readers of this list who have followed the oaxaca native literacy project
may be interested to know the latest developments. in january of this year,
celiac moved into its own building in oaxaca and began publishing books in
indigenous languages. celiac (which stands for centro editorial en
literatura indigena, asociacion civil) is marketing its books to scholars,
libraries, and any interested persons who may wish to purchase the books.
celiac markets its books in hard copy and on disk. book-length texts on disk
are a resource for many scholarly activities, including the making of
dictionaries. (a 50,000-word text, generated by a native speaker, is likely
to have from 2000 to 4000 unique words. it can take a fieldworking linguist
a year or more to accumulate a list of that many words. and all the unique
words in a native-generated written text are, by definition, in context.)
next year, celiac will begin issuing its books on audiotape, recited by the
authors themselves.
we hope that these packages (books, disks, tapes) will be commercially
viable. if they are (if enough copies are sold to cover all the real costs
of producing and marketing books), then indigenous language publishing can
create employment for at least some people. if that happens, then the celiac
model can help preserve many languages around the world.
colleagues who work with indigenous peoples of latin america are invited to
contact celiac. at celiac, indigenous teachers offer instruction (in
spanish) to other spanish-speaking indigenous people on how to write books
in indigenous languages. during the training, the authors reside in the
celiac building and interact with others who are also learning how to write
in various indigenous languages. learning to handle the computers and to
write fluidly in the indigenous language takes about a month, in our
experience. however, authors should stay for at least three months if they
wish to leave with a completed manuscript in hand. the costs are modest, but
even as a not-for-profit organization, celiac has to cover its costs.
josefa gonzalez from celiac will be attending the upcoming nali conference
in albuquerque. if you are there and would like more information about
celiac, please look for her at the confernce. the companion posting contains
a list of celiac's books and an e-mail address for celiac.
russ bernard
(university of florida, on leave 1994-95 at the univ of cologne)