Bolivia leads indigenous languages preservation

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Thirteen years after becoming the first Latin American country to define itself as plurinational constitutionally, Bolivia is leading a project to preserve indigenous languages.

In line with the saying “from words to deeds, there is a long way to go”, it took 16 years for the new project, the Ibero-American Institute of Indigenous Languages (IIALI), to complete the arduous journey from the declaration of political will to becoming a reality.

The creation of IIALI was agreed upon and declared a priority at the 2006 Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Montevideo; the commitment was reaffirmed at the 2018 Summit in Guatemala and ratified at the 2021 Summit in Andorra, to finally materialize in February 2022 in La Paz.

VANGUARD

“It is not by chance that Bolivia has been designated IIALI headquarters and holds the institution’s pro tempore presidency for the initial two-year period. It results from a process of accumulation of ideas, actions and, mainly, political and social decisions,” political analyst Vicente Guardia told Sputnik Agency.

The researcher of the private social research institute Comunidad Cívica, from El Alto, said that beyond controversies and mistakes in the process of incorporation of the indigenous majorities into the political, economic and social life, Bolivia is the scene of “a vanguard transformation, of which the IIALI is one of the most important milestones”.

“The mere entry into operation of IIALI is a demonstration that it is possible, for a country or for the international community, to move from discourse to action, in this case from the expression of a will to the effective construction of an instrument for the liberation of peoples, even assuming the economic obligations that this entails,” said the analyst.

He stressed that the Bolivian experience could be an example of how it is possible to formulate an idea and consolidate it into a project over the years.

“In 13 years of validity of the new Constitution promulgated by Evo Morales, the plurinational concept introduced by Bolivia has ceased to be seen as a quasi-folkloric curiosity, as some skeptics saw it, and has become a cornerstone of a new vision that is increasingly accepted in other countries,” Guardia said.

INSTITUTE

IIALI was officially launched on February 10 and 11 in La Paz at two high-level meetings of governments, international organizations, and indigenous peoples of the continent, with the aim of “confronting the threats to the more than 550 indigenous languages still spoken in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as to promote their use, conserve, revitalize, foster and develop them,” according to its founding declaration.

At the first meeting, government and indigenous representatives fulfilled the mandate of the 2021 Ibero-American Summit by constituting the First Intergovernmental Council of IIALI. At the second, they formally inaugurated its work.

These activities were attended by representatives from Bolivia, Colombia, and Mexico, countries with full membership in the initiative, and delegates from Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, and Peru, invited countries in the process of becoming full members.

Also in attendance were executives from the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC), which serves as IIALI’s technical unit, the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), and the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science, and Culture (OEI).

The meetings in La Paz also defined the creation of the IIALI Consultative Committee, made up of the SEGIB, the OEI, and indigenous organizations, under regulations to be approved by April.

Bolivia has facilitated the launching of IIALI by making available to the project both its experience in promoting knowledge and indigenous rights and its institutional capacity, said Freddy Mamani, the local vice-chancellor, who holds the pro tempore presidency of FILAC, at the inauguration of the project.

The official considered it essential that the IIALI develop the capacity to provide technical assistance to Ibero-American countries in “the formulation and implementation of public, linguistic and cultural policies for indigenous peoples”.

He also stressed that Bolivia could share its experience in conservation, especially the application of the constitutional norm that since 2009 requires that all civil servants must know Spanish and one of the 36 native languages recognized in the country, for which Quechua, Aymara, and Guarani schools have been opened, in addition to isolated courses in other languages.

“There are some 7,000 known languages in the world, but according to the United Nations, at least one indigenous language disappears every two weeks, and, with it, indigenous peoples’ cultures, knowledge, and other values,” said Mamani, an indigenous man from an Altiplano region where Aymara and Quechua coexist.

According to Saúl Vicente, director of International Affairs of Mexico’s National Institute of Indigenous Peoples, the IIALA is an initiative that puts Ibero-America at the forefront of the recently initiated Decade of Indigenous Languages declared by the United Nations.

Indigenous languages “contain the ancestral knowledge of our peoples, they maintain biodiversity; where indigenous languages are lost, biodiversity is lost. And in the current circumstances of our planet, we cannot allow that,” said Vicente at the inauguration of the IIALA.

The director of Indigenous Populations of Colombia, Luis Sevillano, said that “the Institute poses a great challenge, that of making safeguarding and protection effective so that languages become a driving force for the development of nations”.

The leadership of the protection and promotion of indigenous languages, which is a great responsibility, is now in the hands of Bolivia due to its double pro tempore presidency, that of FILAC and that of IIALA, warned the researcher Guardia.

With information from Sputnik