I have always been fascinated with language and how the ways that we speak affect the ways that we interact with the world around us. As a child and teenager, I remember spending hours looking through atlases and travel books, imagining what it must be like to live in different countries. What did people do every day? What did they eat? What did they wear? What languages did they use to talk to each other?
In 2014, as part of a college study abroad program, I traveled to Argentina for the first time. The official language of Argentina is Spanish, and I hoped to become a better speaker of that language. However, I soon learned that Spanish was not the only language spoken in Argentina. As part of my study abroad program, I spent time in an Indigenous Mapuche community in Argentina’s Neuquén Province. The Mapuche, who are native to the lands that today are best known as Argentina and Chile, speak a language called Mapuzugun. I became fascinated by this language and its importance to Mapuche culture, art and political movements in southern Argentina.
As part of the Fulbright U.S.
