Language Vitality in Southern Mexico: Histories of Forced Relocations

From the mid 1950s to the late 1980s, thousand of indigenous people -particularly Mazatecos and Chinantecos – were relocated from their towns in the state of Oaxaca to the state of Veracruz, to make way for two large dams. There is no record of how many families where relocated, and only few anthropological accounts followed these processes, They all agreed in describing these relocations as ethnocidal, and that the languages were in risk of disappearing. Half a century after the relocations, contrary to what was predicted, we find linguistic communities of Mazatecos, Chinantecos, Nahuas and Zapotecos in the region of southern Veracruz. Due to their lack of territory, language has become a determinant factor in the reproduction of identity and the social, economical and political organization of these communities. In this presentation we discus some of these communities and the conditions under which their languages have persisted.

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