MILPA: A community-centered linguistic collaboration supporting diasporic Mexican Indigenous (Indígena) languages in California

Abstract

Indigenous communities working to reclaim their languages have called for a shift from the traditional research paradigm of language documentation and description, in which outsider scholars set the agenda, to one in which community language workers take on leadership roles at every stage of the process, possibly with secondary support from outsider linguists. This article describes one such effort, a collaboration between a diasporic Mexican Indigenous (Indígena) community and university-based linguists to support community language maintenance goals in California. We discuss five key previous or ongoing project activities: (1) community-centered documentation of local Mixtec varieties; (2) literacy classes for these varieties; (3) a special class on linguistic research and activism for Indígena youth; (4) a community survey of attitudes toward and use of Indígena languages, Spanish, and English; and (5) the creation of language and literacy materials for community use.

The article offers a model of collaborative, community-centered language documentation and maintenance research that prioritizes community members’ agency, perspectives, and goals for their languages. The collaboration also serves as an example of linguistic research with and for diasporic communities, a context of growing need that remains neglected in the field. We highlight our focus on mobilizing data and analysis to create practical language materials, and we discuss some challenges we have faced.