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ABSTRACT
This article looks at the web comments to two video clips posted on YouTube in 2014. One video features the song ‘Sangre Maya’, by Pat Boy and El Cima, two Maya rappers from the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico. The other song is called ‘Rap de la Tierra’ and is performed by Luanko, a Mapuche rapper from Santiago in Chile. First, I discuss significant developments of institutional language policy and planning aiming at the recognition of linguistic and cultural diversity in Mexico and Chile as well as micro-level grassroots initiatives that exploit new technologies and rap for language revitalisation purposes. Drawing from the field of language ideologies, I then look at a selection of YouTube comments generated by these two relatively successful songs and discuss the prevailing discourses triggered by these video clips. I argue that the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the songs, strengthens the ongoing revalorisation process of Yucatec Maya and Mapudungun and works towards their destigmatisation, especially among youths. Furthermore, I show how the discursive space generated by these web comments and the language ideologies expressed therein become an arena for broader social debates which index the subordinated sociopolitical position of indigenous peoples in Latin American societies.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Jaqueline Caniguan for her generous help with translations from Mapudungun into Spanish. I am also thankful to Jacob Rekedal and the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Josep Cru, Ph.D. is a Lecturer at the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies of Newcastle University in the UK where he teaches Sociolinguistics and Spanish language courses. His research interests cover language policy and planning in the Hispanic world, particularly in Mexico, Chile and Spain, more specifically looking at language revitalisation efforts from the grassroots that involve music, new technologies and youths’ linguistic activism. He is also a member of Linguapax, an international NGO based in Barcelona that promotes language diversity worldwide (www.linguapax.org).
Notes
1. Why doesn’t everyone rap in scouse? How British hip-hop broke free of London. Paul McInnes. Published on 9 March 2017. Online at: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/mar/09/why-doesnt-everyone-rap-in-scouse-how-british-hip-hop-broke-free-of-london (Accessed 18.7.2017). For the African context, see: Uncool to use English: the rise of ‘dialectical rap. Published on 25 February 2016. Online at: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/feb/25/clicks-dips-and-double-consonants-dialectical-rap-makes-a-comeback (Accessed 18.7.2017).
2. Ranking based on Ranking based on Alexia Traffic Rank: http://www.alexa.com/topsites (Accessed 18.7.2017).
3. Willlinkoche: a person from Willinko (Huillinco is the Spanish spelling) a territory in the Bío Bío region of Chile, where Luanko’s family comes from. Newenkülen inche: I’m feeling energetic/strong. Newen roughly means energy/strength in Mapudungun.