Linguistic human rights and language revitalization in Latin America and the Caribbean.

This chapter analyzes the impact of current linguistic, cultural, national, and international legal instruments on language revitalization in Latin America, especially within the Andean region, Mexico, and Nicaragua. The first section describes the international legislation concerning Indigenous languages and peoples. Secondly, we compare each country’s legal frame and policies regarding language use and cultural preservation and several recent programs that promote intercultural education for all. The third section describes the situation Indigenous languages face in Latin America and their continuous struggle for survival. We analyze national and local attempts toward linguistic revitalization—their strengths and weaknesses—and discuss strategies of active documentation involving all social sectors and actions based on ethical procedures as feasible alternatives to bridge existing gaps between policy and implementation that favor minoritized languages. We also discuss the urgent need to properly implement creative new ways to reinforce language use in all possible sociocommunicative contexts.