Chiapas information

As Mexico is one of the countries with the greatest linguistic variety in the world, some studies
confirm Chiapas as one of its states with the most indigenous language speakers (first place in
2020). However, it remains to be further explored in what ways linguistic instrumentalization
also becomes a historical means of power. In this sense, the case of the Dominican order can
be considered, whose linguistic mastery served since 1545 both to evangelize, and in the long
run to isolate and exclusively control the large tributary population of the bishopric of Chiapa
and Soconusco. However, on the other hand, since the 18th century the friars began to
abandon Mesoamerican multilingualism,

in favor of the more decisive Castilianization of Bourbon regalism. This change in attitude
culminated during the Mexican nationalism of the 19th century, through the literacy methods of
two Chiapas Dominicans. “Spanish” was thus consolidated as an integrating and sociocultural
homogenizing factor of the country, while the richness of Mesoamerican multilingualism still
subsists under the sign of stigmatization and exclusion. The dynamism of Amerindian
languages has grown significantly since 1992, after the controversial quincentennial of the
“discovery” of America.1 In 1999, UNESCO officially recognized the value of the mother tongue
and twenty years later, in 2019, the UN declared the International Year of the Mother Language
to set every February 21 as the day of commemoration “There is no language without
peoples”. Mexico being one of the ten countries in the world with the greatest linguistic variety,
the federal government has supported such measures and promoted preservation policies.

2 However, the current conditions and the official celebration do not eliminate the social
perceptions or the historical process that continues today. marginalizing and discriminating
against more than seven million Mexicans, whose native language is one of the sixty-eight of
Mesoamerican origin still in force.3

If in 2010, Chiapas ranked third nationally with the highest number of indigenous languages, in
2020 it has become the state with the most speakers; exceeding 30% of the state population.4
Currently Tseltal, Tsotsil, Chol and Zoque are spoken, while the Mayan languages Mochó (or
Motozintleco), Cakchiquel, Quiché, Jacalteco, Lacandon and Tojolabal are in imminent
disappearance.

Studies on the linguistic phenomenon of Chiapas date back to the 1950s, when archaeologists,
anthropologists, historians and linguists began to explore different aspects of this sociocultural
wealth.5 However, there is still a need to question and analyze historical-cultural relationships
that instrumentalize the language for the purposes of power and social control.6 My purpose is
to open such a gap, considering this current Mexican state as a territory of centuries-old
struggles between Mesoamerican linguistic plurality and the imposition of Spanish. The
following is a conflicting story; since the friars of the order of Santo Domingo co-opted and
used to their advantage the diversity of languages of the region as a double tool regarding the
indigenous population: On the one hand, the tool of communication, in order to infer in the
ways to capture and modify the new reality that would be imposed on it. On the other hand, the
tool of identity, establishing collective parameters of belonging and otherness related to the
colonial system.

Next, I will begin with related aspects between multilingualism and the natural diversity of the
Chiapas territory since ancient times. Subsequently, I will focus on the changing strategies
undertaken by the Dominican order between the 16th-19th centuries. As is known, the
Dominican order achieved incontestable supremacy in religious, sociocultural and political-
economic terms since the end of the 16th century. Since 1545, he achieved control of a large
indigenous parish through his missionary work, in addition to the administration of his own
convents and chapels, as well as sugar mills, farms and prosperous agricultural and livestock
ranches. His power in Chiapas was indisputable until the confiscation carried out by the
Reform War in independent Mexico (1855-185 baruch18*