This volume, which explores the past, present, and future of Mexican indigenous languages (MIL) through the framework of language shift, is a well-researched, valuable resource for scholars of Mexican languages. It is divided into three parts: the first takes a sociohistorical perspective, examining the power dynamics emergent in colonial Mexico; the second looks at language policy affecting Mexico; the third part evaluates innovative models of bilingual education.
In Ch. 1, Margarita Hidalgo introduces the collection and explains its primary theoretical approach. It employs the perspective of reversing language shift (RLS) as proposed by Joshua Fishman's (1991) Reversing language shift and (2001) Can threatened languages be saved? Hidalgo considers one contribution of this volume, then, to be “the (re)consideration of early colonial research within the RLS framework” (25). Part 1 examines colonial history and colonial era texts from the RLS perspective. Claudia Parodi draws on texts by Catholic priests and friars and mestizo and criollo scholars to describe processes of “indianization” undergone by Spaniards living in the New World. Because of these processes, whereby Spaniards variously adapted to, accommodated, and appropriated Nahuatl language and customs, Parodi proposes adding a new stage to Fishman's RLS scale to represent the presence of Nahuatl cultural concepts and language among speakers of Spanish. In Ch. 3, Hidalgo discusses different dimensions of language shift and maintenance in colonial Mexico, while in Ch. 4, she considers the sociohistorical factors affecting the survival of MIL from the early conquest to the present.
In Part 2, the authors explore how legislation has affected MIL and research on MIL. Dora Pellicer, Bárbara Cifuentes, & Carmen Herrera examine the political context of the 2003 General Law on Linguistic Rights for Indigenous Peoples, which seeks linguistic equality for Mexico's indigenous population. F. Daniel Althoff compares the centralizing character of this same law to the localized approach taken by the United States in comparable legislation in 1990. Bárbara Cifuentes & José Luis Moctezuma discuss maintenance and shift trends for MIL based on national census data from 1970–2000, reporting a general trend of “bilingualization” (229).
The essays comprising Part 3 analyze the impact of various approaches to bilingual education. Jacqueline H. E. Messing & Elsie Rockwell look at the use of Mexicano in the Malintzi region, which has been undergoing a process of shift toward Spanish since the 1980s. They argue that the emergence of new “discursive spaces” (250) has permitted more speakers to use Mexicano in public, and may signal a start to reversing language shift in the region. Barbara Pfeiler & Lenka Zámišová compare two bilingual education methods employed in Yucatec-speaking regions, advocating the one that fosters “conscious bilingualism” (295), values indigenous knowledge, and increases language loyalty. José Antonio Flores Farfán discusses a language maintenance strategy for Balsas Nahuatl based on recreating indigenous oral and artistic traditions. Finally, Dora Pellicer reviews the precarious state of Mazahua in contact with Spanish.
In her concluding chapter, Margarita Hidalgo traces language policy trends across historical eras. She proposes a new era beginning with the 2003 law, marking the beginning of recovery for MIL. She urges policymakers to consider realistic solutions to reversing language shift in twenty-first century Mexico.
