13.6
Nahuatl 71.5 84.5 12.1
Mixe 62.0 74.1 12.1
Tarahumar 68.3 79.5 11.2
Chinantec 74.3 85.4 11.1
Tzotzil 47.2 57.9 10.7
Chol 58.0 69.0 10.6
Mixtec 65.9 75.8 9.9
Otomi 82.9 91.6 8.7
Mazahua 88.6 94.5 5.9
Huastec 82.9 88.7 5.8
Zapotec 82.4 87.9 5.5
Cora 62.3 66.9 4.6
Cuicatec 88.0 90.8 2.8
Purhepecha 82.4 84.9 2.5
Yaqui 90.9 93.2 2.3
Table 5. Growth of bilingualism by language: 19702000 (continued)
Language
% Bilingualism
1970
% Bilingualism
2000
% Growth of
bilingualism
Maya 89.9 91.0 1.1
Mayo 95.9 97.0 1.1
Tojolabal 67.9 67.8 -0.1
On the other hand, the languages that in 1970 displayed rates of bilingual-
ism between 60% and 80% were: Mixe, Cora, Huave, Zoque, Mixtec, To-
tonac, Tojolabal, Tarahumar, Nahuatl, Zoque, Chinantec, and Tepehua. The
process of bilingualization has three variations: five languages increased
between 9% and 13%: Mixtec (9.9%), Chinantec (11.1%), Tarahumar
(11.2%); Mixe and Nahuatl (12.1%), and Tepehua (13.6%). Three other
languages grew more dramatically: Totonac (21.8%); Huave (20.3%); and
Zoque (16.1%). Finally, in sharp contrast with the abovementioned groups,
two languages had small increments or none at all: Cora (4.6%) and Tojo-
labal (-0.1%). Finally, a third group is made up of those languages that in
1970 had a rate of bilingual SIL higher than 80%: Purhepecha and Zapotec
82.4%; Mazahua 88.6%; Huastec and Otomi 82.9%; Cuicatec 88%; Maya
89.9%; Yaqui 90.9%; and Mayo 95.9%. This group shows that bilingual
SIL ranged from 8% to 1%.
The estimates on bilingualism reported in the 2000 census depict a dif-
ferent scenario from thirty years ago. At present the SIL that display a
moderate rate of bilingualism (50%69%) are Amuzgo, Tzeltal, Tzotzil,
Tlapanec, Cora, Tojolabal, Chatino, and Chol. A high rate of bilingualism
(70%90%) is documented for Mazatec, Mixe, Mixtec, Tarahumar, Huave,
Nahuatl, Purhepecha, Chinantec, Totonac, Zapotec, Zoque, and Huastec.
Finally, those languages exhibiting a very high rate of bilingualism are
Cuicatec 90.8%; Maya 91%; Otomi 91.6%; Yaqui 93.2%; Tepehua 93.4%;
Mazahua 94.5%; and Mayo 97% (see Table 5).
7. Use of the mother tongue in the home domain
According to Serrano (2003), the NSIIP looked into the data related to use
of the indigenous language in the home and determined that three degrees
of linguistic vitality can be found for the 27 Ethnolinguistic Groups (EG),
which appear in Table 6. We have used the results of the analysis of this
dimension, but we have not used the quantitative criteria established to
determine the degrees of vitality. The concept of EG is an encompassing
entity that includes at least the families where the head of household is a
SIL. Therefore, the concept of EG leads us to quantify the SIL of each of
the 27 large and medium indigenous languages and the respective percent-
ages of those who do speak an indigenous language in the indigenous
homes (see Table 6). The 27 EG comprising the unit of analysis range be-
tween 34.5% and 74.1% in the use of indigenous language in the home
domain. The languages with the highest rates of home language use are
the following: Tzeltal 74.1%; Chol 73.2%; Tzotzil 73.1%; Amuzgo 71.9%;
Tlapanec 70.9%; Mixe 70.4%; Mazatec 70.1%; Tojolabal 69.7%; Huave
69.3%; Chatino 67.9%; Cora 67.3%; Huastec and Chinantec 66.3%. Those
with a medium rate of home language use are Tarahumar 62%; Mixtec
61.2%; Purhepecha 59.8%; Zoque 59.4%; Nahuatl 59.2%; Tepehua 58.8%;
Cuicatec 58.4%; Totonac 58.3%; Zapotec 58.2%, Yaqui 56.9% and Maya
54.2%. The lowest rates of home language use are found in Otomi 45.1%;
Mazahua 40.8% and Mayo 34.5%.
Table 6. Ethnolinguistic groups: Use of language in the home domain
Ethnolinguistic Group Total
Do speak the indigenous
language
%
Tzeltal 384 074 284 826 74.1
Chol 220 978 161 766 73.2
Tzotzil 406 962 297 561 73.1
Amuzgo 57 666 41 455 71.9
Tlapanec 140 254 99 389 70.9
Mixe 168 935 118 924 70.4
Mazatec 305 836 214 477 70.1
Tojolabal 54 505 37 986 69.7
Huave 20 528 14 224 69.3
Chatino 60 003 40 722 67.9
Cora 24 390 16 410 67.3
Huastec 226 447 150 257 66.3
Chinantec 201 201 133 374 66.3
Tarahumar 121 835 75 545 62.0
Table 6. Ethnolinguistic groups: Use of language in the home domain (continued)
Ethnolinguistic Group Total
Do speak the indigenous
language
%
Mixtec 726 601 444 498 61.2
Purhepecha 202 884 121 409 59.8
Zoque 86 589 51 464 59.4
Nahuatl 2 445 969 1 448 936 59.2
Tepehua 16 051 9 435 58.8
Cuicatec 22 984 13 425 58.4
Totonac 411 266 240 034 58.3
Zapotec 777 253 452 887 58.2
Yaqui 23 411 13 317 56.9
Maya 1 475 575 800 291 54.2
Otomi 646 875 291 722 45.1
Mazahua 326 660 133 430 40.8
Mayo 91 261 31 513 34.5
The data on the use of the indigenous language in the home domain
along with the data on bilingualism appear to be extremely useful to differ-
entiate the two sides of bilingualism, i.e., language maintenance in the
home domain and language shift in the societal domain. Bilingualism may
appear with a strong tendency to maintenance or show clear signs of shift
to Spanish. It can be assumed that societal bilingualism even in high rates
is compatible with a relative stability of the indigenous language. On the
othr hand, a drastic shift to Spanish can be deterred timely and opportunely
via intervention policies of language shift reversal.
8. Age gr oups among the SI L
The distribution currently displayed by the SIL by quinquennial subgroups
allows us to distinguish the use of the 27 languages among the young, i.e.,
those who are grouped between 5 and 19 years of age. The age criterion
can help distinguish again three groups according to the percentages of
young SIL (see Table 7). The youngest subgroup makes more than 40% of
SIL in the following language groups: Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Tlapanec, Chol,
Tojolabal, Cora, Chatino and Amuzgo. A second cluster of languages falls
in the second category, wherein the SIL make 39% to 30% of the youngest
subgroup: Chinantec, Huastec, Mazatec, Tarahumar, Mixe, Zoque, Mixtec,
Huave, Purhepecha, Nahuatl, Totonac, and Tepehua. Finally, the third
group of languages representing less than 29% of the SIL are the following:
Zapotec, Cuicatec, Yaqui, Maya, Otomi, Mazahua, and Mayo.
The abovementioned distribution corresponds likewise to the total
amount of SIL over 50 years of age. This subgroup is higher than the
younger population among the Mayas (26%); Otomis (28%); Mazahua
(29%) and Mayos (45%). The languages of this group report, in addition, a
low rate of use in the home domain. In brief, these groups are strongly bi-
lingualized and have, in addition, a low proportion of younger individuals.
The analysis of the data is conducive to propose that the highest probabili-
ties of language shift are found in specific groups: a. Those that have a
lower number of SIL (belonging to in the Small Indigenous Language
group); b. those belonging to the Large and to the Medium Indigenous Lan-
guage Group but which c. do not increase the number of SIL; and d. are not
used by the younger population. The last indicator refers to those languages
that are not a substantial component of communication in the home domain.
Table 7. SIL and age groups in percentages
Language TOTAL SIL 5 19 years 2034 years 35 49 years 50+years
Tzotzil 297 561 47.9 26.3 14.9 10.6
Tzeltal 284 826 47.9 26.9 14.6 10.4
Tlapanec 99 389 47.0 24.8 14.7 13.3
Chol 161 766 45.7 26.9 15.8 11.5
Tojolabal 37 986 45.5 26.4 15.6 12.3
Cora 16 410 44.7 25.4 16.8 12.8
Chatino 40 722 44.2 25.1 16.1 14.3
Amuzgo 41 455 44.0 26.5 16.5 12.9
Chinantec 133 374 39.6 26.2 18.0 16.0
Huastec 150 257 39.3 24.7 18.2 18.3
Mazatec 214 477 38.9 25.7 18.4 16.8
Tarahumar 75 545 38.3 26.6 18.4 16.8
Mixe 118 924 38.3 25.2 18.6 17.7
Table 7. SIL and age groups in percentages (continued)
Language TOTAL SIL 5 19 years 2034 years 35 49 years 50+years
Zoque 51 464 37.9 25.1 18.1 18.9
Mixtec 440 796 37.5 24.3 18.3 20.1
Huave 14 224 36.8 26.6 19.0 17.4
Purhepecha 121 409 36.3 24.1 18.4 21.0
Nahuatl 1 448 936 34.8 24.9 19.2 20.9
Totonac 240 034 32.5 24.3 20.6 22.4
Tepehua 9 435 31.8 25.5 21.1 21.5
Zapotec 451 038 29.1 24.9 21.4 24.8
Cuicatec 13 425 28.7 23.2 20.3 27.6
Yaqui 13 337 27.9 27.1 21.3 23.5
Maya 800 291 24.3 27.0 22.5 26.0
Otomi 291 722 23.2 24.9 23.0 28.7
Mazahua 133 413 20.4 25.5 24.7 29.1
Mayo 31 513 8.2 18.2 28.4 45.0
9. L anguage maintenance and language shift
Three major groups have been identified in order to illustrate the tendency
towards language maintenance or language shift, the most significant crite-
rion in this classification being the rate of bilingualism. The final balance,
however, is complemented with the data found on the following concurrent
indicators: (1) use of the indigenous language in the home domain; (2) rate
of growth of the SIL population during the past three decades (19702000);
and (3) permanency of the SIL in their original settlements. These factors
in combination help us distinguish three clusters known as Group I, Group
II, and Group III. (See Graphs 5, 6 and 7). Each language in each group
appears in ascending order; in Group I, for example, Amuzgo is the lan-
guage with a lowest percent score of bilingualism (52.1%) while Chol has
the highest rate with (69%) (Graph 5). Group II includes 12 more lan-
guages, Mazatec being the least bilingual and Huastec the most bilingual
(Graph 6). Finally, in Group III, we found seven languages whose score of
bilingualism ranges from 90.8% for Cuicatec to 97% for Mayo (See
Graph 7).
9.1. Group I
In Group I, we find four LIL (Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Chol and Tlapanec) and four
MIL (Amuzgo, Cora, Tojolabal and Chatino). Comparatively speaking,
Group I displays the lowest rates of bilingualism (between 52% and 69%),
and a high rate of use in the home domain (higher than 67%). In Group I,
we found the four languages that tripled the SIL population and the other
four that have a rate of growth higher than 162%. Except for the Chol lan-
guage, the other languages belonging to Group I also have a high rate of
permanency. On the other hand, the languages of this Group exhibit the
highest percentages of young SIL (between 42% and 47%) (See Table 7).
The languages of Group I exhibit two extreme variations in the process of
bilingualization (optimal and minimal). In the cases of Tzeltal, Tzotzil,
Amuzgo and Tlapanec, the increase of bilingualism (ranging from 10% to
23%), has not yet modified the dominant presence of these languages in the
home domain (which is higher than 70%). This is a recent change and for
this reason, at present, in the indigenous communities there exist a consid-
erable number of children and old folks who normally interact with a grow-
ing number of bilingual adults (young and younger). To this dimension, we
can add the high rate of permanency (above 90%) of the respective SIL in
their original settlements. Some variations are expected in Group I. For
example, despite the fact that Chatino is the language with the highest
growth of SIL (254.4%) and with a high rate of permanency (98%), this
0.00%
50.00%
100.00%
150.00%
200.00%
250.00%
300.00%
bilingualism
52.10% 57.10% 57.90% 66.80% 66.90% 67.80% 68.50% 69.00%
use in home
71.90% 74.10% 73.10% 70.90% 67.30% 69.70% 67.90% 73.20%
growth rate 198.00%186.00%211.00%222.00%162.00%185.00%245.00%220.00%
permanence 95.00% 97.00% 97.00% 90.00% 93.00% 99.00% 98.00% 87.00%
amuzgo tzeltal tzotzil tlapanec cora tojolabal chatino chol
Graph 5. (Group I) % Bilingualism 2000; % use in home; % growth rate
19702000; % permanence in original settlements
language shows, comparatively, one of the lowest percentages of use in the
home domain. In contrast, the case of Chol stands out among the rest due to
the high rate of language use in the home domain and among the young
sub-groups, in spite of the fact that it has a slightly lower rate of perma-
nency (87%). Cora and Tojolabal show negligible changes in the rates of
bilingualism (4% to -0.1), but also they exhibit a low rate of use in the
home domain in this group (67% and 69% respectively). In the latter case,
it is sensible to assume the existence of stable bilingualism, given that the
use of the indigenous language and Spanish has included for the past three
decades the SIL of different age groups. Finally, Tojolabal has the highest
rate of permanency in the three groups.
9.2. Group II
Group II is made up of ten LIL (Mazatec, Mixe, Mixtec, Tarahumar, Na-
huatl, Purhepecha, Chinantec, Totonac, Zapotec and Huastec) and two MIL
(Huave and Zoque). Group II has a moderate rate of bilingualism (73% to
89%). Five languages of this Group (Mazatec, Mixe Huave, Chinatec and
Huastec) show high rates of use in the home domain, i.e., more than
66%;the remaining eight languages show a rate lower than 62%. In contrast
to Group I, in Group II, the percentages of young SIL vary between 29%
and 39% (See Table 7). Group II exhibits, in addition, an ample range of
variations of other factors: growth of SIL, bilingualization and permanency.
The looming change towards bilingualism of Group II is detrimental to the
use in the home domain. In an early stage, we find Mazatec and Mixe, two
languages that currently show a rate of bilingualism higher than 70% and a
rate of home language use of 70%. Three more languages, Huave, Chinan-
tec and Huastec belong in the second stage, given that they exhibit a rate of
bilingualism between 82% and 88%; however, its rate of use in the home
domain is high (69%, 66.3% and 63%, respectively). In a third stage we
find Tarahumar, Mixtec, Purhepecha, Nahuatl, Zoque, Totonac and Zapo-
tec, whose rates of bilinguism ranges from 75% to 88%, while its rate of
use in the home domain is not too high (62 al 58%).
The three factors that allow us to understand the dynamics of SIL can
vary greatly from language to language and from group to group. As a case
in point, the languages of Group II can be described as follows: Mazatec
has undergone the most drastic bilingualization of all the languages (26%)
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and has at the same time a low permanency rate (77%). However, Mazatec
maintains a high rate of use in the home domain. This presupposes that the
original settlements were highly monolingual; in fact, 39% of the SIL of
Mazatec residing in the state of Oaxaca are monolingual (See Chart 3).
Along the same lines, we see the trends of Huave, whose rate of bilingual-
ism grew, too, 20%; however, its rate of bilingualism three decades ago
was 62.6%, that is, higher than the rate of growth of Mazatec. In spite of
this difference, both languages have high rates of language use in the home
domain. In turn, the use in the home domain in the case of Huave has been
strenghtened by the high rate of permanency (96%), the highest among the
languages of Group II.
It is interesting to note that with respect to the growth rates of SIL, Ta-
rahumar and Zapotec represent the two poles of Group II. Speakers of the
former language increased 196% in three decades, but its rate of bilingual-
ism increased 11%. In contrast, Zapotec displays a SIL growth rate of 59%
and an increase of bilingualism of only 5%. When compared to the lan-
guages with high rates of growth and permanency, Tarahumar has the low-
est rate of home language use (62%) and the lowest rate of young SIL
(38%). Finally, Zapotec shows mixed trends between Group II and Group
III, insofar as its rates of language use in the home domain and bilingualism
are moderate at 58.2% and 87%, respectively, whereas the growth of SIL at
59% and permanency are low at 88%. In addition, Zapotec has the lowest
proportion of young SIL of Group II (29.1%).
Presently, Nahuatl and Purhepecha have similar rates of bilingualism,
home language use, and proportions of young SIL speakers. The two final
figures on bilingualism are very similar, but it has to be taken into account
that the Nahuatl shows one of the lowest rates of growth in Group II and
that its settlements are scattered and that in each of them the percentage of
bilinguals is different. In contrast, the settlements of speakers of Pur-
hepecha are located only in the state of Michoacn. Likewise, Nahuatl and
Purhepechadiffer in the rate of bilingualism, which is drastic in the case of
Nahuatl (12%) and minimal in the case of Purepecha (2%) as well as in the
rate of bilingualism in the main settlements of the SIL. The different Nahua
territories present significant variations in their rates of monolingualism
and bilingualism (in the states of Guerrero 73.6%; Hidalgo 76.1%; Ve-
racruz 83%; Puebla 86%). On the other hand, the settlements of Pur-
hepechas, which reside in the same geographic vicinity, display a higher
rate of bilingualism (83% in the case of Michoacan). Comparatively speak-
ing, Purhepecha has higher rates of growth and permanency.
9.3. Group III
Finally, Group III is made up of seven languages, three of them belonging
to the LIL Group (Maya, Otomi and Mazahua) and four to the MIL (Cui-
catec, Tepehua, Yaqui and Mayo). The common denominator of these lan-
guages is the high rate of bilingualism (above 90%). None of the languages
belonging to this group duplicated the number of SIL in the past three dec-
ades. On the other hand, four languages of this group (Tepehua, Cuicatec,
Yaqui and Maya) register at present a medium rate of use in the home do-
main, i.e., higher than 54%. The three remaining languages (Otomi, Maza-
hua and Mayo) exhibit a low rate of the same indicator, that is, less than
45%. With the exception of Tepehua, the languages of Grupo III have the
lowest rates of young SIL (See Table 7). In this group, we notice the last
stages of bilingualism and the initial stages of shift towards Spanish mono-
lingualism. In the process of language shift, there are few monolingual SIL
over 50. In addition, there are young and younger Spanish monolingual
adults.
The languages that are very advanced in the process of shift towards
monolingualism in Spanish are Mayo and Mazahua, given that they show
the lowest rates of home language use (34.5% and 40.8%) and the lowest
SIL growth (13% and 27%). However, there are significant differences
between the two languages: in 1970, Mayo had the highest rate of bilin-
gualism (95.9%) and by the year 2000, it increased only 1.1%; in addition,
at present, a sizeable mayority of its speakers (73%) is older than 35. These
two circumstances are different in the case of Mazahua, inasmuch as its
0.00%
20.00%
40.00%
60.00%
80.00%
100.00%
bilingualism 90.80% 91.00% 91.60% 93.20% 93.40% 94.50% 97.00%
use in home 58.40% 54.20% 45.10% 56.90% 58.80% 40.80% 34.50%
growth rate 31.00% 76.00% 31.00% 87.00% 70.00% 27.00% 13.00%
permanence 90.00% 99.50% 88.00% 93.00% 84.00% 85.00% 98.00%
cuicatec maya otomi yaqui tepehua mazahua mayo
Graph 7. (Group III) % Bilingualism 2000; % use in home; % growth rate 1970
2000; % permanence in original settlements
growth of bilingual SIL in the past three decades increased to 11.9%, and
currently exhibits a more equitable distribution within the four age groups
(20.4%, 25.5%, 24.7% and 29.1%). We assume that Mazahua still main-
tains its function as a means of comunication across generations. Nonethe-
less, the generational distribution also appears among other languages of
the same Group: Maya and Otomi (See Table 7).
The situation of Tepehua, Yaqui, and Maya is not so extreme, because
these languages documented a higher rate of use in the home domain
(58.8.%, 56.9%, and 54.2 respectively), in addition to an increase of SIL
(70%, 86% and 76%, respectively), and a rate of young SIL ( 31%, 27%
and 24%, respectively). Finally, Otomi and Cuicatec show a low increment
of SIL (31%). Nevertheless, in the case of Otomi, its recent process of bi-
lingualization (8%) may contribute to its use in the home domain, which is
still at 45.1%. The case of Cuicatec shows a negligible growth of bilingual-
ism (2%). It is possible that its medium rate of use in the home domain
(58.4%) could result from the balance between young SIL (28.7%) and
older SIL (27.6%) (See Table 7).
10. Conclusions
The data collected during the past three decades provide valuable informa-
tion on the basic trends of the 27 languages documented in this study. All
of them have increased the number of SIL and all of them have increased
the number of bilingual SIL in absolute terms. Additionally, the rate of
growth of bilingualism shows an inverse proportion to the rate of Use of
the indigenous language in the home domain and also to the decreasing
volume of young SIL, while the rate of permanency points to patterns of
diverse behaviors: whereas some groups staunchly adhere to their places of
origin, others tend to migrate in varying proportions.
National censuses are the necessary reference for government agencies
and academic institutions that request information about indigenous peo-
ples and their languages. Their constant appropriateness and improvement
demand collective endeavors in order to define concepts leading to consis-
tent criteria and methodologies. This endeavor is urgent in the Mexican
scenario, given that the recent approval of the Law on Linguistic Rights of
the Indigenous Peoples (2003) requires the design of renewed goals of lan-
guage maintenance and multilingualism that go hand in hand with the ethi-
cal and juridical principles fomenting respect for cultural diversity. (For a
full discussion, see Pellicer et al. in this volume).
The information based on the censuses of the past three decades allows
us to glimpse at the current state of national multilingualism. The scenario
presented herein describes the complexities and linguistic discrepancies
that characterize the country. While some of them tend towards mainte-
nance (Amuzgo, Tzetzil, Tzeltal, Tlapanec, Cora, Tojolabal, Chatino and
Chol), some others are in the advanced stages of displacement (Mazahua
and Mayo). Interestingly enough, the languages that have been used as
symbols of nationalism in the past two centuries (Nahuatl, Maya, Pur-
hepecha and Zapotec) do not exhibit the symptoms that guarantee vitality.
The overview provided by the national censuses is conducive to acknowl-
edge some of the most significant challenges that should be assumed by
indigenist language polices at present, which are not confronted as in the
past with a mostly monolingual population, but with a complex universe
of language communities with different degrees of vitality. Agencies
should thus plan to cater to bilingual and/or multilingual populations that
might be willing and able to maintain and preserve their heritage in order to
counterbalance the high and medium rates of bilingualism that appear
among all language groups.
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Par t I I I . Bilingualism and bilingual education
Chapter 8
Local language pr omoter s and new discur sive spaces:
M exicano in and out of schools in Tlaxcala
Jacqueline H. E. Messing and Elsie Rockwell
Abstr act
This chapter focuses on uses of Nahuatl in the Malintzi region of the state
of Tlaxcala during the last decades of the twentieth century, a period of
rapid language loss and contradictory ideological stances towards the lin-
guistic legacy. Although communities varied considerably, by 1980 the
uses Mexicano were largely limited to adult generations, and to intimate
spheres or traditional ritual contexts. Nevertheless, ethnographic observa-
tion in Mexicano communities and their schools, including several man-
aged by a bilingual education program initiated in the mid 1980s, revealed
ways in which the native language use surfaced in unexpected contexts,
or was promoted by teachers and other professionals the classroom and in
other public contexts. The authors propose that the arrival of bilingual
schools, as well as the general ideological ambience of the 1990s when
movements for Indian Rights arose in Mexico has opened a discursive
space for the discussion of language shift and revitalization, creating possi-
bilities for local language promoters to publicly encourage use of the native
language, both within schools and significantly, in other community con-
texts. Although these efforts do not yet signal a trend towards reversal, they
support the notion that effective language revival would require the com-
mitment of a group of local speakers who actively engage in changing the
current of existing linguistic ideologies and practices.
1. I ntr oduction
This article is concerned with the presence and uses of Nahuatl, locally
known as Mexicano, in schools and other contexts in the Malintzi region of
Tlaxcala, which is marked by rapid language shift towards Spanish be-
tween the 1980s and the present (Hill and Hill 1986; Hill and Hill 1999).
Drawing on extensive ethnographic observations in multiple communities
and schools, we note some of the changes brought about during the past
250 Jacqueline H. E. Messing and Elsie Rockwell
decades. A number of events which rendered native language use in public,
non-intimate spaces more common, led more speakers to openly admit and
refer to their knowledge of Mexicano. We argue that these events opened a
new discursive space for the discussion of the Mexicano language and to
new uses among speakers in public contexts. The emergence of these new
discursive spaces is due on large part to local language promoters working
both through and outside local public schools. Many of these language
promoters are teachers either in the regular school system or in the recently
established (between 1982 and 1988) Tlaxcalan bilingual schools. Others
are local residents, university students or professionals who openly value
the language, engage in limited efforts at promoting the local language,
collect legends and disseminate them, write texts in the native language,
organize native language activities for children, and record oral tradition
and local history. These language promoters, or potential reversing lan-
guage shifters (also known as RLSers in reversing language shift theory)
(cf. Fishman 1991), have undertaken actions both within schools and in
places such as community cultural centers and the local Catholic churches.
While the emergence of these new discursive spaces documented herein
probably does not yet constitute a trend in reversing language shift, it does
show that the issue of language shift and revitalization is being considered,
discussed and acted upon within Tlaxcalan indigenous communities. Addi-
tionally, the changes may reflect the positive stance towards the native
languages created after the indigenous movements that arose in the early
1990s at a national level.
1
Given this background, rather than centering our
studies on the official language policies and the bilingual education pro-
gram discourses, we have chosen to privilege a view from the communities
and schools themselves, thus capturing both grassroots efforts and reac-
tions, and the uses, effects, and appropriations of public discourse and offi-
cial policy in the Malintzi region.
2
2. L anguage use in the M alintzi r egion
During the periods in which we did our fieldwork, use of Mexicano was
still widespread and valued in some contexts and among many speakers in
the Malintzi region. Census figures have certainly underestimated the
actual use of Mexicano in the towns on the skirts of the Malintzi volcano,
particularly of Contla, Chiautempan, and San Pablo del Monte. In the
1970s most adults in the outlying towns of these counties still spoke
Mexicano in their everyday transactions, as well as in intimate and house-
hold spheres (Hill and Hill 1986). In fact, at that time Hill and Hill (1986)
study registered a certain purism among the younger bilingual genera-
tions, many working in factories outside of their communities, who criti-
cized their elders for the use of Spanish loan words, albeit grammatically
adapted to Mexicano speech. Indeed, there is great ambivalence and ideo-
logical multiplicity here regarding who is a good Mexicano speaker, and
indeed, who can be considered a speaker at all (Hill 1993; Messing
2003a).
In the 1980s, Mexicano was consistently heard primarily among the
elder generations, and rarely between children and parents in the presence
of outsiders. Today families and even individuals vary according to their
knowledge of the language and their desire to use it. Mexicano language
use has been limited to the intimate sphere, with the exception of a few
ritual spaces, such as wedding ceremonies.
Particular towns and barrios (neighborhoods) differ in their degrees of
language shift, but each shows evidence of a break in inter-generational
language transmission; serious language shift is occurring in this region
(Garza Cuarn and Lastra 1991; Hill and Hill 1986; Nava Nava 2003). In
the county seats of Chiautempan, Contla and San Pablo del Monte, Spanish
has largely replaced Mexicano. However, their subordinate towns and bar-
rios have shown a range of regional differences in the maintenance or loss
of Mexicano language use (Hill and Hill 1986; Nutini 1968; Messing
2003a,b).
According to a study in Xaltipan, a town in the Contla county (Nava
Nava 2003), many parents of the generation of the 1960s and 1970s also
decided to protect their children from the humiliations associated with
being Indian, particularly on entering school, and by deliberately choos-
ing to prevent their children from learning the language. Many taught their
children Spanish as a first language, or at least exposed them to its use in
other contexts, and dissuaded their use of Mexicano in the home and com-
munity. These children grew up with a passive knowledge of the lan-
guage, which allowed them to understand conversation among adults and
with their monolingual grandparents, though they tended to answer in
Spanish. Some of them, including Refugio Nava Nava, the author of this
study, recovered an active use of the language after becoming adults.
3
Nava Navas work illustrates the great diversity in language use and atti-
tudes among residents of the many towns and barrios of Contla, with less
Mexicano language use being attributed to those who live in the center of
the county, and more among residents of towns on the outskirts of town,
and with a trend towards greater linguistic conservatism as one travels up
the volcano to higher elevation towns.
The process of acquiring Spanish and Mexicano as a first language used
(actively or passively [cf. Flores Farfn 1999]) in different social contexts
was ongoing, and was not always a linear process. There is a great deal of
variation in language use even within the same family in Mexicano speak-
ing regions, and the reality of household practices is difficult to discern
(Messing 2003a). At the same time some towns, not all of them geographi-
cally remote, resisted and maintained the readily observable use of Mexi-
cano with pride, such as San Isidro Buensuceso, and to a lesser extent in
San Francisco Tetlanohcan, and San Pedro Tlalcuapan. San Isidro Buen-
suceso, a town of San Pablo del Monte municipality, has proven to be par-
ticularly resistant to language shift, and children are still predominantly
fluent Mexicano speakers.
4
By the 1980s, such communities as Ocotlan
and Axcotla del Monte were already in the process of assuring their chil-
dren a native competence in Spanish and moving toward passive compe-
tence in Mexicano.
The variation within the towns and barrios in the county of San Bernar-
dino Contla itself is striking. The generalized patterns of language use are
that the more remote communities on the higher reaches of the Malintzi
tend towards greater maintenance of Mexicano language use. This occurs
across generational and socio-economic class lines; therefore, towns such
as Ocotlan, San J ose, Cuahutenco, and Barrio La Luz have maintained a
stronger use of Mexicano than the head-town and other sections of Contla
on lower elevations (See Map 1).
Thus, overall in the region it has been possible to find speakers whose
linguistic and communicative competences can be located at Stages 4, 5, 6
and 7 along Fishmans (1991, 2001) Graded Intergenerational Disruption
Scale (GIDS), taking into account the twenty-year span we consider in this
overview. More precisely, there is a range of language use in and out of
institutions that is most consistent with Fishmans (1991) Stages 6 and 7,
with elements of Stage 5. We note that while it allows us to compare the
Malintzi to other Mexican and international ethno-linguistic situations, one
of the challenges of the GIDS scale in describing the Malintzi region is that
there is no absolute separation that can be made between public vs. private
and formal vs. informal uses of languages in these communities, and no
way to test for number of speakers who are semi- or quasi-speakers of the
language (cf. Dorian 1972 and Flores Farfn 1999).
It is also important to highlight the fact that Tlaxcala is a rather atypical
case in Mexico, as we shall show. The 1910 census data placed over half of
the states population in the category of Indian, yet the Malintzi region
was not targeted as an Indian region when the post-revolutionary indi-
genista institutions and programs were founded. Although the schools
attended a great number of monolingual or bilingual Mexicano speakers,
and even many of the teachers were native bilinguals, they were bound by
the common Spanish curriculum and textbooks. Although schools with
bilingual personnel were first introduced by the Instituto Nacional Indigen-
ista (INI) in 1955, they were late in arriving to Tlaxcala. Formal bilingual
preschools and primary schools, managed by the national ministrys Gen-
eral Directorate of Indigenous Education (DGEI) were only founded in a
few communities during the mid-1980s, and did not have an official pro-
gram oriented towards teaching Nahuatl until the early 1990s. By then,
almost all towns and barrios had regular state or federal primary schools,
bound by the common national Spanish curriculum and textbooks. (For the
location of the State of Tlaxcala and neighboring states, see Cifuentes and
Moctezuma, Map 1; for data on SIL by State, growth rate and bilingualism,
growth rate and language, growth of bilingualism by language, by use of
language in the home domain, and by age groups, see Tables 1, 2, 4, 5, 6
and 7 in Cifuentes and Moctezuma, in this volume).
3. Compar ing ethnogr aphic studies: T he author s r esear ch in the
r egion
This contribution attempts to compare and place in historical perspective
instances of use of Mexicano which the authors were able to document in
two separate periods of ethnographic fieldwork. It explores uses of the lan-
guage in the context of regular schools during the 1980s, and in the con-
text of bilingual schools in the late 1990s and several communities. The
comparison shows a shift from the utter denial or sub-surface use of the
language in educational spheres in the 1980s, towards the contradictory
ideologies which surfaced and permeated public discourse on the language
in the late 1990s. It further elaborates on the emergence of discursive
spaces and the work of local language promoters. The following gives a
brief summary of the general research undertaken in the region by each
author. Additionally, both authors were able to take part in and/or witness
some of the alternative contexts for language revitalization activities, be-
tween 1999 and 2004.
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Approaching various aspects of both classroom and school-community
relationships, educational anthropologist Elsie Rockwell conducted and
coordinated fieldwork in several schools and communities in Contla and
Chiautempan. Results of these studies (Rockwell 1995) uncovered the huge
gaps between the highly centralized and uniform Mexican educational pol-
icy and actual practices observed in classrooms. Teachers translated the
national curriculum and textbooks into classroom discourse and activities
with a considerable degree of diversity. Rockwell considers the actual
school practices as resulting from institutional constraints on teachers
work, diverse teacher biographies, local initiatives, preferences and pres-
sures, and the effects of intertwined cultural threads and historical trends
influencing school cultures (Rockwell 1996, 1999). Some of these currents
are reflected in the ways teachers appropriated and used the official text-
books, and reformulated their contents in ways accessible to the students
(Rockwell 2000).
The ethnographic research of linguistic anthropologist J acqueline Mess-
ing was done over several stages between 1996, 2002, and 2004 in the
counties of Contla and San Pablo del Monte. Her study focused on the
ideological multiplicity present in these communities with regard to lan-
guage use, identity, and economics, emerging in local conversation about
language and about bilingual schooling. Through this comparative study of
language shift and linguistic ideology in two communities, Messing identi-
fied multiple language ideologies that surface in everyday discourses
(Messing 2003a): (1) Salir adelante [forging ahead], improving ones
socioeconomic position; (2) Menosprecio [disrespect], denigration of in-
digenous identity, too often stigmatized; and (3) Pro-Indgena [pro-
indigenous], promoting a positive attitude towards indigenous people. She
found that socio-economic progress is discussed by Malintzi residents
through ideologically-laden discursive stances, which are a combination of
denigrative and/or pro-indigenous perspectives. This interplay of alternat-
ing denigration and promotion of indigenous language and identity is pre-
sent in these communities and also reflected in discourses about local
DGEI bilingual schooling from observations and interviews with teachers,
language promoters and families. This research sought to compare local
ideologies of language with the reality of the bilingual schools and ad-
dressed the questions: How did teachers and students incorporate and inter-
pret the national state-sanctioned curriculum? How did local discourses of
bilingualism compare with discourses of bilingual education?
An implicit and explicit ideology of Mexicano language use is that its
speakers, particularly in the Contla County, feel that Mexicano usage be-
longs to social contexts of intimacy. With bilingual schooling, in a way
Mexicano was forced into the non-intimate and very public sphere of the
school, where speakers may or may not have social or familial/ritual ties
with each other outside schooling. Additionally, the widespread community
menosprecio and ambivalence towards transmitting the ancestral language,
and fostering an identity that is markedly indigenous to outsiders is
something that has made the idea of bilingual education suspect or seem-
ingly inappropriate to some Malintzi residents (Messing 2003a).
3.1. Research perspectives
Our research projects were both motivated by a desire to document rather
than judge what happened in schools, and to view schooling as consisting
of a complex whole comprising local appropriations of national policies
and realities (Rockwell 1998) in the lives of children and adults within a
particular socio-cultural and socio-linguistic context. We were each inter-
ested in the diverse and unpredictable linguistic practices that occur in
community schools, as the highly structured national curriculum is locally
re-elaborated and represented when teachers and students come together in
the classroom. Thus, we describe the contexts in which the indigenous lan-
guage surfaced in classrooms and other school contexts, at times as cas-
ual remarks and at times as deliberate instructional interventions. In the
regular (non-DGEI) school system during the 1980s, there was evidence of
a veiled use of Mexicano among bilingual teachers and students, often in
the absence of external observers, but also as a means used among students
to evade a monolingual teachers vigilance. In some classrooms, there was
a more open use of Mexicano terms in instructional sequences. Within the
bilingual schools observed in the late 1990s, still largely bound by the
national curriculum, teachers used Mexicano intermittently and inconsis-
tently, and the language was treated as a subject rather than a means of
communication. However, despite the many constraints on their work,
some bilingual teachers deliberately engaged in attempts at local language
revitalization, both in school and non-school contexts.
4. I ndigenismo, schooling and T laxcala as a special case
In the Malintzi region, the local variety of Nahuatl known as Mexicano was
still dominant in daily oral transactions in and among communities, and to
some extent was still written (for letters, verses, speeches and such), on the
eve of the Revolution of 1910.
5
After 1920, the winning faction established
a centralized federal government based on a single political Party, which
successfully incorporated and controlled the different sectors of the coun-
trys population through a network of official unions, corporate sectors and
governing agencies. For some reason, the Mexicanos of Tlaxcala were con-
sidered only under the category of campesinos (peasants), and were not
approached by the official indigenist institutions (Hill 1991), designed to
link communities to the central state by using bilingual promoters as bro-
kers (Modiano 1984). Later, the Instituto Nacional Indigenista (INI) (1948)
bypassed Tlaxcala, as it set up centers in remoter, more Indian, regions of
the country, in a deliberate attempt to integrate them into society and
establish a homogenous national culture and language. By mid-twentieth
century, for most politicians and scholars in Mexico, Indian communities
were a thing of the past in Tlaxcala. Then, a handful of anthropologists (cf.
Nutini 1968; Reyes Garca; Hill and Hill 1986, among others) began to
describe the continuities of social organization, ritual life, and language use
that linked Mexicanos of the Malintzi region to their legacy, in spite of
their early incorporation into the commercial and political life of the nation.
The history of formal schooling in the Indian towns of central Tlaxcala,
as in other regions, predates national independence, with the compulsory
founding of elementary schools for boys charged to the community funds
collected and administered by the colonial authorities (Tanck de Estrada
1999). These schools survived with difficulty the turbulent post-
Independence period, but were reestablished when the Liberal Party came
into power. However, during the thirty-year period (18801910) dominated
by president Porfirio Daz, the Tlaxcalan governor favored urban schools
and inaugurated schools for girls, while closing the smaller one-room
schools in the indigenous barrios. After the Mexican Revolution (1910
1921) the newly founded Secretara de Educacin Pblica (hereinafter
SEP) set up a parallel school system, sending teachers to many towns and
rural communities of Tlaxcala (Rockwell 1994 and 1996). Both before and
after the revolutionary period, documents show that official educational dis-
course systematically ignored the cultural and linguistic realities of children in
Malintzi schools. Old timers recall that school teachers often punished stu-
dents who were caught speaking Mexicano, although it has been docu-
mented that during the first half of the twentieth century a few of the local
teachers did use the language to communicate with monolingual parents
and students (Hernndez Hernndez 1987).
By the 1970s, the Instituto Nacional Indigenistas preparatory pre-
schools, founded to teach Spanish to Indian children before they entered
regular schools, had become a full-fledged indigenous primary school sys-
tem in the Secretara de Educacin Pblica. There, the General Directorate
of Indigenous Education (later DGEI) undertook an extensive program of
setting up schools with native para-professionals or promoters
6
and bilin-
gual teachers who had been through regular normal schools. The group of
noted anthropologists and linguists
7
then in charge of the agency defined a
policy that explicitly countered the previous direct Castilianization
method, and advocated a transitional model, with the use of bilingual prim-
ers, to be produced by selected bilingual teachers working with linguists, as
a bridge towards immersion in the all-Spanish curriculum, common to all
national schools (Bertely 1998; Brice Heath 1972; Hidalgo 1994; Patthey-
Chvez 1994).
Significantly, Tlaxcala was again bypassed; the one exception was the
general boarding school in San Pablo Apetatitln for indigenous students
from various regions. The DGEI assumed control over this school in 1970,
replacing monolingual teachers with teachers trained in the bilingual pro-
gram. Similar schools existed throughout the country and had been notori-
ous for their prohibition of native language use. In fact, most of the DGEIs
incoming teachers at that time had finished their primary schooling in the
boarding school system, often thereby severing vital links with their com-
munities and acquiring little more than a profound cultural alienation,
although some were later to become the most ardent defenders of bicultural
and bilingual policies and legislation (cf. Varese 1983; Valias 1987; Bon-
fil Batalla 1994). The Apetatitlan School served older students, both from
Tlaxcala and from other indigenous regions. Given the linguistic diversity,
even those teachers who were willing to use the native language could do
little to promote it. Thus, the Castilianization approach continued to pre-
vail, although some teachers did allow students to talk among themselves in
their languages.
8
By then, parents in the nearby Malintzi towns had access
to a variety of urban primary schools,
9
and preferred to keep their children
at home, although some did send older ones to the boarding school to
facilitate their entry into the teaching corps.
In 1982, the DGEI set up an office in Tlaxcala and charged it with train-
ing the first generation of bilingual local promoters, para-professional
teachers (generally with secondary schooling completed), prepared to
establish pre-schools. The original boarding school staff promoted the
incorporation of the Malintzi area to the DGEI system, arguing that
Nahuatl indeed persisted in the region. Professional interests were also in
play; the move meant union control of positions in a new school district,
with easy access to higher education, and thus it attracted bilingual teachers
from neighboring states. In 1985, the DGEI began to establish its own pri-
mary schools, singling out some of the more remote towns of barrios
where the use of the language was deemed to be still alive among the
younger generations. These schools were primarily required to teach the
national curriculum, although bilingual teachers were allowed to use and
foster the native language. DGEI schools coexist alongside the previous
school systems, and often draw their students from the same communities.
By then, the official DGEI policy and discourse, drawn up in the
national office by a strong group of bilingual teachers, had become consid-
erably more radical on paper. The new programs challenged the aims of
cultural integration and the transitional model that lurked behind the initial
steps towards bilingual education. By spelling out a policy that bowed to
linguistic and cultural pluralism, these central office teams not only were
adopting international trends, but they were also defending their profes-
sional niche in thenational educational system. In practice, however, most
teachers in the system still carried the legacy of Castilianization into their
classrooms; few actually used the native language texts. Given the teacher
allocation practices, teachers were often assigned to particular regions
where many did not even speak the native language of their students. This
divergence between the formal and the real has been a constant in the
Mexican system of indigenous education (Calvo Pontn and Donnadieu
Aguado 1992; Bertely 1998). Writing about Quechua regions in the Andes,
Hornberger (2000) documents a similar type of ideological paradox.
Luykx (1999) describes a similar process in Bolivia, noting a strong diver-
gence between professional bilingual staff and the indigenous communities.
Indeed the community ideological paradox is one that surfaces within
schools that are both national and local institutions.
In 1993, the governments legal framework underwent an additional
shift: after decades of a uniform national curriculum, a new Education Law
favored the differentiation of elementary school programs and the produc-
tion of alternative curricula and materials. The official recognition of cul-
tural pluralism influenced the discourse of teacher training and sustained
efforts to produce native-language texts for the bilingual schools during the
1990s. Nevertheless, no official texts had been produced for Tlaxcalan
Mexicano by 2000,
10
although several were being drafted locally and pend-
ing official approval from the Secretara de Educacin Pblica through the
DGEI. In most schools the bilingual teachers still used the national texts.
There are at present three concurrent attempts to write local Mexicano lan-
guage textbooks in the state of Tlaxcala. Some teachers local language
promoters have written their own materials for use in their classrooms.
5. T he sur facing of M exicano in the r egular (non-DGEI ) schools of the
r egion: 1980sear ly 1990s
The practice of utter denial of Mexicano in educational discourse in the
state was still present when co-author Elsie Rockwell began ethnographic
research on teaching practices in several schools of the Contla and Chiau-
tempan counties in the 1980s. However, after some time in the field, signs
of oral use of the local language did begin to emerge in the schools. Upon
inquiry, some monolingual teachers revealed that their students sometimes
used Mexicano among themselves, to avoid being understood. In Ocotlan,
thebarrio of Contlahighest on one side of the Malintzi volcano, children
would at times use the language in the playground. In one instance, a group
of girls were playing house, and the one who was cast as the grand-
mother produced Mexicano phrases seemingly associated with her role.
On the other hand, these same children did not reveal their knowledge of
the language within the school setting. The force that separated domains of
usage of each language seemed to be effective, at this time and in these
schools, in excluding Mexicano from the formal classroom activities.
The language situation was particularly interesting in state schools, as in
these cases many teachers were locally born, and spoke fluent local Span-
ish. Those teachers who did speak or understand Mexicano could chooseto
reveal it or not when conversing with outsiders. Despite the menosprecio
ideological stance, in our interviews at least three teachers spontaneously
claimed local Mexicano ancestry with pride. Those teachers who knew the
language normally did not use it in schools, at least in the presence of the
researcher. Little by little, in less formal gatherings, such as celebrations
outside of the school context, it became obvious that many state teachers
indeed did speak or at least understand Mexicano. At certain moments they
would intersperse their conversation with anecdotes, comments, and jokes
in the language; this practice caused their peers no surprise, rather it
seemed to strengthen their mutual identification in the face of outsiders.
In classrooms, some teachers unassumingly resorted to local cultural
knowledge, as when they told legends, particularly in relation to the
Malintzi volcano, or when they narrated episodes of local history, such as
the near-mythical founding of the towns or the famed passage of the Span-
ish conqueror Corts and his men through the state. In these sequences,
some state teachers tended to identify with their students by using an inclu-
sive we when talking of indigenous peoples. Other teachers, however,
reflected the prevailing menosprecio ideological position, by referring to
the indigenous past, in the third person, as a stage that had been superseded
by colonial civilization and national progress. Thus one teacher, in compar-
ing ancient practice with modern medicine, asked: do doctors nowadays
still cure with herbs? Students remained silent. Despite the general ideo-
logical ambiguity, by the early 1990s some of the regular schools did
make a special effort to revalue and use the native language. Such was the
case of the state school of Muoztla, a barrio of Tlalcuapan, a town noted
for its positive stance towards tradition.
11
In this case, teachers censured
students who cursed or insulted each other in Mexicano, yet promoted
ceremonial uses of the language, for example, teaching children to sing the
national anthem in Nahuatl.
The most interesting finding, however, was that Mexicano words at
times surfaced quite naturally in classes given by local teachers. Among
these, in 1993 a sixth-grade class in the barrio of Muoztla was most
significant. After a visit to an experimental ecological house, the teacher
reviewed the experience in rapid interaction with the group. During the
hour-long session, the teacher used about a dozen Mexicano words to
describe aspects of the environment and domestic space. The hour-long
class cannot be summarized for lack of space,
12
but the following
exchanges, in which traditional steam baths, temazcales are being com-
pared to the public steam baths in the region, are revealing.
Excer pt 1:
1 Mtro. entonces hay que estar
desinfectando el bao (de
vapor)... el bao ese... ese de
temazcal... es muy saludable...
porque [no necesita del vapor
T. then, you have to keep on
disinfecting the (steam) bath
the bath the temazcal one is
very healthy. because it doesnt
need steam
2 Aos noo... Ss noo...
3 Mtro.. .si no que el mismo] cmo
se llama? xique no...?
T.. rather its ownwhat is it
called? xique no...?
4 Ao aha... s S aha... yes
5 Mtro. debe ser as (lo dibuja)... el
mismo xitle... [ chitle..
T it must be like this (drawing it on
the board) the very xitle
chitle...
6 Ao s... xitle!.. (gritan) S yes... xitle! (shouting)
7 Mtro. no s ] cmo se dice.. . xitle...
dnde se pisa?
T. I dont know how to say it...
xitle where you stand?
8 Aos ah s Ss ah yes
A few minutes later, he again uses a Mexicano term.
Excer pt 2:
1 Mtro. y pobre ciudad verdad?
todo lleno de humo... de... [
ese s es... humo de petrleo
no?
T. (referring to public baths )
and poor city, right? all full
of smokefrom[ that is
petroleum smoke no?
2 Ao s... S. yes
3 Mtro. ... del... el petrleo del
chapopote que luego ahoga...
T. from the petroleum from
the pitch that sometimes
suffocates
4 Ao ... echa el chapopote... S. it throws up pitch
5 Mtro. ... echa el chapopote...]
luego ltimamente las este...
las... calderas... algunas ya son
de gas verdad? que son
peligrosas... si no... pero all
en la (.....) ah existen algunos
baos que tienen el... la
caldera de chapopote... y
cuando se apaga... n ombre
! hunde toda la ciudad
(risas).. o sea... la...los baos
de las casas que estn ah
cerca... s... contamina
demasiado... porque a veces
hasta... pasa a tiznar la ropa
que ya lavaron las mujeres...
e... llega el humito ese... pero
T. it throws up pitch]then
recently.. the uh the
caldronssome are now gas-
burning, right? they are
dangerous yesno? but
there in the there are some baths
that have a pitch caldron and when
it is turned off no man! it
smothers the whole city (Ss
laugh) in other words the
the baths the houses that are near
them yesit pollutes an awful
lot because at times it
evengoes as far as to soil the
clothes that the women have
washeduh that smoke comes
down but it comes with huixtli
llega con... huixtli... que le
nombran no? cuichtli?
(soot)what they call isnt it
that?cuichtli?
6 Aos s! Ss. yes!
7 Mtro. o este... de esas... bolitas
de... de humo (holln) que
llegan... se pegan en la ropa...
ya se manch la ropa o sea...
de nada sirve... y a veces hasta
hace uno corajes... pero pues
ya qu verdad... ?
T or uhthose little bits ofof
smoke (ashes) that fall and stick
onto the clothes so the clothes
are stained its no use
sometimes you even get angry
but what can you do right?
In this sequence, for example, the teacher uses xitle and cuichtli; in both
cases he tries alternating the Nahuatl phonemes for / / and //, and is cor-
rected by some students. By testing the pronunciation he may have been
distancing himself from full-fledged Mexicano speakers, nonetheless, he
did not offer a Spanish equivalent in either case. During the class the
teacher also used or accepted numerous Nahuatl loan words, such as
chapopote, chilpayate, and temazcal, which are common in the Spanish of
central Mexico. In neither case did the students seem to object the use of
these terms. In this case Nahuatl was not treated as a target language but
rather a means for communication with the student.
Considering the whole period 19801993, some schools seemed to be
more permeable to the local language than others, depending upon the
degree of language shift in the communities, or certain pro-indgena ideo-
logies in towns such as Muoztla. The local teachers passive or active
acceptance of its use, despite official prohibition, was also significant in
these moments when Nahuatl was heard in the classroom.
6. T he use of M exicano in bilingual schools in the late 1990s and ear ly
2000s
A decade later, language shift had advanced still further in the region, al-
though the patterns of language use were still irregular. When Messing did
her research a multitude of patterns of use and ideological stances about use
of Mexicano and local identity, surfaced among members of two communi-
ties, including families, teachers and students connected to the system of
bilingual primary schools.
13
The official curriculum in the centralized bilingual Tlaxcala schools at
the time stated that each grade should undertake one-half an hour of
Nahuatl study a week; this is very little time allotted to what should other-
wise be a significant activity. Instances of bilingual education that took
place in the classroom as Messing observed them (Messing 2003a) in-
cluded the teaching and practice of lexical items, such as colors, parts of
the body, and animals, phrases, songs and poems, and the teaching and
memorization of the National and State anthems in their Mexicano transla-
tions. Occasionally, teachers gave students the task of finding out a list of
Mexicano words or sayings from their families. In some classrooms, teach-
ers took it upon themselves to spend more time than this, however the
activities remain restricted so that they do not constitute a full bilingual
education program.
14
In San Isidro since the children are all actively fluent in both languages,
the observer heard Mexicano spoken all the time, but predominantly in
student-to-student conversation, whether in class or during recess. Students
would address their teachers in either or both languages. Teachers ad-
dressed their students in both languages, but primarily in Spanish; a com-
mon communicative pattern was for a student to address a teacher in Mexi-
cano, with the teacher replying in Spanish. Several teachers require
students to learn to write Mexicano, giving them writing assignments that
correspond to their grade level; this too is up to the will of the individual
teacher. These interested teachers perceive the educational goal to be bi-
literacy, although they do not have materials to support the teaching of bi-
literacy, unless they create them themselves, which a few do.
15
An example of a song that students learned for a special event, a dance
and poetry contest within the indigenous education division is the follow-
ing:
Yonic itac ze zitlalli
teretzallan hualquistihuitz
y onic itac no MALLINTZIN
tlacatzallan hualhuetzcatihuitz
la, la, la.
I saw a star
in the middle of the mountains coming out
I saw my Malintzi [mountain]
in the middle of laughing people
la, la, la..
[no author/date; capital letters in original]
The local-ness of this song is clear, and serves as an example of the charac-
ter of these schools that surfaces within the curriculum. While all Tlaxcalan
primary schools in the indigenous system are taught by local teachers and
have a local character, the explicit surfacing of Mexicano, as in this exam-
ple would be less likely happen in a non-designated bilingual school.
In the observed school in the Contla municipal county, for a few years
teachers met after school to plan curriculum units in Mexicano. The teach-
ers who are completely fluent in Mexicano and comfortable self-
identifying as such ran the workshop, and offered support to their col-
leagues. Afterwards the teachers used the materials they had developed
during this period, and the more interested ones continued on their own. In
each school there were at least two teachers who spent more time each
week with Mexicano in their classes. A Mexicano lesson often involved the
teaching and practice of lexical items, the memorization and practice of
poetry, and practice of conversational phrases such as in the following
classroom example, from a school in which a teacher introduces Mexicano
as a classroom subject.
T: A ver, alguien se acuerda como como este le preguntamos a alguien
cmo se llama, a ver.
Student 1 [S1] repeats: Cmo se llama?
T: Aha.
S2: Ay, esto yo no me acuerdo. Yo me acuerdo de
S3: Quenin tocayotiya?
Teacher [marking pauses to highlight pronunciation]: Que-nin [pause] ti-
mo [pause] to-ca-yo-ti-ya. Quenin timo tocayotiya?
Several students repeat this at once: Quenin timo tocayotiya
Teacher: Quin quiere preguntarle a alguien?
Students: !Yo! !Yo!
T: Lets see, does someone remember how how um we ask someone
what their name is, lets see.
Student 1 [S1] repeats: Whats their name?
T: Aha.
S2: Ay, this I dont remember. I remember
S3: Quenin tocayotiya? [What is your name/ what are you called?]
Teacher [marking pauses to highlight pronunciation]: Que-nin [pause] ti-
mo [pause] to-ca-yo-ti-ya. Quenin timo-tocayotiya?
Several students repeat this at once: Quenin timo-tocayotiya
Teacher: Who wants to ask someone?
Students: me! me!
The students in this example have a playful attitude as they guess and prac-
tice these expressions, however limited the linguistic goals are for this
activity. The class continued repeating conversational phrases for about
forty minutes, and spent some time discussing the construction of honorif-
ics, adding -tsin to students names. This discourse sample was transcribed
from a recording done by a teacher who regularly incorporated Mexicano
into the classroom. This teacher has also, for instance, used a lottery game
in class, which requires matching pictures to Mexicano lexical items.
The matrix language in this excerpt is Spanish, rather than Mexicano,
thus linguistically framing the teaching of Mexicano as the target language
within the context of the colonial language (for discussion of this phe-
nomenon see Meek, Messing and Hill 2000). This classroom use of the
official language, even while the practice of the native language is
attempted has been documented in other bilingual education classrooms
(cf. Calvo Pontn 1992, Hidalgo 1994). In the above example the teachers
way of asking Quenin timo-tocayotiya? (What is your name?) is calqued
on the Spanish Cmo se llama? (What are you called?), rather than the
locally salient Tlen motoca? The teacher is a fluent speaker of the local
variant of Mexicano, making this classroom choice of phrase puzzling, and
yet another example of the ideological multiplicity that pervades language
use in community and schooling.
The teachers who are most dedicated to the goal of making space for
Mexicano in the classroom tend to be the ones who are most student-
centered in their teaching methods. For instance, such teachers send their
students home with the assignment of asking their families for words,
expressions and sayings in Mexicano, and they have told me that students
will bring their own questions about Mexicano expressions to school, to
find out what they mean. The teachers who allot the space in their class-
room time for Mexicano on a regular basis, and have a positive attitude
about Mexicano in favor of a menosprecio ideological stance find that their
students will come to class volunteering new expressions heard at home.
Some students delighted in telling their teachers the swear words in Mexi-
cano they had learned at home; the children thus socialize each other in this
way. Several students of these specific teachers came up to me on several
occasions to say that they understood or used Mexicano with certain rela-
tives in their families, admitting to a certain linguistic and communicative
competence generally avoided by their peers (Messing 2003a).
16
7. Bilingual education r econsider ed
The aforementioned instances of Mexicano language use take place within
a linguistically ideologically complex community and educational system
that does not support its teachers with sufficient materials, nor with ade-
quate training to support a complete bilingual education. Calvo Pontn and
Donnadieu Aguado (1992) have pointed to a clear contradiction in Bilin-
gual-Bicultural Education in Mexico between that which is formal (what is
supposed to happen in schools, according to its public discourse) and that
which is real (what actually happens in classrooms). Consider for instance
the following quote, from their research in bilingual schools in a Mazahua
region of Central Mexico:
If reality were to present itself another way; that is to say, if both bilingual
bicultural education and indigenous teachers were true agents of change
that managed to achieve the official goal of imparting education to the
most marginal sectors of the country with the goal of achieving their social
mobility and their integration to the economic life of the country, we could
have results that would indicate substantial changes in the structure of the
national system. It is in this sense that we can speak of a divergence be-
tween the formal and the real. (Calvo Pontn and Donnadieu Aguado
1993:173; our translation)
These authors have found that there is a difference between the ideologi-
cally-laden official discourse, and the practice of most teachers, and that,
unlike some individual indigenous teachers, the national system itself is not
yet a true agent of change for language revitalization. One teacher-
interviewee (Messing 2003a) spoke of hacerlo real, of making the dream of
bilingual education real, and he describes the need for more time and sup-
port to make this take place. The above quote serves to summarize an edu-
cational situation that is replete with contradictions, between stated objec-
tives and actual schooling practices, in the region discussed by Calvo
Pontn and Donnadieu Aguado, as well as in Tlaxcala.
17
Messings study of
language, identity and schooling offers a detailing of the myriad of con-
straints on teachers, both ideological and structural in nature, including the
handful of teachers who were particularly dedicated to the maintenance of
their language, through the bilingual schools under the supervision of the
DGEI.
7.1. The politics of bilingual education and local language promoters in
and out of the educational system
It is particularly revealing to consider local bilingual teachers not only as
teachers, but also, and perhaps above all, as townspeople involved in a
number of other private and public activities. We think that it is from this
perspective that it is possible to view some local bilingual teachers, as the
local language promoters that Fishman (1991, 2001) tells us exist in all
sociolinguistic situations undergoing language shift. Based on interviews
with elders, Rockwell considers that even during the years in whichMexi-
cano was banned from schools, there were teachers who thought otherwise,
and who both used the language with students and parents, and took on
active roles in promoting its maintenance in intimate and ceremonial
spheres. A few in fact wrote or published verses and speeches in the Na-
huatl, for private or public occasions. In the 1990s the teachers within the
DGEI bilingual system who were most committed to using Mexicano, had
various resources: strong ties with local children and families, access to
facilities, knowledge and special interest in the issue of language and edu-
cation, and connections to other local intellectuals (i.e., university students,
writers, community leaders). Messing found that many Tlaxcalan teachers
who are within the bilingual system itself are critical of what is possible
within this bureaucracy, but at the same time among them are the handful
of teachers who spend many hours developing Mexicano curriculum for
their school to supplement the national one. They are within the system
and see its problems, but have little choice (mainly due to their economic
circumstances) but to continue working under the existing conditions.
Paradoxically, they are also often recruited by central offices for such
tasks as teacher training and attending national courses or conferences.
However, for the most part, their extraordinary efforts to make the formal
goals become realities are not rewarded, and are often sabotaged.
A focus on these local language promoters is enlightening because they
are the voices that have been underrepresented in the linguistic and anthro-
pological literature on Mexican bilingual education. Consider for instance
the following interview excerpt from a local teacher and language pro-
moter. Maestra Lidia has written her own text and spends much time pre-
paring work in Mexicano for her students, who are from the Malintzi re-
gion with the most public use of Mexicano. In Messings observations,
Lidias classroom had elements of bilingual education on a weekly basis.
Her attitudes about policies on bilingual education are expressed below:
L: Bueno, pues una de las condiciones que tenemos y a lo mejor de las en-
comiendas que nos han dado as polticamente es la revaloracin, el fo-
mento para hablar la lengua Nhuatl. S, sobretodo revalorarla y, y este,
lejos de decirle a los nios no la hables, pues este impulsar, bueno im-
pulsar la lengua Nhuatl. Estar constantemente dicindoles, bueno as ca-
si, casi como Tu lengua vale, habla. Y es, forma parte de tu historia, de
la historia de tus antepasados, en fin.
Entonces creo que es una de las situaciones, de los retos bien gran-
des, pero que tenemos que enfrentarnos tambin a muchas otras cuestio-
nes. Hay gente que ya no quiere hablar Nhuatl les... Aunque he notado
que, de los aos que he estado all, s ya existe un aprecio entre la gente de
hablarla, de no, ya no hay vergenza como cuando nosotros llegamos,
de no hablar. Ya no hay esa situacin del principio No hablo porque no
s, Yo s hablar ms espaol que Nhuatl. Creo que ahora ya es una
situacin de orgullo, lo que yo he notado, el proceso que hacen ellos. De
alguna manera, a lo mejor la educacin bilinge ha servido, pero no ha si-
do, yo creo que muy contundente para, para hacer todo, todo un trabajo
en, de revaloracin, de recuperacin, de, de difusin inclusive. O sea, nos
hace falta demasiado, estamos en paales apenas [risas].
L. Okay, well one of the conditions that we have and maybe one of the
tasks that have been given to us politically is revaluation, the fostering of
speaking the Nahuatl language. Yes, overall to revalue/revalorize it and,
and um, far from telling the children dont speak it, well um to promote,
well to promote the Nahuatl language. To be constantly telling them, well
almost like, like Your language has value/meaning, speak. And it is, it
forms a part of your history, of the history of your ancestors, that is.
So I think that it is one of the situations, of the rather large challenges, but
that we have to also confront many other issues. There are people that dont
want to speak Nahuatl anymore they Although I have noticed that, from
the years that I have been over there, yes, now there exists an appreciation
among the people to speak it, of no, there isnt shame anymore like when
we arrived, to not speak. There isnt that situation from the beginning I
dont speak because I dont know, I know how to speak Spanish more
than Nahuatl. I think that now its a situation of pride, what Ive noticed,
the process that they go through. In some way, its probable that bilingual
education has served [its purpose], but it hasnt been, I think, very directly,
in order to to do everything, a whole job of, of re-valorization, of recupera-
tion, of, of including dissemination. That is, we are missing too much, we
are barely in diapers. [laughter]. (cited in Messing 2003a).
Lidias comments suggest that the situation regarding Bilingual Bicultural
or Intercultural Education is multi-faceted and while there is a lot of just
discourse to the practice of bilingual education--speeches about the impor-
tance of bilingual education--teachers like herself are investing substantial
time to making the goals of bilingual education come true in actual prac-
tice. It is interesting to note that part of the DGEI discourse on bilingual
education is reference to lengua indgena (indigenous language), and
locally this translates to a favored usage of the term Nahuatl, with its
fully recognized status as a language, rather than the locally used Mexi-
cano. These language promoters begin their work in their individual class-
rooms, and by encouraging positive attitudes towards Mexicano from
within the educational institution itself. This teachers comment summa-
rizes the desire on the part of local teachers to make the idea and the offi-
cial discourse of bilingual education more of a reality in their schools.
The two main themes summarizing co-author Messings interviews
(2003a) and observations in these institutions are valorar (valuing)
18
and
rescatar (rescuing). Interviewees were clear that the latter, reversal of lan-
guage shift, may be an unrealistic goal, but most were generally optimistic
that they can have an effect on their students by offering them a positive
attitude towards Mexicano, thus constituting an alternative to a strong
menosprecio (denigrative) language ideology. Dorian (1987) has suggested
that language maintenance efforts, which may seem unlikely to succeed
still have importance in local communities, and can still play some role in
revitalization. Revitalization movements can offer an alternative to rampant
negative linguistic attitudes, in at least some members of the communities
undergoing substantial language shift.
In the case of Tlaxcalan bilingual schools and the handful of language
promoters who can be found there, they are using a variety of situations to
open a new discursive space for Mexicano in their communities, with or
without institutional support. This discursive space is not as likely to exist
within the schools that are not charged with consciousness-raising regard-
ing local language issues. A key issue here is that in Tlaxcalan towns with
few employment options, young people who are attracted to learning and
teaching, and interested in intellectual challenges will continue to favor
becoming teachers over the readily available factory or commercial labor.
In order to enter the teaching corps, they must prove some level of profi-
ciency in Mexicano; some of those who become teachers in the bilingual
system, either start out or will become actively interested in promoting the
Mexicano language, regional history and oral traditions. This will provide a
continuing source of future language promoters.
The use and teaching of Mexicano is clearly highly restricted in the
cited examples putting into question the role of the school in language revi-
talization (on this debate see Fishman 1991: 368380; McCarty 1998; Nava
Nava 2003). Despite the efforts of future bilingual teachers and other lan-
guage promoters, Nava Nava (2003) finds that revitalization must come
from within the community itself. This is a worthy but rather difficult goal,
which implies above all an ideological shift, which some local language
promoters are undertaking. Some indications of this possibility were ob-
served during the 1990s. Co-author Messing organized a presentation in
San Bernardino Contla for the Spanish translation of Hill and Hills (1999)
book, Hablando Mexicano: La dinmica de una lengua sincrtica en el
centro de Mxico with a panel consisting of several Tlaxcalan intellectuals,
teachers and Mexicano speakers, scholars, and the authors and translators.
The presentation drew a sizeable audience, and the interest expressed by
many who were present offered a rare glimpse into a publicly legitimated
event in which the value of the language and the importance of its use was
proclaimed. After this event, a small group including teachers, other towns-
people, some of them university students, and outside researchers (includ-
ing Rockwell and Messing, and Flores Farfn) engaged in initiatives such
as childrens workshops and exhibits, organized by a group called Matit-
lahtocan Mexicano: Lets speak Mexicano: the committee for the promo-
tion of the Mexicano language.
Other initiatives have included a short weekly bilingual radio program,
university student projects coordinated through the Casa de Cultura
19
, and
several attempts to revive the use of Mexicano for Catholic masses in honor
of the Patron Saints during annual celebrations. These special masses in-
clude the invitation of bilingual priests from neighboring towns, the collec-
tive writing of Nahuatl versions of the liturgy, and the training the church
choir formed entirely of young people to sing an all-Mexicano reper-
toire; it is notable that during the mass some older women pray in Mexi-
cano in a public way, as they were taught to do as children. In 2004 a local
television show began airing a program in Mexicano. Although these are
very small attempts in the face of an overwhelming current of language
shift, they reveal the existence and importance of local language promoters,
and the desire to promote public, non-intimate sphere events in which
Mexicano language use is valued and encouraged. Through these contexts
we see that linguistic knowledge whether active or passive crosses over
the leaky boundaries between intimate and public contexts, and serves to
contest the challenges made towards maintaining intergenerational ties by
the strong shift towards Spanish. Reversing language shift will only be
possible through the work of these language promoters, and their work
should be recognized.
8. Conclusions
Our analysis has attempted to focus attention on local agency in the face of
structure rather than the reverse; it has also considered the specific histori-
cal antecedents of schooling within this discussion of the potential impact
that members of the recent bilingual schools in Tlaxcala might have to-
wards a larger goal of reversing language shift. Finally, we have focused
attention on local peoples practices, discourses, and on classroom activi-
ties embedded within their socio-cultural and ideological contexts.
Drawing on research done in the Malintzi region, in different periods
and schools, as well as with different objectives and tools, we have at-
tempted to combine perspectives to offer a multi-faceted view of the issue
of language shift and schooling. Observing present linguistic practices must
take into account a century of official denial of the ancestral language, and
a strong trend to prohibit its use in classrooms. The stigmatization associ-
ated with native language use ultimately led to generations of passive
speakers, such as many students enrolled in Malintzi schools. However,
even before the founding of bilingual schools, some local public school
teachers (who were themselves bilingual) acknowledged and even con-
veyed a positive stance towards Mexicano to their students, despite official
policies to the contrary.
An important conclusion we draw is that the advent of bilingual schools
in the region has influenced the discursive ambience surrounding the use of
Mexicano. The relatively scarce and formal use of Mexicano in bilingual
classrooms that we observed does not alone revitalize the language; how-
ever, the very existence of this usage, i.e., the presence of Mexicano in the
non-intimate, public school classroom has brought about shifts in the con-
ditions of discourse that make the emergence of new, more positive ways
of thinking about the ancestral language possible. Viewed from a Tlaxcalan
perspective, bilingual education in Tlaxcala has opened up a new discursive
space, a space in which new practices have the potential of emerging where
before they were either banned or considered inappropriate, particularly in
presence of non-speakers, or outsiders. The attempts to revalorar, i.e., to
foster a new respect for the language through bilingual schooling in the
Malintzi region while not part of a comprehensive revitalization project
are part of the work that local language promoters, many of them local
teachers, who are trying to undertake from within this new discursive
space, the national schoolsand local communities in which they work. One
of the important outcomes has been to show how some bilingual teachers,
particularly those working in the bilingual schools established in the
1990s, take on roles as language promoters that far exceed the minimal
resources and exigencies of the bilingual curriculum, yet receive little offi-
cial recognition.
The simultaneous yet contrary trends towards language revitalization
and language change are quite sensitive to even small variations in the
ideological ambience surrounding indigenous languages, so that the ap-
pearance of language promoters may have considerable effect in shifting
the subtle boundaries between the intimate spheres where Mexicano is used
only in the presence of other speakers of the language, and the public
sphere where its use may not only be openly admitted but proclaimed. This
boundary has shifted with the advent of those bilingual teachers and profes-
sionals, working or studying in official institutions, who have undertaken
language projects that reach beyond the requirements or expectations of
their supervisors.
We fully agree with a view of language revitalization that must emerge
from the communities themselves; we also suggest that the efforts of the
local language promoters must be recognized for their efforts, and sup-
ported whenever possible by scholars. The constraints placed on them by
the national system loom large, but their impact as local reverse language
shifters may begin to spark an ideological reversal in favor of positive atti-
tudes towards local language, culture and education which, in our opinion,
is a key first step.
Notes
1. These began in 1992, with the Quincentennial protests, reaching a climax with
the 1994 and subsequent Zapatista uprisings and subsequent actions and
marches, some of which were witnessed by the people of Contla and other Ma-
lintzi counties. One consequence was the organization of the independent Na-
tional Indigenous Council which supported the struggle for an Indian Rights
Law.
2. Acknowledgements: The authors wish to thank Margarita Hidalgo and the
anonymous reviewers of our chapter for their insightful comments. J . Messing
wishes to thank the following institutions for support of this research: Univer-
sity of Arizona, Fulbright Commission, and the Spencer Foundation; She
thanks Elise Rockwell, J os Antonio Flores Farfn, J ane Hill, Refugio Nava
Nava, Susan Philips, and Ramos Rosales Flores for important feedback. E.
Rockwell acknowledges financial support from the Center for Research and
Advanced Studies, and the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologa, for sev-
eral stages of the research. She thanks colleagues and students who contributed
to the empirical and theoretical work over the years, and particularly to J acque-
line Messing, J ose Antonio Flores Farfn, Leonor Cuamatzi, and Ramos
Rosales. Thanks to Edgar Amador at the University of South Florida for edito-
rial assistance.
3. Refugio Nava Nava. Variacin en el nhuatl de Tlaxcala: Los cuatro niveles de
habla. Masters thesis. Maestra en Lingstica Indoamericana. Centro de In-
vestigacin y Estudios Superiores en Antropologa Social, Mexico City.
4. The high elevation of the location of this town makes it the most remote Mexi-
cano speaking town in the state of Tlaxcala, which is likely a factor in its
strong degree of language maintenance.
5. Reference to the strength of the Nahuatl language during early Colonial rule
(1521 to 1821) is a necessary point of departure. Considered an official lan-
guage in the Republic of Indians of Tlaxcala, Nahuatl was used for innumer-
able legal and administrative transactions and documents, and survived the
Spanish Crowns unrelenting attempts to Castilianize (i.e., enforce the learning
of Spanish) its New World colonies. Predictably, the early friars generally
found it easier to learn and transcribe the native languages for their missionary
enterprise than to teach Spanish to all Indians. Nevertheless, eighteenth-century
colonial authorities progressively imposed the exclusive use of Spanish for of-
ficial documents, and after Mexicos Independence (1810-1821), Nahuatl was
banned from the public sphere.
6. Promoters were young bilingual members of the indigenous regions who had
concluded at least primary schooling, often in the boarding schools. Their ini-
tial role was to take charge of the pre-school children and teach them Spanish.
7. At the time, Anthropologist Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrn served as undersecretary
of Culture, and Salomn Nahmad, J os Rendn and Evangelina Arana de
Swadesh figured as directors of the Direccin General de Educacin Ex-
traescolar en el Medio Indgena, later changed to Direccin General de Edu-
cacin Indgena.
8. Co-author Rockwell worked in the DGEI during the early 1970s, and organ-
ized regional in-service teacher training courses held at the Tlaxcala boarding
school. She observed language use in the classes, though did not do systematic
research on them at that time (Rockwell 1979:3138).
9. Some held reservations about the intentions of the boarding school and feared
they would sign their children over to the government. Interview with Cleo-
fas Galicia, of Contla, by E. Rockwell, in 1983.
10.Text has been produced for the Puebla dialect of Mexicano; however due to the
dialectal differences the text is rarely used in the observed schools.
11.In Tlalcuapan lived Andrs Bello, a former collaborator of Nutini and later
scholar of Mexicano and native-language poet. Many of his family had also
became teachers.
12.For further analysis of this lesson see Rockwell (2000).
13.Note that the schools under primary education and those designated as bi-
lingual schools operate under the SEP (Secretaria de Educacin Pblica),
however the bilingual schools are under the specific auspices of the Director-
ate General for Indigenous Education; both serve the same population.
14.Local teacher and scholar Romano Morales (1999: 59) points out that in Tlax-
calan bilingual schools the language has been relegated to cultural events, such
as the Nahuatl poetry competitions, indigenous story-telling, and the teaching
of the national and state anthems in Nahuatl, all of which are corroborated by
my observations. He suggests that to remedy the situation of what he terms
ethnic education, the sixth grade should be taught the alphabet, demonstra-
tives, colors and phrases in conversation all of this is intended to reaffirm the
childs ethnic identity, rather than to achieve fluency in the language.
15.Biliteracy in indigenous communities as an educational goal is itself a complex
issue (Hornberger 1989).
16.Pellicer (1997) suggests that the oral tradition should be used as a resource in
Mexican educational contexts, a point which is well taken. The language pro-
moters have a strong sense of the importance of including this element in the
classroom, and have on occasion experimented with it.
17.See Mallon (1995) on teachers in Mexico as local intellectuals, and Giroux
(1988) on teachers as transformative intellectuals.
18.See Hill (2002) for an analysis of hyperbolic valorization a discursive proc-
ess through which people (language advocates as well as native speakers) con-
nect the notion of value with language.
19.Projects have included the development of a card game with Mexicano lexical
items, an oral history project based on an undergraduate thesis, an effort on the
part of a local Cultural center (Casa de Cultura) to connect university students
interested in local lore, history and writing to interested students in primary
schools for an after school program, and the voluntary establishment of a cul-
tural center with resources on local language and history in Xaltipan.
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Chapter 9
Bilingual education: Str ategy for language
maintenance or shift of Yucatec M aya?
Barbara Pfeiler and Lenka Zmiov
Abstr act
Despite the high percentage of Spanish-Maya bilingualism that was still
present during the last decades in the state of Yucatan, there is an increas-
ing loss of intergenerational transmission of Yucatec Maya as the mother
tongue. This article examines the sociolinguistic situation as well as in-
digenous education in relationship with linguistic change. Bilingual educa-
tion introduced by the Direccin General de Educacin Indgena (DGEI)
in 1955 is held responsible for the decreasing use of indigenous languages
in Mexico. After continuous changes in the school system, the Instituto
Nacional Indigenista (INI) has realized its relevance for the development of
linguistic policy and set forth the following premises: The educational
system should be [used] as one of the principal instruments for language
preservation and the development of Amerindian languages (INI
2000:123). The present article examines and compares the methods and
practices of the two programs that were introduced in 1996 and which rep-
resent the two modalities of indigenous education. The program for Indige-
nous Intercultural Bilingual Education under the auspices of DGEI and the
program of Educational Assistance to the Indigenous Population for Cul-
tural Development under the auspices of the Consejo Nacional de Fomento
Educativo (CONAFE). Based on case studies, CONAFEs program is pro-
posed as a strategy for linguistic preservation of Yucatec Maya. In its
application, with the cooperation of the local population and the instruc-
tors educational methods and social work, it is possible to transmit to
learning children a sense of conscious bilingualism.
1. T he M ayan and Spanish languages in the Y ucatan peninsula
The Yucatec Maya is one of the most important languages in the American
continent and the second-most spoken indigenous language in Mexico due
not only to the number of speakers but to its associated tradition with the
great Mesoamerican civilization. According to the data from the Instituto
282 Barbara Pfeiler and Lenka Zmiov
Nacional de Geografa, Estadstica e Informtica, there are 800,291 speak-
ers of the Mayan language who are five years or older out of a total popula-
tion of 2,057,753 who are five years and older.
1
La maya, the name given
to the language by its speakers, is spoken in the Yucatan peninsula, a
region comprised of the states of Yucatan, Campeche and Quintana Roo.
The socio-linguistic situation has been changing since 1940 due to
regional transformations, such as the development of agriculture, tourism,
and the process of internal migration associated to the growth of the cities,
and the process of proletarization and nationalization of its peasants. This
situation varies according to geographic regions: in the western and south-
ern parts of the state of Campeche, Spanish predominates due to the strong
immigration patterns of people from Central Mexico as well as indigenous
chol speakers from the state of Chiapas and from various Mayan ethnic
groups from Guatemala. In the state of Quintana Roo three sub-regions are
distinguished: the Caribbean coast, where the use of Spanish and English
predominate; the center, where the Mayan language is used, and the south,
where the use of Spanish prevails (Pfeiler 1999). However, the scenario
changes if we observe the linguistic situation in the state of Yucatan: at first
glance, what strikes ones attention is the high ratios of bilingualism,
2
and
the fact that the Mayan language is spoken in 106 municipalities, the num-
ber of speakers varying according to the economic region. (With respect to
the language(s) spoken in the neighboring states of the Yucatan Peninsula,
Campeche and Quintana Roo, see Map 1 and Tables 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 in
Cifuentes and Moctezuma in this volume). The corn-producing agricultural
zone reflects the highest percentage of the monolingual Mayan population,
followed by the citrus-growing, livestock-raising, and agave fiber produc-
ing zones. In the fishing zones, monolingual speakers of the Mayan lan-
guage have not been recorded (Pfeiler 1999: 270) (See Map 1).
2. T he M ayan population: Bilingual and monolingual
According to national census data, a sizeable change in the use of Mayan
and Spanish can be observed as of 1940 (see Graph 1). Since then, the
number of monolingual speakers of the Mayan language started to decrease
at the same time that the number of bilingual speakers was increasing (Pfe-
lier 1999: 273). In spite of the fact that in the past decade both bilinguals
and Maya monolinguals have increased in absolute numbers, the percent-
age rates show that since 1930, the presence of the Mayan language tends
to decrease in the general population of the Yucatec society (see Graph 2).
Strategy for language maintenance or shift of Yucatec Maya? 283
Map1. Use of Maya and Spanish in Yucatan
2.1. Bilingual and monolingual speakers of Mayan language by
percentage of increase
From 1940 on, when at the national level it was admitted that it was neces-
sary to alphabetize first in the vernacular languages and later in Spanish,
the percentage of the monolingual speakers of the Mayan language started
to decrease considerably. We suppose that the teaching methods, or the
linguistic centricism, combined with the strategy of Hispanicizing the rural
population, has played an important role in the process, considering that the
school is the domain in which one relates to others with the language of
prestige, Spanish. However, the reduction in speakers of Maya at this stage
does not correspond to a regular socio-demographic development but it is
due primarily to the processes of socio-economic changes, in general, and
to the disappearance of the agave fiber producing industry, in particular.
386,096
418,210
516,899
614,049
758,355
1,063,733.00
1,362,940
1,658,210
0
200,000
400,000
600,000
800,000
1,000,000
1,200,000
1,400,000
1,600,000
1,800,000
1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Year
P
e
r
s
o
n
s
Persons: Bilinguals 5 +years
Persons: Monolinguals 5 +years
Persons: Total
Graph 1. Bilingual and monolingual speakers (5 +years) in proportion to the total
population. State of Yucatan
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Year
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e
Persons: Bilinguals 5 +years
Persons: Monolinguals 5 +years
Graph 2. Bilinguals and monolinguals by rate of growth %
The topic of the language census data in general and especially the data
referring to speakers of the threatened languages has been discussed at
great length (Hill 2002: 127; Fishman 2002: 146). There are, in addition,
few socio-linguistic studies focusing on the state of bilingualism in this
region. Following Fishman (1971), Pfeiler (1988: 423) classifies thebilin-
gualism for this region as diglossia with bilingualism, understanding
diglossia at the socio-cultural level and bilingualism at the individual level.
Applying Lamberts terminology (1967: 96), which distinguishes between
integrative bilingualism and instrumental bilingualism, the situation of
Yucatan in the rural areas is characterized by instrumental bilingualism.
People learn the second language, in this case Spanish, for practical rea-
sons (business, doctors appointments, services, etc.) without having the
intention of perfecting it (Pfeiler; 1988: 423).
Following Rojo (1982: 269310), who distinguishes between adscrip-
tive diglossia and functional diglossia, Zmiov (2003: 38) defines the
Yucatec linguistic reality as diglossic bilingualism of adscription with
features of functional diglossia. Each one of the two co-existing languages
in the bilingual society carries out different functions so that the societal
dynamics in general determines the use of one language or another. An
indigenous person who looks for work outside of his/her community or
who aspires to continue his/her basic education sees him/herself obligated
to learn Spanish because the Mayan language in these environments does
not enjoy social recognition.
At present the use of the Mayan language is restricted to the familiar
domains; there are, however, communities and villages where authorities
primarily use the Mayan language in official meetings. This is reflected in
studies dealing with, among other topics, the use of the two languages, and
the attitudes towards them (Barrera Vsquez 1980; J imnez Peraza 1982;
Kummer 1980, 1982; Lope Blanch 1984; Luxa 1990; Pfeiler 1985, 1988,
1993a, 1993b, 1997, 1999a, 1999b; Burns 1992; Pfeiler and Franks 1993;
Mossbrucker 1992, 2001; Berkley 1998, 2001; Pellicer 1999). The factors
definitely favoring the ethno-linguistic vitality of the Mayan language are
the following:
The traditional area of residence which has been inhabited in a con-
tinuous manner by the same population;
the concentration of the members of the same ethno-linguistic group in
a specific region;
the geographic isolation of the communities more or less until 1960;
the social prestige that the language enjoyed during the entire colonial
period and in the twentieth century (Mossbrucker 2001: 44);
the dialectal homogeneity and the existence of a standard norm;
the references to the history of past Mayan culture in communication
mediums;
foreign interest in the Mayan culture and language.
In contrast to external opinions, we highlight the most frequent opinions
about the Mayan language among the speakers themselves, because they
could be decisive with respect to the future of their language: (a) One does
not speak the legitimate Mayan language any longer. The Mayan language
of today is very much mixed with Spanish. It is corrupted
3
; (b) The chil-
dren do understand it but now they do not speak it. (c) We would like for
the children to speak both languages.
Despite its prominent societal presence, Yucatec Maya nowadays is
transmitted less and less from parents to children (Pfeiler 1999, Zmiov
2003). However, one can perceive amongst the Mayans a feeling that we
would attribute to nuances of nostalgia in their desire that the children
speak the Mayan language; nonetheless, it is alarming to observe that the
opinions of both researchers and speakers reveal the decline of the inter-
generational transmission of the mother tongue.
Socio-linguistic changes constitute in and of themselves authentic social
transformations that are found in a complex dialectic relationship with
other change factors. Socio-linguistic changes are not inevitable, but to a
certain extent, they are controllable via processes of intervention of deter-
mined social actions; in other words, they can be influenced by certain
linguistic policies. The planning and application of linguistic policies serve
as a regulating organism of relationships between the ample social and
linguistic transformations (Zmiov 2001).
In this realm, it has been demonstrated that the school can be an agent
for the maintenance of the mother tongue (Hornberger 1988: 231) as long
as one teaches the language in combination with the socio-cultural context
of the community or within it. Following the call of Fishman stating that
We prepare teachers to foster recessive languages (...) when what we
should be preparing are community organizers and cultural workers
(2002: 147), we analyzed the approaches to the community education prac-
tice of the Consejo Nacional del Fomento Educativo
4
(henceforth CON-
AFE) in three communities in the eastern part of the state of Yucatan, and
we present it as a possible strategy for the maintenance of the indigenous
language in this region.
3. I ndigenous education
Since the beginning of bilingual-bicultural education programs in 1955,
funded by the Departamento de Educacin Indgena and continued by the
Direccin General de Educacin Indgena (henceforth DGEI) from the
Secretary of Public Education, the method used through 1980 was distin-
guished by the Hispanization approach, which included the assimilation
and integration of the indigenous population into the national culture.
The instruction of the indigenous language was seen as a tool to facili-
tate the imposition of the national language and culture, or as a gradual
educational transition from the native to the national culture (Daz-Couder
2000: 106). As of the 1980s, the bilingual educational plan proposes the
inclusion of the cultural values of the indigenous population in order to
guarantee a development not dependent and subordinate to the values of the
national society. Since 1996 it is proposed to include indigenous education
as bilingual and intercultural, implemented in two modalities: Indigenous
Intercultural Bilingual Education (henceforth IIBE), under the auspices of
the DGEI, and the Program of Educational Assistance to the Indigenous
Population (henceforth PEAIPunder the auspices of the CONAFE.
A school day in San Antonio (PAEI P)
6
The instructor welcomes the boys and girls in the Mayan lan-
guage. She chooses a book from the library and thumbs through it until
she finds the story she was looking for, and she then passes it to a boy
who starts to read Le yuumil ixiim tsikbal. All of the boys and girls
listen to the story, and, after finishing it, the whole class wants to com-
ment on it at the same time. The instructor coordinates participation of
the boys and girls and each one comments what they like about The
Lord of the Corn. When they have finished, another child reads the
Spanish translation of the short story. Afterwards, the boys and girls eat
breakfast.
The instructor reviews the preceding research project: The boys
and girls are seated in three groups. First, the boys and girls in the sec-
ond and third levels are assigned compositions for which they will
choose the language they prefer in order to complete them. Afterwards,
the instructor works with the children in the first level correcting their
pronunciation and writing in the Mayan language, looking for similar
words, like kaay kaal, kan kan, kaan kaan, kab kaab.
3.1. Indigenous intercultural bilingual education (IIBE)
The IIBE program has defined and published its guidelines only up to the
year 2000, and it continues today largely in a stage of transition because it
still lacks the didactic and methodological support corresponding to the
inter-cultural theme for both the teachers and the pupils. Out of the total of
school-age children who are to receive elementary education, 29% are Ma-
yan language speakers, but the DGEI assists only 8.6% of them; 20.4% or
more than two-thirds of the Mayan speakers attend general education pro-
grams (Personal communication with Professor J os Antonio J uh y Lpez,
head of the Technical-Pedagogical Department of Indigenous Education,
May 30, 2003).
The children go to the chalkboard, write the words, correct their words
together, and read them again. Later, they copy what they have written
in their notebooks and create their respective drawings, while the in-
structor attends to the other levels, helping those that are having prob-
lems, and in a group they correct their homework, always by level.
When the children are finished with their review drills, the instructor
asks that they sing, explaining to them that they can relax this way and
can return to concentrating themselves. All of them sing together in
Maya X-Juaaana ku yookot jatsuts and then in Spanish Juana
baila bonito (Juana dances pretty).
Later he starts with a new investigation project: My Earth. To
introduce the projects theme, they read aloud two passages in Spanish
from their textbooks in this language. The students all seated together
in a circle. Immediately after finishing the passages, they comment in
the Mayan language what they have just read with the instructor and
always in the Mayan language they explain the content to those chil-
dren who are not so advanced, those who do not understand Spanish
well. Later, the children draw the Earth as a circle with a sketch of the
continents and write their respective names. As homework, the children
should speak to their parents about the weather conditions, the flora
and fauna typical of the region and, following that discussion, they
write a short essay in the Mayan language or in Spanish, whichever
they prefer. The school day is now coming to an end, but before leaving
school the children play various games (Observation notes by co-author
Zmiov (March 10, 2003).
With respect to methodology, the teacher has the obligation to cover the
same range of content areas that are studied in the programs in the regular
primary schools and to use the educational materials in both the indigenous
language (four books, one for each grade, with regional themes) and in
Spanish without favoring any in particular. In addition, it is also suggested
that the teacher generate complementary didactic materials on his/her own
as part of the learning process. It has been observed, and the same teachers
corroborate it, that one searches to accomplish the purposes of general edu-
cation by way of textbooks in Spanish. Spanish is not taught as a second
language, but teachers employ identical didactic materials to those used for
native speakers of Spanish. In this way, students learn the second language
primarily through writing it.
5
This proves that the IIBE has not contributed
to the maintenance of the indigenous language in Yucatan (Pfeiler and
Franks 1993); this is similar to the progress (or lack of progress) reported
for other regions in Mexico ( cf. Lastra 2001).
4. T he Pr ogr am of Educational Assistance to the I ndigenous
Population (PEAI P)
Since 1996, CONAFE has put into place the PEAIP with the purpose of
assisting the micro-localities, that is, indigenous communities with bilin-
gual education projects in various states of the Mexican Republic. The cen-
ters are divided into three modalities: primary, pre-school, and shared room
(pre-school and elementary). In the state of Yucatan, the PEAIP-CONAFE
serves communities ranging from fewer than 100 to 500 inhabitants. After
observing the methodological strategies implemented by the CONAFE
(2000), we reached the conclusion that this program does contribute to the
maintenance of the Mayan language. Let us first take a look at the
approaches:
In the Educational Proposal from PEAIP-CONAFE, great importance is
given to working on the educational process from a perspective in which
knowledge not only constructs itself through the study of themes, areas or
subjects, but also through a search for the actions and interactions of the
child in his/her natural and cultural surroundings, including the persons of
her/his home and his/her classmates. In this way, the child constructs
his/her knowledge not only in school time and space, but in extra-curricular
activities, that is to say, throughout his/her daily life.
The concept of community education consists in multilevel work:
younger children with less knowledge learn by listening to the older chil-
dren with more knowledge, and in this way it is procured that the students
assume responsibilities of support or in teaching within their social group.
The role of the instructor in this process is to coordinate the work of the
group that is divided into three levels (each one of two grades), working
with the three levels on aResearch Project, but demanding in each level a
different degree of knowledge. A child can work on a Research Project for
one or two weeks, focusing on enticing themes and departing from both
community knowledge and the knowledge of the pupil in order to produce
new knowledge and define the necessities of learning. The child learns by
exploring his/her reality.
The basic bilingual education program of the CONAFE has primarily a
psycho-pedagogical approach. The goal of the program is to define the
students bilingualism in terms of habits, abilities, competencies and values
not only in the mother tongue, but in the second language. It is not possible
to affirm that the purpose is to accomplish the coordinated bilingualism of
the children who exit primary school, given that this will depend on the
environmental conditions that surround the child. The students are alpha-
betized in the Mayan language, their mother tongue, which is to be con-
solidated throughout their elementary education. The instructor expects the
child to not only acquire the abilities of learning how to read and write, but
to be transformed into an active learner--a task that is accomplished by the
creative participation of the child in the Research Project. From the begin-
ning of the learning process, the children are in contact with the second
language, Spanish, through the presence of those more advanced students;
however, first-level students are not expected to develop the second lan-
guage in an active manner. Below is a description of all three levels being
taught:
Level 1: Reading and writing in the Mayan language; development of
oral expression and comprehension in the Mayan language (monolingual)
through description; progress in oral expression and comprehension in
Spanish (passive).
Level 2: Reading and writing in the Mayan language (perfection); read-
ing and writing in Spanish (initiation); development of the oral comprehen-
sion and expression in the Mayan language (dialogue and narration); de-
velopment of oral expression and comprehension in Spanish (active,
monologue and description).
Level 3: Reading and writing in the Mayan language (grammar); reading
and writing in Spanish (perfection); development of oral expression and
comprehension in the Mayan language (discourse).
It is worth mentioning that, generally speaking, the instructors live dur-
ing week in the communities, and in this way, they share their daily life
with the people of the area, permitting them to know the particular social
climate of the community. The instructor develops his/her teaching posi-
tion during the course of one or two years, and this job is conducted as
social work. This means that he/she does not receive a salary, but only a
stipend for his/her traveling expenses, and, when finished with this job,
the CONAFE awards him/her a scholarship so that he/she can continue
his/her studies.
5. I I BE and PEAI P in compar ison
We sum up and compare below the structure and organization as well as
the methodological assumptions at the primary level and the observed con-
clusions in the fieldwork,
7
from the two modalities in the indigenous edu-
cation, the PEAIP and the IIBE.
Table 1. Structure and organization of indigenous education in the Yucatan.
Bilingual I ndigenous
Education: Str uctur e and
Or ganization
SEP-CONAFE-PEAI P:
I ndigenous Community Cour se
SEP-DGEI -I I BE: Pr imar y
Number of schools 106 primary education centers
8
173 primary education
9
centers
Students served From4 to 25 children: one
instructor
Up to 25 children: one teacher
26-40 children: two teachers
School attendance in 2003 749 children 13,859 children
Duration of study Three levels: Each one lasts two
years
Six grades: unitary complete
organization
Type of teaching Multi-level work Multi-grade work
Class schedule Established for mornings,
flexible (adapted to the activities
of the parents)
Fixed for mornings, not flexible
Number of teachers and
their academic preparation
106 instructors with bachelors
degree (majority), secondary
education or preparatory school
(ages: between 14 and 27 years
old)
548 teachers: half of themwith
bachelors degree fromthe UPN,
10
the rest with a high school degree,
some secondary education,
Bachelors or Masters degrees,
primary school.
Table 1. Structure and organization of indigenous education in the Yucatan.
(continued)
Bilingual I ndigenous
Education: Str uctur e and
Or ganization
SEP-CONAFE-PEAI P:
I ndigenous Community Cour se
SEP-DGEI -I I BE: Pr imar y
Methodological support for
the teachers
Systemof methodological
support: training course (two
months); support follow-up by
trainer-tutors, educational
assistants, on-site regional
coordinators; linguistic
workshop; language and culture
workshop; additional
methodology materials for each
instructor
Without methodology support:
without organized long-term
courses: sometimes courses are
organized by the leaders own
initiative or according to zones;
support materials with a deficient
distribution
Profile of the teacher
Place of residence Work community City; travels daily to work center
Mother tongue of the
teachers interviewed
84 instructors: 44 Mayan
language, 27 Spanish, 12
bilingual (Mayan-Spanish), 1
Tzeltal
48 teachers: 36 Mayan language,
12 Spanish
Learning areas of the
mayan language as a
second language
Mainly in the family; three
instructors in the first grades of
bilingual-bicultural education
Mainly in the family; one teacher
in the school exercising his/her
profession
Type of employment
Stipend scholarship (fromone to
two years)
Temporary or termcontract
In Table 1, one observes the strong presence of the IIBE program as com-
pared with the PEAIP. There exists a difference in the class schedules and
in the teachers place of residence. The type of employment of the teacher
is related to the age and the fluctuation in the teachers. This factor makes
the rendering of the educational practice of the PEAIP highly
dependent upon the instructor as an individual.
In Table 2, the methodological differences are observed that result in
two contradicting linguistic situations: a conscious bilingualism with the
maintenance of the Mayan language PEAIP and the Hispanicization
through linguistic centricism (IIBE). Through the observation of the activi-
ties of the PEAIP in three communities (San Antonio, San Mateo, and
Akabchen), we came to the conclusion that the PEAIP instructor can really
play the role of the community educator, converting the teaching-learning
process into a meaningful experience, a fact for both children and the
community at large. Its methodological strategy focuses on the respect for
the students own linguistic, social, cultural and economic environment,
and also in the value of indigenous cultural knowledge. The instructor ex-
pands upon this knowledge by explaining and gradually teaching the stu-
dent the language and life of the other, without losing sight of the mother
tongue and its cultural context. Through this egalitarian approach to teach-
ing, the student values both his/her mother tongue and its surroundings: the
Spanish language within its own context. With this we consider that one
can speak of a process that culminates in a conscious bilingualism.
Table 2. Methodological strategies: their accomplishments in the indigenous
education in the region of Valladolid
SEP-CONAFE-PEAI P:
Community Cour se
SEP-DGEI -I I BE: PRI M ARY
I ndigenous Bilingual
Education: M ethodological
Str ategies
(San Antonio, San Mateo,
Akabchen)
(Yalcob, Kanxok, Xocen)
M ethodological Str ategies Research projects
Childs diary
Textbooks as didactic
support material
Instruction using national
textbooks
Teachers role
Educational coordinator and
promoter
Educational authority
Goal/Result
The student involves the
community
The student does not involve the
community
Bilingualism in the
T eaching:
I n pr actice
Does not aspire to be a
coordinated bilingualism.
In the first level, it is not
expected that the children
speak or write in Spanish.
Aspires to be a coordinated
bilingualism. Fromthe first grade on
the students learn the alphabet in
both languages.
Appr oach and
Development of Reading
and Wr iting:
I n pr actice:
It is expected that the child
will apply the reading and
writing to something
meaningful and useful for
him/her.
The student is creative in the
textbook assignments (diary,
newspaper, letter).
It is expected that the child be
dominant in the reading and writing
of both languages.
Many times the student reads and
writes without understanding the
content.
Table 2. Methodological strategies: their accomplishments in the indigenous
education in the region of Valladolid (continued)
SEP-CONAFE-PEAI P:
Community Cour se
SEP-DGEI -I I BE: PRI M ARY
I ndigenous Bilingual
Education: M ethodological
Str ategies
(San Antonio, San Mateo,
Akabchen)
(Yalcob, Kanxok, Xocen)
Didactic Suppor t for the
Students in the Classr oom
National textbooks and the
Mayan textbook Maaya
taan, every kind of
poster
11
in Maya and
Spanish, storybooks and
legends published by
CONAFE or created in
class.
Books published by
CONAFE and other
institutions that are
accessible by the entire
community.
National textbooks and the
Mayan textbook Maaya taan
for four grades, little use of other
didactic material, posters
published by CONAFE or created
in class.
Lack of books; sometimes books
are only found in the office of the
school principal.
Result Conscious bilingualism
through the community
activities
Hispanization through the use of
linguistic centricism
12
Effect on the M aintenance
of the use of M ayan
Maintenance of Mayan Language shift of Mayan
6. Conclusion
With respect to the linguistic policies of the Yucatan peninsula, various
strategies stand out at the institutional level and, in particular, the indige-
nous educational institution, which have given strong support to the main-
tenance of the Mayan language. From 1940 on, there have been various
efforts on behalf of the State government and from civil associations to
promote the use of the Mayan language. Institutions and organizations were
found that are dedicated to the study, teaching, and spreading of the lan-
guage.
At the state level we can mention the radio station XEPET Radio Peto,
The Voice of the Mayas that has existed since 1982 in Peto; the Munici-
pal Academy of the Mayan Language Itzamn founded in 1986, and the
Institute for the Development of the Mayan Culture of the state of Yucatan
(INDEMAYA), founded in 2001. In 1997, the Mayan language began to be
taught as the second language in 75 urban primary and 23 secondary
schools, Merida being the biggest municipality with its 26 centers (25 pri-
mary schools and one secondary school). (Information retrieved from the
DGEI Merida, J anuary 14, 2003). This program, developed by the SEP-
DGEI is denominated Kooneex kanik maaya (Were going to learn the
Mayan language) and is designed by anthropologists and Mayan teachers.
It is important to mention the work carried out by indigenous ethno-
linguists on didactic material, grammar books, dictionaries, and other mate-
rials in the Mayan language for the teaching of it in primary education.
Among the civil associations we include the Academy of the Mayan
Language, A.C., known as the State Academy of the Mayan Language
(created in 1937 by Alfredo Barrera Vsquez), and the civil association
Mayan, formed in 1990 by a group of teachers of Bilingual Bicultural
Education Program from the eastern region of the Yucatan. However, de-
spite the apparent significant presence of the Mayan language in both the
media and in those institutional previously mentioned, a growing aban-
donment of the intergenerational transmission of the Mayan language is
clearly documented.
Only from 1996 on, the learning of the language inside of the cultural
context language-in-culture apprenticeship (Fishman 2002: 147) has been
the focus of the programs; for this reason, we recognize the great impor-
tance of the maintenance of the Mayan language in the undertaking by the
community instructors of PEAIP and their acceptance by the population of
the communities. Through the teaching of a conscious bilingualism the
child is allowed to recognize the cultural, social and linguistic values while
at the same time he/she learns to share them with the population of the
community. Simultaneously, this teaching reinforces language loyalty, the
basic attitude in the process of language maintenance and shift; in turn this
supports the process of linguistic normalization (in the terms of Haugen,
1987: 59-64 which refers to the social extension of the language and the
planning of its status).
In the case of the Yucatan, it purports a complex socio-linguistic proc-
ess that has developed into a conflictive socio-linguistic reality. The issue
is about promoting a subordinate language, Maya, and linking the social
progress of the Mayan language to the development of the superimposed
language. With the normalization, it is desired that the use of the subordi-
nate language, that is to say the Mayan language, might return to its normal
state, in the sense of the non-extraordinary habitual, in all of the domains of
society.
To finalize this study we want to mention a political strategy that will
have an impact on the indigenous linguistic situation as much in Yucatan as
in all of Mexico: In March 2003 the first section of the Official Daily of the
Federation published the General Law on Linguistic Rights of Indigenous
Peoples whose goal is the recognition and the protection of the linguistic,
individual, and collective rights of indigenous peoples and communities,
and the promotion of the development of the indigenous languages. This
Law espouses certain perspectives for the future of indigenous languages,
even though, as the history of educational politics in Mexico has taught, the
existence of laws does not guarantee its fulfillment (see Pellicer et al. in
this volume; for the entire English version of the Law, see also Daniel Alt-
hoff in this volume).
Notes
1. The total number of the inhabitants 5 years and older for each state is: Yucatan
(1,188,433); Campeche (456,452); and Quintana Roo (412,868) (INEGI 2001).
2. In his study of the Spanish of Yucatan, J uan M. Lope Blanch (1984), estab-
lishes that the state of Yucatan is the most highly bilingual of all of Mexico and
defines the Mayan language as adstratum of its Spanish counterpart.
3. With respect to Nahuatl, denominated as legitimate Mexican, Hill and Hill
(1977: 60) observe a linguistic change similar to that of the Yucatan. They
[speakers of Nahuatl] say that now the language is no longer pure, but that it is
scrambled and mixed with too many words from Spanish. This feeling is
probably the most salient attitude about their language among speakers, and
comes up early in any conversation about language attitudes.
4. The CONAFE is a decentralized organism of the Federal Public Administra-
tion, with its own jurisdiction and patrimony. It was created by a presidential
decree on September 9, 1971, and modified through the amendment on Febru-
ary 11, 1982. Its objective is to gather complementing resources, economic and
technical, national and foreign in order to achieve the best educational devel-
opment in the country and to disseminate the diffusion of the Mexican culture
abroad.
5. Being immersed in a supposedly bilingual school environment, the children
findthemselves in a clearly interesting diglossic situation; the Mayan language
is used exclusively in its oral form and constitutes the base of school learning;
Spanish is associated with writing (Pellicer 1999: 74).
6. San Antonio is a small community, close to Valladolid (corn-producing zone),
made up of eleven families. The common language is Maya. The attitudes
about the teaching of the Mayan language among the familial patriarchs of the
community are very positive. They completely accept the bilingual-bicultural
education of the children.
7. The investigation of this topic was carried out during the period of 20022003
and is based upon the collection of census data, the application of surveys
about linguistic competence, use and attitudes to bilingual teachers (84 PEAIP
instructors from the regions of Valladolid, Tekax and Peto; and 48 teachers
from EIIB from the region of Valladolid) and participating observations during
the class in various PEAIP educational centers and DGEI primary schools from
the Valladolid region.
8. These are divided into 47 centers of PEAIP Community Courses, correspond-
ing to primary education, and 59 centers of PEAIP Shared Rooms which in-
clude the modalities of pre-school and primary education. The centers are di-
vided into six zones/regions, which do not coincide with the headquarters of
the DGEI; the main PEAIP regions of primary education are Valladolid, with
60 centers, Peto, with 20 centers, and Tekax, with 20 centers.
9. The primary schools of the intercultural-bilingual program are divided into six
regions: Maxcan (five centers), Ticul (23 centers), Sotuta (19 centers), Peto
(40 centers), Valladolid (56 centers) and Tizimn (30 centers).
10. With the goal of providing the teachers that are working in the indigenous
areas with a more elevated level of studies, the program of pre-school educa-
tion was established in the Pedagogic National University (UPN). Originally,
this program was the brainchild of an agreement between the DGEI and the
UPN.
11. The poster with the Mayan alphabet was published by CONAFE. Since 1984
there exists an official alphabet by the National Institute for Adult Education
(INEA) in accordance with various educational institutions that use the Mayan
language (SEP-INEA: 1984).
12. The method used is focused on the learning of the second language with little
or no association to the culture and life of the community.
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Chapter 10
I nter vention in indigenous education.
Cultur ally-sensitive mater ials for
bilingual Nahuatl speaker s
Jos Antonio Flores Farfn
Abstr act
The project known as Proyecto de Revitalizacin, Mantenimiento y Desar-
rollo Lingstico y Cultural (PRMDLC) is based on the recreation of sev-
eral Mexican indigenous oral and visual traditions in different media in a
number of languages and regions in Mexico (e.g., Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya).
The basic limitations orienting official language policies towards ethno-
linguistic minorities are highlighted in order to understand the goals of the
project. The proposal that guides the actions that sustain our research-
intervention approach is opposed to the State's practices, basically linked to
schools, whose profiles are still assimilationist. Based on a critical assess-
ment, different problematic aspects involved in the development of an al-
ternative from-the-bottom up methodology are discussed. This intends to
face the enormous challenges posed in alternative educational projects in
terms of vindicating an intercultural successful approach towards native
languages and cultures, not only in the specific cases discussed herein but
as general language planning issues in endangered communities. Three
visual genres of innovative educational materials which have the function
of empowering the speakers of Nahuatl are introduced: Amate illustrations;
riddles and tales showed in tri-dimensional videos. These materials trigger
oral production, thus recreating local cultural Mesoamerican forms of ex-
pression and fostering language re-acquisition.
1. I ntr oduction
It is a well-known fact that the worlds indigenous languages are endan-
gered to different degrees. Several languages of the United States and Mex-
ico (in California and Baja California) such as Kiliwa or Cucap are almost
extinct. In contrast, other languages are demographically stronger. The case
302 Jos Antonio Flores Farfn
of Nahuatl stands out as the largest Mexican indigenous language. The total
number of speakers of Nahuatl in Mexico reached 1,448, 936 in 2000; of
these 1,224,587 also speak Spanish whereas 195,934 are monolingual (In-
stituto Nacional de Estadstica, Geografa e Informtica (henceforth INEGI)
2001: 267). Of 97, 794,454 over 5 years old reported by the INEGI (2001),
the total 6,044,547 million speakers of indigenous languages make about
7% of the total population of the country. According to this source, the
total number of speakers of Nahuatl represents less than 10% of the total
indigenous population of the country; this in turn represents the highest
percentage within the universe of speakers of indigenous languages. Signi-
ficant differences arise depending on the source one relies on (cf., e.g.,
INEGI 2001 versus Instituto Nacional Indigenista [INI] 2002). From opti-
mistic viewpoints (e.g. Comisin Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes 1998
and INI 2002), the indigenous population make up less than 15% of an
almost 100 million Mexicans. Inasmuch as most speakers also speak Span-
ish, indigenous monolingualism is indeed low. Nonetheless, monolingual-
ism in indigenous languages is more a qualitative than a quantitative phe-
nomenon spread unevenly throughout the country.
In contrast to the national census, other sources state that Nahuatl speak-
ers amount to over 2,500,000 million people (CONACULTA 1998). This is
probably an overestimation even if common stereotypes prevent people
from reporting that they speak their mother tongue, a fact that probably,
among other things, makes the national census underreport the amount of
indigenous population in Mexico. Whatever the precise quantitative figure
may be, and even if Nahuatl and Yucatec Maya (YM) apparently could not
be considered small or minority languages (cf. Sherzer and Stolz 2003),
judging from their first and second rank in terms of total numbers of speak-
ers, they are indeed endangered. Consider, for instance, that central rem-
nants such as Morelos Nahuatl or the Milpa Alta dialect studied by Whorf
and others are moribund varieties (for references and discussion cf. Flores
Farfn 2003). However, Nahuatl includes regions with high vitality such as
the Balsas or the Huastec sub-regions in which Nahuatl has at least covert
prestige, functional viability, and other less studied attributes such as di-
glossic reversals and language encroachment.
To contribute to this less explored field of language resistance, survival,
maintenance and retention, I will herein introduce instances of language
retention in terms of language planning. Intervention efforts in the form of
status, corpus and acquisition planning are better developed in situations
that even when experiencing language shift, exhibit high ratios of retention
Culturally-sensitive materials for bilingual Nahuatl speakers 303
and loyalty (namely, Balsas Nahuatl and YM are excellent instances of still
fairly viable languages). This is true in the face of a number of factorssuch
as urbanization, geographical isolation, sub-regional categorizations, rates
of migration and lack of institutional support, language demographics, ide-
ologies, and local history, among others. All these and other types of possi-
ble complex power differentials and variable features configure the specific
political economies of languages. This is to say that in one single language
group or region we can find a diversity of often contradictory and complex
situations, ranging from language retention and maintenance to dynamic
forces that favor language shift (cf. Flores Farfn 2000). Contrary to some
claims suggesting stable YM bilingualism, YM also experiences shift, most
of all in the Maya Riviera, although it is a well-established case that illus-
trates language retention. More precisely, YM is vital in most of the fairly
preserved Central varieties in the Quintana Roo region, although not at all
in the Yucatan coasts, where it has practically disappeared. In this realm,
the language maintenance and language shift continua includes at least two
prototypes, ranging from indigenous monolingualism as an expression of
retention, on the one hand, and Spanish monolingualism, which epitomizes
the materialization of language shift, on the other. Nonetheless, the study of
language maintenance and language shift continua involves a series of
complex variables articulated at different junctures.
At the national level it is possible to oppose the relatively high uniform-
ity of YM against Nahuatl dialectalization and ultimate diversification,
leading to the perception that there are different languages. From a dialec-
tological perspective, YM can still be considered one and a single language
with minor phonological and lexical variations across the Mexican states of
Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, the conglomerate of states that
conforms the Yucatan Peninsula. In contrast, Nahuatl and several other
indigenous languages are undergoing extreme dialectal compartmentaliza-
tion and diversification, ultimately favoring language shift or at least the
split into separate languages. Despite well-documented facts such as the
pre-historic split of Nahuatl dialects into separate languages at least in 1000
AD, Aztec imperialists and colonial ideologies have considered Nahuatl a
single language. This is the most popular view, even among academics up
until today. However, nowadays Nahuatl includes an unspecified number
of separate languages, as in the case of Veracruz (e.g., Mecayapan) as op-
posed to many other dialectal varieties; for instance, Guerrero (e.g., Oapan)
or Tlaxcala (e.g., San Miguel Xaltipan) Nahuatl (see Flores Farfn et al.
2002). Nevertheless, scholars can find less clear examples of Nahuatl varie-
ties, which could be identified as either regional dialects or social dialects
of the same language; this is, of course, an extremely debatable issue, im-
plying different political and ideological positions, which in turn render the
development of precise and completely detached scientific criteria ex-
tremely difficult.
Let us consider, for instance, the problem of defining neutral criteria
to articulate concepts such as intelligibility with respect to the dialect / lan-
guage continuum. Many other related problems include aspects such as the
criteria that define a speaker of a language or the adequacy of the defini-
tions, as manifested in the confrontation of structural versus socio-
linguistic criteria. Questions related to specific parameters established with
the intention of understanding what counts or not as a separate language, or
as a speaker of a language are, in any case, strongly linked to the different
ideological positions and contexts from which they derive. As I will sug-
gest, this is especially true in language planning efforts, in which conceptu-
alizations of language are inevitably tainted with political and ideological
overtones regardless of how scientific the approach pretends to be. Let us
turn to consider some of these issues in more detail with special reference
to our case studies.
2. Gener al pr oblems of language planning in M exico: Nahua
illustr ations
In general, in the field of language planning there is a conflict between
documentation versus intervention efforts, an opposition herein considered
a false dilemma that we attempt to overcome in our project. The opposition
between basic and applied research oftentimes entails conflict of interests
and a series of contradictions, including different, dissonant perspectives on
specific languages. Let us compare, for example, the scientific status,
summarized by linguists in the interest attributed to an endangered lan-
guage with an activists urge to vindicate his or her own language. Let us
confront the positive view of a linguist on language in general against
common stereotypes of speakers of endangered languages, who oftentimes
view them as obstacles to economic well-being. Finally, let us consider the
everyday bilingual usage of contact varieties versus purist views on lan-
guage, characteristic of scientific approaches rendering biased linguistic
(purist) descriptions (cf. Flores Farfn 2003). Even if the enthusiasm of the
linguist over a specific language may be contagious for some speakers,
having a positive albeit indirect effect on the maintenance and re-evaluation
of language, the clash of speakers perspectives with different research
traditions is frequently also at stake. Again, let us recall for example the
urge of some (or most?) speakers of minority populations to give up their
languages as compared to the interest of a linguist to document them or the
interest of a language planner to salvage moribund languages.
My point of departure is the notion that, in one way or another, covertly
or overtly, indirectly (as with basic research) or directly intended (as with
language planning), all research traditions have an impact on the communi-
ties under scrutiny, illustrated by, for example, the impact of monolingual
research traditions on the on-going bilingual situation of Mexican endan-
gered languages. In addition, the effects of monolingual perspectives on
indigenous languages in terms of favoring language shift should be consid-
ered. This is the case of the socio-linguistics of conflict, a relatively recent
research tradition that can be traced to the 1980s. Both the micro-socio-
linguistic and macro-socio-linguistic approaches rely overwhelmingly on
Spanish-oriented scholars to carry out research on indigenous languages,
thus favoring Spanish penetration. The opposite and much older research
tradition that has historically dominated linguistic research in Mexico (cf.
Flores and Lpez 1989; Flores Farfn 1999), namely linguistic anthropol-
ogy, has focused almost exclusively on the indigenous tongue, discarding
all contact phenomena, and thus favoring the investigation of more conser-
vative varieties of the language. This approach has provoked a series of
purist reactions, induced by received research methods such as elicitation,
which minimizes the bilingual complexity of the communities and the dif-
ferential uses of the language; at times, this method paradoxically contrib-
utes to language shift. The superimposition of such monolingual perspec-
tives entails more dissonance than consonance and often antagonistic
perspectives between speakers and researchers conceptualizations of lan-
guage.
Another example is the Babel ideology characteristic of the Summer In-
stitute of Linguistics, representative of modern missionary linguistics, a
well-rooted doctrine that exacerbates differences between dialects and con-
ceives them as though they were distinct languages. Directly or indirectly,
the Summer Institute of Linguistics promotes an individualist ideology,
frequently confronted with the communal ways of socialization in indige-
nous culture, characteristic of Mesoamerican communities (e.g., the com-
munal institution known as tequio or communal work). The Summer Insti-
tute of Linguistics exacerbation of differences between languages is
clearly manifested in a number of instances; for example, Guarijio is
supposed to have a separate language, Maculai. In contrast, speakers of
Guarijio might conceive Maculai as a dialectal variety of a single tongue
(or vice versa?). According to the Summer Institute of Linguisticss
method of counting languages, Nahuatl has up to 25 different categoriza-
tions, implying the existence of almost an equal number of different lan-
guages, rather than, or instead of, the possible existence of various re-
gional or social dialects. This estimate stands out as an exaggeration if we
take into account the studies dealing with relative degree of intelligibility.
Moreover, according to the Summer Institute of Linguistics, Zapotec or
Mixtec, which belong to the highly diversified Otomanguean family, has
57 and 51 different languages, respectively (for several similar exam-
ples, consult www.ethnologue.com and www.ethnologue.com/show_coun-
try_ bibl.asp?name=Mexico). Contrary to these figures, when confronted
to speakers perspectives, a different perception emerges. The estimates on
indigenous people also comprise fairly different figures, depending on the
criterion or criteria the different agencies use to collect data. As suggested,
two major institutions in Mexico are in charge of data collection: the
INEGI and the INI. In passing, let us consider another example of the dif-
ferent ideological standpoints behind statistical figures: whereas the Mexi-
can State only recognized 62 languages in the past administration (today a
related source states there are up to 100 (CONACULTA 1998) while the
Summer Institute of Linguistics states there are up to 275. (Official figures
about the number of languages in the past three decades and the rate of
growth, bilingualism, use in the home domain and age groups are provided
in Cifuentes and Moctezuma, in this volume).
In turn, in the academic realm, we can compare the explicit detachment
of linguistics with regard to the linguistic community as postulated by
Ladefoged (1995) versus the explicit commitment to speakers themselves
of so-called responsible linguistics as suggested by Hale (1992). My own
position conceives long-term research as a prerequisite to language inter-
vention against exclusively political motivated initiatives, such as e.g. the
Mexican State improvised praxis, which rarely recovers any in-depth re-
search in the design or implementation of educational programs for indige-
nous populations. As suggested in this paper and elsewhere, research linked
to intervention allows the consistent recreation of the Mesoamerican legacy
against the ongoing history of assimilation of indigenous intercultural
curricula.
3. Audio-visual mater ials
Official schooling tends to deny the oral creative repertoire children bring
from their homes and communities; consequently, as soon as they enroll in
elementary school, they are presented with a superimposed written code. A
more constructive pedagogical model would require early socialization in
the mother tongue rather than a sudden confrontation with received written
models (for a critique cf. Flores Farfn in press a). Our target approach is
the recovery of local narratives in different mediathrough aseries of audio-
visual materials in the form of at least bilingual books illustrated in amate
painted bark-wood paper by native artists together with the implementa-
tion of workshops including video shows in Nahuatl. This opens up the
possibility for (re)appropriation and at least dissemination of culturally-
sensitive innovative materials. Corpus planning is based on revitalizing
collaborative local genres such as riddles, which can be recreated according
to the complementary abilities of the actors, rendering intercultural produc-
tion teams. This approach prevents the exclusion or segregation of indige-
nous participation, which is the common received official approach to
indigenous education. The integration of a multi-ethnic and multi-
disciplinary model contributes to the recreation of distinct artistic, techni-
cal, and cultural communicative competencies. I hereby introduce basic
categories and concepts that orient the Proyecto de Revitalizacin, Manten-
imiento y Desarrollo Lingstico y Cultural or PRMDLC [Project of Revi-
talization, Maintenance and Linguistic and cultural Development Devel-
opment Linguistic and Cultural Project]. I simultaneously introduce the
revitalizing multilingual interactive corpus aimed at effectively reversing
ongoing Nahuatl displacement (cf. Flores Farfn 2001).
Along these lines we should raise the following question: How do we
integrate research with intervention and intervention with research? Both
spheres should meet in a productive cross-fertilization of fields, an inter-
face we are looking into in the PRMDLC. The selection of terms already
suggests the identification of different possibilities of language viability,
which is actually the case in most of the communities under investigation;
this does not only imply methodological questions, but also bring to con-
sideration, first and foremost, specific economic, political, and ideological
problems. As an illustration, let us turn to one of the instances introduced at
the onset of this paper, namely, the case of Balsas Nahuas.
4. Pr ofile of Balsas Nahuas sociolinguistics
In the brief description of the Balsas Nahuas situation that follows, a rela-
tively favorable context for the development of a research-intervention
effort is one of its outstanding characteristics. At least two forces concur to
explain such positive context for language intervention. First, we can de-
scribe the Nahuas successful insertion of their own crafts in the tourist-
oriented market, based on the launching of amate along with other crafts
and art production (e.g., carved painted wood, masks, pottery, and other
merchandises in the late 1960s). The amate de historias is a pictographic
genre that tell stories in the local style of native representation of socio-
cultural life (cf. Amith 1995). An amate used in the intervention efforts
briefly depicted here can be seen in full color in my article that appears in
the Lingua Pax website (http://www.linguapax.org/) and which is recov-
ered to illustrate native stories in the form of audio-books and other audio-
visual materials (cf. Ramrez Celestino and Flores Farfn 1995a) in turn
utilized in the PRDMLC workshops. The amate is an interesting case of
what can be called applied ethno-methodology, meaning that Nahua people
have studied the tourists taste in order to transfer, adapt, and re-create their
own cultural and pictographic legacy to the conditions of trade and com-
merce. In short, Balsas Nahuas have developed a culture of innovation and
recreation of Nahuas ancestral legacy that has been swiftly integrated into
the tourist-oriented market.
The basic consequences of this state of affairs is that the production of
crafts for the tourist-oriented market, instead of destroying Nahuas cultural
and linguistic integrity, has tended to reinforce it. Due to the intense itiner-
ant commerce found in most tourist resorts of the country, Balsas Nahuas
have to develop functional competencies in Spanish and also in English; in
this setting, Nahuatl also fulfills an important instrumental function, given
that it is the language of commerce among the Balsas communities special-
ized in the production of some of the above-mentioned crafts (cf. Flores
Farfn 1992, 1999). Indeed, Balsas Nahuas not only produce but also buy
other crafts in communities with different although intelligible dialectal
modalities with the purpose of painting and re-selling them in the tourist-
oriented market. Such a context enhances a certain Nahuatl unity at least at
the local level, preventing dialectal fragmentation and linguistic diversifica-
tion. This entails at least a partial diglossic reversal, in which Balsas Na-
huas communities require Nahuatl as a language of commerce, when they
use it along with Spanish or English. In turn this suggests that the factors
that enhance language vitality are also jeopardized by strong external pres-
sures, such as the rapid processes of urbanization and migration to English
or Spanish monolingual settings. In this respect, as in many other indige-
nous communities, Nahuas also display high rates of migration associated
with their linguistic status as reflected in specific expressions such as the
expansion and degree of bilingualism, a phenomenon basically linked to
the advance of Spanish. This is manifested in a wide variety of different
types of speakers.
Map 1. Balsas Nahuas communities
Apart from diverse monolingual Spanish or Nahuatl speakers, different
forms of bilingualism appear, including pseudo- and quasi-Nahuatl and
Spanish speakers (cf. Flores Farfn 1998, 1999). Along with trading net-
works, such variety of situations and speakers manifests itself in different
contexts. Ritual ties and religious devotion also require Nahuatl to fulfill a
series of community functions. Balsas Nahuatl thus becomes an example of
a language that presents all types of situations, including Nahuatl monolin-
gualism and retention. Similar diglossic reversals such as the use of Na-
huatl for political struggle have made it a shibboleth in recent history,
contributing to strengthen solidarity ties between the communities, at least
in the beginning of a grassroots movement that emerged about a decade
ago. Although today the conditions in which such Nahuas grassroots
movement emerged require reconsideration, the successful opposition to a
long planned dam in the Nahuas territory has also contributed to conceive
Nahuatl and the amate as tools for political dissent and struggle (cf. Amith
1995, Flores Farfn 1999). In this context, a pilot intervention is carried out
with the Balsas Nahuas communities in Guerrero, Mexico (See Map 1). A
brief explanation of pilot intervention dynamics and first results follows.
5. Pilot inter vention: mater ials, actions, and r eflections
Intercultural education is an emergent concept in Mexico. In our case it is
conceived as a strategy to bridge the gap between basic and applied re-
search issues; it is also conceived as a way of consolidating teams of local
language and culture activists who work closely with experienced research-
ers in the production and dissemination of different types of audio-visual
materials. With this purpose in mind, together with local actors, we have
developed an alternative educational model based on the notion of co-
participatory methodology or co-authorships, on a horizontal rather than
vertical approach to language planning, or what has been called a from-the-
bottom-up language planning approach (Hornberger 1997). Confronted
with the States model, this approach includes recasting and recreating the
local language as local culture without necessarily associating intervention
with schools, formal education, or reading and writing as an exclusive task
of the educational process (cf. McCarty 1998). This means that writing the
language is not conceived as the one and only means to vindicate the
mother tongue, a common external bias prevalent in the official approach to
language planning. Because this approach is tainted with ethnocentrism, it
reduces language planning to the production of an alphabet that even in and
by itself is not accurately sustained (cf. Flores Farfn in press b).
Needless to say, developing a grassroots ethno-methodological
approach to language planning requires as a sine qua non condition the
active participation and corpus appropriation of community members. Fa-
voring elder children intergenerational transmission and reinsertion of
young speakers in the Nahuatl networks are indispensable practices that
guarantee the possibility of linguistic continuity. In a first launching stage,
motivating participation has included granting the economic and technical
means to develop a high-quality multimedia corpus. Combining different
abilities as represented by local speakers, the teams include an amate artist,
Cleofas Ramrez Celestino, also a researcher of the Centro de Investiga-
ciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologa Social or CIESAS [Center for
Research and Higher Education in Social Anthropology] and this
author. Together we have produced a series of books and other materials as
tri-dimensional (3D) animation videos in the case of the Nahuatl (and also
the YM) corpus (cf. Briceo Chel et al. 2003; Ramrez Celestino and Flores
Farfn 1995a, 1995b, 1996, 1997, 2003).
5.1. Videos
The series of videos started with Tlakwatsin. El tlacuache (The Opos-
sum), which narrates the legend of the indigenous opossum, the first mar-
supial from the New World known to Europeans, just as it is told today by
Balsas Nahuas. The tlacuache is a famous and funny character present in
several native Mexican cultures. A favorite trickster of Mesoamerican tra-
dition, the name means greedy guts, trickster with a sweet tooth, where
the Mexican Spanish word tlacuache comes from. As with other videos (for
example, riddles, the story of the mermaid, in Ramrez Celestino and Flores
Farfn 1995a, 1995b, 1996, 1997, 2003), the tlakwatsin video-film recovers
the amate pictographic tradition in computer animation giving birth to its
characters. Presented in trilingual Nahuatl-Spanish-English versions, it tells
howtlakwatsin helps the sun and the moon two children in search of their
father to get the fire they so much desired. Such a fantastic legend ex-
plains why tlakwatsin does not have hair on the tip of its tail. The tlakwat-
sin is the host of all the videos and other spaces for language and cultural
revaluation (cf. http://www.kokone.com.mx). During the production of
these materials, the task of turning passive speakers into active ones be-
came an important goal partially accomplished by two young female
speakers. The daughters of Ramrez Celestino participated in the audio
production of the stories about the opossum, the mermaid, and the videos
and tapes presenting the riddles. The process of re-acquiring Nahuatl
actively for the production of the audio of these videos demonstrated that
reversing language shift is feasible.
Integrating intercultural teams to produce a multimedia corpus also en-
tails developing strategies for corpus acquisition. The dissemination of
these materials for local consumption is carried out through the develop-
ment of basically two types of workshops. In one instance we invite the
community members to participate in a show of the videos for children on
occasions such as the Patron Saints festivity, although this is not a condi-
tion of the intervention effort. In these rapid intervention workshops we
motivate the use of the indigenous language in prestigious everyday media
such as television and computers, elevating the status of Nahuatl directly
and spontaneously. Based on an inverse monolingualism strategy when-
ever possible the workshops are conducted exclusively in Nahuatl with
the prompt intervention of the ever present trickster of all these stories, the
opossum, introducing the above mentioned tri-dimensional videos on, for
example, Nahuatl riddles.
The dynamics of the workshops includes showing one or more of these
videos to promote the language use in informal settings. The videos have
functioned both as warm-up drills and as linguistic instruments to trigger
interaction, proving to motivate more spontaneous participation. In turn,
awarding presents in the form of audio-books to those children who para-
phrase the stories or guess the riddles reinforces participation and favors
corpus acquisition. At the end of this intervention that can last a few hours,
every one wants to participate, and the materials are disseminated. About
5,000 tapes and 2,000 books have been distributed in communities whose
mother tongue retention ranges from very high as in San Agustn Oapan to
very low as in Xalitla, where Nahuatl is almost extinct. Even when books
are not read (as it is often the case), they at least provide status to the lan-
guage and contribute to destroy common biases reading that indigenous
languages have no grammar, cannot be written, are dialects, etc. The mere
presence of the tape serves to mitigate negative attitudes, inasmuch as it is
common to find audio sets in most households.
The other type of workshop is a more extended effort in progress, span-
ning longer periods of intensive one-to-two months of five-to-eight hours
daily workshops. In this space a team of native speakers, together with two
researchers, collect life histories related to migration; these are in turn tran-
scribed and analyzed in Nahuatl. This strategy opens the possibility for
appropriation of the writing tool and reflection on the native structure by
native speakers. It also enhances the possibility of discussing specific
orthographic decisions at a community level. One of the greatest challenges
of this workshop is the dissemination and use of all these materials at the
societal level, including the establishment of a social function for written
Nahuatl, a goal we pursue at a more advanced stage.
5.2. Amates
It should be emphasized that even when the primary intended audience of
most materials is the indigenous group, this does not exclude a general
audience. On the contrary, books and videos alike include at least a transla-
tion to Spanish and other languages (Ramrez Celestino and Flores Farfn
1995a, 1997), and also other indigenous tongues (cf. Briceo Chel et al.
2003). Moreover, for the first time, the present phase has also included the
production of materials primarily aimed at urban Spanish-speaking children
and young readers in the form of books on Nahua animals such as The Axo-
lotl and a DVD on the The Opossums Somersaults. To give a more precise
idea of this type of materials, a description of The Axolotl follows.
In Mexican Spanish ajolote (<Nahuatl axolotl) literally means water
monster. The axolotl (ambystoma mexicanum) is an amphibian of the
urodela order that dwells in North America (from Canada to Mexico); it is
well-known for its extraordinary condition of reproducing as a larva, a
phenomenon known as neoteny. Like Nahuatl, the axolotl is an endangered
species. It describes an animal said to have been born when the Aztec god,
Xolotl, fearing his imminent sacrifice, threw himself into the water and was
transformed into the amphibious creature we see today (See Amate 1).
This sacred history, collected by the Franciscan Friar Bernardino de Sa-
hagn (14991589), the first and foremost Nahua scholar who emigrated to
Mexico in the early sixteen century, tells that by way of immolation, two
gods ventured to become the sun and the moon: Tecuciztecatl, a very pre-
tentious and arrogant god, and Nanahuatzin, a very shy, ugly, leprous god.
Tecuciztecatl was too fearful to initiate transformation and changed his
mind, while Nanahuatzin sacrificed himself, becoming the sun. When
Nanahuatzin arose as the sun and Tecuciztecatl as the moon, Tecuciztecatl
shone as strong as Nanahuatzin. In this way there were two suns shining at
the same time and with so much light that everyone was blinded. Another
god hit Tecuciztecatl with a rabbit, leaving the moon as it is today (See
Amate 2). And because both the sun and the moon stood still, the gods
decided that their divine dead would create eternal movement, asking Ehe-
catl, the god of the wind, to sacrifice them. But there was another god, Xo-
lotl, who attempted to escape from perishing, against the divine sacrifice
Amate No. 1
Amate No. 2
aimed at creating light and darkness, day and night, the eternal battle
among the opposites. Xolotl was finally captured by Ehecatl in the atl wa-
ter, becoming the famous axolotl, a pre-Hispanic delicacy considered the
flesh of Xolotl himself (See Amate 3).
Amate No. 3
6. Distr ibution of mater ials
The materials produced so far have had a very good acceptance among a
wider audience and have even been in the list of a very few basic works
dealing with indigenous languages and cultures of national significance
placed in the new system of community libraries by President Fox. The
runs altogether amount up to a total of almost half a million copies, avail-
able nationwide in public schools (cf. e.g. Briceo Chel et al. 2003). The
books that have been disseminated in the Balsas Nahuas communities and
beyond also include Ramrez Celestino and Flores Farfn (1995a, 1995b,
1996, 1997, 2002, 2003).
This is to say that even when it has turned out to be useful to distinguish
different targets in terms of different audiences including Nahuatl and
Spanish-speaking populations, this does not mean that the materials are
thought of as being targeted exclusively for a single sector of the popula-
tion, but rather intend to reach a general public. Multilingual versions can
be conceived as the possibility of developing a richer resource rather than
confronting a problem to status language planning (cf. Ruiz 1984). In prac-
tice, this opposes a perspective that has tended to segregate or even ghetto-
ize indigenous people by producing aberrant official texts exclusive for
indigenous children. Ironically, these educational materials are calques of
the mandatory textbooks books utilized at the non-indigenous elementary
schools throughout the country and subordinate them to the Spanish struc-
tures in terms of the national curriculum, not to speak of the quality of the
books utilized in indigenous schools. Subordination starts with the very
fact that an oral language is written down, based on the Spanish alphabet;
also with the calque of the morphological Spanish structure to present the
division of words (e.g. writing down no amoch my book as two words, as
in Spanish mi libro, against Nahuatl structure, in which it constitutes a sin-
gle word), etc. (for details cf. Flores Farfn in press b).
6.1. Saasaanilli (Adivinanzas or Riddles)
The materials produced by the collaborators of our project are based on the
concept of horizontal research-intervention, which aims at bridging the gap
between basic and applied research in conjunction with local actors. The
implementation of such proposals attempts to recreate the immense linguis-
tic and cultural Mesoamerican legacy specifically in the form of riddles and
local tales. These ancestral genres help in the recovery of local models,
which promote entertainment, joy, and (re)acquisition. Let us consider, for
example, the riddles presented in some of our textbooks (cf. Flores Farfn
1996), a lively and productive genre whose use actually becomes an index
of linguistic vitality in Balsas Nahuas communities and beyond. This is
manifested in, for instance, the obsolescent status of riddles in communities
such as Xalitla, where Nahuatl is at the brink of extinction. Spanish has
become or is becoming the primary tongue in a number of similar commu-
nities, including Maxela, Tuliman, Chilacachapa and many others (see Map
1). For this reason, the cases of extremely advanced stages of language shift
require the corresponding revitalizing-oriented intervention strategy, which
recover the use of bilingualism; in turn, bilingualism serves as a vehicle to
reintroduce, recover, and reactivate the use of the mother tongue. In such
cases, riddles and other short oral texts prove to be extremely useful due to
their concise, linguistically and culturally rich nature. My translations are
not absolutely literary, but they take into account Nahual morpho-
semantics. Consider the following riddle:
This riddle is in Classical Nahuatl (CN), an extinct social, written, High
literary variety of the sixteenth century, representing the speech of the elite
that the Spanish invaders worked with in order to collect an extensive cor-
pus of Nahuatl language and Nahua culture for their purposes of evangeli-
zation (for a discussion of the notion CN from a sociolinguistic point of
view cf. Flores Farfn in press b), as part of the extensive materials that
Fray Bernardino de Sahagn (19501982) collected in Book VI of the
Florentine Codex. Such extraordinary wealth of material available in CN
still constitutes an under-recovered resource for language revitalization and
development. One of our goals is to reintroduce CN riddles (cf. Flores Far-
fn 2002) in the form of coloring books and in the audio-books of modern
(Balsas) Nahuatl videos (see Ramrez Celestino and Flores Farfn 1995a,
1995b, 1996, 1997, 2003). Even when CN is no longer spoken, the value of
CN riddles and tongue twisters is considerable due to their joyful, concise
and vital nature; upon careful attention, CN riddles are fully intelligible to
speakers themselves, as witnessed by the author in a number of interven-
tions with both Nahuatl speaking adults and children in the Balsas region.
At the same time, CN riddles constitute a powerful symbolic resource as
they are identified with the mythical Nahuatl de iksan, the Nahuatl of the
past, enhancing the Nahuatl repertoire in a prestigious medium, the written
form, which contributes to destroy often well rooted ideologies stating that
Nahuatl has no grammar, cannot be written, is a dialect, etc.
The pedagogical value of riddles as verbal art conveying a model with
high educational potential to empower Nahuatl language use opposes an
ethnocentric viewpoint that considers riddles a minor genre. These lan-
guage games concisely capture and trigger cultural and linguistic reflexiv-
ity in a creative and stimulating manner, reasserting their continuity, not as
folkloric or museum objects, but rather as retention nests which recreate the
ethno-cultural and linguistic diversity, celebrating it on an everyday con-
versational basis. Simply stated, riddles constitute a local genre that is actu-
ally a favorite way of socializing children and reproducing everyday cul-
Zazan tleino. Xoxouhqui xicaltzintli. Mumuchitl ontemi. Ilhuicatl.
Sacred bowl Filled with popcorn, the stars are watching while were born.
What is it? T he sky.
tural constructions in more linguistically vital communities as San Agustn
Oapan, in which we encounter Nahuatl monolingualism, one of the Nahuatl
language and Nahuas' cultural bastions. Thus, the revitalization of riddles
as tools of cultural and linguistic recreation fosters the process of socializa-
tion in the mother tongue. They introduce children to e.g. the local flora
and fauna, allowing them to understand local ways of speaking, in which
they play no minor role, as is conceived from a Western ethnocentric per-
spective. Riddles also convey a dynamic dyadic model that can overlap
with other language games, which are used in the local flow of everyday
conversations. From the perspective of speakers, riddles basically imply
having a speech contest in which while playing a game individuals are
identified as being skillful speakers of the language. In these and similar
communities, riddles are not conceived exclusively as being a children's
game, and for this reason, they cannot be completely separated from every-
day conversations or other conversational genres, which form part of their
cultural and linguistic repertoires. Finally, the inclusion of riddles repre-
sents an important intergenerational way of transmission of local language
and culture and their potential for the PRMDLC, thus becomes obvious.
Recreating riddles and other genre as tales in different media, including
audio and high technology formats such as the tri-dimensional animation
videos, have produced stimulating results in terms of corpus demand,
which at the same time reinforces Nahuatl local use, simultaneously pro-
viding status and favoring corpus acquisition (see Ramrez Celestino and
Flores Farfn 1995a, 1995b, 1996, 1997, 2003).
This strategy is in consonance with the ethno-methodological local way
of recreating old and new material culture, as it appears in riddles re-
ferring to contemporary objects, inexistent in pre-Hispanic times (see Adi-
vinanza No. 1).
This contemporary riddle, which is at the same time a tongue twister,
plays with the coinage capability of Nahuatl, one of the first resources to
vanish due to the pressure of Spanish; this resource incorporates compo-
nents of the morphology and the lexicon, and ultimately creates a neolo-
gism. It is worth noting that this is a bilingual riddle, which puts together
the Nahuatl recreation of the Spanish word as question and answer of the
riddle sequence. As evidence of the continuity of these language games
recreated in CN, consider, for instance, the riddle entitled Nails (See
Adivnanza No. 2), which also plays with the phonetic quality of a tongue
twister. (Even when my translations are absolutely literary, they take into
account Nahuatl morpho-semantics).
Adivinanza No. 1
Tsiintsiinkiriantsiintsoonkwaakwaa.
I have big eyes and long legs too. To bite the hair right off of you
What is it? Scissor s
Adivinanza No. 2
Zazan tleino. Matlactin tepatlactli, quimomamatimani. Tozti.
All the men. Carry them. Ten by ten. What is it? Nails.
Both CN and contemporary riddles are written in different orthographies.
Needless to say, this alludes to the problem of devising written norms for
the language that depart (or not) from Spanish, as suggested in the modern
proposal that we utilize. Yet, a thorough discussion leading to community
consensus on Nahuatl written form is an open chapter awaiting to be collec-
tively written, a task that I can only suggest here.
7. Conclusion
The PRMDLC opposes a colonial and national history of schooling as a
bastion of Castilianization. Its proposal pursues to articulate basic and
applied research in different types of workshops, including those in which
both children and adults participate. To develop an intercultural curricula in
schools should not deny the importance of specific local oral and visual
cultural imagination, superimposing the Roman alphabet, which after all is
still a relative foreign code in indigenous communities. In this respect, our
model is based on local oral narratives in the mother tongue and native art
as the basic local means to reinforce the status and use of indigenous lan-
guages in high technology formats, detaching it from the school per se.
This is not to say that reading and writing in indigenous languages is not
important in the many tasks involved in reversing language shift, especially
given the status attributed to a written language, a factor that exacerbates
well-known stereotypes (e.g., indigenous languages are broken, corrupted
dialects). To the contrary, our efforts are oriented to introducing it via
most familiar community genres. Enabling the production of a series of
both audio-visual and written materials in the form of, for example, audio-
books illustrated in native ways by native people, facilitates the acquisition
and appropriation of the materials collectively produced. The future per-
spectives of the project in terms of its results include the challenge of
socializing and creating contexts of use for the written form of the lan-
guage, a goal that will certainly bring new problems, such as dealing with a
standard Nahuatl orthography. I hope the future will prove that developing
a from-the-bottom-up approach will become an asset rather than an aca-
demic fashion.
Acknowledgement
I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Margarita Hidalgo for her stimu-
lating comments on the various drafts of this paper, as well as the most
valuable suggestions of anonymous readers. As the old litany goes, any
shortcoming or error is of course of my own responsibility. Support from
the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologa grant #33676-H is also
gratefully acknowledged.
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guistics 18: 3340.
Hale, Kenneth
1992 Endangered language. Language 68(1):13.
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2002 Indicadores socioeconmicos de los pueblos indgenas de Mxico.
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Ladefoged, Peter
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McCarty, Teresa
1998 Schooling, resistance, and American Indian languages. International
Journal of the Sociology of Language 132: 2741.
Ruiz, Richard
1984 Orientations in language planning. NABE Journal 8: 1534.
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1995a Tlakwatsin. El tlacuache. Mexico: Centro de Investigaciones y Estu-
dios Superiores en Antropologa Social and Ediciones Corunda (also
in tape and video).
1995b See Tosaasaanil, See Tosaasaanil. Adivinanzas nahuas de hoy y
siempre. Mexico: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores
en Antropologa Social. (also in tape and video).
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verlag Dr. N. Brockmeyer.
Chapter 11
Stages of bilingualism. Local conver sational
pr actices among M azahuas
Dora Pellicer
Abstr act
In Mexico Spanish co-exists with more than sixty living indigenous lan-
guages, although the estimates vary, depending on the linguistic or demo-
graphic criteria of the sources (see Cifuentes and Moctezuma and Pellicer,
et al. in this collection). Their speakers and their traditions survive a con-
stant daily interaction with modernity, distributing their linguistic reper-
toires according to the range of alternative forms of labor and subsistence
provided by the latter. Indigenous linguistic horizons are continually broad-
ened into scenarios that overlap with a variety of cultural and social fron-
tiers, interacting with multiple identities. This plural context is marked by
socio-economic inequality in which bilingualism becomes an unavoidable
necessity for the Amerindian population, while acting as a threat to the
survival of their native languages. However, the weave of their communal
and social networks is interspersed with niches of vitality in which the in-
digenous languages are able to thrive, surviving the cultural and linguistic
plurality imposed by their speakers amplified horizons of social interac-
tion. The aforementioned factors are considered in order to propose an eth-
nographic and sociolinguistic approach to the use of bilingual repertoire in
two Mazahua-speaking peasant communities. Those communities are lo-
cated a short distance from industrial zones where alternative forms of
work are available, and they show a high index of rural-urban migration.
By applying the Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (Fishman
1991), we are warned as to the gradual process of shift with respect to the
Mazahua language and its contact with Spanish. However, the presence of
other communitarian and generational variables, such as the interviews and
commentaries about the metalinguistic awareness of bilingual speakers
(Hymes 1974), allows us to confirm the persistence of numerous scenarios
of use of the indigenous language, which maintains its vitality alongside
the immersion of the Mazahua people in a cultural and linguistic plurality.
326 Dora Pellicer
1. I ntr oduction
The purpose of this article is to examine the threatened vitality of Mazahua
within the context of a day-to-day interaction with Spanish. Located in the
Mesoamerican culture area, this language belongs to the Otomi-Mazahua
branch of the Otopamean family, whose two other branches are the Mat-
latzinca-Ocuiltec and the Pame-Chichimec. In actuality, the total number of
Mazahuas above the age of five is 133,413.
1
Most of them (85%) are dis-
tributed throughout ten counties in the Northwestern region of the state of
Mexico. A small percentage (3.2%) live on the border between the state of
Mexico and Michoacn, while many have moved away from the area en-
tirely, drawn by the potential employment opportunities of the countrys
urban areas, Mexico City being one of the principal magnets of migratory
attraction for the Mazahuas (7.5%).
2
In the first section I set forth tenets that justify both an ethnographic and
socio-linguistic approach to linguistic minorities living within national
states. The second section offers a survey of the historical background of
the Mazahua language; in the third section, I use the parameters derived
from the Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS) proposed by
Fishman (1991) in order to assess the Mazahua bilingual situation. The
final section captures the arguments of the Mazahua speakers themselves
regarding linguistic contact. The purpose here is to account for their aware-
ness of the different stages proposed in Fishmans scale, through the source
of reflection that Hymes (1974: 2) defined in folk linguistics as the inquiry
into the conception of language held by societies without institutional lin-
guistics. Due to the fact that I shall be dealing with bilingual speakers,
whose mother tongue has been minorized for centuries in its social func-
tions (see Pellicer et al. in this collection), while their second language
reaches all formal and informal domains, two specific concepts need to be
clarified here. To begin with, bilingualism is not limited to two differing
linguistic codes, but to an entire set of social constructs which include an
expanding labor market, the extension of social networks, and interaction
with other cultures. The concept of minority as applied to the Mazahua
people, although it is not defined in quantitative terms; instead, it reflects a
social and historical process that is guided by the nature of political power.
2. M inorized languages and bilingualism
There is a growing body of awareness regarding the fact that, for a wide
variety of reasons (demographic, cultural, political, economic or other-
Stages of bilingualism. Local conversational practices among Mazahuas 327
wise), millions of tongues now lack a voice upon the globes linguistic
scenario, reflecting a growing deterioration of linguistic diversity. From a
range of particular perspectives and using various denominations, such as
minority languages, endangered languages, or threatened languages, ex-
perts in the linguistic sciences have pointed out the fatal consequences of
imbalances in the ecologies of languages (Mackey 1994; Bastardas 1996).
Their historical and political roots have been traced to the nineteenth cen-
tury nationalist trends which sought to consolidate the unity of states
through the imposition of single, official languages (Heller 1999). Coloniz-
ing influences, which lead to the weakening of traditional languages, have
also been noted (Wurm 1991). In like manner, urban expansions, which
ostensibly reduce survival options for languages that are quantitatively a
minority should be considered (Crystal 2002). Furthermore, the process of
language shift caused by the socio-linguistic hegemony of a Big Brother,
where languages submitted to his contact are unable to adequately protect
the social space of its functions is, too, a major factor (Fishman 2001). I
should add that none of the preceding interpretations regards bilingualism
as a burden for linguistic minorities, simply due to the fact that a monolin-
gual community that is entirely independent of the tongues that surround it
is no longer a viable social option in our modern world. It is not bilingual-
ism per se which threatens language, but the lack of equilibrium among
languages, cultures, and societies.
3. M exican indigenous languages (M I L )
It is a well-known fact that Mexican indigenous languages (henceforth
MIL) have confronted any or all of the situations described above. They
have been threatened by disruption and changes in terms of socio-cultural
surroundings throughout a prolonged period of Spanish colonial domina-
tion, followed by a criollo independence
3
in which linguistic uniformity
entailing the Hispanization of the Amerindian population would be con-
ceived as an essential foundation for national unity in the nineteenth cen-
tury. This chimera contributed to the eradication of at least a dozen lan-
guages of pre-Hispanic origin and a 49% decline in indigenous language
speaking population, while the status of Spanish as a national language was
firmly consolidated (Cifuentes and Pellicer 1989).
A twentieth-century acknowledgment and integration of Mexicos mes-
tizo (mixed-blood) society, which marked a rupture from the previous old
world Hispanic ideals, retained however linguistic policies designed to
328 Dora Pellicer
maintain the use of Spanish as a requisite for the national participation of
Amerindian peoples. Under such circumstances, the persistence of dozens
of these languages on Mexican soil, as well as the expansion of bilingual-
ism Indian language / Spanish cannot be explained as a result of official
language policies, but along the socio-linguistic dynamics of communities
of speakers. Their contact with scenarios of urban employment, with forms
of industrialized production or the mass media, have given rise to the de-
velopment of plural identities whose scope extends from the requirements
of traditional rural existence to the demands of participation in a twenty-
first century industrialized milieu.
It is here where bilingualism becomes the bridge that links the intimate
community (family, neighborhood, village) with the impersonal society,
that is, urban concentrations and industrialized cities (Fishman 1991: 6).
When each language regularly fulfills cognitive, identity-related, commu-
nicative and ritual functions in clearly pre-determined social and political
contexts, contact fosters a socio-linguistic situation known as diglossia
(Fishman 1991: 85). However, diglossic functions are not easily material-
ized in situations where profound socio-cultural and socio-economic gaps
exist between the participating languages, giving rise to very diverse lin-
guistic profiles, as is the case between Spanish and the MIL. Spanish is the
Big Brother here, an empowered language providing opportunities for em-
ployment and survival in Mexicos congested urban labor markets, a stark
contrast to the impoverished regions that sustain the indigenous intimate
communities, which remain, nevertheless, the MILs locus of support.
4. T he M azahuas and their ancestr al mother tongue
The social history of the Mazahua people and their language is rather la-
conic. Orozco y Berra (1864) and Clavijero (1883), basing their research on
the cdices and colonial documents, described them as Otomi-speaking
hunters, living under Aztec domination in the province of Mazahuacan.
TheSumma de visitas (Oliver Vega 1991: 128) indicates that this province,
distributed between the Northeast of the State of Mexico and Michoacan,
was divided into 13 municipalities with a total of 6,071 homes, inhabited
by 29,502 people. A single printed colonial volume, the Doctrina y en-
seanza de la lengua mazahua (Ngera Yanguas 1637), described briefly
some linguistic traits of this indigenous language. This is particularly re-
markable in view of the fact that during the first two centuries of the colo-
nial period several grammatical and religious texts Artes, vocabularies,
catechisms, confessionals and sermons were written in Otomi, its sister
language, and those written in Nahuatl amount to more than one hundred
(Contreras Garca 1986). This discretional attitude towards Mexicos in-
digenous languages was linked to the status of its speakers at the time of
the Conquest, a status measured in terms of territorial and demographic
expansion, as well as urban developments and political power. At the time
of the independence from Spain, nineteenth-century scholars counted with
this colonial heritage. The scant attention paid by historians and philolo-
gists to the Mazahua language, which some of them viewed as a dialect of
Otomi, reflects the Mazahuas modest role amongst the many Meso-
american peoples.
4
A linguistic interest in Mazahua did not properly arise until the appear-
ance of studies in the field of Otopamean languages during the twentieth
century. Although such studies continued to rely on the notion of a primary
Otomi-Mazahua source, the differences between the two were also gradu-
ally acknowledged. At the same time, fundamental references for the re-
construction of Mazahua on the phonetic, phonological and morphological
level were gradually established.
5
Today, a reduced number of Mazahua
speakers with access to higher education have produced a number of dic-
tionaries and grammatical studies (Bentez Reyna, 2002); however, these
do not as yet constitute a substantive contribution towards linguistic stan-
dardization. Apart from certain specialized works, their dissemination has
been limited largely to the purposes of evangelization, through prayers and
bibles, or with expectations of alphabetization, which have yet to find a
niche within the Mazahuas day-to-day existence (Garca Garca 1997).
Despite the Mazahuas marginalized historical role, in both absolute and
relative numbers, this language occupies the 12th place among the 16 so-
called major indigenous tongues. (See Cifuentes and Moctezuma, Table
4 in this collection). However, different data offered by the same source do
not contribute to report an optimistic vision about its future. Mazahua also
exhibits the second lowest growth rate and the second use in the home do-
main, while bilingualism at 94.5% occupies the second highest end of the
scale (Cifuentes and Moctezuma Graph 7 in this collection). Nevertheless,
as Crystal (2000) has pointed out, we must bear in mind that the population
figures are generally quoted out of context. Given that quantitative data
alone do not account for the micro-universe of languages, they do not nec-
essarily depict the particular scenarios where people speak Mazahua. The
enclaves of vitality of a language can only be acknowledged in light of the
330 Dora Pellicer
less measurable facts resulting from case studies (Romaine 1995). This is
why we will focus on an ethnographic account of the bilingual situation
within two small Mazahua villages San Ildefonso and San J uan de las
Manzanas belonging to the county of Ixtlahuaca, located in the state of
Mexico (See Map 1). These are twin villages not only in geographic terms,
but also in terms of the family relationships that connect their inhabitants
with the production and community work carried out collectively. The data
collected for the third section of this paper is the result of two years of
fieldwork (2000-2001) in these two villages.
Map 1. The location of Mazahua counties
4.1. The vitality of Mazahua in contact with Spanish
The stages proposed along the GIDS scale (Fishman 1991) have been a
useful guide to explain the situation of bilingualism that was observed dur-
ing fieldwork. Numbers in the upper range of the GIDS scale imply a situa-
tion of extreme social weakness for a language, whereas lower numbers
indicate a growing linguistic strength. Consequently, Stage 8 describes a
stage in which nothing but the linguistic vestiges of a language remain,
while Stage 1 indicates the existence of full social functionseducational,
occupational, governmental, health care, and others, in the corresponding
national context.
In an attempt to outline the complex socio-linguistic weave in the vil-
lages under study, Chart 1 integrates different variables. Firstly, the scale
was distributed horizontally into two scenarios, corresponding to Fishmans
(1991) distinction between the intimate community (henceforth IC) and the
impersonal society (henceforth IS). The former corresponds to the villages
of San Ildefonso and San J uan de las Manzanas. The latter corresponds to
Mexico City, where most Mazahua migrants are employed. Along the same
horizontal axis, a generational scale distinguishes four age groups based on
social relations, productive activity, and education. Within the intimate
community of these two villages, the increase in life expectancy places the
old folks (Fishman 1991: 91) into the group of over-60. This is a group
without any formal education, whose members continue to labor within
reduced plots of land, at least as allowed by their aging physical conditions.
Adults between 50 and 60 are also peasants with no formal schooling
whose work and social life are intimately linked to the local peer group.
Though many of them may have been employed in the larger urban centers
at some earlier point in their lives (Pellicer 1988), they now mostly reside
in their communities of origin. Those Mazahuas between the ages of 50 and
35 make up a population who attended two or three years of elementary
school. Some adults under 35, and most adolescents, have completed basic
education, which in the last decade comes to include the lower high school.
Although some of the young people who have had the opportunity to attend
a technical training in the county are often hired for factory labor in the
industrial zone of the state of Mexico, and remain in their villages of origin,
most of them have to earn their living looking for jobs in Mexico City. In
actuality, all children over 5 attend a rural school when their parents or
grandparents live in their home villages, or an urban school when their
elders work in the cities. In terms of educational attainment and rural-urban
mobility, individuals under 35 constitute a single group in the GIDS Chart.
The bulk of Mazahuas who work and live in Mexico City share the charac-
teristics of the three latter age groups. This immigrant population allow us
to compare the effects of the IS on the mother tongue.
Secondly, it was likewise necessary to subdivide the work domain cor-
responding to Stage 3, in order to introduce the range of activities linked to
332 Dora Pellicer
it in both villages: farming and craftsmanship, communal tasks, and festivi-
ties and celebrations, in light of the fact that the latter are organized and
carried out collaboratively by families, mayordomas
6
, and other indige-
nous organizations. Urban sources of employment have been also included
due to the elevated rate of Mazahua rural-urban migration. Finally, I have
grouped under Stage 8, the passive understanding of some lexical items and
conversational routines that are retained by the youngest ones who no
longer speak the language of their ancestors (See Chart 1).
Chart 1. Stages of bilingualism in San Ildefonso and San J uan de las Manzanas
A. Intimate community
San Ildefonso and San J uan
de las Manzanas
B. Impersonal society
Mexico City
Age groups (older to younger)
GIDS Stages
+60 60+50 50+35 -35 +60 60+50 50+35 -35
8. Mazahua conversational
vestiges
S/m S/m
7. Old folks conversations M M/S S/M S/M S/m
6. Intergenerational
transmission
M S S S S S S
5. Informal literacy S S S
4. Lower education: public S S S
3. Work:
Farm and craftsmanship M M/S S/M S/m
Communitarian work M M/S S/M S/m
Market M M/S S/M S/m
Fiestas M M/S S/M S /m S/M
closed immigrant
network
S/M S S
open immigrant
network
S S S
2. Media (radio) S S S S S S S
1. Government S S S S S S S
Key to languageuse: Mazahua (M); Spanish (S); Mazahua vestigial (m):
M =Mazahua dominantSpanish incipient M/S =Mazahua L1/Spanish L2
S/M =Spanish dominant/Mazahua diminished S/m=Spanish dominant/Mazahua vestigial
S =Spanish dominant
4.2. GIDS at first sight
Chart 1 shows five categories of language use domains across the GIDS
and along the different age groups in two scenarios: the IC and the IS. The
trends of bilingualism in the horizontal axis show a continuum, which starts
with Mazahua as the dominant language among the older folks (over 60);
their Spanish is incipient in the IC. The end of the continuum shows the
opposite pole, with Spanish as the only language used by Mazahua young
adults, adolescents and children in the IS. The numbered stages of the
GIDS in conjunction with the horizontal axis indicate, on the one hand, the
range of situations in which Mazahua is shared with or threatened by Span-
ish. In particular, Stages 5, 4, 2 and 1 reveal situations marked by a total
absence of the indigenous language, while Spanish assumes all the hege-
monic functional loads. On the other hand, the numbered scale also reveals
that the Mazahua language maintains a low level of linguistic vitality, di-
versified with respect to generations and distributed differently in the two
scenarios, rural and urban (Stages 8, 7, 6). However, it is in those settings
corresponding to the domains of work (Stage 3) that we find the highest
concentration of Mazahua being used.
The rate of literacy is low among adult Mazahuas, which explains the
absence of informal Mazahua written practices at home (Stage 5). In this
realm, the General Directorate for Indigenous Education (Direccin Gen-
eral de Educacin Indgena), under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Pub-
lic Education (Secretara de Educacin Pblica), is in charge of those bi-
lingual programs corresponding to Stage 4, in the IC, although they had yet
to be regularly implemented in the two villages considered here at the time
of research. In the IS all schooling is in Spanish for all ages. As it is the
case with a broad range of MIL, their vitality pivots around oral transmis-
sion, but unfortunately Mazahua radio stations operated by the Instituto
Nacional Indigenista have not yet reached Ixtlahuaca County. Therefore,
Stage 2 in both the IC and the IS, remains an exclusive domain of Spanish.
Stages of actual language use are accounted for in only 73 of the 104
possible cells in chart 1: 34 for the IC and 24 for the IS. The cells corre-
sponding to the IC reveal that Mazahua is the language of communication
in 17.6% of the described scenarios, while 37.6 % of these domains entail
the monolingual use of Spanish with a corresponding 14.6 % of Mazahua
L1 bilingualism. To this we must append 14.6% of Spanish-dominant bi-
lingualism and another 14.6% of Mazahua recessive bilingualism. Addi-
tionally, there is a 14% of only-Spanish use with a vestigial level of Maza-
hua comprehension.
334 Dora Pellicer
The GIDS help to identify the space allocated by old folks to the ances-
tral language in Stage 3. Older adults (50-60) dominant in Mazahua use
Spanish nonetheless as their second language (L2) when communicating
with the younger generations. They do not have any impact in the mainte-
nance of their mother tongue, and thus share Stages 3 and 7. Spanish pre-
vails among adults between 35 and 50, whose Mazahua has entered into a
process of functional recession and belong in Stage 7. Verbal interactions
among speakers below the age of 35 are completely in Spanish. This group
belongs in Stage 8, but is capable of recognizing a few conversational rou-
tines in the indigenous language.
We observe a marked decrease along the GIDS as Mazahuas pass from
the IC to the IS, where the old folks do not participate. Although the closed
immigrant networks of the 50-to-60 years old adults keep the mother
tongue alive in some bilingual spaces, their social functions are diminished
in the heart of the Spanish-speaking urban scenarios. As can be seen in
Chart 1, in the IS, Mazahua ceases to be the L1 within this age group, and
its use is entirely displaced within the younger generations of immigrants.
The 35-to-50 years old immigrants turn into a Spanish monolingual group
with the exception of some few adults between 40-50 years old, who un-
derstand some vestiges of the mother tongue. The 24 cells corresponding to
the IS reveal that the migrants to the city occupy a wide spectrum of activi-
ties (83%) in which Spanish monolingualism prevails, whereas only 12.5%
of Spanish-dominant bilinguals have Mazahua as a recessive mother tongue
and only 8.2% remember some vestiges of this language.
7
5. M azahua women at home: L inguistic and cultur al plur ality
The conversations presented in the second section of the article are samples
of recordings obtained during my encounters with female elders and adults
in these villages, a segment of a population which plays an important role
in the maintenance of Mazahua / Spanish bilingualism. Four of them,
whom I first met in Mexico City, are migrant workers who gave me the
opportunity to establish close contact with their families. The socio-
economic role played by Indian women contradicts a series of cultural
stereotypes, including the notion that they occupy a marginal position in
processes of aperture or cultural and linguistic change.
8
The Mazahua in-
formants from San Ildefonso and San J uan de las Manzanas, whose
metalinguistic awareness towards the stages of bilingualism is explored at
the end, take part in a productive existence through a broad range of activi-
ties that involve bilingual situations. At the margin of any formal education
in Spanish, they have developed a non-standard conversational competence
in their second language (Pellicer 2001) and a plural linguistic awareness
that allows them to take a stance before the identity conflicts that arise from
language contact. Those who maintain their mother tongue within the so-
cial unity of the rural home are mostly peasants who live off the land and
small-scale business at the local market or at home. Those who maintain it
in an urban context earn a living mostly as artisans, street or market ven-
dors, or as domestic help. In fact, these women have not lost contact with
the rural homes and socio-cultural background but continue to form part of
the family network, which benefits economically from the fruits of their
labors in the city. (See Table 1).
Table 1. Profile of Mazahua informants
Name Home village Age Schooling Occupational activity
1.Chana (Ch) San Juan de las
Manzanas
60 None Peasant
2.Antonia (A) San Juan de las
Manzanas
51 None Local vendor
3.Soledad (S) San Juan de las
Manzanas
45 Second grade
Elementary school
Peasant
4.Irene (I) San Juan de las
Manzanas
38 Third grade
Elementary school
Market vendor (Mexico
City)
5.Virginia (V) San Ildefonso 58 None Domestic help (Mexico
City)
6.Luca (L) San Ildefonso 54 None Peasant
7.Faustina (F) San Ildefonso 52 First grade
Elementary school
Domestic help (Mexico
City)
8.Mara (M) San Ildefonso 48 Second grade
Elementary school
Domestic help (Mexico
City)
Indigenous households allow us to single out family spaces where one or
more adults maintain the use of Mazahua, regardless of the fact that the
younger members of the family no longer speak it (Fernndez Ham 2000:
3941). Each of the above female subjects is member of a Mazahua home
(rural or urban). The precarious conditions of the fields tilled by the Maza-
336 Dora Pellicer
huas have given rise to extended families which share either a single home
or a single plot of land which houses the homes of married offspring. This
is the case with informants 1, 2, 3 and 6. In Mexico City, Mazahua women
working as street or market vendors live with their families husband and
children mostly in the vecindades (crumbling tenements) of the older
areas of el centro (old downtown area), where they receive relatives com-
ing as visitors from their villages. Domestic laborers who have lived for
two or three decades with urban families, such as informants 5, 7 and 8,
have now moved in to small apartments in vertically or horizontally inte-
grated areas in the urban periphery.
9
In both the downtown area and in the
suburbs, these homes generally house marriages, or single mothers, often
living together with their married children and grandchildren. These urban
Indian homes are frequented over the weekend by Mazahua friends and
relatives who reside in their employers home on weekdays. The Maza-
huas appropriation of urban patterns of culture has not entailed a total
abandonment of rural traditions, in particular those that relate to reunions
and family feasts.
6. Old folks conver sation and conver sational vestiges
Older adults are of vital importance for the maintenance of Mazahua. They
employ their mother tongue with people of all ages, especially due to their
incipient grasp of Spanish, which is understandable in view of the fact that
during the early decades of the twentieth century, Mazahua was the only
language spoken at home. The memories of Chana, one of the informants,
are transcribed in Conversation 1. [The following key is used for all tran-
scriptions: first initials stand for the name of the participants; the letter I
refers to the interviewer; [] stands for omitted fragments; (,) (..) (...) for
pauses and silence and the parenthesis ( ) include explanatory indications
when needed].
Conversation 1: During the Revolution
Chana: (Ch)
1. Ch: En aquel tiempo, cuando la..la revolucin, las lenguas de las indge-
nas,
2. Este yo me acuerdo, que mi mam no hablaba nada en espaol.
3. Y entonces, aquel tiempo,
4. Por eso mi madre me me inculc el, el mazahua
5. Porque ella no habla el.. este castellanoo cmo se llama?
6. I: Espaol
7. Ch: Es espaol, puespero los indgenas le dicen el castellano
[...]
8. porque en San J uan de las Manzanas era puro mazahua.
[English version follows]
1. Ch: During that time, when th..the revolution the languages of the
indigenous people,
2. This I remember, that my mom didnt speak any Spanish.
3. So then, at that time, for this reason
4. My mother made me aware of the use of Mazahua with th
5. Because she didnt speak Castilian, or how do you call it?
6. I: Spanish
7. Ch: S Spanish, then... but the Indians call it Castilian
[...]
8 Because in San J uan de las Manzanas there was only Mazahua
Nowadays, it is the old folks, such as Chana and her mother, who are the
sole bearers of their mother tongue, which serves as an informal and natural
vehicle for verbal interaction within the IC. Interaction between generations
allows young people and children who use only Spanish to recognize cer-
tain vestiges of the language of their ancestors. These correspond to the
most repetitive and ritualized conversational routines: greetings, farewells,
blessings, orders, and scolding. Women who participated in this study re-
vealed a full awareness of this level of competence in the Mazahua lan-
guage, which they interpret in two ways: (a) to understand Mazahua in-
dicates that the latter remains a functional tongue within the family; and (b)
to understand Mazahua is the result of incomplete intergenerational
transmission of the mother tongue.
Conversation 2: They dont speak it but they still understand it
Chana (Ch) and Antonia (A)
1. I: Entonces, el mazahua se usa?
2. Ch: S porque s hay gente que, que no lo habla, pero le entiende, le
entiende.
3. Ah est Alberta, que no lo habla, pero lo entiende.
338 Dora Pellicer
4. I: Aj.
5. A: Ps s, hay muchas personas que no lo hablanpero s lo entienden.
6. Yo he visto eso. Muchas muchachas que as veo que s entiende
7. Cuando estn hablando, pos oyen lo que estn diciendo... estn
hablando,
8. Ch: Porque mi hija, as, cuando le hablan as (en Mazahua):
9. Oyes hija, qu cosa dijo? Y.. s me lo dice ella
10. Y le digo: Le entendistes lo que dice tu abuela?,
11. S, s, yo le entiendo todo, dice, noms que no lo hablo.
12. Pos lo aprendi porque como creci al lado de mi mam siempre,
13. Y ella no nos habla en espaolpus lentiende.
1. I: So, Mazahua, is it used?
2. Ch: Yes, because there are a lot of people who, who dont speak it
3. but they understand it, they understand it.
4. Theres Alberta, who doesnt speak it but does understand it.
5. I: Yeah.
6. A: Well yeah, there are a lot of people that dont speak it but they do
understand it.
7. When theyre speaking, well they hear whats being said... theyre
speaking,
8. Ch Because my daughter, when they talk to her this way (in Mazahua):
9. Hey, what did so-and-so say? And yeah, she tells me
10. And then I say to her, Did you understand what your grandmother
says?
11. Yes, I understand it all, she says, its just that I dont speak it.
12. Well she learned it because she grew up always being with my
mother,
13. and she never spoke to us in Spanishso she understands it.
6.1. Work and fiestas
The rituals of work and feasting are significantly related to the forms of
identity and solidarity that bond the inhabitants of San Ildefonso and San
J uan de las Manzanas; this, in spite of the fact that the use of their mother
tongue varies across generational lines. Among other things, community
work is a collective activity inherited from their ancestors, preserved for
centuries alongside the techniques used by men, women and children to
keep and maintain their communal fields: till, sowing and reaping. Trading
in the large weekly market of the county, Ixtlahuaca, also fosters the main-
tenance of Mazahua lexicon, which is extensively applied in reference to
edibles and produce. It is also a space for extensive verbal commercial in-
teraction in the mother tongue of the older Mazahuas, which the younger
generations hear and often understand while carrying out their tasks in
Spanish. By the same token, the calendars of religious feasts commemorat-
ing the Patron Saints of each town or pilgrimages to sanctuaries have been
celebrated for centuries, enhancing the maintenance of ancient Mazahua
beliefs and rituals and encounters between people and languages.
Conversation 3. San Ildefonso feast
Antonia (A) Luca (L)
1.
2.
A: Panosotros la fiesta ms grande es el 23 de Enero,
el da que se festeja San Ildefonso.
3. I: A m me gusta mucho venir a esa fiesta.
4. L: Ya ve, mis hijas bailan las danzas de aqu y las de San J uan de las
Manzanas
5. y luego pus ya ust vio bien bonita la procesin.
6. A: Y los castillos se acuerda? y luego la misa a media noche y al me-
dioda
7. domingo ..y
8. I: Y cmo organizan toda esta fiesta?
9. A: Pus todos ah cooperando para la fiesta y todo...
10. L: Todos, todo el pueblo coopera para la fiesta
11. lo que quieran dar.
12. A: Y... lo que ms o menos les alcance no? Pa los organizadores.
13. L: Pus por ejemplo las casas ah que les toca pus hacen el mole[platillo
tpico]
14. por ejemplo, si me toca pus hago mole y por all
15. otras casa por all hacen mole tambin.
16. A: Pus, si llega una visita de otro pueblo o que llega ust pus se le tengo
que dar
17. un taco o algo, fruta, refresco, cacahuatito....
18. L: ...Y, y entonces cuando empieza a beber los viejitos hacen relajo en
puro
19. Mazahua y risas... pus as es.
340 Dora Pellicer
1. A: ...to us the biggest party is on the 23
rd
of J anuary, the day we cele-
brate San
2. Ildefonso.
3. I: I love to come to that feast whenever you invite me.
4. L: You see, my daughters dance the dances from here and the ones that
come
5. from San J uan de las Manzanas, and you saw how beautiful the pro-
cession...
6. A: And, and the fireworks you remember? and then Mass at midnight
and also
7. on Sunday at noon and...
8. I: And how do you organize it all?
9. A: Well, everybody contributes to the festivities and all...
10. L: Everybody, the whole town contributes to the party whatever they
want to
11. give.
12. A: And whatever they can manage to give, right? For the ones orga-
nizing it.
13. L: Well, for example there are those homes where they have to prepare
mole [a
14. typical meal] for example, if I get asked to I prepare mole and over
there
15. other homes prepare also mole...
16. A: Cause, if a visitor from another town shows up, or it is you, well
youve got
17. to give you a taco or something, fruit, a soda, some peanuts
18. L: ...And and then when the elder men start to drink and start cutting up
in
19. Mazahua and laughter and all that... thats the way it is...
Community celebrations are meeting places for the old folks, for whom
such occasions provide an opportunity for Mazahua chatter among peers:
an interchange of courtesies, extended narratives, complaints about eco-
nomic hardships, memories of the past, jokes and laughter far into the
night. The same can be said of family festivities, most of which derive from
sacramental rituals such as baptisms, confirmations or marriages, which
gather the extended family and other members of the community linked to
them by their compadrazgo.
10
Although the younger adults make little use
of Mazahua, they understand and share the old folks chit-chat. Likewise,
during the fiesta, children and adolescents argue and joke in Spanish, while
adults joke in Mazahua and scold the children in Mazahua.
6.2. Mazahua language shift
The preceding optimistic perspectives cannot halt by themselves the proc-
ess of Mazahua language shift in contact with Spanish. Minimizing the
effects of subtractive bilingualism resulting from contact with Spanish
would require, among other forms of support, systematic and functional
intergenerational transmission in the mother tongue. Unfortunately, this
stage is practically non-existent in San Ildefonso and San J uan de las Man-
zanas. Disruption in the use of Mazahua between mothers and their chil-
dren appears in conversations between women of the first and second gen-
erations; the attitudes of the latter are related to an acceptance of the fact
that they form part of a bilingual community.
Conversation 4. Intergenerational transmission interrupted
Faustina (F), Irene (Ir), and Maria (M)
1. F: Y entonces, ps nosotros..yo, yoo y mi hermana
2. somos los que todava hablamos el mazahua en la familia,
3. Y este, la mam de Braulia,
4. En el pueblo, todava hay personas que estn grandes,
5. que son de aquellas pocas todava,
6. que, todava lo hablan, pero nada ms
7. Pero ya los hijos que vienen
8. ya no, lo dejan definitivamente
9. Ir: Ahora la mamsuponemos que tambin las mamases tienen la
culpa,
10. porque, porque ahora, como, como crecieron los padres,
11. as deberan crecer los hijos
12. ensearles el, el, el mazahua, desde chicos,
13. M: Y ensearles tambin el espaol, pos de los dos..
14. as aprenden mejor y hablan ms.
1. F: And so, well we, I, I, my sister and me
2. are the ones in the family who still speak Mazahua,
342 Dora Pellicer
3. and um, Braulias mom.
4. In the town there are still people that are older,
5. that are still from the older days,
6. that still speak it, but only them
7. but the children that come,
8. they dont anymore, theyve left it behind for good.
9. Ir: Yeah but the momlets suppose that the moms are to blame,
19. because, because now, as, as the parents were raised,
11. thats how the children should also be raised,
12. teaching them Mazahua since theyre little.
13. M: And also teach them Spanish, uh both of them
14. that way they learn better and speak more.
6.3. Education
The social mobility expectations of Mazahua women acknowledge a fun-
damental role to lower public education, which is appreciated on a sym-
bolic level in rural community life. The basic system of public education is
seen as the scenario for multiple linguistic tasks. On the one hand, its role is
to provide, in addition to Spanish, the Mazahua language knowledge that
adults fail to provide at home. On the other hand, as they are not opposed to
participation of their families in the migratory experience to the northern
countries, they ask the school to be an English language transmitter for
their children.
Conversation 5. Multilingual schooling: a wishful thinking
Virginia (V), Faustina (F) and Luca (L)
1. F: Yo he odo quen Toluca dan unas clases de mazahua..pero no s en
qu parte
2. L: Ps es como darle.. una parte e..en mazahua y una parte en ingls
3. pero el ingls y el mazahua no les dan nada, en los pueblos... puro el
espaol...
4. V: Suponemos que en algunos pueblitos de mazahuas...
5. hay algunas maestras que s saben mazahua
6. y eso sera lolo bonito, que, donde es mazahua,
7. lescuela dedebera de darle, el espaol y el mazahua.
8. F: Eso fuera lo mejordigo yo,
9. lo bonito sera que los nios o nietos, los que van creciendo,
10 es que aprendieran el mazahua, aprendieran su idioma.
11. porque, qu importa, que es como el ingls.
12. a ver, cmo, cmo aprenden e.. el ingls y no aprender el mazahua?
13. I: Claro.
14. V: Pos i st, as como se aprende el ingls,
15. se aprende el mazahua, tambin
16. nada ms es querer, tener cabeza.
1. F: Ive heard that in Toluca they teach Mazahua classes
2. L: but I dont know where exactly
3. well its like givingpart of it in Mazahua and the other part in
English
4. but English and Mazahua dont do anything for them, in their towns
5. its all in Spanish.
6. V: Lets suppose that in some Mazahua towns
7. there are teachers that do speak Mazahua.
8. F: That would be the best, is what I say,
9. and it would be good that the children and grandchildren, as they are
growing up,
10 that they learn Mazahua, that they learn their language.
11. because, whats the problem, its like English.
12. I mean, how is it that they learn English but they dont learn Maza-
hua?
13. I: Of course.
14. V: Well thats it, just like English is learned,
15. Mazahua should be learned too.
16. Its all about wanting to, having that in your head.
The fact that writing in Mazahua is still an incipient ability does not pre-
clude the scarcely literate population from transmitting formally the in-
digenous language, whose presence and essence have been maintained for
centuries at the oral level. If we bear in mind that the hegemony of writing
tends to sacrifice, in the models of Western formal education, substantial
aspects of non-literate cultures, the Mazahua proposal acquires a dimension
that is not purely nave. An educational panorama is proposed here which
allows for the participation of two European languages based on written
traditions Spanish and English alongside an Indian language that has no
344 Dora Pellicer
written tradition, but which is preserved in the archives of an oral culture.
Consequently, the latters legitimization on the educational arena is not
dependent on the conclusion of a process of standardization. The en-
croachment of English is, in fact, not that far-fetched, particularly in view
of the economic support received by many families from migrant Mazahua
workers in the Anglophone North American countries.
6.4. Intimate communities within the impersonal society: communicative
and social networks
Mazahuas are active participants in the migration process to urban work
centers, which systematically attract migrants, particularly to Mexico City
and its surrounding metropolitan areas, where nearly 10% of all Mazahua
population can be found. The female sector of San Ildefonso and San J uan
de las Manzanas makes up a large part of this movement to the city. In
order to adjust themselves to the urban milieu, the Mazahuas count on two
types of social networks: closed and opened. These are related to the den-
sity of the links among the members of a group (Milroy 1980). A close
network is tightly linked to the internal members of the Mazahua commu-
nity who maintain high density ties, i.e., family, friendship, job clusters,
and others. The continuance of the rights and social obligations embedded
in the intimate community strengthen the social cohesion that is required to
face the demands of the impersonal society. This network is enlarged by
Mazahuas coming from the eleven different counties in the state of Mexico
(see Map 1) and allows us to postulate that the characteristics of the lin-
guistic repertoire of migrants from San Ildefonso and San J uan de las Man-
zanas are similar to those found in the Mazahua community of the IS. The
other network is open in that the Mazahuas maintain with external mem-
bers of their speech community, i.e., city employees, landlords, public ser-
vices personnel with whom Mazahuas must undergo a variety of face-to-
face interactions, all of which entail the mandatory use of Spanish. Follow-
ing Fishman (1972: 24), one may argue that the repertoire of migrant Ma-
zahuas is rooted both in actual verbal interaction which is experienced in
internal and external networks and on reference networks that function as
symbolic integration with the city culture and language. The former con-
tributes to the maintenance of the Mazahua language among migrants older
than 50, while the reference networks tend to use the sociolectal variety of
urban Spanish known as espaol indgena (Pellicer 1992). The effects of
migration are perceived differently by Mazahuas, be it from the perspective
of rural existence or from that of the migrants themselves. As for the for-
mer, urban employment contributes inevitably to a decrease of Mazahua
use (Conversation 6).
Conversation 6: Immigrants and subtractive bilingualism
Soledad (S)
1
1.
S: Ahora, que ya crecieron los hijos,
2. ya van, ya se van a Mxico a trabajar,
3. Ya dejan el mazahua,
4. Ya dejan el mazahua,
5. Y yo digo que hacen mal,
6. porque yo digo que.. si con ese idioma crecieron,
7. por qu lo cambian?
1. S: Now, the children have grown up,
2. and they go, they go to Mexico (City) to work,
3. and thats how they change languages,
4. they leave Mazahua behind,
5. and I think they do wrong,
6. because I say that...if they grew up with this language,
7. why change it?
However, although the effects of an intense contact with Spanish are
clearly reflected in the GIDS (see Chart 1), the urban social networks have
enhanced the maintenance of bilingualism among the elders. In addition,
the dynamics of migration towards Mexico City is characterized by a con-
stant circular rural-urban-rural mobility among Mazahua migrants, who
regularly visit their hometowns, where they renew and strengthen family
and community cohesion, as well as the use of their ancestral language.
Conversation 7. Mazahua in the city
Virginia (V)
1. V: A m no me da vergenza hablar el mazahua.
2. En el pueblo, mi mam me habla en mazahua
346 Dora Pellicer
3. y yo le contesto en mazahua.
4. Y me vine chica para ac (Ciudad de Mxico)
5. y no se me olvid el mazahua lo sigo hablando,
6. y tengo una prima tambin, habla mucho conmigo el mazahua.
7. Mi prima pos lo habla muy bien el Mazahua, tambin
8. Yo cuando hablo por telfono con ella
9. aistamos hablando ella y yo.
10. Luego, ya me dice las cosas y yo se las repito
11. Y as, las dos
1. V: Im not ashamed to speak Mazahua.
2. In our town, my mom speaks to me in Mazahua
3. and I respond to her in Mazahua,
4. And I came here (Mexico City) when I was little
5. and I havent forgotten Mazahua I still speak it,
6. and I have a cousin also, she speaks to me a lot in Mazahua.
7. My cousin, well she speaks Mazahua real well, also
8. there we are she and I talking on telephone,
9. there we are she and I
10. Then, she tells things to me, and I repeat them over and over to her.
11. And this way we both do...
Language loyalty of Mazahuas residing in Mexico City translates into
pragmatic solutions, such as speaking Mazahua on the phone or with rela-
tives, while speaking Spanish as expected by employers and other city
dwellers. In fact, the urban scenario does not seem to confirm a radical
Mazahua language shift, for in the city, older women from the second gen-
eration reproduce cultural and linguistic niches within the context of their
social networks allowing in this way the IC to survive within the IS.
11
7. Conclusion
On the one hand, this case study aids inthe reconstruction along the GIDS
of types and degrees of both vitality and disruption of Mazahua language in
contact with Spanish. On the other hand, the folk linguistics perspective
sheds light into the metalinguistic awareness of the adult female population
with respect to the preferred language of interaction. The interpretation of
the GIDS presented in Chart 1 makes reference to the fact that Mazahua is
a threatened language, which deserves to be treated under the assumptions
of reverse language shifters (cf. Fishman 1991). Table 2, which sums up
the bilingual situation by age groups and types of communities, shows that
Spanish is pushing out the native indigenous language in such a way that
the younger generations can solely count on Mexicos dominant language
among their linguistic repertoire (Hymes 1985).
Table 2. Bilingualism/monolingualism among mazahuas
Intimate community Impersonal society
Age groups Languages GIDS Stages Age groups Languages GIDS Stages
+50 M/S 3 +50 S/M 7
+35 S/M 7 +35 S/m 8
-35 S/m 8 -35 S
M/S =Mazahua dominant Spanish L2
S/M =Spanish dominant/Mazahua diminished
S/m=Spanish dominant/Mazahua vestigial
S =Spanish dominant
In Chart 1, stages linked to literacy, as the most instrumental in the tasks of
reversing language shift are themselves the most dependent on Spanish.
According to Fishman (1991), the development of literacy demands for the
small-scale community-based attempts and not only for the standardization
goals should be addressed to the public education system, i.e., grammars,
dictionaries, and other language sources. In Mexico, more attention has
been paid to bilingual school training and to the technicalities of language
standardization than to a socialized literacy program stemming from the
socio-cultural and identity functions of writing. The functions of writing
can play a cohesive role for both literate and illiterate members of a linguis-
tic community but demand the reinforcement of Mazahua language (as in
Stage 6). In this way, elderly Mazahuas speakers could become aware of
the role they play as oral transmitters of their mother tongue and as pro-
moters of informal literacy (as in Stage 5) within the Mazahua oral culture.
As for the oral texts transcribed in the final section of the article, they
reveal an idiosyncratic view of linguistic diversity. By coming in contact
with twenty-first century lifestyle and orientation which differs greatly
from that which sustains the traditional forms of Amerindian organization
and interaction Mazahua speakers have undergone a transformation in the
evaluation of their linguistic repertoire. From the commemoration of a
348 Dora Pellicer
monolingual past in the Mazahua language to the two poles of the effects of
migration, i.e., language shift and urban diglossia, the oral texts transcribed
between the two extremes reveal that Mazahua women possess a clear
awareness of the generational declines of their ancestral language (Hymes
1974). They tend to turn towards the obligations of the majority society and
emphasize the role of education to integrate their children into the linguistic
plurality that they seek to attain.
In conjunction, these testimonies of folk linguistics involve two catego-
ries that are present in the field of ethnographic and social studies regarding
language contact, albeit in an informal manner: shift and maintenance, revi-
talization and plurality. In the voice of Mazahua women, we can appreciate
not only an awareness of unequal linguistic contact, but also a search for
conciliation between different languages and cultures. Mazahua is the an-
cestral language that tells them from where they came and how far they can
take it; Spanish is a vehicular language, which broadens the horizons of the
IC, creating possibilities for integration into different labor cultures. To this
dyad, we must sporadically add English, which makes an appearance upon
the socio-linguistic scenario as an instrumental language, spoken in those
contexts that act as a source of economic support for land and shared feasts.
I contend that in those communities where language contact is extensive,
speakers tend to develop plural identities, which seek conciliation through
diversity. The re-arrangement of fundamental values is one of the factors
that have allowed, in my view, certain linguistic minorities to maintain
spaces of vitality throughout centuries of subordinate existence under a
different tongue that fulfills most public and private functions of the IS.
With an articulate search that can allow them to situate their own language
alongside the languages imposed by labor participation in contemporary
society, Mazahua people are managing to meld a resistance against leaving
behind their right to be part of a modern plural world.
Notes
1. See Table 4 Mexican indigenous languages and the national censuses: 1970-
2000, in Cifuentes and Moctezuma in this collection.
2. See Chart 2. Current geographic distribution of large and medium indigenous
languages in Cifuentes and Moctezuma in this collection.
3. It was basically the nonconformity of the criollo population (i.e., those descen-
dents of Spaniards born in Mexico) in light of the economic and social treat-
ment that they received from the Spanish government, which fed the uprising
of the War for independence and led to its completion in 1821. Two examples
of the underlying ideas of the movement of Independence are the Historia de la
Revolucin de la Nueva Espaa by Dr. Servando Teresa de Mier Noriega y
Guerra (1813) and Mjico y sus revoluciones byJ os Mara Luis Mora (1836).
4. Towards the end of the eighteenth-century, Hervs (17771792) mentioned
Mazahua as a dialect of Otomi, while nineteenth-century philologists such as
Naxera (1845) and Pimentel (1874) did not pay special attention to it when
compared to their interest for other Amerindian languages.
5. Mazahuas place within the reconstruction of the Otopame family was of par-
ticular interest to Soustelle (1937), Newman and Weitlaner (1950), Pike
(1951), Spotts (1956) and Bartholomew (1975). Two more studies describe the
Mazahua grammatical aspects: Amador (1976), and Stewart (1993). Knapp
(1996) is responsible for an in-depth phonological investigation. More recently,
the works of Lastra and Valias (2001), and Bartholomew (2001) have shown
that while there are a high number of cognates between the two languages, ul-
timately they are mutually unintelligible, due to phonological changes hat have
entirely different linguistic histories.
6. A mayordoma is a social network of a reduced number of inhabitants of each
village who manifest their interest in the maintenance of traditional celebra-
tions. The mayordomos acquire rights and duties for organizing religious feasts
and social and cultural community events.
7. We should bear in mind that the notation of Spanish dominance does not indi-
cate standard Spanish, but rather the frequency of use of this second tongue. In
fact, this is a sociolectal variety of oral Spanish that has been conversationally
appropriated by the adult Mazahuas.
8. During the 1960s, studies about incipient bilingualism among the indigenous
population indicated that only one-fifth of the female population participated in
this process (Diebold 1961). Two decades later, due to more favorable alterna-
tives for the participation of the female indigenous population, studies de-
scribed the development of adaptive strategies whose most immediate and ac-
cessible instrument was bilingualism (Pellicer 1988).
9. The term vecindades, el centro, and urban periphery have been in use
since the 1970s among U.S. sociologists who have written about urban poor in
Mexico City. An example of such terms is found in Susan Eckstein (1977: 48,
212, 216 and passim).
10. Compadrazgo refers to a special sense of friendship, duties and obligations
which is created amongst parents and godparents (compadres).
11. Some of the Mazahuas that migrate from San Ildefonso and San J uan de las
Manzanas have established contact with civil groups of migrants from other
villages in the county of San Felipe del Progreso that lies to the west of Ixtla-
huaca. In Mexico City they promote, among other things, self-sustenance in la-
bor training and improved housing conditions. These groups were organized
350 Dora Pellicer
after the earthquake of 1985, which seriously affected their work and living
spaces in downtown Mexico City. Among these groups, the San Antonio
Pueblo Nuevo Mazahua Organization has completed a recording of an oral
document entitled Memoria de las mujeres que hablan mazahua (Memories of
women who speak Mazahua), and has directed the project Tres hilos para
bordar (Three threads with which to embroider). These activities bring to-
gether Mazahua artisans and street vendors from several counties located in the
state of Mexico.
Refer ences
Amador Hernndez, Mariscela
1976 Gramtica del mazahua de San Antonio Pueblo Nuevo. Bachelors
degree linguistic project. Mexico: Escuela Nacional de Antropologa
e Historia.
Bartholomew, Doris
2001 El mazahua primo hermano del otom. IV Coloquio Internacional
sobre Otopames. Pachuca Hidalgo. Universidad Autnoma del Es-
tado de Hidalgo.
1975 Some morphophonemic rules in Mazahua. International Journal of
American Linguistics 4 (41): 293305.
Bastardas i Boada, Albert
1996 Ecologia de les llenges. Barcelona. Ediciones Proa.
Bentez Reyna, Rufino
2002 Vocabulario prctico bilinge mazahua-espaol. Mexico: Instituto
Nacional Indigenista.
Cifuentes, Brbara and Dora Pellicer
1989 Ideology, politics and national language: A study in the creation of a
national language in 19
th
century Mexico. Sociolinguistics 18: 717.
Clavijero, Francisco J .
[1883] 1989 Historia antigua de Mxico. Mexico. Porra.
Contreras Garca, Irma
1986 Bibliografa sobre la castellanizacin de los grupos indgenas en la
Repblica Mexicana, siglos XVI al XX. Mexico: Universidad Nacio-
nal Autnoma de Mxico.
Crystal, David
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Diario Oficial de la Federacin
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Par t I V . Conclusions
Chapter 12
Language policy. Past, pr esent, and futur e
Margarita Hidalgo
Abstr act
This article synthesizes the language policy trends prevailing in Mexico
from colonial times to the present. It offers a chronological outline of the
promoters of specific projects and programs that shaped the linguistic reali-
ties in the political and socio-cultural scenario of each of the major histori-
cal periods that defined the Mexican nation: Colony, Independence, and
Revolution. Two major innovations are introduced in the chronological
outline: (1) a sub-period (ca.1524ca.1580) distinguished by the works of
the mendicant orders whose endeavors are comparable to substantial ad-
vances in reversing language shift. After this period (2) a major trend of
language shift (15802000) is identified in the three aforementioned eras:
Colony, Independence, and Revolution. The continual deterioration of the
MIL occurred in spite of the various drifts that appear to support them. The
result of language shift is clearly observed in the twentieth century when
massive rates of bilingualism are clearly documented in the census regis-
ters. The prevailing trends of bilingual education are conducive, too, to-
wards language shift and Spanish monolingualism. (3) A new era inspired
in the indigenous movement of 1994 begins in 2003 with the passing of
the Law on Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples. This Law is also
comparable to the endeavors proposed by reversing language shift theory
and praxis.
1. I ntr oduction
The purpose of this volume is to advance diverse proposals about the Mexi-
can indigenous languages (henceforth MIL) in the context of the twenty-
first century. Language policy in Mexico, as in most countries, is consistent
with the general trends that define the prevailing national policy. Recon-
structed on the basis of reliable secondary sources, Charts 1, 2 and 3 show
the general trends of language policy in Mexico. The outline serves to iden-
tify the three clearly demarcated historical periods since the times that the
MIL came into contact with Spanish: Colony (15231821), Independence
(18211921), and Revolution (19212000). An innovation introduced in
this volume is the distinction of the colonial period in two main sub-
periods: Period one is characterized by the endeavors of the mendicant
orders which recovered substantial components of the pre-Hispanic lan-
guages(s) and culture(s); in spite of being ephemeral, this sub-period
which I have termed herein the recovery mission bequeaths major works
of philology, history, and religion in and about MIL. Many of the dimen-
sions that characterize reversing language shift in the twentieth century
were present in this sub-period (ca.15241580), which was brusquely cur-
tailed by the anti-humanist policies of the Spanish Empire. This occurred in
the face of the humanist movement of the Renaissance, which elevated the
vernacular languages to languages of culture and prestige. The humanists
did not perceive at the time that the elevation of Spanish and other Euro-
pean languages to higher spheres of interaction was an effective mechanism
that consummated the polarization between European and non-European
languages. Sub-period two marks the beginning of language shift at the end
of the sixteenth century and continues through the beginning of Independ-
ence. However, it can be ascertained that language shift has continued
through the present time, given the historical and current proportions of the
speakers of MIL and the patterns and domains of use (see my article The
multiple dimensions of language maintenance and language shift in colo-
nial Mexico, in this volume).
2. L anguage policy in New Spain
Even prior to the 1519 voyage of Hernn Corts to Mexican soil, the legis-
lation promulgated for the expanded territories (Leyes de Burgos [1512])
required that the new subjects of the Crown accept a new language and a
new religion. The Leyes de Burgos represented the early statutes that estab-
lished a series of responsibilities of the encomenderos ( <encomienda
[profit-oriented state made up of shares of land and urban property]) to-
wards the Indians. The situation of indigenous peoples in the New World
was being defined along the lines of a juridical and institutional process
that validated the norms of the relationships between natives and non-
natives. The separation of the two groups was provoked at the moment of
the early contact between Europeans and natives, and most importantly, by
the perception that the former had about the latter. The thrust of the prob-
lem was the manner in which Europeans saw and knew the indigenous,
the way in which they were integrated cognitively in their ideological and
referential system. The relationship with the Other was, then, the founda-
tion of a new system of domination while its denial was the first and most
fundamental violation of human rights. The relationship with the natives of
the New World became a serious concern of the New Spanish authorities
and turned into the juridical and institutional apparatus that would rule and
regulate the relationships between the groups. The legal problem was ad-
dressed from two perspectives: the first represented the Council of the In-
dies and claimed the right to conquer. The second represented Bartolom
de las Casas and Francisco de Vitoria and denied the power of the Pope
over the infidels; the advocates of the latter position did not accept the uni-
versal jurisdiction of the Emperor (Stavenhagen 1988: 1416). This con-
troversy was the focus of attention of lettered men throughout the sixteenth
century while the Spanish Crown was ambivalent towards their differing
proclamations and viewpoints (Stavenhagen 1988: 17).
One of the strongest and most articulate voices in this debate was that of
Friar Bartolom de las Casas (1474 or 14841566), first Archbishop of
Chiapas and author of Brevsima relacin de la destruccin de las Indias
(1542) and Apologtica historia sumaria (15551559). Bartolom de las
Casas claimed that the Indians were mortals created by God. For this rea-
son, they should bear human attributes such as reason, virtues, freedom,
and should have, additionally, the right to live in a civil society where they
could own estate and live under laws and legitimate governments. The
Spanish Crown made limited concessions to the indigenous peoples and
allowed them, to an extent, to maintain their own customs. The policy of
the Crown was developed during the colony through various decrees, bills
and ordinances, and is comprised in a single document known as Recopi-
lacin de Indias (1680), which remained almost unaltered since then
(Stavenhagen 1988: 22).
In the realm of language policy, the newly arrived officials of New
Spain received three legal pronouncements mandating the teaching of
Spanish to the native populations (15211565). The 1550 decree of Charles
V was the most emphatic, but in view of the unsuspected diversity of the
newly discovered territory, the series of mandates soon became impractical
and paradoxical. In 1578, Philip II revoked the 1550 decree of Charles V
and mandated that Nahuatl be taught as the official language because it
was the most widely spread in New Spain. Five decrees succeeded support-
ing indigenous languages. Following these practical recommendations,
Philip II declared Nahuatl the official language of New Spain, and by doing
so, he laid the foundation to perpetuate the use of Indian languages by reli-
gious leaders. However, in 1634 Philip IV preferred to promote Spanish as
the sole language of New Spain, while his successors reiterated the forceful
mandate of Charles V (Brice Heath 1972: Chapter 2). The end of the colo-
nial period points out the futility of language policy: only 35% of the popu-
lation knew how to speak Spanish, and just 0.5% knew how to read and
write the language of the mother country. If the effectiveness of language
policy has to be evaluated, one has to admit that, due to its complexities
and the caste system imposed on the indigenous populations, the language
policy program launched for the colonies simply failed.
The contradictions between the policy of the Spanish Crown and the in-
tense work of the recovery mission are glaring, but they are justified by the
two major objectives of metropolitan policy: (1) to spread Spanish; (2) to
spread the knowledge of the Christian doctrine. The latter was conducted
steadily in MIL, but the hesitations of the Spanish authorities with respect
to language policy can be interpreted as short-term tolerance (cf. Hidalgo
2001). In 1580, Phillip II ordered the confiscation of the encyclopedia on
Mexican language and civilization, written with the support of the Seraphic
Order. This despondent episode terminates the patronage of the recovery
mission and puts in bold relief the feeble policies of the Spanish Crown
with respect to language maintenance. In sum, because there was normally
a conflict between theory and practice, legality versus implementation, and
colonial reality versus capricious metropolitan ruling, the Crown alternated
between proclaiming Spanish as the language of the Empire and advancing
indigenous tongues as the instrument of conversion (Brice Heath 1972: 36).
(See also Chart 1 based on Brice Heath 1972: Chapters 13).
3. T he I ndependence
The various endeavors of the leaders of the nineteenth century, which is
distinguished by intense nationalism promoted by the descendants of the
criollos, is outlined in Chart 2. It is interesting to note that among the pro-
ponents of language policies there were both liberal and conservative lead-
ers; throughout this century the representatives of the dominant political
trends sustained a vigorous confrontation on the following issues: the role
of indigenous languages in the new independent nation; in education; and
in the conformation of a new identity. One of the major achievements in
this respect was the elimination of the colonial nomenclature assigned to
non-European groups, as ethnic labels were intentionally omitted from
decrees and constitutions; the only valid(ated) denomination in legislative
matters was the unifying term Mexican. In contrast, the term Indian was
re-evaluated and vindicated because it was deemed necessary to acknowl-
edge the ethno-linguistic diversity of the new nation, although such recog-
nition did not necessarily undermine the notion of national unity (Cifuentes
1998: 220221; Cifuentes 2002: 1516). On the band of the liberals, Igna-
cio Ramrez distinguished himself for advancing some proposals that at-
tempted to corroborate the rights of the indigenous peoples to self-
determination in matters of language and education (Brice Heath 1972: 69
71). The concept of little nations was not outlandish; on the contrary, it
was a well-founded notion based on the reality of a newly independent
nation that had dozens of peoples of different cultures and languages.
Nonetheless, the period of Independence witnessed the disappearance of
numerous autochthonous ethno-linguistic groups at the same time that a
dramatic shift to the colonial language increased the numbers of individuals
who claimed to speak Spanish. It is estimated that the year of the first offi-
cial census (1895), an overwhelming majority (83%) of Mexicans appeared
to be speakers of Spanish, while 16.6% claimed to speak an indigenous
language (Cifuentes and Pellicer 1989). In addition, support through legis-
lation, education, language academies, and the like made Spanish rise to the
status of a national language (see Chart 2, based on Brice Heath: Chapter
4). However, the conflict between conservative and liberal orientations was
so intense that the fate of MIL was not the major issue of concern for the
rulers of Mexico, who around the mid-nineteenth century, began to debate
the dilemma of hispanismo versus indigenismo. The resolution favored the
established class of criollos, whose variety of Spanish was considered more
valuable than any of the numerous indigenous tongues, as they were per-
ceived as a threat to an incipient national unity.
Language planning undertaken in the nineteenth century seems to be the
determining factor impinging on the relative homogenization process ob-
served in the twentieth century. With unusual lucidity and anticipation for
the future, the nineteenth century Mexican criollos approached and re-
solved some of the problems pertaining to language planning, such as the
legitimization of the Mexican variety of Spanish, the orthographic reforms
to Peninsular Spanish, and the adoption of a Nahuatl-origin lexicon. As part
of their language planning campaign, the criollo leaders addressed corpus
planning by introducing a Diccionario de Mexicanismos and by creating
the Mexican Academy of Language responsible for accepting new pronun-
ciation and vocabulary choices, et cetera. (See Garca Icazbalceta [1898]
1969; Cifuentes 1994; and Chart 2). At the turn of this century of intense
nationalism, Mexican Spanish came to represent the legitimization of a new
identity with which new masses began to feel closely connected. The lead-
ers of the new nation provided Mexicans with a new name and a new eth-
nicity, which was not only perceived as futuristic but became fully official
and fully exploited in the twentieth century. In the view of the criollos, the
Mexican mestizo, the current official ethnia of the country, should be
proud of speaking the variety of Mexican Spanish inherited from the nine-
teenth-century criollo elite.
In the Mexican colony, reversing language shift started with vigorous
support for the indigenous languages. It changed in favor of Spanish and
has continued supporting Spanish to the extent that both researchers and the
common person believe that the transplanted language is the national lan-
guage or the language of the State par excellence. Although local legisla-
tions have favored Spanish in public education for all-Spanish speakers and
speakers of MIL languages, the different versions of the Mexican Constitu-
tion have not proclaimed Spanish as the de jure national language. Its status
as the de facto national language prevailing in all public and private do-
mains, entitled to be used above all other immigrant or indigenous codes, is
being challenged as a result of the new legislation approved in 2003.
4. T he twentieth centur y
Language maintenance campaigns and programs of bilingual education
have been seemingly promoting the native tongues from around the late
1920s to the present. The census data gathered throughout the twentieth
century indicate that all MIL are losing ground to Spanish; the preference
for Spanish is revealed in steady decreases of monolinguals and increases
of bilinguals (cf. Cifuentes and Moctezuma in this volume). The ideals of
the Mexican Revolution (19101921) were endorsed in nationalist prac-
tices extolling the indigenous past. Paradoxically, the fervent indigenist
trend of the 1940s accelerated a non-anticipated shift to Spanish. The lan-
guage policy of the twentieth century was mostly oriented to promote vari-
ous types of bilingual education. Until the late 1970s, bilingual education
meant shift to Spanish through the direct method; in the past three decades,
bilingual education has been better defined as the teaching of indigenous
languages in transitional programs that would eventually lead students to
learning reading and writing in Spanish. The programs of the twentieth
century are guided and sponsored by national agencies that promoted a
homogenous approach. The Direccin General de Educacin Indgena was
one of them (see Hidalgo 1994 and Chart 3). An impasse in the focus of
language policy is observed at the very end of the century, when the nation
had to confront an armed insurrection in the state of Chiapas (see my article
Socio-historical determinants in the survival of Mexican indigenous lan-
guages in this volume). The most important change provoked by the
Chiapas uprising has to do with the demands for autonomy. These demands
are expressed in the San Andrs Larrinzar Accords (1996) drafted by the
neo-zapatistas. It is clear that this document represented the turning point
in national language policy because the San Andrs Larrinzar Accords
raised the underlying problem since colonial times: the relationship be-
tween the indigenous peoples and the new authorities that were denying
their existence (see Chart 4)
5. T he twenty-fir st centur y
The new legislation or the General Law on Linguistic Rights of the Indige-
nous Peoples (2003) makes unprecedented concessions to demands that are
pertinent to a change of policy. Reversing language shift may be feasible
even within the framework of a centralized regime which has explored
nonetheless those questions related to autonomous orientations, as the
autonomy of the indigenous peoples may not be granted in the near future.
The end of the twentieth century marks the end of the thoroughgoing policy
of Hispanization. A new era begins in the present century with a positive
change towards the recovery of MIL. The trajectory of the Law is rendered
in the laborious work of Dora Pellicer et al. (in this volume), who docu-
mented the external facts and factors that guided legislators to propose,
amend, and finally approve a bill of linguistic rights. In essence, this Law
accommodates the claims of the indigenous peoples to have legal protec-
tion for their languages and diverse forms of expressions inherited from
their ancestors. The modifications made to official policies and general
attitudes towards indigenous groups are not only derived from the pressures
exerted on the powers-that-be, but on the advancements effected in the field
of the language sciences and sociolinguistics. The General Law includes
the design of a sociolinguistic survey and a deadline to complete it. In addi-
tion, the language of the Law is relatively similar to the language used in
reversing language shift theory. It is then possible that in the new era, the
endeavors to materialize reversing language shift might bear positive fruits.
Moreover, the new Law legitimizes the endeavors of those groups and in-
dividuals committed to reversing language shift (cf. Pellicer et al. in this
volume). For this reason, the Law will serve to regulate and monitor the
actions of the agents involved in the reversal or even the agents who might
be willing and ready to undermine reversing language shift. Several agents
have emerged in the past decade ranging from radical sympathizers of the
EZLN to moderate organizations claiming linguistic rights and rights to
bilingual- bicultural education and even researchers with renewed perspec-
tives (see Pellicer et al.; Flores Farfn; Pfeiler and Zmiov; and Messing
and Rockwell, in this volume).
6. Centr alization vs. local initiatives
In recent times, those groups that claim rights to autonomy may not see the
advantages of centralization: if the policy is the same for all groups, in the-
ory, all groups should receive proportional assistance and resources in or-
der to develop maintenance programs. The major disadvantage of a central-
ized system is that it has the power to obstruct local initiatives. It seems,
however, that the issue of autonomy has come to the surface in the context
of the neo-zapatista uprising, and that such event has become part of his-
tory. Therefore, a regression to indulgent policies facilitated by governmen-
tal agencies, non-governmental organizations, or individuals is unlikely. In
fact, both the remembrance of the neo-apatista uprising and the enforce-
ment of the General Law of 2003 can act together to prevent major deter-
rents to a centralized policy of reversing language shift. (For discussion
about the meaning of autonomy, see my article Socio-historical determi-
nants in the survival of Mexican indigenous languages in this volume; for
examples of local initiatives in the US context, see Daniel Althoff's article
in this volume).
7. What else is new? Ethnicity and ethnic awar eness
The discourse on ethnicity and ethnic awareness has ensued in Mexico
since the 1980s but has materialized in specific actions since 1994, as a
direct result of the neo-zapatista uprising. For instance, the effects of trans-
national migration and the consciousness-raising efforts of indigenous as-
sociations in both Baja California and California (e.g., Assembly of the
Frente Indgena Oaxaqueo Binacional) have been thoroughly docu-
mented, and are not accidental. Ethnicity is better articulated in the North-
ern and Southern Mexican frontiers. As a case in point, the indigenous
groups, particularly Zapotecs and Mixtecs, have made a reflection on ethnic
identity resulting from their experience in international migration. The
transnational approach highlights the ability of migrants to construct a so-
cial space across national boundaries. This experience has three conceptual
implications: (a) ethnicity is construed by social agents which are part of
the prevailing social order; (b) ethnicity is acted in the framework of capital
and nation-state; (c) the understanding of ethnicity makes individuals closer
to the awareness of the new conditions of transnational existence (Velasco
Ortiz 2002: 2122). Ethnicity is expressed in everyday practices or in a
narrative discourse that articulates an ideological image of the acknowl-
edged traditions. The discourse of the ethnic agents is not improvised; its
strategy derives primarily from the experience of transnationality and
transnational identity, a process defined in the light of regional markets.
Transnationalism refers to the lives of migrants who cross the border and
synthesize two societies in a social field. In this way, migrants become the
re-negotiators of the cultural boundaries they confront (national, ethnic,
racial, or linguistic) while the international labor markets and the official
policy of migration control operate as means of trans-nationalization of the
indigenous from Oaxaca, who amount to 200,000 in the Californias (cf.
Velasco Ortiz 2002). The recreation of ethnicity in the urban areas of Baja
California and California help understand the process of ethnic identity in
the face of globalization. In sum, the expression of ethnicity has been rein-
forced and encouraged by the protestation of the indigenous from Chiapas.
8. Past, pr esent, and futur e or the conj ur ation of Fr ay Bar tolom de
las Casas
As a result of the debate over linguistic rights, the name and works of the
principal organizer of the movement in defense of the Indians resuscitated
in the twentieth century. It seems that the advance in matters of language
legislation is confirming the truth of Las Casas doctrines, i.e., that life is
transforming his utopian ideals into reality. According to Keen (1998),
Bartolom de las Casas was not only a master of the Scholastic method of
disputation, but a synthesizer of all the key elements of the Rousseauian
system. Las Casas and Rousseau had in common the belief in the natural
freedom and equality of men. As the pioneer of social humanism, Las
Casas was concerned with the problems of war, poverty, and social injus-
tice; as a result, he made a contribution to the renovation of European
thought, a theory of cultural evolution which considered mankind as one
and capable of advancing along the road to civilization provided that the
method that is proper and natural to man is used: namely, love and gentle-
ness and kindness (in Keen 1998: 60). His method enabled him to exam-
ine the customs and beliefs of indigenous peoples within the framework of
their own culture. From his conception of humans as naturally free and
rational beings stemmed his democratic principles on self-determination,
which were developed in his short essay De regia potestate (1560). Known
in Europe for the subversive tone, the book was denounced to the Inquisi-
tion and was not published in Spain but in Frankfurt in 1571 (cf. Keen
1998). The Lascasian doctrine of self-determination influenced European
political thought and action during the Renaissance and the centuries that
followed (Keen 1998: 60). The Lascasian school of thought is the most
influential legacy in the post-modern scenario of cultural and linguistic
diversity. Las Casas, like Bernardino de Sahagn and many other promi-
nent thinkers of the Mexican colony, generated their own philosophical
positions and methodological instruments through the amalgamation of
Western and non-Western values. Mexico proved to be a fertile ground that
provided inspiration, knowledge of diverse cultures, awareness of the exis-
tence of countless languages, and eccentric religions that did not fit the
patterns and practices known in the Christian world. In the attempts to un-
derstand what they had found, the representatives of the Mexican mission
first made the cultures converge and later deliver them to the globalized
world of the Renaissance.
9. Globalization and r ever sing language shift
In this manner, they paved the way for the modern and post-modern forms
of globalization: the globalization of the mainstream coming from the First
World countries and represented by their dependence on high technology,
the hyper-status of the English language, international trade, and a global
market of consumption that is glaring in the largest urban centers (e.g.,
New York, Paris or Mexico City). In contrast, alternate globalization
surfacing primarily in the Third World or peripheral areas of the First
World is exemplified in the emergence of diversities such as those
claimed by women, indigenous groups, immigrants, or marginalized indi-
viduals. Alternate forms of globalization facilitate the definition of inde-
pendent identities, which appears to be one of the traits of the post-modern
world, one that characterizes the dawn of the twenty-first century. The
Mexican immersion in these two globalizing fashions is neither new nor
incidental: it is instead the result of Mexicos strategic position, where cul-
ture and language contact(s) constantly interact in dynamic ways. The chal-
lenge forced upon individuals and nations engaged in any of these forms of
globalization should lead them in the direction of multiculturalism, a proc-
ess that is easier to understand than its logical complement: multilingual-
ism. The former appeals to the common individual; the latter enervates
those who have not thought of the consequences of living with linguistic
diversity. Getting over and above the Babel Tower or the Babel ideology
poses the major question of the real confrontation between mainstream
globalization and alternate globalization. In the Mexican scenario, the
clash of globalizations is not vehement, as the historical experience
serves to palliate the shockwaves made by contact; in addition, the season-
ing of the US Mexican Diaspora facilitates the understanding of globalizing
tendencies be they from the center or from the periphery.
In sum, the language policy of the twenty-first century will be shaped
by the events of the 1990s; it will include the trends of the early twenty-
first century and will take into consideration the demands of the indigenous
groups. This volume has the merit of exploring the multiple dimensions of
language maintenance and shift in the past and present Mexican scenario,
which in itself generates enriching situations conducive to making language
policy proposals. These proposals are based on the assessment of realistic
tasks, which should be developed by the agents of change. The demands of
theneo-zapatistas for maintenance programs of bilingual and intercultural
education are reasonable solutions to deter a more pronounced language
shift among all ethno-linguistic groups. Development of regional or na-
tional programs for the dissemination of indigenous languages in public
domains is, too, a realistic goal. Furthermore, development of authentic
materials that recapture the ethno-linguistic heritage of a group in question
is not an impossible dream. Finally, the General Law on Linguistic Rights
directly and indirectly approaches these issues. If the recommendations of
the Law are not closely followed, then indigenous groups may be willing
and able to (re)act according to the proposals put forward by the San
Andrs Larrinzar Accords of 1996. They actually are the back-up plan
which was reneged on by the official representatives of the Mexican Estab-
lishment. To conclude, the specific and general language policy plans
should focus on attempts to recover the indigenous heritage with the ex-
pressed intention of reversing language shift and with specific goals of
(re)allocation of sufficient resources to the most damaged languages. Ide-
ally, the most deteriorated Stages of the MIL should be repaired and
(re)situated to the next higher or more developed Stage along the Graded
Intergenerational Disruption Scale or any other kind of model that aids in
the determination or assessment of historical damages.
Refer ences
1972 Telling Tongues: Language Policy in Mexico. From Colony to Na-
tion. New York: Teachers College
Cifuentes, Brbara
1994 Las lenguas amerindias y la conformacin de una lengua nacional en
Mxico en el siglo XIX. Language Problems and Language Plan-
ning 18(3): 208222.
1998 Letras sobre voces. Multilingismo a travs de la historia. Mxico:
Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones Superiores en Antropologa
Social.
2002 Lenguas para un pasado, huella de una nacin. Los estudios sobre
lenguas indgenas de Mxico en el siglo XIX. Mexico: Comisin
Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes and Instituto Nacional de Antro-
pologa e Historia.
Brbara Cifuentes and Dora Pellicer
1989 Ideology, politics and national language: A study in the creation of a
national language in 19th century Mexico. Sociolinguistics 18: 717.
Garca Icazbalceta, J oaqun
[1898] 1969 Obras. New York: Benjamin Franklin.
[1876] 1969 La Academia Mexicana correspondiente a la espaola. In his Obras
6: 117151.
[1898] 1969 Provincialismos Mexicanos. In his Obras 6: 6997.
Hidalgo, Margarita
1994 Bilingual education, nationalism and ethnicity in Mexico: From
theory to practice. In Margarita Hidalgo (ed.), Mexicos Language
Policy and Diversity. Language Problems and Language Planning.
18(3): 185207.
2001 Sociolinguistic stratification in New Spain. International Journal of
Instituto Nacional Indigenista (INI)
2000 Estado del desarrollo econmico y social de los pueblos indgenas
de Mxico: 19961997. Mexico: INI (2 vols.).
2000 Los Acuerdos de San Andrs Larrinzar. In Estado del desarrollo
econmico y social de los pueblos indgenas de Mxico: 19961997,
INI (ed.), 779806. Mexico: INI, vol. 2.
Keen, Benjamin
1998 The legacy of Bartolom de Las Casas. In his Essays in the Intellec-
tual History of Colonial Latin America, 5769. Boulder: Westview
Press.
Len-Portilla, Miguel
1995 La flecha en el blanco. Francisco Tenamaztle y Bartolom de las
Casas en lucha por los derechos de los indgenas (15411556).
Mexico: Diana.
Stavenhagen, Rodolfo
1988 Derecho indgena y derechos humanos en Amrica Latina. Mexico:
El Colegio de Mxico and Instituto Interamericano de Derechos
Humanos.
Velasco Ortiz, Laura
2002 El regreso de la comunidad: migracin indgena y agentes tnicos.
Los mixtecos en la frontera Mxico-Estados Unidos. Mexico City
and Tijuana: El Colegio de Mxico and El Colegio de la Frontera
Norte.
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I ndex
accepted diversity, 130
adivinanzas, 316, 317320
Aguirre Beltrn, Gonzalo, 6, 195,
202
alphabetization, 22, 147, 329
Althoff, Daniel, 17, 364
amates, 23, 301, 307, 308, 313315
American Indian nations, 176
Amerindian
languages, 68, 139
peoples, 328
Amerindian words. See also Nahuatl
words, Nahuatlisms and
Tainisms
Apologtica historia sumaria, 359
autonomy, 13, 119, 120, 173, 176,
363, 364
Aztec
civilization, 8, 29, 54
Empire, 5, 55, 58, 92
nobility, 39, 60
people, 92, 93
warriors, 54, 93
Babel ideology, 305, 376
Babel Tower, 73, 367
bilingual community, 341
bilingual education, 147, 181, 362,
364, 367, 373375
in Chiapas, 115, 119
in Guerrero, 320321
in Tlaxcala, 255, 257, 258
in Yucatan, 287294
bilingualism, 98, 144, 326, 328, 330
and migration, 225
and monolingualism, 204
conscious, 22, 293, 295
coordinated, 290
diglossic, 285
instrumental, 285
integrative, 285
recessive, 333
societal, 233
bilingualization, 192, 193, 229, 241
Bonfil Batalla, Guillermo, 48, 49,
55, 89, 90, 91
Brevsima relacin de la destruccin
de las Indias, 359
Brice Heath, Shirley, 79, 97, 101,
360, 361
Bureau of Indian Affairs, 173, 178
castellanizacin, 18, 20, 203, 258,
259, 320
Catholic Church, 67, 133, 193
Cherokee, 174
Chicasaw, 174
Chocktaw, 174
Christianization, 45, 57, 103
Cifuentes, Brbara, 18, 47, 58, 79,
101, 139, 196, 361, 362
and Dora Pellicer, 96, 327, 361
and J os Luis Moctezuma, 78,
96, 139, 140, 283, 306, 329,
362
Ciudad J urez, Chihuahua, 114
clash of civilizations, 5457, 102
clash of globalizations, 367
Cdice Florentino, 39, 40
Comisin de Concordia y
Pacificacin (COCOPA), 15,
133, 134
Consejo Nacional de Fomento
Educativo (CONAFE), 20, 22,
281, 286, 287, 289, 290, 291,
296, 297
conversational routines, 334, 337
Corts, Hernn, 92, 100, 358
378 Index
Creek, 175
criollos, 9, 33, 39, 42, 46, 47, 70,
71, 75, 76, 77, 360, 361, 362
Cruz, Sor J uana Ins de la, 9, 30,
31, 44-45, 7075
cultura propia, 10, 89, 90, 117
cultural democracy, 5, 119, 120
cultural semantics, 7, 34
Declaracin Universal de los
Derechos Lingsticos de
Barcelona (1996), 14
democracia comunitaria, 114
demographic trends, 9499
diglossia, 5, 26, 285, 328
diglossic reversals, 302, 308, 310
Diario Oficial de la Federacin, 16,
156, 162, 164165
Daz del Castillo, Bernal, 33, 35, 36,
37, 38
Direccin General de Educacin
Indgena (DGEI), 20, 21, 22,
253, 258, 259, 281, 287, 363
Doctrina y enseanza de la lengua
mazahua, 328
Ejrcito Zapatista de Liberacin
Nacional (EZNL), 11, 12, 13,
14, 15, 112, 114, 132135,
167, 168
encomenderos, 359
English, 130, 308, 309, 342, 343,
366
ethnic groups
Balsas Nahuas, 307310
Choles, 105
Mayas, 234
Mayos, 209, 234
Mazahuas, 2425, 234, 326,
331334, 336, 339, 342, 344,
345, 339, 346348
Mixtecs, 20, 209, 365
Nahuas, 23, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63,
66, 309
Native American(s), 187, 188
Otomis, 220, 226
Tepehuas, 220
Tlapanecs, 220
Tojolobales, 105
Triques, 209
Tzeltales, 105
Tzotziles, 105
Zapotecs, 20, 209, 365
Ethnolinguistic groups (EG), 205,
231233
Egyptian civilization, 71
Egyptian pyramids, 73
Five Civilized Tribes, 174175
Fishman, J oshua A., 3, 4, 5, 12, 46,
69, 80, 88, 132, 145, 250, 252,
268, 271, 285, 286, 295, 325,
326, 327, 328, 330, 331, 344,
347
Florentine Codex, 40, 317
Flores Farfn, J os Antonio, 23,
252
forbidden diversity, 130
Fox Quesada, Vicente, 135, 172,
177, 179, 314
Franciscan(s), 31, 56, 62, 57, 100
General Law, 167, 363,
General Law on Linguistic Rights of
Indigenous Peoples, 13, 14,
127128, 132, 136, 164165,
167170, 179186, 363
globalization, 12, 367
alternate, 366, 367
and the Iberian expansion, 7
and the Renaissance, 7
mainstream, 7, 366, 367
Golden Age, 8, 71, 76
Graded Intergenerational Disruption
Scale (GIDS), 3, 4, 5, 24, 29,
33, 40, 42, 46, 47, 50, 119, 252,
325, 326, 330, 331, 333, 334,
345, 347, 368
Stages of the GIDS,
Index 379
Stage9 (or substratum), 47, 48,
50
Stage8, 4, 5, 48, 331, 332, 333,
334
Stage7, 4, 5, 252, 333
Stage6, 4, 5, 33, 46, 47, 70, 252,
333
Stage5, 4, 5, 252, 333, 347
Stage4ab, 4, 5, 252, 333
Stage3, 4, 5, 334
Stage2, 4, 5, 33, 39, 42, 47, 70,
333
Stage1, 4, 5, 40, 119, 331, 333
Great Tenochtitlan, 6, 55, 100
Hale, Kenneth, 306
Hidalgo, Margarita, 12, 76, 143,
266, 360
Hill, J ane, 251, 257, 266, 275, 285
and Kenneth Hill, 250, 251,
257, 271, 296
Historia Eclesisticai indiana, 31,
64
Historia General de las cosas de la
Nueva Espaa, 8, 40, 61 63
Historia verdadera de la conquista
de la Nueva Espaa, 31, 33
human rights and linguistic rights,
130132, 359
Hymes, Dell, 325, 326, 347, 348
ignored diversity, 130
Imperial Colegio de Santa Cruz de
Tlatelolco, 39, 60, 64, 78
impersonal society (IS), 328, 331,
333, 346
Indianization, 3, 6, 31,
external, 32, 36, 37, 58
internal, 32, 36, 38, 58
indicators of language maintenance
and shift, 191, 236241
indigenismo, 192, 202, 203, 361
indigenous home(s), 204, 205
Indigenous Intercultural Bilingual
Education (IIBE), 287, 288,
289, 291, 292, 293, 294
indigenous linguistic diversity, 197
intervention, 23, 304, 308, 316
Instituto Nacional de Estadstica,
Geografa e Informtica
(INEGI), 169, 172, 192, 206,
282, 302, 306
Instituto Nacional Indigenista
(INI), 136, 145, 149, 172, 205,
302, 306
Instituto Nacional de Lenguas
Indgenas (INALI), 16, 20, 115,
145, 149, 169
intergenerational transmision of the
mother tongue, 286, 337, 341
interpreters and translators, 115, 348
intervention, 306, 312
intimate community (IC), 328, 331,
333, 344, 346
J esuitic synchretism, 70, 71
justice in the MIL, 149
journalism, 7778
Kircher, Athanasius, 71, 72
Ladefoged, Peter, 306
language attitudes, 9, 119
language loyalty, 303, 346
language maintenance, 25, 26, 69,
88, 101, 241, 242, 286, 303,
339, 344, 360, 362
language maintenance and shift, 59,
68, 81, 87, 88, 89, 91, 97, 98,
120, 192, 193, 206, 235, 295,
303, 348, 367
languge policy, 8, 89, 357, 358,
359, 360, 363, 367, 370372
language shift, 4, 10, 59, 66, 67, 88,
89, 94, 100, 101, 117, 120,
205, 206, 263, 302, 305, 327,
348, 357, 361, 367
Large Indigenous Languages (LIL),
380 Index
18, 212216, 217, 220, 221,
222
las Casas, Bartolom de, 26, 82,
365366
Lastra, Yolanda, 37, 139, 145
Latin, 39, 59, 67, 68, 103
legal neologisms and terminologies,
148
legal proceedings, 148
Ley General de Derechos
Lingsticos de los Pueblos Indge-
nas, 17, 128, 129, 138, 145151
Leyes de Burgos, 13, 358
Liberation theology movement, 119
linguistic diversity, 130, 181, 197,
347
linguistic rights, 130, 131, 150, 176,
181, 185, 186, 187
linguistic vitality, 205, 242, 316,
329, 330, 333
literacy, 103, 333, 347
Lockhart, J ames, 37, 38, 41, 56, 57,
58, 95, 101
Malintzi region, 250, 252, 253, 272
Malintzin, 92, 93, 94
Manrique, Leonardo, 139, 140
McCaa, Robert, 9496
Mendieta, J ernimo de, 31, 32, 40
Mesoamerican area, 54, 55,56, 207
civilization, 7, 10, 49, 8992,
102, 381
languages, 49, 56, 87, 88, 101,
peoples, 10, 54, 57, 8991, 105,
329
mestizaje(s), 6, 7, 12, 56, 203, 327
mestizo(s), 33, 42, 46, 47, 48, 96
metalinguistic awareness, 146, 334,
346
Mexican colony, 56, 58, 69, 71, 75,
366
Mexican Constitution, 11, 15, 135,
172, 362
Mexican indigenous languages
(MIL), 5, 8, 10, 16, 18, 19, 20,
53, 58, 69, 78, 79, 80, 97, 120,
145, 146, 147, 149, 151, 169,
191, 193, 196, 197, 199201,
205, 206207, 327, 357, 358,
364, 368
and indicators, 219234
and SIL, 227229
and the mass media, 149150
classifications, 158160, 161,
199201
families (or phyla), 218
geographic distribution and
permanence, 219224
Mexican states, 194
Aguascalientes, 209, 211
Baja California Norte, 20, 208,
209, 365
Baja California Sur, 208, 209
Campeche, 105, 109, 207, 208,
211, 212, 220, 226, 282,
292
Chiapas, 11, 12, 26, 104, 105
110, 112, 113, 115, 116
117, 119, 120, 167, 207,
208, 209, 211, 212, 220,
226, 227
Chihuahua, 114, 207
Coahuila, 205
Colima, 208
Durango, 105, 207
Federal District, 209, 212
Guanajuato, 206
Guerrero, 23, 105, 207, 209, 211,
220, 226, 227
Hidalgo, 207, 209, 211, 212,
220, 226
J alisco, 105, 208
Mexico, 207, 211, 212, 220
Mexico City, 207, 209, 212, 226
Michoacn, 207, 211, 212, 220
Morelos, 207, 212
Index 381
Nayarit, 207
Nuevo Leon, 208
Oaxaca, 105, 109, 117, 207, 209,
211, 212, 220, 226, 227
Puebla, 207, 211, 212, 220, 226
Queretaro, 207, 212, 220
Quintana Roo, 105, 109, 207,
208, 209, 211, 212, 220,
226, 282
San Luis Potosi, 105, 207, 209,
211, 212, 220, 226
Sinaloa, 105, 207, 208, 209
Sonora, 207, 208, 209
Tabasco, 105, 207, 209, 211, 212
Tamaulipas, 208
Tlaxcala, 92, 207, 208, 211, 212
263, 272
Veracruz, 117, 207, 209, 211,
212, 220, 226
Yucatan, 105, 109, 117, 207,
208, 209, 211, 226, 282,
283, 284, 286, 295, 296
Zacatecas, 209, 211, 365
Moctezuma, J os Luis, 194
Molina, Alonso de, 37, 39, 40, 41,
42, 59, 67, 78
mother tongue, 147, 286, 302, 307,
310, 312, 318, 321, 328, 331,
334, 335, 336, 337, 338, 339,
345
multilingualism, 192, 193, 195, 206
multiple deprivation, 104, 116
Muscogee (Creek), 175
Nahuatlisms, 34, 35, 36, 37, 41, 42,
44, 50, 74
Nahuatl words, 32, 36, 37, 38, 41,
42, 43, 44, 45, 314, 315
nationalism, 6, 80, 242
national indigenous language(s), 24,
146, 181, 182, 183
Native American(s), 187, 188
Native American language survival,
189
Native American Languages Act of
1990, 170, 171, 176, 177, 178,
187190
Native American Languages Act of
1992, 178
neo-zapatista(s), 12, 13, 113, 114,
364, 365, 367
New Spain, 6, 7, 46, 59, 70, 79, 195,
359
New World, 7, 9, 13, 29, 30 36, 42,
57, 60, 64, 77, 358, 350
Palafox y Mendoza, J uan, 6, 30
Parodi, Claudia, 6, 33, 58, 70, 74,
143
Paz, Octavio, 7075
Pellicer, Dora, 14, 24, 25, 102103,
335
Pfeiler, Barbara, 22, 285, 286, 331
primary sources, 155
private and public domains, 150
Program of Educational Assistance
to the Indigenous Population
(PEAIP), 289, 291, 292, 293,
294, 297
Proyecto de Revitalizacin,
Mantenimiento y Desarrollo
Lingstico y Cultural
(PRMDLC), 307, 308, 318, 320
Ramrez Celestino, Cleofas, 308,
311, 315, 317, 318
Recopilacin de Indias, 359
recovery mission, 58, 120, 360
Relaciones geogrficas, 64
Renaissance, 7, 59, 67, 71, 358, 366
Republic of Christ, 60
repblicas de indios, 171
resistance, 103, 109, 119, 120
riddles, 23, 307, 316, 317320
382 Index
reversing language shift (RLS), 3, 4,
5, 8, 9, 25, 26, 49, 53, 55, 58,
59, 69, 88, 272, 311, 321, 347,
357, 358, 362, 363, 364, 366,
368
reversing language shifters, 59, 79,
81, 250, 347
Ricard, Robert, 100, 101
Romanized indigenous languages,
102, 103
Ruiz, Samuel, 111, 113
Sahagn, Bernardino de, 6, 8, 59
66, 67, 78, 314, 317
San Andrs Larrinzar Accords
(SALA), (1996), 11, 12, 13, 14,
15, 114, 115, 119, 133, 134, 136,
149, 314, 363, 368
Second Vatican Council, 111
semantic extension(s), 3538
Seraphic Order, 8, 62, 360
Serrano, Enrique, 205
Sigenza y Gngora, Carlos, 31, 43
Sistema Nacional de Indicadores
para la Poblacin Indgena,
192, 205
Small Indigenous Languages
(SMIL), 18, 219
social change, 116
socialized literacy, 347
socio-historical determinants, 116,
120
sociolinguistic census, 183, 185, 363
socio-religious movements, 89, 103,
104, 105, 113, 120
Spanish language, 9, 14, 24, 30, 32,
33, 42, 44, 55, 58, 68, 69, 70,
76, 77, 100, 103, 140, 143, 144,
146, 150, 180, 195, 202, 203,
205, 252, 296, 302, 309, 316,
318, 320, 327, 328, 333, 334,
336, 339, 342, 344, 348, 360,
361, 362
Speakers of indigenous languages
(SIL), 18, 97, 98, 109, 110, 117,
192, 193, 195, 197, 201, 202,
203204, 205, 207210, 211,
219226, 227229, 230, 231,
233235, 241
Sub-Commander Marcos, 114
Substratum. See also. GIDS, Stage 9
Summa de visitas, 328
survival, 57, 87, 89, 92, 94, 98, 105,
112, 116, 120
Swadesh, Mauricio, 139
syncretism, 104
Tainisms, 31, 32, 34, 35, 37, 42
Teotihuacan, 73
Tenochtitlan, 93, 120, 170
tribal governments, 176
Universal Declaration of Linguistic
Rights of Barcelona (1996), 132
US States, 18, 20, 174, 175, 178,
301, 365
US Mexican diaspora, 367
Valds, Luz Mara, 97, 110, 193
videos, 23, 307, 311
Vocabulario en lengua castellana y
mexicana y mexicana y
castellana, 31, 37
Western civilization, 53, 71, 89, 195
workshops, 307, 312
X(ish) language, 4, 5, 6, 48, 50, 55,
58
Y(ish) language, 4, 48, 49, 50, 55
Zmiov, Lenka, 22, 285, 286
Zapatista National Liberation Army,
112, 167, 168
zapatista uprising, 108, 273
Zapatistas, 133, 134

Mexican Indigenous Languages

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Mexican Indigenous Languages

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Mexican Indigenous Languages

at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century

Contributions to the Sociology of Language

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