Bogota Hosts
Indigenous Festival
UNASUR Demands End to US Blockade of Cuba
Brazil's President: Emerging
Nations
In Better Shape In Financial Crisis
Chile
Claims Normal Relations With
Peru Despite Maritime Border Spat
Bogota Hosts
Indigenous Festival
Bogota - The Colombian capital is hosting on
Monday the 1st Festival of Native Languages,
the objective of which is contributing to
show the country''s great cultural richness,
when many of these languages are in danger
of extinction. More than 150 representatives
of ethnic groups from several Colombian
regions will hold meetings among narrators,
exhibit documentaries, poetry readings,
lectures, and workshops that will invite to
reflect on the country's cultural diversity.
Culture Vice minister Claudia Lopez
explained that the event also seeks to
strengthen the native communities'
identification with their languages, for
them to be aware of the value of those
languages, as a non-material cultural
heritage.
The festival is in line with the
presentation in Congress of the Native
Language bill in March, with the intention
to change the existing legal and standard
framework.
In this respect, linguist John Landaburu,
director of the Culture Ministry
Ethnolinguistics Diversity Protection
Program, said what the public powers can do
is to remove hindrances and discriminations,
strengthen the school and media scopes, and
make people learn that their languages are
respected, dignified and valued by the whole
nation.
Landaburu said these initiatives seek to
convey a message of hope to those parents
that are afraid to transmit the language to
their children, because there is a supposed
discriminatory situation.
Forgetting the roots is a huge loss for the
soul, of mentality, knowledge, of the
world's tools for understanding, with which
their ancestors faced up to this situation,
he said.
According to specialized sources, there are
65 indigenous languages in Colombia,
different from Spanish and from many
different origins, spoken by more than
1,500,000 inhabitants, in 22 of the
country's 32 departments.
The festival will finish on Sunday, with a
huge concert for the native languages.
|
|
|
|
|
