Click here to read Natalie Diaz’s essay “If What I Mean Is Hummingbird, If What I Mean Is Fall Into My Mouth”
Click here to read Natalie Diaz’s essay “If What I Mean Is Hummingbird, If What I Mean Is Fall Into My Mouth”
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After reading “If What I Mean Is Humming Bird, If What I Mean Is Fall Into My Mouth”, three terms I looked up were indian boarding school, mojave language, and the Calvary. According to these boarding schools were created by the United States for all sects of indigenous people and the purpose was to get rid of all of these individual cultural traditions and teach them white, Christian customs and norms. According to wikipedia, the mojave language “is the native language of the Mojave people along the Colorado River in northwestern Arizona, southeastern California, and southwestern Nevada.” According to wikipedia, the calvary was the designation of the mounted force of the United States Army by an act of Congress” in the 1860s.
An idea present that I want to explore is the loss of language and communication inter generations. I’m of Ecuadorian descent on both sides of my parents, and my mom predominantly speaks spanish and so did my dad. My sisters knew spanish. However, my spanish is very poor compared to everyone. My sisters were able to practice with each other due to being similar in age and getting along better. This has lead to a lot of difficulties now between me and my mother, where we struggle to communicate with each other. It gets to the point where attempts at conversation are frustrating. The loss of communication makes it more difficult to pass down and share traditions and cultural norms.