native langauges

[Kara Briggs]

FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
FOR RELEASE: WEEK OF FEBRUARY 2, 2001
COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS by Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez
THE LANGUAGE OF PRAYER

This week's column is by Patrisia Gonzales

Years ago, in a sacred ceremony, something emerged from deep within and
spoke
to me: I want to pray in my own native language. That prayer led me to
recover my indigenous languages, to feel my throat vibrate and my spirit
cleanse as ancestral words course through my body, healing some cells
waiting
for me to remember.

A ceremonial leader told me that learning to pray in an indigenous language
is the quickest way to learn the language. It grounds us, and our words, in
spirit. I was forever changed when I saw Hawaiian youth salute all visitors
to their schools in the traditional call-response welcome songs of their
islands. I saw language make their spirits strong like their sacred taro
plant. They were fluent in their native tongue, which had almost died among
the Kanaka Maoli. I thought then that those of us who have been forceably
separated from the indigenous communities, languages and traditions of our
ancestors could also one day recover our languages.

I embarked on learning Nahuatl as a family legacy and a form of community
healing; it's a journey that anyone can make who wants to return to her
source. I chose Nahuatl because though my ancestors were Kickapoo and
Comanche, they married into Mexican Indian peoples. A decade ago, I started
to learn Nahuatl in Mexico City while I researched a book on spiritual
change. But our lives must be ready to carry such knowledge; mine was not.

There were others on a similar journey, collective "kalpullis" (communities
based on indigenous principles) in El Paso, Denver, Austin, Chicago,
California. A group of us came together in Albuquerque, N.M., at Kalpulli
Izkalli. The group included students who wanted to learn how to say "corn"
or
"seed" in Nahuatl as they recovered traditional agriculture, and Mexican
migrants who didn't know what the place names in their native country meant.

We brought a traditional Nahua speaker, Irene Dominguez, from Mexico who
taught us prayers to honor water, earth, wind, fire. Mapitzmitl Paz, a
ceremonial leader fluent in Nahuatl, was in charge of assisting us. This
strengthened our relationship with the elders in Mexico and left us with a
communal responsibility. We sent Paz to learn more from the elders so the
language would root profoundly within the communities here. I saw these
ideals valued and evident when I attended Comanche classes or visited other
indigenous groups preserving their language.

In our Nahuatl collective, we had much discussion about language use, how
words have an energy, how language contains instructions about culture and
the land, how our ancestors respond to the energy of those words.

"We are an earth-based people and culture that is rooted to the land.
Culture
comes from the idea of what we cultivate, and language evolved from our
ancestors' understanding of the land and ceremonial ways," the kalpulli
wrote
in a Nahuatl book that we created as a result of our learning. "These
teachings and words were cultivated through traditions that venerate and
give
thanks for everything that has been given to us for survival."

Paz says language is learned "in three spaces": the everyday, the
philosophical and the ceremonial. We sought to balance our thirst for a
philosophy that would place us and our role in the natural world -- such as
how energy changes within a day or night and in a particular season and how
that affects daily life -- with learning to greet people and welcome them
into our homes.

"You are Kickapoo; they will know you," my spiritual sister Catherine Davids
told me when I visited some of my ancestral lands. I knew only a few words
in
Kickapoo, so I read from a great teaching in Nahuatl -- and my ancestors
recognized me. I believe in the spirit world they hear all prayers in the
language of the heart. They know us even when others might question our
authenticity. Because the effort of learning an ancestral language is so
sincere, intense and energy-giving, the universe responds in kind. So my
ancestors speak to me in their languages. My dreams have changed. Kickapoo
elder Martin says, "They are calling you home."

As I speak words I have never known, it's as if they are an energy circling
within my being, re-ordering some genetic memory to return me to my origins.
To return me to the energy I've always been, untouched by forced
separations,
to Creation itself.

COPYRIGHT 2000 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE

Permit us to place these two announcement related to the Nahuatl language:

* To order Amoxizkalli, a trilingual book on the Nahuatl language, contact
Kalpulli Izkalli: (505)452-9208;Izkalli2 at aol.com; 1028 Ann Ave, SW,
Albuquerque, NM 87105. Mapiztmitl Paz is also available to give Nahuatl
instruction and can be reached at 505-268-6943 or at ehecatl at wans.net

** NAHUATL UNIVERSITY: This is the last call for anyone who wants to come to
our Winter Nahuatl Culture Course Feb. 18-24th, 2001.  The last date to
register is Jan.31st.  But we will be flexible if you can't send in your
reg.
fee.    Please e-mail ASAP. THE NAHUATL UNIVERSITY in Cuernavaca, Morelos ,
Mexico invites you to its coming up winter Intensive Nahuatl Culture
Courses.
Calle Tlacopan No. 10, Barrio de Tlacopan, Pueblo de Ocotepec,
Morelos,Mexico
62220

Live and Study in a Pyramid in the eternal spring city of Cuernavaca,
Mexico. Come to our annual visit to Ixcateopan,  the birthplace and resting
place of our great last tlahtoani, Kuauhtemok.  We will visit his sacred
bones precisely on his birthday, feb. 23rd,  and take part of this ceremony
along with hundreds of danzantes that come every year form all over Mexico
and Aztlan to honor him.  Furthermore, visit other sites and receive clases
in nahuatl philosophy,  nahuatl language, codice interpretation, indigenous
music and theatre, aztek calendar, roots of nutrition, temazkal and
medicine,
danza and kalpulli organization. And other subjects of the ancient kalmekak.
For more info, write to: mascaronun at netcall.com.mx or visit their website at
visit
http://www.netcall.com.mx/universidad-nahuatl/


*** Gonzales is the author of the forthcoming "The Mud People: Anonymous
Heroes of Mexico" and co-author of "Gonzales/Rodriguez: Uncut & Uncensored"
(ISBN: 0-918520-22-3 -- Ethnic Studies Library Publications Unit, UC
Berkeley. Rodriguez is the author of Justice: A Question of Race (Cloth-
ISBN
0-927534-69-X paper ISBN 0-927534-68-1 -- Bilingual Review Press).  We can
be
reached at PO BOX 100726, San Antonio, TX 78201-8726, or by phone at
210-734-3050 or XColumn at aol.com  Our "Column of the Americas"  is archived
under "Opinion" at www.uexpress.com   Also, the Aztlanahuac project's new
e-address is: Aztlanahuac at aol.com... The other contact info for Aztlanahuac
is the same as above.

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com