Language Gain, Language Loss: The Production of K'iche'tellano in Highland Guatemala

Abstract

This ethnographic study examines the emerging language practices of a local Maya community in Nueva Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan, Guatemala. The authors utilize racial formation theory (Omi & Winant, 1994) to demonstrate how state apparatuses, such as language restriction laws and the constitution have contributed to the formation of racial categories such as Ladinos and Indians, racial constructs that did not occur prior to the Spanish colonialization. In addition to the structural effects on racial formation, the authors examine the cultural representations that emerge in the process of racial formation, namely Maya resiliency, a pan-Mayan identity, and evolving language practices that incorporate K’iche’ and Spanish. Data in this article show that while members of this Maya community may fight to preserve K’iche’ in the face of macro-level racial projects that aim to eliminate all Mayan languages, they simultaneously produce micro-level practices that sustain the ideological underpinnings that privilege the Spanish language. More specifically, we find that while participants’ use of Spanish and K’iche’ is highly contextualized, they also produce hybrid language practices that reflect the ongoing racial projects and linguistic transformations that Maya peoples undergo. We refer to the participants’ mixed language code as “K’iche’tellano,” a term that captures the competing, yet complementary interaction between the two languages: K’iche’ and Castellano (Spanish from Spain). We conclude that the emerging language practices in highland Guatemala are neither assimilationist or counterhegemonic, but both, representing the competing racial projects that operate in Guatemala.

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