Indigenous activist demands Mexico ban fracking, decries language suppression

Yásnaya Aguilar, an indigenous activist from the Mixe community, is actively campaigning against a large-scale fracking project slated for her ancestral lands. She is demanding that the Mexican president intervene to halt the development.

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I have seen a girl hung upside down in class for speaking her language, punished by the teachers. Very barbaric teachers.

Aguilar, who identifies as Mixe and speaks Ayuujk as her mother tongue, is a vocal advocate for the preservation of indigenous languages. She notes that Ayuujk, meaning "language of the jungle," is spoken by approximately 130,000 people but is in decline, potentially disappearing within a generation. Aguilar is dedicated to promoting the language to ensure its survival, emphasizing its cultural richness and right to protection.

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Ayuujk means language of the jungle: my mother tongue.

She recounts the historical and ongoing linguistic discrimination faced by indigenous communities in Mexico. Aguilar shared a personal account of witnessing children being punished, even hung upside down, in schools for speaking their native languages. She stated that this practice, rooted in a state policy to enforce a single national language, persisted in some schools as late as 2015. Aguilar draws a parallel to similar linguistic suppression policies in the United States under the Trump administration, highlighting the "inhumane barbarity" of such actions.

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It is a cultural richness deserving of protection.