0:00:00.000,0:00:02.920
>> In [inaudible][br]Palace, the high

0:00:02.920,0:00:06.040
temple of Mexican[br]culture, poet Celerina

0:00:06.040,0:00:08.920
Sanchez is reciting[br]in her native tongue

0:00:08.920,0:00:15.080
[FOREIGN] It's part of

0:00:15.080,0:00:16.160
the celebrations for

0:00:16.160,0:00:17.865
international[br]mother tongue day.

0:00:17.865,0:00:19.980
Here, it's an[br]especially big deal.

0:00:19.980,0:00:22.380
Seven-and-a-half million[br]Mexicans speak one

0:00:22.380,0:00:25.200
of the country's 68[br]indigenous languages.

0:00:25.200,0:00:26.760
But not all is well.

0:00:26.760,0:00:29.705
More than half of[br]them are in danger.

0:00:29.705,0:00:31.980
>> If my language dies,

0:00:31.980,0:00:33.780
I'll never know how[br]to name things,

0:00:33.780,0:00:36.180
how to see the world[br]from my point of view.

0:00:36.180,0:00:37.885
I wouldn't be[br]able to do that.

0:00:37.885,0:00:39.820
>> The loss of[br]native languages

0:00:39.820,0:00:41.660
hasn't happened[br]by accident here.

0:00:41.660,0:00:42.980
Indigenous people have

0:00:42.980,0:00:45.260
historically been[br]discriminated against,

0:00:45.260,0:00:46.680
even punished for speaking

0:00:46.680,0:00:48.320
their languages[br]in schools.

0:00:48.320,0:00:49.920
Migration to cities or

0:00:49.920,0:00:52.360
the US has also[br]taken its toll.

0:00:52.360,0:00:53.760
Rene says he's now one of

0:00:53.760,0:00:55.080
the only young people from

0:00:55.080,0:00:57.160
his village in[br]the tricky region

0:00:57.160,0:01:02.908
to still play[br]the old songs.

0:01:02.908,0:01:04.430
>> [MUSIC].

0:01:04.430,0:01:05.810
>> Things have to change.

0:01:05.810,0:01:07.410
We shouldn't be thinking[br]that people are

0:01:07.410,0:01:09.530
less for speaking an[br]indigenous language.

0:01:09.530,0:01:10.350
I want to tell

0:01:10.350,0:01:11.690
the world that[br]it's actually very

0:01:11.690,0:01:13.090
valuable because it locks

0:01:13.090,0:01:14.850
in all of our[br]ancestral knowledge,

0:01:14.850,0:01:16.630
music, and medicine,[br]the things

0:01:16.630,0:01:17.895
that we've been losing.

0:01:17.895,0:01:19.730
>> Mexicans seem[br]to be coming

0:01:19.730,0:01:21.130
round to that[br]point of view.

0:01:21.130,0:01:23.710
Those taking the Nahuatl[br]poems handed out by

0:01:23.710,0:01:25.290
officials in the Metro are

0:01:25.290,0:01:27.790
keen to hang on[br]to their roots.

0:01:28.660,0:01:31.650
>> It's important not[br]to lose our traditions

0:01:31.650,0:01:34.070
and languages because[br]they're our inheritance.

0:01:34.070,0:01:36.010
We've already[br]almost lost them,

0:01:36.010,0:01:36.850
but we should teach

0:01:36.850,0:01:38.990
our children to[br]value what we have.

0:01:38.990,0:01:40.580
>> That's spilled into

0:01:40.580,0:01:42.200
Mexico's artistic life,

0:01:42.200,0:01:44.540
but it hasn't necessarily[br]got beyond that.

0:01:44.540,0:01:46.600
There's increasingly[br]acceptance and

0:01:46.600,0:01:49.520
support for cultural[br]events like this one.

0:01:49.520,0:01:51.240
But linguistics experts

0:01:51.240,0:01:52.620
and indigenous leaders say

0:01:52.620,0:01:54.060
that it's in[br]the day-to-day

0:01:54.060,0:01:55.920
that things still[br]need to change.

0:01:55.920,0:01:57.980
For example, in hospitals,

0:01:57.980,0:01:59.760
even in indigenous areas,

0:01:59.760,0:02:01.720
there's often a lack[br]of interpreters,

0:02:01.720,0:02:02.960
so people can't tell

0:02:02.960,0:02:05.120
doctors exactly what's[br]wrong with them.

0:02:05.120,0:02:07.420
The same in the judicial[br]system in which

0:02:07.420,0:02:09.600
indigenous people[br]have been sent down

0:02:09.600,0:02:11.080
without really[br]knowing what's

0:02:11.080,0:02:12.410
going on in their trial.

0:02:12.410,0:02:13.860
Those are the harder,

0:02:13.860,0:02:15.380
less visible changes that

0:02:15.380,0:02:16.600
the new government[br]will have

0:02:16.600,0:02:18.160
to also engage with,

0:02:18.160,0:02:19.240
if it wants the country

0:02:19.240,0:02:20.800
to continue celebrating,

0:02:20.800,0:02:23.120
not mourning its[br]mother tongues.

0:02:23.120,0:02:27.140
John Holman, Al[br]Jazeera, Mexico City.