The Education of Indigenous Citizens in Latin America

Regina Cortina, Regina Cortina

• Editorial: Multilingual Matters
• Año: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781783090976
• Categoría: Languages & Linguistics
• Categoría: Linguistics

This groundbreaking volume describes unprecedented changes in education across Latin America, resulting from the endorsement of Indigenous peoples' rights through the development of intercultural bilingual education. The chapters evaluate the ways in which cultural and language differences are being used to create national policies that affirm the presence of Indigenous peoples and their cultures within Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Guatemala. Describing the collaboration between grassroots movements and transnational networks, the authors analyze how social change is taking place at the local and regional levels, and they present case studies that illuminate the expansion of intercultural bilingual education. This book is both a call to action for researchers, teachers, policy-makers and Indigenous leaders, and a primer for practitioners seeking to provide better learning opportunities for a diverse student body.

1 Indigenous Intercultural Bilingual Education in Latin America: Widening Gaps between Policy and Practice

Luis Enrique López

Introduction

With 30–50 million Indigenous inhabitants, over 650 Indigenous peoples and more than 550 different languages spoken in 21 countries, Latin America is one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse areas of the world. Nearly one-fifth of these Indigenous languages are transnational or cross-border. In most of the areas that configure the region, cultural, linguistic and biological diversity go hand-in-hand; as there are endangered biological species, so are Indigenous languages at risk. It is estimated that at least 111 of the remaining 557 living Indigenous languages (20%) are on the verge of extinction (López, 2009).

The size of the Indigenous populations varies considerably across countries. Most Indigenous peoples are concentrated in the Andean region and in Mesoamerica (approximately 90% of the total). In contrast, in the Amazonian basin and the tropical forests the population of a single Indigenous peoples averages no more than 250 (cf. Sichra, 2009). In countries like Bolivia and Guatemala, they constitute demographic majorities (66% and 40%, respectively); in others, like El Salvador and Brazil, they are small minorities (0.2% and 0.4%, respectively). Politically and socially, however, all Indigenous peoples ought to be considered as minorities and thus regarded as subaltern societies or communities (Spivak, 1988). Above all, structural racism, discrimination and exclusion, and the continuation of colonial policies and practices, hinder the exercise of Indigenous rights and of human rights in general.

Indigenous populations are no longer found only in remote rural areas in the highlands or in the tropical forests. Indigenous communities and individuals have extended their influence into cities and towns. Furthermore, there are instances where large sectors of a specific Indigenous group are urban, as is the case of most Nahuatls in Mexico, Kaqchikeles in Guatemala, Aymaras in Bolivia and also Quechuas in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. For instance, 44.4% of Peruvian Quechua speakers live in cities and towns, as do 43.6% of their Aymara peers. The Mapuches in Chile and Argentina are predominantly urban (75% of the total) (see Sichra, 2009). However, living in an urban area does not necessarily imply that Indigenous peoples enjoy the rights that national legislation prescribes for all citizens or receive education that respects their cultural and linguistic characteristics. In addition, exceptional situations are beginning to arise in the present context of Indigenous relocation in society and in national politics. Countries such as Uruguay, which until recently did not report any Indigenous population, registered in the 2004 National Census that 3.5% of the population redefined itself as of Indigenous origin or ancestry (López, 2009).

Table 1.1 Indigenous peoples, populations and languages in Latin America
Country and date of National Census	Total national population	Indigenous peoples	Indigenous population		Indigenous languages	Political status of Indigenous languages
			#	%
Argentina (2001)	36.260.160	30	600.329	1.6	15	Languages of education
Belize (2000)	232.111	4	38.562	16.6	4	No recognition
Bolivia (2001)	8.090.732	36	5.358.107	66.2	33	Co-official with Spanish
Brazil (2000)	169.872.856	241	734.127	0.4	186	Languages of education
Chile (2002)	15.116.435	9	692.192	4.6	6	Languages of education
Colombia (2005)	41.468.384	83	1.392.623	3.3	65	Co-official with Spanish
Costa Rica (2000)	3.810.179	8	65.548	1.7	7	Languages to be preserved
Ecuador (2001)	12.156.608	12	830.418	6.8	12	Of official regional use
El Salvador (2007)	5.744.113	3	13.310	0.2	1	No recognition
French Guiana (1999)	201.996	6	3.900	1.9	6	Languages of education
Guatemala (2002)	11.237.196	24	4.487.026	39.9	24	National languages
Guyana (2001)	751.223	9	68.819	9.1	9	Languages of education
Honduras (2001)	6.076.885	7	440.313	7.2	6	Languages of education
Mexico (2000)	100.638.078	67	9.504.184	9.4	64	Co-official with Spanish
Nicaragua (2005)	5.142.098	9	292.244	5.7	6	Of official regional use
Panama (2000)	2.839.177	8	285.231	10.0	8	Languages of education
Paraguay (2002)	5.163.198	20	108.308	2.0	20	Guarani as co-official
Peru (2008)	28.220.764	43	3.919.314	13.9	43	Of official regional use
Surinam (2006)	436.935	5	6.601	1.5	5	No recognition
Uruguay (2004)	3.241.003	0	115.118	3.5	0	No recognition
Venezuela (2001)	23.054.210	37	534.816	2.3	37	Co-official with Spanish
Latin America	479.754.341	661	29.491.090	6.1%	557
Sources: Adapted from Tables 3 and 6 in López (2009). Notes: Although official, this information must be considered with caution since many technical and sociological problems persist in census data collection. Due to the subaltern condition of Indigenous societies, and also as part of a resistance strategy, many Indigenous individuals deny their ethnic affiliation and even the language they speak in order to present themselves as mestizos or Spanish or Portuguese speaking. In other cases, data collectors themselves, on the basis of their own perceptions and prejudices, decide who is to be registered as Indigenous or even as an Indigenous language speaker. Other sources based on estimates and on nonofficial data refer to 40 or even 50 million Indigenous inhabitants in Latin America (10% of the total population) (see López, 2009).

It is highly probable that some of the people who acknowledged that they were Indigenous did so to signal to the hegemonic sectors of society that mainstream assimilation and uniformity efforts did not succeed. Indeed, identity politics is a new factor in contemporary politics that public education systems need to seriously consider.

The general sociolinguistic configuration of Latin America and the linguistic structure and functioning of Indigenous societies also challenge common beliefs about linguistic diversity and monolingualism. Even after individuals acquire the hegemonic language, they may retain their Indigenous language for communication within the family and the local milieu. Most Indigenous communities are now bilingual, with Indigenous monolingualism being exceptional: only 9.8% in Mexico, 12.4% in Bolivia and 14.3% in Ecuador. The exception to this rule might be Guatemala where Indigenous monolingualism is much more prevalent; it characterizes 43.6% of the Maya population. In general, monolingualism persists among women and children under school age.

Multilingualism within an extended and exogamous family structure can be the norm in certain Indigenous communities of Brazil and Colombia (Sorensen, 1967; Stenzel, 2005), although with sharp differences and more prevalence in the Vaupes River area of Colombia and Brazil (Stenzel, 2005). A school-age child might speak four or more different Indigenous languages, and, indeed, in many other parts of the Amerindian world, Indigenous individuals and families speak three or four languages. In Paraguay, for example, this is the case with many Indigenous individuals and communities who speak their own language, the neighboring community’s language, Paraguayan Guaraní (the lingua franca) and Spanish (the language favored by the elites) (Meliá, 2009).

Societal multilingualism was difficult for early missionaries and educators to understand. They found it easier and more convenient to transform this anomalous situation into normality, adopting a reductionist mono­lingual perspective. To this date, limited knowledge of societal multi­lingualism and the sociolinguistic ...