Tequiologies: Indigenous Solutions Against Climate Catastrophe
with Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil
Linguist, writer, translator, language rights activist, and researcher ayuujk (mixe)
Introduced and moderated by Natalia Brizuela and Alex Saum-Pascual
Presented in partnership with the Center for Latin American Studies. Co-sponsored by Alianza UCMX, Spanish & Portuguese, the Arts Research Center, and The American Indian Graduate Program.
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Or watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZGEKAWBu2do
For access to the English Transcript: Click Here!
For access to the Spanish Transcript: Click Here!
It is a myth of the West’s choosing: perpetual economic growth, advancing through a digestive system of sorts, one that uses technology as one of its core components. In its churn, ecosystems became goods; people, mere consumers. The myth turned the world into a place increasingly inhospitable to human life. An alternative, offered by Abya Yala, lies in separating economic development and the development of new technologies from consumerism. This would place technological creation and ingenuity once again at the service of the common good, not of the market. Technology as tequio; technological creation and innovation as a common good.
About Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil
Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil (Ayutla Mixe, 1981) forma parte del COLMIX, un colectivo de jóvenes mixes que realiza actividades de investigación y difusión de la lengua, historia y cultura mixe. Estudió Lengua y Literaturas Hispánicas y cursó la Maestría en Lingüística en la UNAM. Ha colaborado en diversos proyectos sobre divulgación de la diversidad lingüística, desarrollo de contenidos gramaticales para materiales educativos en lenguas indígenas y proyectos de documentación y atención a lenguas en riesgo de desaparición. Se ha involucrado en el desarrollo de material escrito en mixe y en la creacion de lectores mixehablantes y otras lenguas indígenas. Se ha involucrado en el activismo para la defensa de los derechos lingüísticos de los hablantes de lenguas indígenas, en el uso de las lenguas indígenas en el mundo virtual y en la traducción literaria.
Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil (Ayutla Mixe, 1981) is a member of COLMIX, a collective of young Mixe people who carry out research on Mixe language, history and culture. She studied Hispanic Languages and Literatures and holds a Master's degree in Linguistics from UNAM. She has participated in many projects aimed at fostering linguistic diversity and developing educational materials in indigenous languages, as well as projects documenting and calling attention to endangered languages. She has been involved in developing written material in Mixe and furthering the emergence of readers of Mixe and other indigenous languages. She has been active in the field of literary translation, in the defense of indigenous language speakers’ linguistic rights, and in advocating for the use of indigenous languages in the virtual world.
About Natalia Brizuela
Natalia Brizuela is the Class of 1930 Chair of the Center for Latin American Studies, and a professor of Film & Media and Spanish & Portuguese at UC Berkeley with affiliations in the Program in Critical Theory and Gender and Women's Studies. She is also a Project Director and Co-PI for the Mellon funded International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs. Brizuela is the author of Fotografia e Imperio; Depois da Fotografia; and The Matter of Photography in the Americas among others. She is Co-Editor of the book series Critical South (Polity).
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