There are roughly 6,500 different languages spoken all around the world. Some languages are spoken more than others, for example, the Nahuatl language.
Nahuatl is an Aztecan language native to Mexico. Being the mother language of the Uto-Aztecan languages, it was used by the Aztec and Toltec civilizations of Mexico.
Although it is spoken by about 1.5 million people throughout Mexico, according to the Latin American Institute, many are taking the time to not only learn it themselves but also teach others to keep the language from “falling asleep.”
Cuitlahuac Martinez is from the San Gabriel Valley and has been learning Nahuatl for the past 5 years, and teaching it to others for 4 and a half years. He was inspired after visiting Mexico City in 2015.
“I fell in love with the city, the museums, the culture... I didn’t have to tell anyone how to say my name,” Martinez said. “It was this overwhelming feeling.”
Martinez said that after this trip, he wanted to dig deeper into his culture and the history of his ancestors.
“A language is the heart of every culture,” Martinez said.
Straight to the heart, he went. Martinez started reading books and articles about Nahuatl and joining groups to connect with people who shared the same desire of learning and appreciating the Nahuatl language.
Martinez connected with a Nahuatl learning group on Facebook, and they all started meeting every Sunday at Marsh Park in Los Angeles. After being told they couldn’t meet there without a permit, they gathered at one person’s house before finally ending up at the LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes where he taught in-person classes for free to whoever wanted to attend. Nonetheless, the learning never stopped.
“It’s important when learning Indigenous languages to build community,” Martinez said. “Everything we do is community-based.”
He said that along with teaching people how to speak Nahuatl, he provides them with resources that they can utilize along the way on a variety of topics from exploring identity to breaking generational trauma. Martinez feels that it is important to keep Indigenous traditions and languages “awake.”
“If a language becomes asleep, or dormant, then a whole worldview, a whole identity falls asleep as well,” Martinez explained. “It’s a different way of seeing the world.”
Aztlān Tenōchtitlan shares these same sentiments about the Nahuatl language.
When Tenōchtitlan was 20 years old, he visited his great-grandmother in Guerrero, Mexico, and heard her speak in Nahuatl. This is the first time he was introduced to the language.
Tenōchtitlan hadn’t seen his great-grandmother since he was about 4 years old and although had some memories of his grandmother, he had very little.
“When I met her again I was 20 years old and she was 103 years old, that blew me away,” he said. “My biggest surprise was that she spoke an ancient language, and when I asked around [my family] said, ‘oh, it’s just an Indian dialect.”
He said this was the best way his family and other people in the village could understand and explain it because “Nahuatl, as a mother tongue, has not been given its respect.”
“Meeting my great-grandmother and knowing she spoke that language was kind of like a culture shock to me,” Tenōchtitlan said. “All I knew was that I was Mexican American, born in Orange County from Mexican parents and we spoke Spanish and that we had to learn English to assimilate to this larger, dominant culture. That instilled in me an interest to find out more.”
Tenōchtitlan looked to videos, articles and books where he can get his hands on information about the language and his ancestry.
“When it comes to language, one never stops learning. I will always be a Nahuatl student and a teacher,” Tenōchtitlan said.
Both Tenōchtitlan and Martinez continue to virtually teach and share this language with others, along with the rest of their collective Tlahtoltapazolli. This collective is based in Los Angeles and seeks to teach, inform and promote the Nahuatl language to anyone interested in learning.
“If anyone wants to learn an Indigenous language, go for it,” Martinez said. They welcome new learners with open arms.
More information on the collective can be found here.