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Spanish Gives Way to Quechua and Aymara in Peru and Boilivia

Indian Languages and effects on radio broadcasting

LANGUAGE AND RADIO IN PERU AND BOLIVIA

To put the Guatemalan sociolinguistic situation and its manifestation in radio broadcasting in perspective, I feel it is useful to briefly examine Peru and Bolivia, two other Latin American countries with large Indian populations. Peru has about three-and-a-half million Quechua speakers out of a total population of seventeen million. In addition there are about half-a-million Aymara speakers. Although their numbers are small, compared to the total population, the Indians are concentrated in five southern mountain departments, where they make up as much as ninety percent of the population. Over half of Bolivia's 5.2 million population are Indians, about equally divided between Quechuas and Aymaras. As in Guatemala, the Indians of Peru and Bolivia were subdued by the Spanish and then relegated to the roles of peasants at the bottom end of society.

However, there is a major difference between Guatemala, on the one hand, and Peru and Bolivia on the other hand. Both of the latter countries have had governments which have taken a positive approach to bilingual education and language planning. The Indians and peasants of Bolivia began receiving a more active role in the government since that country's 1952 revolution. In Peru, serious attention was given to the peasants after a leftwing military coup in 1969. Although other governments have come and gone in the interim in both cases, what was started could not be stopped.

Bilingual education has been at the forefront of both countries' policies. In recent years "there has been a tradition of positive government policy towards bilingual education programmes in Andean Latin America" (Minaya-Rowe,1986, 468), and moreover, the aim of these programs "as officially stated, is not to produce a nation of monolingual Spanish speakers, but rather one of bilingual Spanish-Quechua speakers" (Minaya- Rowe, 1986, 475). Bolivia's education system uses "a bilingual approach which will educate its adult population, allowing them to retain their own
languages and cultures, while at the same time providing the opportunity to learn Spanish (Stark, 1985, p541). Peru designed its bilingual education program "to draw the indigenous groups into the Peruvian mainstream efficiently and with respect shown to their language and culture" (Hornberger, 1987, 206).

Both countries have even gone a step further. IN 1975, QUECHUA WAS MADE AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF PERU (ESCOBAR 1981, HORNBERGER 1987), WHICH EVEN INCLUDED THE TEACHING OF QUECHUA TO SPANISH SPEAKERS. SIMILARLY, BOTH QUECHUA AND AYMARA WERE MADE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES, COEQUAL TO SPANISH, IN BOLIVIA (MINAYA-ROWE, 1986). ONE OF THE MANIFESTATIONS OF GIVING OFFICIAL STATUS WAS "THE USE OF BOTH QUECHUA OR AYMARA AND SPANISH ON (THE) RADIO" (MINAYA-ROWE, 1986).There are, in fact, some great differances between these countries and Guatemala in regards to the use of Indian languages in radio broadcasting.

Both countries, like Guatemala, have Catholic and Protestant stations that use Indian languages (Ballon, 1987; Fontenelle, 1985; Gavilan, 1983; Moore, 1985; Oros, 1987; Perry, 1982; Povrzenic, 1987b, 1987c). But what about privately owned commercial stations? In the Andean highlands of southern and central Peru, there are at least several commercial stations known to broadcast in Quechua and/or Aymara, in addition to Spanish (Hirahara & Inoue, 1984a, 1984b; Llorens and Tamayo, 1987; Povrzenic, 1987a, 1987b). These include at least one member of the Cadena de Emisoras Cruz, one of Peru's largest radio networks (Hirahara & Inoue, 1984a). In addition, Peru's most powerful commercial radio broadcaster, Radio Union in Lima, has an hour long program in Quechua every morning (Hirahara, 1981; Montoya, 1987). Likewise, in Bolivia commercial broadcasters are known to broadcast in indigenous languages (Gwyn, 1983; La Defensa, 1986; Povrzenic, 1983).

What is most significant, though, is that in both cases the official government stations have added Indian language broadcasts. Peru's Radio Nacional broadcasts in both Quechua and Aymara (Povrzenic, 1987a), as does Bolivia's Radio Illimani (Moore, 1985). IN FACT, THE PERUVIAN GOVERNMENT WENT A STEP FURTHER IN 1988 WHEN THEY RENAMED RADIO NACIONAL WITH THE QUECHUA NAME RADIO PACHICUTEC (KLEMETZ, 1989).

In summary, the sociolinguistic situation in Peru and Bolivia is markedly different from that in Guatemala, although all three share Spanish as a dominant language over various native languages. The difference, though is that in Peru and Bolivia, efforts have been made not only to preserve, but to give status to the native languages. Furthermore, the status of native languages in the two countries is reflected in their use by all levels of radio broadcasting in each country; private, religious, and governmental.

http://aymara.org/listarchives/archivo2001/msg00322.html

We're stopping. Hispanic fanatics declare that Quechua and Aymara are more useful than Spanish in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. In the following decades even French will still be more important than Spanish in Hispanic America. I will not speak Spanish anymore because citizens speak Quechua and Aymara and companies use Quechua and Aymara only. Spanish loses. Are you happy now? I don't but who cares, I'm a Hispanic loser.

SPANISH IS IN GREAT DANGER OF DISINTEGRATION

Films for the Humanities and Sciences, based in Princeton, New Jersey, performs an invaluable service in providing us with a vast array of informative films, useful in teaching and fascinating as documentaries. It has issued a six-part series, "Biography of the Spanish Language." It is not aimed at specialists, who might argue with many of the statements, but at the broad public; indeed, it began as a series of programs for Mexican television and possibly schools. To attract a wide public it uses the tricks of the trade: noisy background music, lighting effects, and slapstick humor. The problem is that these effects tend to drown out the speech, the subject of the series.

It treats language as the expression of a culture and its history, with literature, especially poetry, as its elevated form as opposed to the vernacular. It views Spanish from a Mexican perspective, which is understandable, since Mexico has more inhabitants than any other country. However, it mentions only briefly other Latin American forms of Spanish, with not a word about Catalan or Portuguese. The first film deals with the history of Spanish down to its introduction in the Americas. The conquistadores appear as a violent, rather stupid lot, while Indian life is romanticized. There are pictures of beautiful colonial cities, but no credit is given to the Spanish civil authorities who planned them. The Inquisition is condemned, while the missionaries,are praised. The Jesuits are lauded for having promoted the cause of independence in the colonial period. are there any books on that subject?

THE SECTION ON MODERN COLLOQUIAL SPANISH, ESPECIALLY THAT SPOKEN ON TELEVISION, IS DISCOURAGING. IT IS OFTEN DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND, EVEN FOR PEOPLE FROM OTHER SPANISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES. THE FILM MAKES LIGHT OF THIS, BUT IT IS A PATHETIC DECLINE FROM THE BEAUTIFUL SPANISH PROMOTED BY THE SPANISH ACADEMY. EVEN SOME LATIN AMERICAN STUDENTS AT STANFORD USE A SLANG UNKNOWN TO ME AND OFTEN TO OTHER LATIN AMERICANS. SOME WAISERS DEFEND THE VARIANTS AS THE EXPRESSION OF A PEOPLE, BUT THEY SEEM TO HAVE A ROMANTIC LONGING FOR THE GOOD OLD TIMES WHEN THE INHABITANTS OF ONE VALLEY COULD NOT UNDERSTAND THOSE OF THE NEXT. JOHN WONDER COMPLAINS ABOUT THIS, AND ABOUT THE MACHINE-GUN LIKE SPEECH OF YOUNG PEOPLE. INDEED, IN THE BOGOTA I FIRST KNEW, THE "ATHENS OF AMERICA," THE INTELLECTUAL ELITE SPOKE A VERY BEAUTIFUL SPANISH. NOW SCOLA REBROADCASTS NEWS PROGRAMS FROM CALI. THE YOUNG WOMEN ANNOUNCERS ON THE PROGRAM RATTLE OFF SPANISH IS HIGH-PITCHED VOICES WITHOUT THE INTONATION INDICATING COMPREHENSION. THE DECLINE OF SPANISH IN COLOMBIA IS A TRAGEDY, ADMITTEDLY INSIGNIFICANT IN COMPARISON WITH THE MAJOR TRAGEDY OF LIFE THERE.

The influence of politics on language may be baneful in many parts of the Spanish-speaking world. In 1932 I went to Barcelona to study Catalan with Pompeu Fabra, revered as the father of contemporary Catalan studies; a university is named after him. The atmosphere was very pleasant. Then came the Civil War and Franco, who suppressed Catalan autonomy and the Catalan language. The backlash has been distressing. I am probably the only surviving pupil of Pompeu Fabra, and I thought that would earn general respect. Nevertheless, a young Catalan has accused me of insulting his language, while others have charged that I am a victim of Spanish propaganda. This mentality is counterproductive, endangering Barcelona's leading place as a publisher of books in Spanish. One WAISer tells me she has an American friend who speaks very good Spanish and is married to a Barcelona businessman. They live in New York, but he does not want his children to learn Spanish. Does he realize that he is closing the door to opportunities which would open to them in the vast Spanish-speaking world?

Ronald Hilton - 4/15/01

http://www.stanford.edu/group/wais/Language/language_mexandothers41501.html