In a day filled with song and dance, shared learning, and celebration of Andean culture and tradition, the Quechua program at NYU was happy to attend the 2023 Quechua Alliance Annual Meeting at Harvard University in April. The day served as a reminder to all of us how important it is to learn with and from Indigenous language speakers, and presented an opportunity to collaborate to further the awareness and knowledge of Runasimi (Quechua) on a global scale.
The day began with an offering to Pachamama (Mother Earth) by Quechua community members from Peru. The ceremony was meant to honor Pachamama, thank her for providing us with the space, and provide an offering in return. Upon a woven blanket sat food, flowers, and candy – the presenter let us know that Pachamama loves her sweets. After a small prayer to present the offering, the group encouraged conference participants to join in the offering by creating a kintu – a collection of three coca leaves that are meant to be chewed to close the ceremony. With that, our day of programming around Quechua learning began.
I attended session 1.A, with three presenters from across the world who shared interactive presentations with the attendees. First was Carlos Flores-Quispe from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Carlos showed us a tapestry documenting the well-known Quechua legend of the Kuntur (condor) and the Atoq (fox), and guided us in song in Runasimi. Next, professor of Quechua at Stanford University, Marisol Necochea, along with a few of her students, taught us a song about the parts of the human body in Quechua to the tune of “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” Finally, Emma Vadillo, who took Quechua classes with NYU’s own professor Odi Gonzales, introduced us to the program Lingualibre, the linguistic media library of Wikemedia, intended to host native speakers’ pronunciation of words in a variety of languages. She also showed the development of the Quechua-language Wikipedia site (Qispi insiklupidiya).
Of the second session’s panels, I attended session 2.B, and arrived during the presentation of Julia García, executive council member at Comité Pro Bolivia and language partner for the Global Languages Network, sharing her presentation of the trilingual Runasimi-Español-English communities of Bolivian migrants in Arlington, Virginia. Next, members of the Runasimi Outreach Collective, myself included, presented on our methods of preserving and celebrating Quechua in NYC. We shared the events we have sponsored, including the COYA Raymi at Paggank Island, my work in digitizing and sharing our Quechua Library, the involvement of students and professor Odi Gonzales in our Quechua classes, a look into a core foundation of the Quechua program at NYU – Cultural Categories, and a short film made by ROC member Darinka Arones discussing the issues that Indigenous peoples face today. I shared our strides in creating a catalog of all the materials in our library, along with our hopes to create an accessible website and greater distribution network in the coming years.
We then welcomed the recipients of the 2023 Quechua Lifetime Achievement Award – Yarina, a group of musical performers and education of Kichwa in Ecuador. Yarina’s programs not only contain music, stories, and dancing, but a dedication to the preservation and sharing of the ancestral traditions and culture of Indigenous people in Ecuador. After the presentation was lunch – a beautiful spread of Peruvian food, during which some participants danced while Yarina provided music.
After lunch, there was a panel surrounding the relevance of Quechua in today’s world. Participants included Elva Ambia (Founder of the Quechua Collective of New York) Renzo Aroni (Quechua scholar at Columbia University), Sofía Vega Zanca (Quechua Fulbright scholar), Irma Álvarez-Ccosco (award-winning Quechua poet), Valeria Andrango (Kichwa student at the Univ. of Pennsylvania). Participants shared why Quechua was so important to them, with the common thread that Quechua is not only a language, but a force that creates community and shared ideals that cannot be underestimated. Following this panel was a musical presentation panel with Anaís Azul, who shared their music with all attendees. They also performed the song Nina (fire), an experimental song around the presence and power of fire. Isabela Sanches Taipe of Wellesley College then shared an emotional letter to her sister showing the strength of Quechua women migrants in her family, and inspired tears of hope from the room. Finally, Andrés Jimenez of his band Inkarayku shared his New York-based inspiration, the developed love for Quechua he has gained in his life, and beautiful songs that inspired audience participation.
Following the musical panels, participants were split into groups to discuss cross-generationally why Quechua was important to them. The multilingual sessions were filled with inspiring stories and reasons from across the Andes and throughout the world on what Quechua means to the community and diaspora. To conclude the session, participants came together to share from their plethora of experience why Quechua language, culture, and learning was so important to them. Finally, we took a group picture with all participants to celebrate and document the day.
The day closed with a concert from Kuyayky, one of the most popular and influential bands in Andean music. The group spans generations: we heard music from one of their core members, but also from her parents and her children. They shared how they research musical pieces from the precolonial and colonial periods of Peru to bring new life to them. The musical group and NGO works to foster cultural awareness through their music.
The attendees of this conference no doubt left knowledgeable, emotional, and inspired. Through engaging discussions and thoughtful presentations, participants were able to deepen their understanding of Quechua and its importance in the Andean region and beyond. From exploring the language’s rich history to discovering its contemporary uses and expressions, the conference opened up a wealth of knowledge and new ways to think about Quechua. We were happy to be a part of such a vibrant and beautiful celebration of one of Latin America’s largest Indigenous languages. We look forward to the next session, planned in 2024 in Chicago.
Learn more about the Quechua Alliance: https://thequechua.org/
Learn more about NYU’s Quechua language program: https://as.nyu.edu/research-centers/clacs/languages/quechua.html
View the Quechua Library’s catalog: https://airtable.com/shr8oNRurEIZzfgIz