• Rodrigo Ranero, PhD (University of California, Los Angeles)
• Ivonne Heinze Balcazar, PhD (California State University Dominguez Hills)
• Jaime Pérez González, PhD (University of California, Santa Barbara)
• Cynthia Vazquez, PhD (University of California, Los Angeles)

This panel focuses on indigenous languages of the US, Mexico, and Guatemala that have rarely been discussed in the literature on heritage languages. Our intention is to broaden the typological scope of the literature and highlight how these languages and their speakers can provide unique perspectives within a burgeoning field.

Pérez González will present his work in Mexico, where heritage speakers/learners of indigenous languages have recently begun to be discussed. Focusing on a case study of Mocho’—one of the less documented languages in the Mayan family—he will highlight the differences between present-day heritage learners who were exposed to Mocho’ during childhood and those who wish to reclaim the language without prior exposure. The Mocho’ case is particularly complex since many of the learners speak other Mayan languages from the region in addition to Spanish.

Heinze-Balcazar turns to another Mayan language: Kaqchikel, one of the most vigorously used languages in the family. Kaqchikel is spoken in Guatemala by over half a million people and is also the heritage language of a significant immigrant population in the US. Heinze-Balcazar will discuss grammatical similarities among Kaqchikel speakers with different histories of exposure and multilingualism, focusing on traits such as ergative/absolutive agreement and tense, aspect, and mood marking on predicates.

Vázquez turns to the US/Mexico border and discusses Kumiay by focusing on the efforts of a group of Kumiay grandmothers who are seeking to strengthen their language through land-based pedagogies. The talk highlights the nature of the Transborder Indigenous Education practices employed by nations such as the Kumiay, shedding light on the community’s methods and goals to revitalize their language, traditions, and culture.

Each talk will be 20 mins long, followed by 10 mins that will include a short commentary by moderator Ranero and audience questions.