Indigenous Professors Successfully Create Mam Language Classes at UC Berkeley

Sep 13, 2021

Dear Readers,

There were a lot of news to potentially highlight this week, such as El Salvador's protests against bitcoin and judge dismissals or Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras becoming world hotspots for environmental and land defender killings. Yet, slower institutional changes, like the inclusion of an Indigenous language from Guatemala into formal college courses are also worthy to take note of in Central American news coverage.

Henry Sales, a Guatemalan interpreter from Huehuetenango now living in California, and Silvia Lucrecia Carrillo Godínez, a Guatemalan Mam teacher now in San Juan Atitán, have made their dream come true after years of efforts -- to give Mam language classes in Laney College at UC Berkeley. Henry states that it is a victory for him and the migrant community in the United States, as there are there are about 12 to 15 thousand people who speak mam in Oakland. About 40% of all languages are at “some level of endangerment,” according to UNESCO, so this news is welcome for Indigenous language activists.

Have a good read -- see you next week!

Salú,

Melissa

Silvia Lucrecia Carrillo Godínez (photo from La Hora/Courtesy)

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Headlines

Migration

📰 Shut Down Irwin: After years of organizing, migrants held at the notorious Irwin County Detention Center have been moved out from the Georgia jail.

📰 Remain in Mexico: The Biden administration is reinstating the “Remain in Mexico” policy that it formerly criticized for creating “inhumane conditions” at the border.

📰 Path to Citizenship: Democrats are proposing a path to legal citizenship in their partisan spending bill in the Senate.

📰 TPS: U.S. extended the Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, Central Americans and others for another 15 months.

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Belize

📰 COVID-19: Beginning Oct. 1, Belizeans must offer proof of vaccine in order to enter any public space, including schools and public transport.

📰 Economics: The Government of Belize made a "historic" investment in the Development Finance Corporation, an equity investment large enough to help support Belize's economic recovery.

📰 Conservation: The Association of Protected Areas Management Organizations has called on the government to stop mining for gold in a protected national park.

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Costa Rica

📰 COVID-19: Costa Rica's vaccination efforts are lagging behind other Latin American countries as the Delta variant has derailed the country's vaccination strategy. About 60% of the population has received one dose of a vaccine.

📰 Education Cuts: Finance Minister Elián Villegas is proposing significant cuts to the education budget for 2022 in order to pay off the country's debt. The cuts include scholarships, internet access and a program that provides food for children, affecting the most vulnerable students in rural, coastal and Indigenous communities.

📰 New Climate Contract: President Carlos Alvarado is calling for the international community to look towards a new global contract to fight the climate crisis with a greater commitment from developed countries.

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El Salvador

📰 Bitcoin: On Sept. 7, Bitcoin became a legalized currency within El Salvador. The "Chivo Wallet" app, however, experienced massive complications on the first day. The price of Bitcoin plummeted, causing the country to lose $3 million. Hundreds of people in El Salvador protested Bitcoin’s legalization.

📰 Judges: Judges also held a protest on Sept. 7 against a recent decree that immediately retired a third of the country’s judicial employees. Jorge Guzmán, the judge overseeing the El Mozote Massacre trial, is the exception to the rule, but he still called for the reinstatement of all the dismissed judges.

📰 COVID-19: So far, 3 million people within the country are fully vaccinated. Between Sept. 1 and 7, more than 2,000 new cases of COVID-19 infections were registered. With the number of cases quickly rising, Hospital El Salvador stated that they are on the verge of collapsing.

📰 Water Advocacy: A Legislative Assembly commission voted for water not to be privatized and that the State has the obligation to guarantee the human right to drinking water. However, advocates fear that this change is only “cosmetic”. // Two groups filed a claim against a governmental permit to allow the construction of the megaproject “Ciudad Valle El Ángel."

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Guatemala

📰 #JusticiaParaAngieYBlanca: The Colegio Sagrado Corazón de Jesús held a vigil in memory of Angie and her mother Blanca. They went missing on Sept. 5 and were found dead three days later in a sewage river. The students complained how the school did not support them or express any condolences to the student body for their deaths. Students and other Guatemalans demand justice for these victims of femicide.

📰 COVID-19: Doctors from Roosevelt Hospital filed an injunction against President Giammattei and the Minister of Health, Amelia Flores, in the Constitutional Court for violating the right and access to health of Guatemalans. Recent parties and crowds are believed to increase the occupation of beds for positive COVID-19 patients in hospitals.

📰 Concepción Ramírez: Concepción Ramírez, or “Doña Chonita”, died at the age of 79 on Sept. 10. She was a Maya Tz'utujil weaver and merchant and a survivor of Guatemala's internal armed conflict. Her face had been engraved on 25-cent coins.

📰 Identified Remains: Guatemalan authorities identified the skeletons of 14 victims who died during the 2018 eruption of the Fuego volcano.

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Honduras

📰 OAS at elections: The Organization of American States (OAS) announced that it reached an agreement with the Government of Honduras to send an electoral observation mission to Honduras, which will hold its general elections on November 28. // Honduras must restore citizen confidence and avoid violence in the run-up to the elections, said U.N. representative.

📰 China, Taiwan, and elections: Taiwan accused China of seeking to use the Honduran election to "create controversy" and undermine Taiwan's long-standing ties with the country, as Honduras' main opposition party vowed to switch diplomatic recognition to Beijing. Honduras is one of just 15 countries that maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

📰 COVID-19: Covid-19 vaccination begins for minors this week, and Honduras surpassed 9,000 deaths due to the covid-19 pandemic since 2020. Investigative media Contracorriente says that the Honduran government is occulting its contract with Pfizer through unconstitutional means.

📰 Digital currencies: After Bitcoin was implemented in El Salvador, the central banks of Honduras and Guatemala are currently studying central bank digital currencies (CBDC).

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Nicaragua

📰 Sergio Ramirez: Former Vice President and writer Sergio Ramirez was formally indicted on charges of “conspiracy to undermine the national integrity” and money laundering. Sergio Ramirez revealed that his new novel is held back on customs.

📰 Politics: The opposition Blue and White National Unit (UNAB) announced its decision to work clandestinely in Nicaragua to prevent members who remain in the country from being arrested, as has already happened with 12 of its leaders.

📰 COVID-19: Small private oxygen tank providers closed their operations. People who get infected and need oxygen will have to go to a health center. // The government's “voluntary vaccination” program will be open to anyone over 30 years old starting Sept. 20. Current vaccination rate is still under 10% of the population.

📰 Costa Rica: Costa Rica has received 22,000 asylum requests from Nicaraguans in 2021. // Political activist Joao Maldonado, exiled in Costa Rica, was shot four times last weekend in San José. He is currently in medical observation.

📰 Environment: 12 environment activists were killed in Nicaragua in 2020, the highest number per-capita in the world.

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Panama

📰 Migrants: Panama and Colombia want to create an elite group that will focus on prevention, investigation, and prosecution of human trafficking and migrant smuggling between the two countries.

📰 COVID-19: The Panama Canal administration reported 63 new COVID-19 cases. The company reached out to the Panamanian Ministry of Health for support to test workers. Reports show that since the pandemic began, a total of 1,777 employees have been infected, 21 deaths and 1,682 have recovered.

📰 Domestic Violence: The director of National Institute for Women (INAMU), Nellys Herrera, addresses the increase in domestic violence in Panama through an analysis that intertwines the culture of “machismo” in Panama and the lack of strategy on behalf of the Public Ministry and its educational programs.

Tweet This: Environmental Defenders

Three of the worst countries for environmental defenders' lives are in Central America. In 2020, 17 land defenders were killed in Honduras, 13 in Guatemala and 12 in Nicaragua, according to a new report from Global Witness.

Doña Chonita

Guatemalan Youtuber Byron explains the story behind Doña Chonita's coin in under 3 minutes.

Good Reads

📌Blactina: Afro-Panamanian founder of Blactina Media Nydia Simone talks about her work to amplify the voices of Afro-Latinxs (in Bold Latina).

📌About 9/11: The legacy of the 9/11 terrorist attack and how it has justified a heightened border security regime that the Biden administration is sustaining. (in The Border Chronicle)

📌Surviving The Virus: As the pandemic ravaged New York the hardest, migrant communities are struggling to keep themselves safe and alive. (in El Faro)

📌Bitcoin Protest: "We are facing a cowardly generation": Lady Drag the protester who encourages young people to take to the streets to fight for their rights. (in La Prensa Gráfica)

Video tweet below:

La Prensa Gráfica @prensagrafica

El Salvador | "Generación cobarde, salga a exigir sus derechos", es la consigna con la que Lady Drag se ha unido a la concentración contra la bitcoinización de la economía salvadoreña, en la Plaza Salvador del Mundo. Foto LPG/Julio Umaña.

Good News

✨Robotics: The Guatemalan National Robotics Team is among the top 10 out of 175 countries participating in the Olympic-type world competition. (Prensa Comunitaria)

✨ Claudia Lars: The work of acclaimed Salvadoran writer Claudia Lars will be produced into a Netflix series (in Diario El Salvador)

✨Linguistics: Guatemalan interpreters and teachers of the Mam Mayan language Henry Sales and Silvia Carrillo Godínez successfully created a program to teach Mam language and culture at Laney College in California (in La Hora).

Film Festival

📅 October 7-10: The Panamanian Film Festival in Los Angeles will take place between Oct. 7-10. Purchase Your Tickets Here

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