Mezcalero Amando Alvarado Alvarez wants to preserve that foundation in his community of Santa Maria Ixcatlan. He wants to build a library and classroom that is dedicated to the Ixcatec language. Will you support him in preserving his community’s native language?

The generally accepted measure for language security is when 100,000 or more people use the language. In a 2020 report from INEGI, Mexico’s National System of Statistical and Geographical Information, only 195 people were identified as speaking this language that originated in Santa Maria Ixcatlan, Oaxaca. That community is a remote mountain town of fewer than 600 people that has only been accessible by car for just over 50 years. I’ve been told that it used to be home to tens of thousands of people, but the residents left in search of jobs. And upon leaving, they also assimilated to the local languages of their new communities.

So what’s the damage done when a language is lost? There was a recent article in National Geographic about the efforts to preserve ‘ōlelo, the native language of Hawaii. Here’s a quote from that article, from N. Ha‘alilio Solomon, assistant professor of Hawaiian language at University of Hawaiʻi:

“A language is a dialogue with the environment… it captures the essence of that place where it developed better than imported languages. Being able to know these couple dozen words for different types of rain that Hawaiian has, that English doesn’t…that's something that's just, I think, really meaningful to be able to experience. It always gives you more. You see more colors in the spectrum. It's a richer experience.”

Language is the very foundation of culture – of a culture. Here’s Amando’s plan for preserving that foundation:

Project Implementation

The classroom that would be utilized has already been identified in the town center. It’s a property owned by the municipal government. Amando would himself lead the conversion of the space into the classroom, which would be utilized by local residents. It’ll include a few desks, a couple of blackboards, and 30 seats … materials and books and a computer and a printer.

Budget

Total expenses for this project are 215,000 pesos – around US$12,750, as of this writing. We are projecting that it would take about four months for the conversion of the space to be complete and the first classes to be hosted, once funding is completed.