Young Speakers of Mexican Indigenous Languages: Contesting Language Ideologies and Policies
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Young speakers of Mexican indigenous languages: contesting language ideologies and policies Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy by Lucia Tina Brandi August 2018 1 Declaration This work is original and has not been submitted previously in support of any degree, qualification or course All sentences and passages quoted from published sources have been specifically acknowledged by referencing to author, work and page(s). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lucia Brandi 2 Abstract Young speakers of Mexican indigenous languages: contesting language ideologies and policies In Mexico, the institutionalisation of language rights is reconfiguring discourses of indigeneity. Cultural and linguistic diversity are increasingly reframed as national patrimony, and generic notions of indigeneity firmly embedded into national identity. While such discourses coincide with global concern at language endangerment, they are better contextualised as policy responses to social unrest which, from the late 20th century onwards, has been effective in instrumentalising linguistic and cultural identity as a mobilising factor. This study is set in the highlands of central Mexico, in a stronghold of indigenous Totonac language and culture, and moreover, with a unique and recent history of social and cultural mobilisation. The study deconstructs prevailing language ideologies and policies, and analyses how local language management, especially in education, healthcare and policing, is perceived by young (16-25) bilingual speakers of Totonac and Spanish. The objective is to unpack conditions and processes which function in the valorisation of a linguistic culture, and more importantly, in its social and linguistic well-being or conversely, its minoritisation. Chapter 1 provides theoretical contextualisation, discussing research objectives, key informative concepts such as language valorisation and minoritisation, and arguing that buen vivir, or holistic sociolinguistic well-being, best serves as barometer and objective of language policy. Chapter 2 analyses the post-independence socio- linguistic environment in Mexico, reviews research on Totonac language and culture, and constructs a recent social history of Huehuetla/Kgoyom. This focuses on the agency of the Organización Independiente Totonaca, which, this thesis argues, has definitively shaped local sociolinguistic context. Methodology and decolonising research praxis are discussed in Chapter 3, alongside this study’s community engagement. The greater part of the thesis is dedicated to analysis of findings (in Chapter 4), allowing space for reflection on the theorisation of local, experiential experts. After extrapolating the implications of this analysis for wider theory, and considering application to language policy (Chapter 5), the thesis then concludes (Chapter 6) by reviewing how ideologies and policies of language are informed by the expertise of young bicultural speakers of Totonac and Mexican indigenous languages. A distinctive feature of this study is its simultaneous community engagement project, which has published the first mainstream children’s text in Kgoyom Totonac. The talking storybook (Tsikan chu Nipxi’ / La Viejita y la Calabaza / Buri and the Marrow) combines text and audio in Totonac, Spanish and English, and offers a resource for local literacy and language maintenance, and exposure for an understudied language. It was produced in collaboration with the only independent, Totonac-led high school Colegio Paulo Freire, Totonac language maintenance caucus Xtachuwin Kinkachikinkan Xa Akgtutu Nakú and UK-based children’s publishers Mantra Lingua (see Appendix 1). 3 Acknowledgements This PhD was made possible by a scholarship of the E. Allison Peers Fund, administered by the University of Liverpool, for which I am sincerely grateful, with thanks to former trustee, Prof. Chris Harris, for encouraging me to apply. I also gratefully acknowledge a research grant towards fieldwork from The Society of Latin American Studies (SLAS), and support from both institutions to present papers on this research at conferences in London, Manchester, Newcastle and Cambridge. Very many academic and support staff at the University of Liverpool have facilitated my studies, including from the libraries, computer and facilities services, and PGR administration. I wish to thank them again here, as I hope I have done in our personal encounters. I am very appreciative of the Disability Support Team, without whose assistance I could not have undertaken study, and on a personal note, the university’s Catholic chaplaincy team, who create an inspirational and hospitable faith community of constancy and unconditional support. I studied part-time over many years whilst I worked, and saw various changes in my supervision. I therefore specifically mention Prof. Kate Marsh, Faculty Director of Postgraduate Research, for her personal commitment to my interests. I very gratefully acknowledge the contribution of my final supervisory team, Prof. Robert Blackwood, who assumed the lead in its second year and remained until its conclusion, and Prof. Claire Taylor of Hispanic Studies, who joined in its final year. Prof. Blackwood is co-editor of the journal Linguistic Landscape, has published widely on Corsican sociolinguistics and language policy, language and new media, and the linguistic landscape of Mediterranean coastal cities, most recently contributing to the 2016 Oxford Handbook of Language and Society. Prof. Claire Taylor is Gilmour Chair of Spanish, publishing widely on Latin (o) American literature and (digital) culture, such as hypertext novels, e-poetry and net art, including the 2014 monograph Place and Politics in Latin American Digital Culture: Location and Latin American Net Art. Although secondary supervisor, her commitment has been complete. I also acknowledge the many members of MLC academic staff who have generously commented on sections of this work, either as chapters or as seminar papers, during annual and final PGR reviews, and I reiterate the thanks which I have expressed to each one individually for such time and attention. In Huehuetla/Kgoyom I am indebted to the parents, governors and alumni of the Colegio Paulo Freire (CPF), its teaching staff and supporters, with special mention of the school director Edmundo Barrios. He has built a site of learning excellence on the foundation stone laid by his predecessor, the late Griselda Tirado, who gave her life to the aspirations of Totonac young people and their families. I am indebted to the informant researcher team at CPF for their exemplary dedication, and all the CPF students who inspired this project and have generously collaborated in it. Similarly, I would like to thank the vice-chancellor of the Universidad Intercultural del Estado de Puebla (UIEP) Alibert Sánchez Jiménez for his unfailing support, and the staff and students of the UIEP past and present for their generous welcome and participation. In Puebla I gratefully acknowledge the historian and sociolinguist Dr Edmundo Hernández Amador, and his students of Náhuatl at the BUAP University, who generously shared their time and expertise with me. Similarly, I am very grateful to Dr Ramón Patiño Espino of the BUAP, who first introduced me to the CPF and permanently changed my life and studies. Special mention is made of the late Dr 4 David Brye, friend, travel companion, campaigner and exemplary human being, whose home and library remain a hub for students from the sierra and whose loss is keenly felt by many. I am also indebted to my beloved poblana friends who opened their lives and families to me. Although we remain in contact I miss them greatly. In the production of Tsikan chu Nipxi I would like to acknowledge the many members of the translation, artistic and technical teams based at the CPF, and to express again our appreciation to the final editors: poet and CPF Totonac language teacher Prof. Pedro García Hernández; CPF governor and former mayor of Huehuetla/Kgoyom Don Mateo Sánchez; and Totonac-language poet and writer Manuel Sainos. Last but not least, sincere thanks to Robene Dutta and all the team at Mantra Lingua Publishers for unwavering solidarity to this project, with which they launched their “Endangered Language” series of interactive children’s literature. I also very happily acknowledge the solidarity of MLC staff and undergraduate and postgraduate students, and my personal friends who have promoted the book, including with trilingual Totonac / Spanish /English story-telling in Liverpool’s primary schools and central library, and who have supported sales of the book here, which subsidise its free distribution by CPF in Huehuetla/Kgoyom. Finally, I wish to mention those who have reviewed parts of this work as a personal kindness: Jane Harry for comments on Chapter 1, Dr Ramón Patiño Espino for remarks on Chapter 2, and Dr Michelle Harrison for generous and timely practical assistance. I also reiterate here the thanks I hope I have expressed privately to my personal friends and family, to my university colleagues in both MLC and the ELC, and to my fellow student friends and office-mates for their precious friendship and support over the years, and to whom I also wish every happiness and success. I dedicate this thesis to the memory of Manolo Olmos García, alumnus of the CPF, from the community of Lipuntahuaca, Huehuetla/Kgoyom. Totonac poet,