English + Español
It’s a sunny Saturday in the small mountain town of Ocongate, Cusco in the Peruvian Andes, towering 3,533 meters (11,591 feet) above sea level. People from nearby rural communities arrive to sell and buy goods, ranging from quinoa to construction bricks.
English + Español
Nawa Nika, or Nelita Rodríguez Campos (as she’s known in Spanish), gets up every morning very early to light the kitchen fire. Some fireflies still leave halos of light on the horizon and the stars are beginning to fade into morning.
Around the time I was born, the Oglala Lakota activist—at the time—associated with the American Indian Movement (AIM), Russell Means, visited Nicaragua and met with Indigenous peoples who had sided with the contras against the leftist Sandinista government.
English + Español
In my experience as a Zapotec writer, translator, speaker and activist in the Zapotec diasporic context, I have been working to write and maintain my Indigenous language in the United States.
English + Español
Runasimi is my mother tongue. My infant babbling and discovery of words were made in that language, also known as Quechua.
I burst into laughter when someone suggested calling our new student organization “Children of the Corn.” My mind snapped to the horrifying slasher films based on Stephen King’s short stories.
Right now, some days ago, five hundred years ago, three hundred years ago, fifty years ago, thirty years ago, ten years ago, some days ago, Indigenous people have been killed.
English + Español
My family in Bolivia keeps the weaving tradition alive. We are Quechua speakers from a community called Candelaria in the state of Chuquisaca.
