Against forecast, Mayan languages ​​are seeing a resurgence. The most surprising is where: USA

Destiny sometimes has the most unexpected surprises. The arrival of Donald Trump to the United States presidency has put in Diana to immigration as one of the problems Washington administration priorities. At the same time, in a turn of events very difficult to anticipate, Mayan languages ​​are making their way and extending … in the United States.

From the highlands to Oakland. I told it in an extensive BBC report last week. Aroldo, a young man from San Juan AtitánGuatemala, undertook a trip of more than four months to arrive in California after the death of his father, carrying little more than his mother tongue: THE MAM. This language, with roots in the Mayan civilization that flourished thousands of years ago, is today one of the many that are finding A new home in the United States through indigenous migration from Mexico and Central America.

Yes, far from disappearing, Mayan languages ​​such as Mam and K’iche ‘ They have gained strength On the other side of the border: not only are they heard in streets, Radios and local media of places like San Francisco Baybut they have become some of the languages more common in court United States migratories.

Invisibilized community. The story has many readings. One of them: the rise of these languages ​​shows a cultural complexity that has been ignored for decades. The American immigration system Classify as “Hispanics” To all immigrants from Spanish -speaking countries, overlooking that many (such as Aroldo and thousands more) They do not have Spanish as a mother tongue, and even some simply They don’t speak it.

This classification erases the social, cultural and linguistic differences that exist within Latin American migrant communities and, very important, complicates the provision of basic services. In this regard, The BBC counted that researchers such as Tessa Scott linguistspecialized in Mam language at the University of California, Berkeley, denounce that grouping all Guatemalans under the label of “Hispanics” generates errors of interpretation, lack of adequate performers, legal difficulties and rising before traumas or structural discrimination, often origin of the exodus itself.

Of ancestral languages ​​to today’s rights. There is much more, since the expansion of Mayan languages ​​is not only a consequence of physical displacement, but also cultural resilience. At present, it is estimated that more than six million people speak one of the More than thirty languages existing Maya, with mam, k’iche ‘, Yucateco and q’eqchi’ as the most spoken.

These languages, which come of the proto-demand spoken before the year 2000 AC, they are so different from each other that a Mam speaker cannot understand THE K’ICHE ‘and vice versa. Many survived centuries of colonizationto extermination of the hieroglyphs during the Spanish evangelization and to subsequent institutional oblivion. However, its vitality (and use) continues thanks to the orality and use of the Latin alphabet, imposed in colonial times, which allowed them to keep them alive in civil records, testaments and community acts still preserved in files.

The Mayan heritage. The British media counted in his report that some of these languages They have left their mark In global languages ​​without many knowing it. He term “cigar”for example, derives from the Maya Siyar, and “cocoa” (chocolate base) also has Mayan origin, being introduced In Europe By Fray Bartolomé de las Casas.

Although the hieroglyphic writing was eradicated by being considered pagan, its modern rediscovery, driven from the second half of the twentieth century by American linguists, Russians and more recently by native speakers, has allowed recover your complexity and beauty. Today, groups Like ch’okwoj either Chíikulal uuchben ts’íib They organize workshops, manufacture t -shirts and print cups with old glyphs to bring new generations to their written legacy.

A growing diaspora. It is another of the legs that reflect this Language expansion. Mayan migration to the United States has left a mark both in countries of origin and in receiving communities. In places Like San Juan Atitánthe economic model has gone from subsistence agriculture to remittance dependence (sending money from abroad). “Migrating is what our people argue,” affirmed to the BBC Silvia Lucrecia Carrillo Godínez, Mam teacher.

Migration has not only transformed its economy, but also its aspirations: learn to add, subtract some Spanish and leave for the United States has become A common strategy of social mobility.

Transforming cities. In the Bay of San Francisco, the Mayan communities initially They settled in the Mission Districtbut by increasing the costs of life, many moved to the East Bay, especially Oakland and Richmond. In fact, so much so that they said that in San Juan it was enough to say “I come from Oakland” so that the inhabitants understand the migratory context.

There, in the midst of Californian fogs, Aroldo and as many as he has found a community united by language and traditions. Participate in festivities, they receive Mam messages by WhatsApp And they dream of once again built a house in their homeland.

Language as shelter. If you want also, in a world where migrations often imply loss, the persistence of Mayan languages ​​represents a form of cultural resistance. In it case exposed in the BBC Through Aroldo, the MAM is not just a means of communication: it is a link with childhood, family and history. In the house where he lives with his cousins, he insists that his nephew (who is already going to an English -speaking school) speaks first Mam, then Spanish, and finally English.

As He indicates“The language makes the earth less surprise.” Thus, far from being a vestige of the past, the Mam de los Maya travels with him as a compass and testimony of a living civilization that reinvents himself in an unpublished and surprising way: in the United States now.

Image | Деяненко юиана лександровна, Pikpick, Dave Cooksey

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