The Word Tree: Revitalizing Indigenous Languages in Abya Yala

A collaborative effort to address some of the chronic issues affecting the preservation and revitalization of indigenous languages.

What does it mean to "revitalize" an indigenous language when approximately 6,700 of the nearly 7,000 left in the world need protection? Where to begin? Each language offers a sense of history, identity, and belonging within society to the people actively using it. The Word Tree begins by hearing directly from those still communicating in some of these less dominant languages, from Achi'es to Zapotec, and offers the metaphor of a tree whose political roots sustain the trunk of education that will bear the fruit of learning languages anew. Whether describing the tension between indigenous and state-recognized languages; the process of linguistics displacement resulting from migration; or the value of locally focused efforts in a cultural cooperative, these nine essays offer fresh and useful perspectives.

The Word Tree is the result of a collaboration between the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the University of Texas at Austin. Gathering diverse concerns, experiences, explorations, proposals, and perspectives on the revitalization of some of the continent's most imperiled indigenous languages, the contributors aim to introduce their struggle for existence to a modern world. From south to north, the Quecha or Runasimi, Maya, Zapotec or Diidxazá, Chatino, Mè'pháá or Tlapaneco, Mixteco, Mixe or Auukj, and Nahuatl languages exist in all their vast complexities and contexts. At its most fundamental level, this book is a call to develop alternative paths for human existence in which caring for one another is the consensus.

Adela Pineda-Franco is the Lozano Long Endowed Professor in Latin American Literary and Cultural Studies, and director of the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) at the University of Texas at Austin. She has authored and coedited numerous books, among them the award-winning Steinbeck y México: Una mirada cinematográfica en la era de la hegemonía estadounidense.

Socorro Venegas is the director of publications and editorial development at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She is the author of several works of fiction, including La memoria donde ardía, Vestido de novia, and the award-winning novel, La noche será negra y blanca.

Tanya Huntington is an artist and author whose published works include Martín Luis Guzmán: Entre el águila y la serpiente and a poetry collection, Solastalgia. She is currently a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte and managing editor of Literal: Voces latinoamericanas.