Loss. The loss of the native language in the ngiba culture of Santa Inés Ahuatempan. 1st ed. Mexico: Ediciones chasen thajni, 2024

​

2024

 

• Booklet

 

Santa Inés Ahuatempan. 
Puebla, México. 

​

Comp: Ulises Matamoros Ascención.

Designer: Ulises Matamoros Ascención
Editorial Care: Lenka Holíková.
Ediciones Chasen Thajni.
First Edition, 100 Copies.

​

​

​

This printed edition corresponds to the first volume of the collection “Testimonies: The Times of Our Language.” It is a series of publications that compile various testimonies from ngiba people in the neighborhoods of San Antonio Tierra Colorada and San Antonio Tierra Negra, in the municipality of Santa Inés Ahuatempan (Puebla, Mexico). These testimonies aim to break the historical silence that the ngiba nation has maintained and still maintains, and also seek to overcome the enunciative impossibility, creating symbolic spaces of autonomy, in this case, a printed book.

​

The collection “Testimonies: The Times of Our Language” is grouped under the following categories: 1.- Loss; 2.- The Silence of the Land; and 3.- The Stones Speak.

​

The first volume, “Loss,” and the collection in general, are the result of extensive research conducted by artist Ulises Matamoros Ascención in collaboration with ngiba speakers from Santa Inés Ahuatempan, through meetings and assemblies held at “Chasen Thajni: The House of Everyone,” a community space formed by members of the ngiba community.

​

In this first printed edition, various testimonies from ngiba residents of the neighborhoods of San Antonio Tierra Colorada and San Antonio Tierra Negra, in the municipality of Santa Inés Ahuatempan (Puebla, Mexico), are compiled. These testimonies refer to the various linguistic violences suffered by, and still affecting, the ngiba population. They are fundamental testimonies, as they express, from the ngiba voice and individual experiences, the necessary conditions that led to the loss of the mother tongue.