Por Beatriz Esquivel
Although the mother language for most Mexicans is Spanish, in Mexico, there are 68 indigenous languages that are endangered and could disappear very soon.
According to the UN, there are over 5 thousand indigenous groups that speak around 7 thousand languages around the world, representing about 5% of the world population. However, in spite of the diversity of these groups and their cosmovisions, in some cases with thousands of years of history behind them, they are now considered among the most vulnerable populations due to the systematic loss of their land and resources.
They have been forced to migrate to other countries, or to big cities, where they live in precarious conditions because they do not speak the language and, therefore, lack access to public education, resources, and services, and are even left out from the use of new technologies, which in turn exposes them to discrimination.
Indigenous languages are an important part of the culture and tradition of the history of humankind because they represent all the knowledge and understanding from the perspective of that particular language and culture. That’s why it is pretty alarming when one of these languages dies: something about that particular worldview dies with it. 2680 out of those 7 thousand languages are in danger of disappearing. That’s why the UN General Assembly has proclaimed 2019 as the international year of indigenous languages.
To honor and join this celebration, we bring our readers the ways to say “I love you” in eight different indigenous languages.
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