Yokot’an indigenous language is strengthened in Tabasco during confinement

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Thanks to confinement, the Yokot’an indigenous language regains its strength with the help of the teacher Domingo Alejandro Luciano; this language lost 5% of speakers in 20 years.

The covid-19 not only brought negative things. In Tabasco, young people in the state had the chance to approach their mother tongue. The Yokot’an language little by little recovers its voice in the new generations; the pandemic somehow became an ally to preserve this important cultural asset.

Domingo Alejandro Luciano is the guardian of this ancient language of Maya origin, and at the Yokot’an Cultural Center, he teaches a group of bilingual youth in the town of Tucta, Nacajuca, 30 kilometers from Villahermosa.
The indigenous professor declared that it has been a challenge to fight against the “fear and shame” of the new generations who are afraid of using “the old word” again.

“The pandemic helped young people to reintegrate the bond of society and their families in the linguistic culture. I think it played a very important role in recovering what was already being lost, ” said Domingo Alejandro Luciano.

Domingo is a fellow of the National System of Art Creators and explained that the cultural center where he teaches has the objective of recovering the mother tongue, as part of the ideology and identity of native peoples.

"This is something we are doing to make our voices heard again through the language of children and young people," Domingo Alejandro Luciano added.

The bilingual teacher affirmed that this indigenous language is among the 51 variants at high risk of disappearance in Mexico, since out of 80 thousand people, only 50 percent speak it.

"We believe that linguistic public policies are required with workshops and activities that have to do with the promotion and dissemination of the Yokot'an language because it is being lost," he concluded.

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Source: Milenio

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