Guatemalan school hosts Kaqchikel performance to promote Indigenous language preservation

Описание: (20 Feb 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
San José Poaquil, Guatemala - 19 February 2026
1. Students seated on the stands of school court
2. Speaker on podium
3. Students watching from stands
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Sara Curruchich, Singer-Songwriter:
"That we can sing, that we can share the word brings a sense of reciprocity with the children because they sing, they share their word from their hearts. It's sharing ourselves, without fear, knowing we are part of a people with the same roots and I think that's what makes us feel much closer."
5. Various of students watching from the stands
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Gerson Mux, Executive Director of Cholsamaj:
"Through the mother tongue, the wisdom of our ancestors is transmitted, in this case from the Mayans. They possessed great wisdom, and it is important to promote it, ensuring that the mother tongue Kaqchikel is not forgotten."
7. Various of students
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Sara Curruchich, Singer-Songwriter:
"It is very, very, very true when it is said that when a language is lost, an entire legacy is also lost. History is lost, the knowledge of an entire people is lost, a life and an entire existence are completely lost."
9. School patio
10. Children inside classroom
11. School library
12. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Sara Curruchich, Singer-Songwriter:
"That the kids also adopt it, not out of obligation, but with a lot of love, understanding that their language is also part of their essence and is something that connects them with all that is ancestral, with their family lineage."
13. Various of town of San José Poaquil
STORYLINE:
At a school in Guatemala’s western highlands, children’s shyness disappeared as they listened to the words of a song in their Kaqchikel language.

Ninety-seven percent of the school’s more than 250 students speak Kaqchikel — one of 22 Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala — and instruction is given in that language and Spanish.

Singer-songwriter Sara Curruchich sang and talked Thursday with them in Kaqchikel.

"That we can sing, that we can share the word brings a sense of reciprocity with the children,” she said, recalling that when she was a child she did not listen to songs in Kaqchikel.

“It's sharing ourselves, without fear, knowing we are part of a people with the same roots.”

Curruchich’s appearance was part of an event organized at the school to celebrate and conserve Indigenous languages in advance of International Mother Language Day on Saturday.

In addition to Curruchich’s songs, children read from a Kaqchikel translation of “What Makes Us Human,” by Victor Santos, a story about valuing the mother tongue and how it connect people to earlier generations.

It was published in collaboration with UNESCO, the publishing house Cholsamaj and the Mayan Language Preservation Project.

"Through the mother tongue, the wisdom of our ancestors is transmitted, in this case from the Mayans,” ,” said Gerson Mux, executive director of Cholsamaj.

“It is important to promote it, ensuring that the mother tongue Kaqchikel is not forgotten."

He said they are prioritizing translations into the 22 Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala, but especially the four most in danger of disappearing: Itza’, Uspantek, Mopan and Chorti.

“When a language is lost, an entire legacy is also lost. History is lost, the knowledge of an entire people is lost,” Curruchich said.

She said they hope “the kids will also adopt them, not out of obligation, but with a lot of love.”




AP video by Tomás Emmanuel Andrés.

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