#quechua

We've been eating crops like this for 5,000 to 3,000 years. Its kinda funny how they came to conquer for their religion when we have plants older than their religions. Look at how pretty they are

1.) Runasimitam yachachkani.

I’m learning Quechua / estoy aprendiendo el quechua.

2.) Augusta llaqtapim tiyachkanki.

You’re living in the city of Augusta / estás viviendo en la ciudad de Augusta.

3.) Paytaq payman cartata qillqachkanchu?

Is he writing a letter to her? / ¿Él le está escribiendo una carta a ella?

4.) Kay punchawqa, paykuna ñuqaman inglestam rimachkanku.

They’re talking to me in English today / hoy día ellos me están hablando en inglés.

5.) Ñuqapa sumaq yuraq misichay mamaypa wasinpim kachkan.

Loreta G. : Peruvian Girl

English is a treasure. The language that my family fought to speak and join. Part of the culture my people helped build here, and part of the culture we’re fighting to once again be accepted into. It’s shared by communities who may be separate from ours but face the same fights, and call themselves our brothers. But it’s also the language being used as a form of oppression onto people who look like me or my family or my friends. Who speak it brokenly as words don’t fit into their mouths so perfectly shaped to a land they no longer reside. Who are punished for it.

Spanish is a resistance. It’s something that unites Latinos across most of our countries. Something that the government is trying to smother, because it knows there is strength within the shared identity. But do those who are like us and face the same oppression but aren’t fluent exempt from said community? And one mustn’t forget that Spanish was forced on us, a cultural genocide along with a slaughter.

Quechua is a rememberance. The word the ancestors of my mother spoke. Something so deeply part of Inka culture. A culture that supported people like me so deeply, and a culture that people tried to take. But in a time where community is so important, it’s a language that doesn’t lend itself to that outside of Peru. Even within Peru there are other indigenous languages, and people who only know Spanish. And I was not born in Peru. And right now I need American community, for help and safety in these trying times.