Startseite Linguistik & Semiotik Youth, Quechua and neoliberalism in contemporary Perú
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Youth, Quechua and neoliberalism in contemporary Perú

  • Virginia Zavala EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 5. April 2023

Abstract

Framed within a critical and ethnographic approach to language policy, my study addresses the phenomenon of language commodification and the construction of neoliberal subjectivities in contemporary Perú. Specifically, I address a project of Quechua teaching in the city of Lima called Quechua para Todos, or Quechua for All, promoted by young Quechua activists developing interventions to change historically established imaginaries. Taking this project as a starting point, I analyze what is behind the extremely high demand these Quechua courses are having among youth in the capital city, where Quechua has been historically silenced. My argument is that a significant group of the young students from the courses have begun to integrate the Quechua language to the figure of the entrepreneurial subject for whom both personal and national branding is central. While speaking Quechua has historically indexed ‘indianness’ linked to backwardness, rurality, ancestrality and ignorance, it is now being associated with other linguistic and non-linguistic signs (such as being a professional and knowing English) to enregister a multicultural citizenship within a context of neoliberal economic growth and state policies of cultural branding. Although the demand to study Quechua in Lima is shifting the meanings and values of Quechua, at least within a domain of speakers, it may also be erasing ongoing processes of racialization of indigenous peoples in Peruvian society and fundamental gaps in access to education and economic resources.

Resumen

Enmarcado en un enfoque crítico y etnográfico de la política lingüística, mi estudio aborda el fenómeno de la mercantilización de la lengua y la construcción de subjetividades neoliberales en el Perú contemporáneo. Específicamente, abordo un proyecto de enseñanza del quechua en la ciudad de Lima llamado Quechua para Todos, promovido por jóvenes activistas quechuas que desarrollan intervenciones para cambiar imaginarios dominantes históricamente asentados. Partiendo de este proyecto, analizo qué hay detrás de la creciente demanda que estos cursos de quechua están teniendo entre los jóvenes de la capital, donde el quechua ha sido históricamente silenciado. Mi argumento es que un grupo significativo de los jóvenes estudiantes de los cursos han comenzado a integrar la lengua quechua a la figura del sujeto emprendedor para quien la marca personal y nacional es central. Mientras que hablar quechua ha indexado históricamente la “indianidad” vinculada al atraso, la ruralidad, la ancestralidad y la ignorancia, ahora se está asociando con otros signos lingüísticos y no lingüísticos (como ser profesional y saber inglés) para enregistrar una ciudadanía multicultural en un contexto de crecimiento económico neoliberal y de políticas estatales de marca país. Aunque la demanda de estudiar quechua en Lima está cambiando los significados y valores de la lengua, al menos dentro de un dominio de hablantes, también puede estar borrando procesos de racialización en curso de los pueblos indígenas en la sociedad peruana, y brechas fundamentales en el acceso a la educación y los recursos económicos.


Corresponding author: Virginia Zavala, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru, E-mail:

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Received: 2022-02-03
Accepted: 2022-08-09
Published Online: 2023-04-05
Published in Print: 2023-03-28

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 13.1.2026 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/ijsl-2022-0020/pdf
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