Latin America and the Caribbean is an extensive territory that covers 20.5 million km2, has 33 countries and at the same time a diversity of indigenous peoples that extend throughout the territory, creating a legacy of 560 different languages; This plurality of indigenous languages constitutes the identity of an entire region.
Conceptually “Language” is defined as the system that human beings in a community use to communicate. It is known that, in Latin America, the Spanish language predominates, followed by Portuguese and as a cultural influence from abroad: English and French; But, the mother tongues of Latin America are gradually being left in the background, even though they are rich in cultural heritage of the territory.
Currently, the most spoken mother tongues are Nahuatl, Quechua, Aymara, Guarani and Mapuche; However, and as mentioned above, the number of languages that correspond to each country is vast, for example: According to the report presented in 2019 by the UN Regional Office of Education for Latin America and the Caribbean, only Guatemala has 22 languages belonging to the Mayan language family, likewise, the government of Mexico indicates that the Mayan language is the most spoken in the country, followed by Nahuatl, but specifically there are 68 indigenous languages. However, according to Povos Indígenas no Brasil, the country with the largest number of languages in the region is Brazil, with more than 150 indigenous languages.
And although Latin America is proud of its valuable heritage, the reality is that these languages are at risk of disappearance, but the big question is: Why are they dissipating?
Through various investigations, the main causes of this gradual fading of native languages have been investigated, one of the most obvious is: One language has been replaced by another. According to UNESCO, a fifth of indigenous peoples no longer speak their language, but 44 of them use Spanish as a language and 55 peoples use Portuguese.
On the other hand, in the book Against Silence. Native languages and linguistic justice by Agustin Panizo, linguist expert in native languages and interculturality; He argues that “The silencing of languages occurs due to social factors, such as migratory movements, invasions, wars, etc. But above all today in our society, discrimination against its speakers.”
For this reason, we continue to search for a way or solution so that native languages do not disappear completely. One of the solutions is based on one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically number 4, quality education.
UNESCO takes up this objective through the plurilingual education project, that is, the teaching of at least three languages: mother tongue, regional language and an international language. This project promotes the gradual introduction of language teaching in the first years of schooling, with methodologies that work in favor of the inclusion and preservation of indigenous languages.
Protecting the treasure that unites all of Latin America is the work of every citizen willing to fight for their roots, since if indigenous languages irremediably disappear, a set of both social and cultural knowledge will be lost. It is essential that languages are kept alive to achieve a multilingual society and that traditional culture is preserved in a sustainable way.