Chatino Teacher Scholarships
Donation protected
This Chatino Language Teacher Scholarship Initiative was established by Dr. Emiliana Cruz as part of the Chatino Language Documentation Project (CLDP), which has documented the languages of the Chatino group spoken in southwestern Oaxaca state, Mexico.The purpose is to give a financial incentive to community linguists in Chatino-speaking areas that are teaching speakers how to write their own languages. The community linguists involved in this project were trained in linguistics, and thus have the capacity to carry out this project in their communities. All are young women who have a lot of enthusiasm in sharing what they know about their language. Their role is crucial to the revitalization of Chatino languages in the region. Each has committed to teach for eight hours every week.
Teacher Profiles
Celiflora Cortés - Native to the town of Tataltepec de Valdés,where the highly endangered Tataltepec Chatino language is uniquely spoken, mostly by older people. She is 34 years old and is a mother of four children. She has been giving Chatino language classes in the town library and in the bilingual school.
Gladys Cruz - Native to the town of Santa María Yolotepec, where all citizens speak a unique variety of Eastern Chatino. She is 18 years old and will give classes in the Salvador Días Mirón Elementary School, and at her home. Despite her young age, she has already spent three years studying Chatino writing and linguistics with CLDP.
Isaura de los Santos - Native to San Miguel Panixtlahuaca, where all citizens also speak a unique variety of Eastern Chatino (but quite different from that of Yolotepec). She is 26 years old. She will give classes in the Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Elementary School in her town, as well as at her home and on the community radio program Nuevo Amanecer 90.1 FM.
Luz Delia López – Also native to San Miguel Panixtlahuaca. She is 22 years old, and will also give classes at Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Elementary School and at her home.
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About the Chatino Language Documentation Project (CLDP)
This project has followed a model where local language activism and training have been driving forces in the slow, organic growth of a large scale effort to document and describe the Chatino languages, which belong to the widespread Otomanguean language family spoken over large areas of southern Mexico. It began in 2003 when Emiliana Cruz and her sister Hilaria Cruz, speakers of a Chatino language, became doctoral students at the University of Texas at Austin, working with Prof. Tony Woodbury, a specialist in documentary linguistics. The CLDP now covers all the languages. Four other doctoral students joined the project and undertook the documentation of four more Chatino languages: Eric Campbell (Zenzontepec Chatino), Ryan Sullivant (Tataltepec Chatino), Stéphanie Villard (Zacatepec Eastern Chatino), and Justin McIntosh (Teotepec Eastern Chatino), The products of the CLDP include recordings of Chatino speakers telling stories, delivering oratory, praying, and engaging in speech in their daily lives. These recordings are archived at the Archive of Indigenous Languages of Latin America (ailla.utexas.org) and at the Endangered Language Archive (elar.soas.ac.uk/) They have also produced linguistic descriptions of the languages, historical studies, and pedagogical materials, which can be found at sites.google.com/site/lenguachatino/ . Chatino languages are very special: they have highly complex tonal systems (like Chinese and Thai but much more elaborate), and in their oratory, speakers follows ancient Mesoamerican poetic traditions.
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This Chatino Language Teacher Scholarship Initiative Personnel
Dr. Emiliana Cruz, Project director, is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and native to the Chatino-speaking town of Cieneguilla, San Juan Quiahije. She received her Ph.D. in 2011 from the University of Texas at Austin and is a specialist in linguistic anthropology and in the indigenous languages of Oaxaca.
Dr. Hilaria Cruz, Project co-director, is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Kentucky’s Department of Linguistics. Like her sister Emiliana, she is also a native of Cieneguilla, San Juan Quiahije. She received her Ph.D. in 2014 from the University of Texas at Austin and is a specialist in linguistic anthropology, oratory, and poetics.
Lorenzo Tlacaelel Lambertino, Webmaster, grew up in San Mateo Rio Hondo, Oaxaca. He will receive his M.A. in Linguistics from San Jose State University, California, in 2015.
Teacher Profiles
Celiflora Cortés - Native to the town of Tataltepec de Valdés,where the highly endangered Tataltepec Chatino language is uniquely spoken, mostly by older people. She is 34 years old and is a mother of four children. She has been giving Chatino language classes in the town library and in the bilingual school.
Gladys Cruz - Native to the town of Santa María Yolotepec, where all citizens speak a unique variety of Eastern Chatino. She is 18 years old and will give classes in the Salvador Días Mirón Elementary School, and at her home. Despite her young age, she has already spent three years studying Chatino writing and linguistics with CLDP.
Isaura de los Santos - Native to San Miguel Panixtlahuaca, where all citizens also speak a unique variety of Eastern Chatino (but quite different from that of Yolotepec). She is 26 years old. She will give classes in the Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Elementary School in her town, as well as at her home and on the community radio program Nuevo Amanecer 90.1 FM.
Luz Delia López – Also native to San Miguel Panixtlahuaca. She is 22 years old, and will also give classes at Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Elementary School and at her home.
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About the Chatino Language Documentation Project (CLDP)
This project has followed a model where local language activism and training have been driving forces in the slow, organic growth of a large scale effort to document and describe the Chatino languages, which belong to the widespread Otomanguean language family spoken over large areas of southern Mexico. It began in 2003 when Emiliana Cruz and her sister Hilaria Cruz, speakers of a Chatino language, became doctoral students at the University of Texas at Austin, working with Prof. Tony Woodbury, a specialist in documentary linguistics. The CLDP now covers all the languages. Four other doctoral students joined the project and undertook the documentation of four more Chatino languages: Eric Campbell (Zenzontepec Chatino), Ryan Sullivant (Tataltepec Chatino), Stéphanie Villard (Zacatepec Eastern Chatino), and Justin McIntosh (Teotepec Eastern Chatino), The products of the CLDP include recordings of Chatino speakers telling stories, delivering oratory, praying, and engaging in speech in their daily lives. These recordings are archived at the Archive of Indigenous Languages of Latin America (ailla.utexas.org) and at the Endangered Language Archive (elar.soas.ac.uk/) They have also produced linguistic descriptions of the languages, historical studies, and pedagogical materials, which can be found at sites.google.com/site/lenguachatino/ . Chatino languages are very special: they have highly complex tonal systems (like Chinese and Thai but much more elaborate), and in their oratory, speakers follows ancient Mesoamerican poetic traditions.
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This Chatino Language Teacher Scholarship Initiative Personnel
Dr. Emiliana Cruz, Project director, is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and native to the Chatino-speaking town of Cieneguilla, San Juan Quiahije. She received her Ph.D. in 2011 from the University of Texas at Austin and is a specialist in linguistic anthropology and in the indigenous languages of Oaxaca.
Dr. Hilaria Cruz, Project co-director, is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Kentucky’s Department of Linguistics. Like her sister Emiliana, she is also a native of Cieneguilla, San Juan Quiahije. She received her Ph.D. in 2014 from the University of Texas at Austin and is a specialist in linguistic anthropology, oratory, and poetics.
Lorenzo Tlacaelel Lambertino, Webmaster, grew up in San Mateo Rio Hondo, Oaxaca. He will receive his M.A. in Linguistics from San Jose State University, California, in 2015.
Organizer and beneficiary
Lorenzo Tlacaelel Lambertino
Organizer
Santa Clara, CA
Emiliana Cruz
Beneficiary