Present-Day Policies Concerning Indigenous Languages in the Americas: A Geographical Approach

Abstract

Global changes in policies regarding Indigenous people, observed in the last decades, have had a strong impact on language policies in the Americas. They are aimed at increasing protection of Indigenous languages, especially in countries with a higher number and percentage of Native people and Indigenous language speakers (ILS). However, it is argued in the paper that the scope of these policies is often not adapted to changes in spatial distribution of Autochthonous populations, while their effective implementation in many cases seems outright impossible. The first part of the paper sums up an analysis concerning the number and spatial distribution of Indigenous people and ILS in countries and dependent territories of the Americas. The second part shows the evolution of policies towards Indigenous languages in the Americas from the colonial era to our times. The last part studies spatial aspects of the situation of Indigenous languages in Mexico City, based primarily on qualitative data obtained from interviews and observations carried out during field research. The paper concludes: that a clear progress has been made in language policies in the last decades in the analysed region, especially in Latin America; that there is no obvious difference in the implementation of these policies between unitary and federal states; and that, based on the case of Mexico City, the implementation of a relevant language policy may be seriously hindered by such factors as insufficient financing, political disputes, and a deeply embedded discrimination against Indigenous languages.