Open AccessLinguistic Motherwork in the Zapotec Diaspora: Zapoteca Mothers’ Perspectives on Indigenous Language Maintenance
Author(s) -
Ramón Antonio Martínez,
Melissa Mesinas
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the journal of the association of mexican american educators, inc./the journal of the association of mexican american educators, inc.
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2377-9187
pISSN - 2377-9160
DOI - 10.24974/amae.13.2.431
Subject(s) - diaspora , indigenous , multilingualism , sociology , language ideology , indigenous language , gender studies , bilingual education , ideology , linguistics , construct (python library) , pedagogy , political science , ecology , philosophy , politics , computer science , law , biology , programming language
This article explores Indigenous Mexican mothers’ perspectives on multilingualism and Indigenous language maintenance in their children’s lives. Drawing on interview data from a larger qualitative study of language and ideology among multilingual children in Los Angeles, California, the article examines the perspectives of four Zapotec mothers who have children in a local public school with a Spanish-English dual language program. The interview data highlight what these women think and do with respect to the maintenance of the Zapotec language in the lives of their school-aged children. Critical Latinx Indigeneities and the feminist notion of linguistic motherwork are used to highlight the intersectional nature of these women’s efforts to construct and sustain indigeneity in diaspora.