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Metalingua and UNESCO call to collect original languages of Mexico words related to sexual and gender diversity
UNESCO joins the NeO (Naming Pride) project of the civil organization in Mexico, Metalingua, to collect words used in various indigenous languages and cultures to name the diversity of sexual identities and gender expressions, to make visible the contexts in which they exist and resist, and to develop visual proposals centred on linguistic rights, including people with visually and hearing impairment.
Recognizing diversity ensures dignified treatment, promotes dialogue, and offers the potential to identify more opportunities for fairer transformations from and to different realities. Contrarily, denying it condemns societies to reproducing limited and limiting options, even leading to violence from exclusionary, discriminatory, and extremist perspectives that continue hurting humanity.
Some of the persistent challenges are
Multilingual and in mother-tongue education, which strengthens and facilitates subsequent learning processes;
Revival of traditional knowledge, cultural practices and expressions of indigenous peoples for the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage, documentary heritages, and the Memory of peoples;
Intellectual protection, food sovereignty, territories, and biodiversity;
Ensuring the security and free development conditions for individuals who do not fit into binary gender normative standards; and
Counteracting the loss of 40% of the over 6,000 languages spoken worldwide, which face the threat of long-term extinction.
We name the world to create our realities, to have a presence, and to be visible. We must name ourselves to exist.
UNESCO and Metalingua invite indigenous language users to collect those words to strengthen the recognition of the multiple intersections between different realities. The call in 13 languages, including Spanish, is open until May 20, 2024.
A committee of native language speakers who engage in activism and research within their communities will compile the collection, with selection criteria based on representing the diversity of language families and sexual and gender identities.
Some words from the collection will inspire illustrations created by individuals belonging to indigenous peoples or sexual dissidents’ persons. Each illustration will feature a word or phrase in an indigenous language as a central element of the piece for an art exhibition to commemorate the (18th of June).
The initiative is part of Mexico's preservation, protection, and inclusion of their original languages within the , led internationally by UNESCO, besides following the .
The NeO (Naming Pride) project combines linguistic policy strategies and visual design through content translations into indigenous languages, tags to identify information about the languages translated, and audio announcements to ensure accessibility and promote multilingual experiences among the population, in line with cultural and human diversity.
