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Indigenous Language Policy in Mexico

Zapatista Movement back in 1994

Mexico is well-known for its cultural diversity. It has 68 indigenous groups with a total population of over 16 million and it took 15.1% of the whole population of the country (IWGIA, n. d.). So, it is not surprising that Mexico does indeed have the largest population of the indigenous people in the continent which is North America (Hamel, 2008).  Each of the groups has their own original language and the total of the native language and dialects is 364 variants (IWGIA, n. d.). Because of that, Mexico is included in rank two of the ten nations that have the most diversity in its ethnic linguistics in the whole world (de León, 2016). But the challenges that the indigenous people faced is acknowledgement or recognition from the government (IWGIA, n. d.). Because of this, some indigenous people movements had been established. One of the examples is the Zapatista movement back in 1994 which brought up the issue that the indigenous people are often ignored to have a say and give an influence to the state policies (de León, 2016). This movement noticed that institutions did not properly acknowledge and nurture them, the indigenous people, for the construction of the constitutional and collective rights (de León, 2016). With so many issues that include the indigenous people, some research has been conducted, to talk more about the aspects of the indigenous culture itself, and one of them is the education system and the indigenous language policy. That being the case, the education system and language policies cannot be put aside by the government, because it is surely an important issue, especially in Mexico (Hamel, 2008).

A girl from Mayan Tribe, one of the indigenous tribe in Mexico.

Statistics have shown that the amount of indigenous languages in Mexico have shifted. During the national census held in the twentieth century for the indigenous people, there are only 62 surviving languages in the population (Hamel, 2008). It decreased in the population percentage which is 2.2 million back in 1930 with the percentage of 16%, compared to the condition in 2000 which only remains 7.2% with the total population of only 7.2 million (INEGI, cited in Hamel 2008). Because of this issue, and the effort for indigenous language maintenance, the policies regarding the use of language were made (Hamel, 2008). Other than the indigenous languages that have stated before, a few of the Mayan languages are also counted as the indigenous languages which are Tzotzil, Ch’ol and Huastee, which was proved as one of the most used indigenous languages (de León, 2016).

History of Indigenous Language Policy in Mexico

The aspect of education and language policy plays a big role in Mexico. The history of the language policy in Mexico has come a long way, since the colonization era until the present time, the twenty-first century. For about nearly three centuries of the colonial era held by the Spanish Empire (1519-1810), a certain policy was made to build a society with hierarchy following what was applied in Spain, with the three top hierarchies which are the Kingdom especially the King, the Church or may be referred to as Christianity, and the Spanish language accordingly (Hamel, 2008). That certain policy was also applied by the Aztec state, which uses Nahuatl as the main language for their pre-Hispanic kingdom (de León, 2016). At this time, Spain has already used Castilian as their imperial language (de León, 2016). The Spanish Empire in Mexico also applied Castilian as the language for the spread of Christianity, and allowed Nahuatl and other regional or indigenous languages for the same use (de León, 2016). Because of this allowance, there was some training provided for the Nahuatl and other language students to develop their literacy rate, to become priests and cultural agents (de León, 2016).

Carlos III de España (1716-1788). The King of Spain that strictly prohibited the use of Indigenous Language in Mexico.

In the start of the independence era (1810), Carlos III strictly banned the use of Indigenous languages, and some conditions happened like gradually the Nahuatl was replaced by Castilian. During this time, the main thing to focus is the use of Spanish as the language to construct the nation. By the time independence was achieved in 1821, Indigenous people were taking the most population in the country which is up to 66%. Unfortunately, in the next period following the Mexican Revolution, Indigenous population experienced devastation with Spanish becoming the major language in the country. The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) had adjusted some ideology to value more about the country’s diversity. So in 1921, the Ministry of Public Education was formed to make a standard for the national education system there. Then, during the government period of Lázaro Cárdenas (1934-1940), the first main changes in education happened, and started to include the Indigenous population. Then, indigenous language literacy was counted and seen as a new route for Castilianization, in the national education system (de León, 2016).

One of the biggest impacts was made by the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) where they started to do Bible translations to numerous Indigenous languages, and it was counted as the central point of innovative literacy made by them. Ten years after the SIL (1948), another organization was established which was the National Indigenous Institute (INI). One of the goals for INI is to make the Indigenous people integrated into the national culture through education and development by applying bilingual curriculum and doing modernization in Indigenous regions. In the late 1970s, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS) started to involve Indigenous researchers and political leaders to support their higher education construction program, to be able to promote their own language. Next, in the 1980, National Pedagogic University opened a bachelor program to train teachers for Indigenous elementary school, followed by a training for bilingual teachers, leading to an Indigenous bilingual education in the following years. Because of this, studies showed that between the years 1930 and 2005, there is an increase in national tendency towards bilingualism, which is 47% to 87.7% (Cifuentes & Moctezuma, cited in de León 2016), which stated that the program was indeed successful.

Language Policy Applied in Mexican Schools

Schools in Mexico are mainly the same with other countries, they also have preschool, elementary, lower-secondary, upper-secondary, and higher education (Monroy & Trines, 2019). There are Spanish-speaking schools and the indigenous schools (Hamel, 2008). The difference is that there is also a curriculum in schools to preserve the use of indigenous languages which is called “intercultural bilingual education” (Cambronne, 2009), this is the outcome from the evaluation of various program over the years that were not successfully help the indigenous people, for example the various programs still did not successful to increase the literacy rate between indigenous students (Monroy & Trines, 2019). This ‘intercultural bilingual education’ was created back in 2001 by Coordination in Intercultural Bilingual Education (CGEIB) that was under the Federal Ministry of Education (Hamel, 2008).

The policies that applied now surely are also the outcome from the previous policies. A study conducted in 2017 stated by that time there were some models and policies applied in schools. The first one is that indigenous schools must apply to the general primary school curriculum (a school that was designed for only Spanish-speaking students); Indigenous teachers and schools should make some changes in order to be suitable to the current condition of the students. The second one is the national mandatory textbooks that are used as the property for teaching are all designed in Spanish as the first language, not for the ones whom Spanish is their second language; and the properties that are in Indigenous languages are rarely used. Third one, even though some students might not be able to speak Spanish fluently in the start of the academic year, there will be no teaching provided for the ones with Spanish as their second language. Next, the indigenous language is used as the language of instruction, and not permanently. The last one is there is no separation for any cultures or languages, by then the most influential culture in all aspects like the material, linguistic, social and cognitive will combine with the indigenous culture. Thus it will also affect the language and cultural shift in the indigenous students (Hamel, 2008).

References

1. Cambronne, K. L. (2009). Indigenous Language Preservation in Mexican Education: The Need for Mexico to Act on its Commitment to Preserving Indigenous Languages, American University, Washington, D.C. Available at: https://auislandora.wrlc.org/islandora/object/0809capstones%3A223/datastream/PDF (Accessed: 11 January 2022).
2. de León, L. (2016). ‘Indigenous Language Policy and Education in Mexico’, in McCarty, L. M., & May, S. (eds.). Language Policy and Political Issues in Education, Encyclopedia of Language and Education, Springer, pp. 1-19. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02320-5_31-1 (Accessed: 10 January 2022)
3. Hamel, R. E. (2008). ‘Indigenous Language Policy and Education in Mexico’, in May, S., & Homberger, N. H. (eds.). Language Policy and Political Issues in Education, 2^nd Ed, Springer, pp. 301-313. DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_22 (Accessed: 10 January 2022).
4. IWGIA. (n. d.). ‘Indigenous peoples in Mexico’, IWGIA: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. Available at: https://www.iwgia.org/en/mexico.html (Accessed: 11 January 2022).
5. Monroy, C., & Trines, S. (2019). ‘Education in Mexico’, WENR: World Education News + Reviews. Available at: https://wenr.wes.org/2019/05/education-in-mexico-2 (Accessed: 11 January 2022).

(PREVIOUS ASSIGNMENT) Reasons for choosing the topic

I have always had an interest in culture, especially traditional indigenous culture and how it has its own uniqueness. Language is also a large part in a traditional indigenous culture, because it is used every day in the community. In several areas in my own country, traditional indigenous languages are still one of the mandatory subjects for children from primary to middle school. I would like to find out more about the language policy in education in other indigenous countries, hence I chose the topic about the language policy in education in Mexico.

(PREVIOUS ASSIGNMENT) Annotated Bibliography

Indigenous Language Preservation in Mexican Education

This source address more about the indigenous language in Mexico, about the preservation of the language which was now not preserved in schools. They also address about the education issue in Mexico. I select this source because it explains detail about the indigenous culture and found it from the internet.https://auislandora.wrlc.org/islandora/object/0809capstones%3A223/datastream/PDF/view#:~:text=Official%20Mexican%20policies%20guarantee%20the,as%20%E2%80%9Cintercultural%20bilingual%20education.%E2%80%9D

Indigenous Language Policy and Education in Mexico

This source address about the education system in Mexico, that there is an indigenous school. I got this journal from the internet and selected this journal as one of the sources because the concept of indigenous really intrigued me.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226350391_Indigenous_Language_Policy_and_Education_in_Mexico

Indigenous Language Policy and Education in Mexico

This source discusses the issue of intercultural education, which is a new system or paradigm to be applied in Mexico.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319382464_Indigenous_Language_Policy_and_Education_in_Mexico

English Language Education Policy in Colombia and Mexico

This source explains about the English language policy in Mexico, and I chose this because English is an international language and to know that it is taught in Mexico is interesting for me.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED567063.pdf

The Teaching of Spanish as a Second Language in an indigenous Bilingual Intercultural Curriculum

This source discusses about the policy that is applied in the bilingual intercultural curriculum in Mexico.

https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.548.3973&rep=rep1&type=pdf

(PREVIOUS ASSIGNMENT) Draft Article

Indigenous Language Policy in Mexico

Indigenous Language Policy is usually applied in countries or areas that still have and apply traditional rituals, cultures and language. As the world develops, the use of indigenous or traditional language decreases. Some areas fortunately still pay attention toward the issue and use various methods to maintain their indigenous languages. Some areas include it in school’s curriculum, and make the indigenous language as a mandatory subject for the students. Also, I chose this topic because I have always had an interest in culture, especially traditional indigenous culture and how it has its own uniqueness. Language is also a large part in a traditional indigenous culture, because it is used every day in the community. I would like to find out more about the language policy in education in other indigenous countries, hence I chose the topic about the language policy in education in Mexico. So what indigenous language policies that Mexico has? Do they still plan to maintain their indigenous language to the student in school? Do children still speak their indigenous language?

In this article, I will explain more about the questions above. What is the situation of indigenous language in Mexico? Unfortunately, the indigenous languages in Mexico are not making a progress, that happened because of the indigenous languages are not used or preserved as they should be in school (Cambronne, 2009). We will know about the situation in the other school, is it applied in all schools? This article will explain about the indigenous language in Mexico, the definition of the indigenous language policy, the language policy that is applied in Mexican schools, the situation or the output of the policy, and also the feedback it gets after the policy was applied.

The first thing that will be discussed is the indigenous language in Mexico. As an indigenous country, there is more than one indigenous language. There are some of the major indigenous languages spoken in Mexico today, which are Nahuatl, Maya, Zapotecan and Mixteca (Cambronne, 2009). This is the main thing to be discussed in the article so that the readers will be more aware and get the insight of the languages. By then, they will be more invested towards the issue. The second subtopic that will be discussed is the definition of the indigenous language policy itself, because it is not applied in all country, especially in country with only one main language. It is needed to be discussed because people may not know or aware of the policy. By then, it will be a great transition to the main issue which is the indigenous language policy that is applied in Mexico. Lastly, this article will discuss the indigenous language policy applied in Mexican schools. The issue will be discussed whether they teach the indigenous language in the school nowadays. Reflecting back to the statement stated by Cambronne (2009), we need to see if the situation gets better or worse.

Some references will be included in this article. Some references came from researchers and scholars from Mexico. These articles were chosen because by choosing researchers from the country itself, they will know the real condition in Mexico. I have chosen five references, but along the way if I found another resources, I will include it in the article.