Nahuatl status (ii)

[Yaoxochitl at aol.com]

I'll answer your query Leonel.  I too have heard that there  are about 1.5
million speakers of Nahuatl.  A friend of mine who is a "danzante" interacted
with fellow Mexicah dancers down in D.F. and according to him the language is
alive and well, in fact, gaining momentum with non-speakers to learn it also.
 It appears that there might be a Nahuatl "fever" spreading throughout Anawak
though here in the U.S. nobody hears about it.  I believe Nahuatl will endure
even with encroachment of Spanish unleashed by the Mexican government's
language policies on its mother tongues.  The majority of Mexicans regard
their native language as socioeconomically backwards even going as far as
expressing self-hatred by labelling Nahuatl speakers as "indio."  Self-hatred
in the sense that these same Mexicans that insult and belittle, not only
Nahuatl speakers but all speakers of an indigenous language, most likely have
native blood running through their veins themselves since about 90% of the
population of Mexico constitutes mixed and full-blooded indigena.  I am
drifting into other topics here, but the bottom line is, Nahuatl will endure.