Information about constitutional rights during encounters with immigration authorities is most often published in English and Spanish. For many Indigenous migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, and South America, neither is a first language. This collection addresses that gap.
About the resource
Hosted by the Language Revitalization Lab in the University of Oregon’s Department of Linguistics, the page gathers audio and video recordings in languages including Chatino, Náhuatl, Ch’ol, K’iche’, Q’anjob’al, Popti’, Me’phaa, Mixtec (Sa’an Savi and Tu’un Savi), Quechua, Triqui, and Zapotec. The recordings were produced with community organizations and researchers, among them Pueblo Unido PDX, the Colectivo de Intérpretes Indígenas de Oregón, the MILPA Collective at UC Santa Barbara, the Mixteco Indígena Community Organizing Project, and the Endangered Language Alliance.
Many entries include a graphic for sharing on social media, and some Mixtec materials come with written monolingual and bilingual versions. The page also links to materials made by other organizations, including resources in American Sign Language.
From: Language Revitalization Lab, University of Oregon, with the MILPA Collective (UC Santa Barbara) and community partners
For: Indigenous-language speakers, and the interpreters, organizers, and educators who work with them
Format: Audio, video, written guides, and shareable graphics
Where to start
- Find the language family, then the specific variety, that matches the listener.
- Download the shareable graphic for that language group to circulate the recording.
- Use the written Spanish script as a reference when working with interpreters.
The project asks how communities can produce and share knowledge under new restrictions. This collection is one answer: rights information made by and for speakers of Indigenous languages.