“Before, Spanish was never spoken,” said Aurelia Ojeda, translating the words in Kumiai of her mother, Virginia Meléndrez.
“For example, with my grandmother, with my nanny, it was all Kumiai. She says that you got up to cook, to make tortillas, to go cut firewood, and everything was spoken in Kumiai, no Spanish.”
Ojeda and Meléndrez are part of the Kumiai community of San José de la Zorra, located in Baja California, approximately one hour north of Ensenada and 12 kilometers from the Ejido El Porvenir. Once you cross the border into Tijuana, it takes approximately three hours to get there.
San José de la Zorra is a valley surrounded by several hills with extensive vegetation and according to the Ojeda family, they have a couple of schools where the children of the community attend. Classes are taught entirely in Spanish.
Ojeda, along with her son Ángel Díaz Ojeda, talked about how the Kumiai language has been lost through the generations. Ojeda, who first learned to speak Kumiai as a child, shared that not all children are currently interested in learning the language and that preserving the language depends a lot on the education they receive at home.
According to the Atlas of Indigenous Peoples of Mexico, the Kumiai language is at very high risk of disappearing. In the last census, which was carried out in 2020, only 381 speakers were recorded.
Across the border
The Kumiai population extends on both sides of the border between Mexico and the United States, reaching into San Diego and Imperial counties. It is estimated that there are about 3,500 Kumiai in this region, however there is little information on how many of them speak the language.
The Ojedas said they maintain contact with Kumiai families across the border, even though communication is a challenge because they don’t speak enough Spanish. However, they manage to get along and engage in conversations using the little English and Kumiai they know.
‘’You have to ask, because apart from that there are also very few variants of Kumiai right here in Baja,” said Díaz Ojeda.
Díaz Ojeda said that Spanish is what is spoken most on a daily basis in San José de la Zorra and he believes that discrimination occurs more within the community than outside.
‘’You have to break those strong barriers and not be ashamed of the little you know. The little you know you have to speak it because the child will look at you and follow the example,’’ he said, referring to the adults in the community who prefer not to speak the language. He believes that they are the ones who should set the example for the children so that it becomes normal and they do not feel ashamed of speaking Kumiai.
His first language was Spanish, however he said that he heard Kumiai a lot at home and understands it very well. He shared with us that he needs to practice it more.
Holding on to the little that remains
‘’And there’s no way around it, now maybe the language is going to change “Little. Hold on to the little that there is and follow it so that it doesn’t die,” said Díaz Ojeda, sharing that other words were used before that no longer exist today.
Margaret Field, a Ph.D. in linguistics and professor of Native American Studies at San Diego State University, who teaches a writing class in Kumiai at the university, said that efforts are being made on both sides of the border to preserve the language.
She mentioned that in Mexico specifically, Yolanda Meza from the Nejí community of Tecate has been teaching Kumiai online for years. And as for government initiatives, the National Institute of Indigenous Languages (INALI for its acronym) has published at least one book in Kumiai.
Díaz Ojeda shared that in an effort to maintain the language it would be important to adapt to technology because children spend much of their time on their cell phones and create an application in Kumiai for them to learn the language.
Ojeda, for her part, thinks about building a school in the future, or as she calls it, “a little willow house,” where they can teach Kumiai to the children of the community.
“The little bit that is fought for, the little bit that is rescued, the little bit that we have done or are going to do, will be enough,” said Aurelia.
Source: kbps
