Nahuatl language in the United States

The Nahuatl language in the U.S. is spoken primarily by Mexican immigrants from indigenous communities and Chicanos who study and speak the Mexicano language as L2. However, as there is no official census of the language, the exact number of speakers is unknown. During the last decades, the United States has carried out many educational initiatives aimed at teaching Nahuatl as a language of cultural heritage.[1]

Use in education

Many universities, centers and schools in the United States offer Nahuatl classes. The University of Utah is one of several academic institutions in the United States that regularly teach the Nahuatl language.[2] There are also Nahuatl professors who teach Nahuatl classes at the University of Texas.[3][4] The University of California in Los Angeles Latin American Institute has a program of classes in Nahuatl.[5] The University of Arizona has been offering the language course since 2020, taught by a native speaker from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.[6]

A charter school in Lynwood offers Nahuatl classes to its high school students, thanks to a graduate student from UCLA. In addition, a native speaker of Nahuatl has been teaching Nahuatl classes for 26 years at a local church in Santa Ana.[5] Another educational institution, Academia Semillas del Pueblo, is a charter school in Los Angeles where the Nahua language and culture are taught to students of all ages.[7]

Use in daily life

Unlike the other languages of Mexico that are spoken in the United States, a large portion of Nahuatl speakers are Mexican-Americans. Many of this group have created their own identity by connecting with the Mexica culture. Since Nahuatl is identified as the language of the Mexica, the Chicanos have appropriated it as a symbol of their identity. There are many who speak Nahuatl with native Mexican speakers and others who prefer only to speak it with other Chicanos. Likewise, the Nahuatl connection with its own identity is the reason why many of them have Nahuatl names.[7]

On the other hand, Nahuatl is used by inmates in prisons in New Mexico, California and other states to speak in code, an issue that has greatly concerned officials.[8] In many prisons in the United States, many Chicanos have taken it upon themselves to promote the language within the prison system (using it as prison slang). Typically, inmates also use the language to confuse and provoke guards, as in the known case of an inmate being reprimanded by a guard who says to her friend "¿tlen ajko ika inon siuatl?" (What's up with that woman?). They also teach the language to new inmates, and there are cases of people from ethnic groups other than Mexican-Americans who ended up learning the language because they heard it every day.[9]

In New Folsom, California, staff intercepted a Nahuatl dictionary, which shows the adaptation of the meaning of many words that ended up forming inmates' slang used when they speak the language. In this way, the achautli (chiefs) of the gangs issue their secret orders in Nahuatl so that the pitsomej (pigs / policemen) cannot understand what they are doing or planning.[10] In addition to these two terms, some of the words, variations and meanings of this argot are: kapuli (school), siuatli (lady), kuilonyotl (punk), ixpol (northerners), kanpol (southerners), kauayoj (heroin), makuajitl (war club), malinali (marijuana), mika (brother), tuka (snitch), ilui (days), momo (your hand), kimichimi (spy), tekoni (speak), tla (yes), ma (no), ti (you), tlilipol (blacks), topile (law), tuia (soldier), itstoli (shank), auilnema (intercourse), vei (big), vel (good), mixchia (wait), mixpatsinko (salutations), yakatl (point), pochtekatl (trader), pili pol (small person), oktli (pruno), kan (south), pili (senor), aula (come), kali (cell) and yuali (night).[11]

In the fall of year 2016, an entire scene of an American television program was filmed in Spanish and modern Nahuatl, making that the first time the Mexicano language was heard on an American broadcast.[5]

In California, Nahuatl is the fourth indigenous language of Mexico that is present in the agriculture of the state, behind Mixtec, Zapotec and Trique.[12]

See also

References
  1. "Nahuatl Across Borders (El Náhuatl Cruzando Fronteras)" (PDF). Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. "Nahuatl Spoken Here Marriott Library". www.lib.utah.edu. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  3. Valenzuela, Liliana. "As Nahuatl wanes in Mexico, UT instructor tries to keep language alive". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  4. "Team – Nahuatlahtolli". tlahtolli.coerll.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  5. "Language of the Aztecs alive and well in Los Angeles". www.international.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  6. "Critical Languages Program Adds Course in Nahuatl". College of Humanities | University of Arizona. 2019-12-09. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  7. "El náhuatl en Los Ángeles: el papel de una lengua indígena en la creación de la identidad chicana" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. "Inmates use Aztec language to speak in code". KOAT. 2012-04-20. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  9. Hansen, Magnus Pharao. "Nahuatl Inside: Transracial lives and experiences of neo-Aztec activists in the US". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. "Rebirth of Nahuatl as Prison Argot | Responsive Translation". Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  11. Valdemar, Richard. "A Nahuatl Dictionary". www.policemag.com. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  12. "Lenguas indígenas". www.indigenousfarmworkers.org. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
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