Creation of Mexico’s Indigenous Language University Is Official

The Mexican government released on Monday a decree formalizing the creation of the University of Indigenous Languages of Mexico (ULIM).

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The decree signed by the Mexican President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and officials of Finance, Culture and Education was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF). 

ULIM was thus officially established, after being inaugurated in Mexico City on October 12, the date commemorating the beginning of the conquest of America.

According to the document, the university will legally be a "decentralized public agency" that will be part of the Ministry of Public Education (SEP). The government seeks "to provide higher education for the training of professionals in indigenous languages at the undergraduate, specialty, master's and doctorate levels, in school, non-school, mixed and dual modalities."

The tweet reads, "Federal Executive publishes decree creating the University of Indigenous Languages of Mexico."

The purpose of the new university will be to carry out research, promotion and outreach activities in order to protect, revitalize, strengthen and develop the linguistic heritage of Mexico's indigenous peoples, and contribute to the construction of a society based on recognition and respect for their linguistic, ethnic and cultural diversity.

ULIM currently enrolls 24 women and 28 men who speak Nahuatl, Huasteco, Wixárika, Mazahua, Mazateco, Mixe, Mixteco, Otomí, Tepehuano, Tlapaneca, Tojolabal, Tzotsil (Tsotsil), Zapoteco and Spanish, and are studying for a degree in Indigenous Language Teaching. Next year, the following courses will also be offered: Translation and Interpretation in Indigenous Languages; Indigenous Literature and Intercultural Indigenous Communication.

The ULIM's functions will include having programs of study, models and educational methods with official validity; issuing certificates, diplomas, titles and academic degrees to those who complete their studies in accordance with the plans and programs of study.

It will also seek to promote links with indigenous peoples and communities to strengthen their initiatives and processes related to the revitalization, protection and development of indigenous languages in order to be an open academic space for collective construction, the decree states. 

This new step follows the creation of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI) in a country that has a total of 68 native languages belonging to 11 linguistic families, from which more than 360 linguistic variants are derived.