►
Description
Year after year, we sadly witness the disappearance of approximately nine indigenous languages, erasing unique worldviews and cultural treasures. GitHub, in collaboration with Google.org, has joined forces with Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo (CIELO), an Indigenous women-led nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering Indigenous communities in Los Angeles.
This partnership brought to life an interactive game, carefully crafted to serve as both an educational tool and a means of preserving an endangered indigenous language. This initiative embodies the dedication to rectifying historical injustices and providing reparation by nurturing and safeguarding the Zapotec language.
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A
A
Up
in
the
highlands
of
Oaxaca
I
lived
there
until
the
age
of
10.,
my
parents
sent
for
me
in
1981
and
they
brought
me
to
Downtown
LA,
which
was
a
total
culture
shock,
because
there
were
no
trees.
There
were
no
birds,
there
were
no
Rivers
and
there
was
no
sabotic
speaking
people
between
10
and
20
I
was
you
know,
trying
on
a
survival
mode
learning
slang
whatever
it
was
to
survive
in
a
city
like
L.A.
That
did
not
speak.
My
language.
B
B
C
D
Endangered
language
is
a
language
that
is
losing
speakers
faster
than
it's
gaining
them.
It's
a
growing
problem
in
our
world,
zeptic,
like
all
the
other
languages
I
have
worked
on,
is
a
wonderful
wonderful
language
and
language.
Family
I
love
these
languages.
It
is
frightening
to
me
that
they
are
more
and
more
endangered
every
year.
E
F
G
Born
here
in
Los
Angeles,
both
my
parents
are
sapotec.
Both
of
them
went
through
the
Los
Angeles
Unified,
School,
District
speaking
primarily
sapotec,
and
not
getting
the
language
Services
they
need.
Eventually,
when
I
was
born,
they
taught
me
English
first
and
they
didn't
teach
me
septic
because
they
didn't
want
me
to
face
a
kind
of
same
systematic
barriers
that
they
had
indigenous.
E
Languages
have
been,
you
know
explicitly,
you
know
targeted
for
extermination
from
the
imposition
of
linguistic
policy
as
the
criminalization
of
indigenous
languages,
formalized
schooling
as
well,
that
has
a
very
detrimental
impact
to
the
survival
of
indigenous
languages.
It's
a
process
that
continues
to
happen.
H
E
Indigenous
languages
are
dying
not
only
because
of
this
processes
of
ethnocide.
Because
of
this
you
know,
processes
of
migration
and
Indigenous
people
shift
into
using
other
languages,
but
it's
also
happening
because
indigenous
territories
are
being
destroyed
and
Indigenous
Defenders
are
being
killed.
A
When
I
got
here
when
I
was
a
child,
people
were
asking
me
if
I
was
Mexican.
I
would
say
yes
and
then
are
you
espanol?
Yes,
are
you
Latino?
Yes,
I
didn't
know
what
those
things
meant
and
then
I
became
Mexican.
I
became
Latina.
I
became
all
the
labels
that
has
been
imposed
on
me,
but
at
the
end
of
the
day,
I
knew
I
was
from
sogocho,
but
there
was
no
place
for
me
to
say
that.
A
So
as
these,
these
labels
of
latinidad,
you
know
for
me-
are
deadly
they're,
all
Latinos
they're,
all
Mexican
they're,
all
brown,
so
they
all
speak
Spanish,
and
that
is
not
true,
because
in
Mexico
there
are
68
indigenous
language
families
and
more
than
364
languages
that
are
spoken.
So
those
labels,
those
institutional
racism
and
the
Discrimination
is
felt.
E
G
A
Idea
that
we
started
way
before
2015.,
we
started
having
workshops.
We
started
working
with
certain
academics
who
had
access
to
a
lot
of
the
documents
of
indigenous
people,
the
language,
the
ceremonial
language,
so
those
conversations
made
us
think
like
well.
What
else
do
we
want
to
do?
You
know
there?
Suddenly,
all
these
information
that
is
locked
up
in
Academia
is
getting
to
the
community.
G
E
There
is
not
a
one-size-fits-all
model
when
it
comes
to
linguistic
revitalization,
and
there
are
various
challenges
that
the
communities
are
facing
when
it
comes
to
revitalizing
their
languages.
Some
of
those
challenges
could
be
associated
with
the
lack
of
funding
with
the
lack
of
resources
with
the
lack
of
equipment,
even
with
the
lack
of
speakers.
A
E
Think
technology,
especially
over
the
past
years,
has
been
really
important
for
linguistic
revitalization
efforts.
There
are
various
forms
of
technologies
that
indigenous
communities
are
manipulating,
are
apprecating
in
order
to
contribute
to
this
efforts
of
linguistic
Revival
there's
a
great
necessity
that
communities
have
to
have
their
own
materials
to
use
under
in
their
specific
context,
and
so
technology
in
that
sense
offers
that
innovation
of
you
know
creating
different
forms
of
materials,
and
that
leads
us
to
creativity
as
well.
G
The
Loteria
comes
about
from
our
sapotec
class
that
we
held
with
different
people
via
Zoom
during
the
pandemic.
Loteria
traditionally
is
played
in
a
card,
and
somebody
calls
out
one
of
the
cards
and
it's
kind
of
like
Bingo.
You
look
for
it
on
the
grid
and
the
person
that
fills
up
their
Grid
in
a
line
is
the
first
person
to
win.
So
what
makes
our
Lotteria
special
is
that
it's
in
sapotec
the
words
are
in
sapotec.
G
The
drawings
are
culturally
specific,
for
example,
you
have
things
in
this
Loteria
that
you
wouldn't
find
in
another
Loteria,
like
is
a
really
important
drink
in
our
community
right.
It's
a
cacao
based
drink
that
has
like
this
foam
on
top
and
you
drink
it
in
a
little
hikarita
and
it's
very
culturally
specific
to
sapotext
from
the
Sierra
Norte
that
drink.
That
was
one
of
the
ones
that
we
had
the
most
debate
about.
How
do
you
say
it?
How
do
you
not
borrow
from
Spanish?
I
All
brought
in
our
list
of
words,
and
we
asked
our
aunts,
our
uncles,
our
parents,
our
grandparents,
who
all
speak
sapoteco.
We
have
this
list
of
words
in
Spanish
and
can
you
help
us
translate
them
to
sapoteco
and
we
all
had?
That
was
our
homework
assignment,
so
we
all
had
to
bring
it
to
class,
and
within
a
couple
weeks
we
started
forming
that
initial
list
of
60
words.
G
So
initially
GitHub
approached
sodelia
and
they
were
like
what
would
you
like
to
see
in
technology?
She
was
like
I
would
like
to
see
a
language
app.
You
know
for
interpretation.
I
would
like
to
see
this
that
So.
Eventually
we
landed
on
the
Lotteria,
because
we
had
already
started
the
process
within
the
sample
tech
classes.
To
start
listing
the
words.
J
Because
at
gab
education
we
really
respect
teachers
and
what
we
need.
We
spend
a
lot
of
time
talking
to
them
and
finding
out
what
do
you
need
in
order
to
teach
better,
and
we
find
out
often
that
the
thing
that
we
would
have
built
is
not
the
thing
that
they
want.
That
was
really
true
with
Loteria,
because
I
I
am
not
an
indigenous
person.
I
am
not
a
person
that
has
had
to
leave
their
home
country
their
home
place
and
learn
new
languages
and
risk
losing
my
own
language.
J
I,
don't
know
what
they
would
necessarily
need.
What
would
help
them
with
their
language,
Justice
and
their
language
preservation?
So
really
learning
that
you
have
to
talk
to
The
Experts
and
let
them
guide
and
build
what
they're
asking
for
rather
than
thinking.
I
am
a
software
engineer.
I
know
exactly
what
to
build.
You
has
been
hugely
helpful
on
this.
K
At
GitHub
for
the
social
impact
team,
we
work
very
closely
with
a
number
of
Social
Security
organizations,
not
only
with
small
Grassroots
organizations
like
clo,
but
with
large
International
developments
as
well
with
the
UN
untp,
the
World
Health
Organization.
Why
GitHub
is
interested
is
because
the
objective
of
skills
is
volunteering
is
to
be
able
to
provide
open
source
elements
to
social
studies
organizations
and
to
connect
GitHub
staff
to
work
on
these
problems
in
a
way
that
is
participatory
and
it's
something
that
we
can
continue
to
work
on.
K
Not
just
a
one-time
type
of
initiative,
so
I
reached
out
to
the
google.org
team
to
ask:
can
they
open
source
the
Lotteria
Google
doodle
that
they
created,
but
they
went
one
step
further
and
they
offered
a
number
of
employees
Engineers
to
be
able
to
work
together
with
our
project
team
on
this
and
that's
how
this
partnership
came
about.
I.
F
Was
born
and
raised
in
Lima,
Peru
I
came
to
the
US
for
college,
my
dad's
side
of
the
family.
They
are
indigenous
from
ayakucho
and
they
speak
ketra.
My
grandparents,
both
my
grandparents,
speak
quechua
very
fluently,
but
it's
sadly
been
Lost
Generation
through
generation.
It
hit
very
close
to
home,
trying
to
learn
a
language
that
it's
been
lost
and
I
could
possibly
be
endangered
in
the
future.
K
F
To
it,
we
went
through
every
single
screen
and
and
thought
what
would
be
the
the
the
steps
that
a
user
would
take
to
learn
how
to
play
this
Lotteria
game?
How
how
would
they,
how
would
they
create
a
room?
How
would
they
join
a
room?
How
would
they
wait
for
people
to
join
a
room,
making
sure
that
it
is
accessible
for
people
without
electronic
devices?
What
happens
when
they
don't
have
any
Wi-Fi?
J
Planning
a
game
is
quite
a
bit
different
than
planning
a
website
with
the
game,
there's
a
lot
of
other
things
to
consider
that
are
quite
different,
especially
a
multiplayer
game,
where
you
want
multiple
people
to
be
able
to
play
at
the
same
time,
cross-device
compatibility
one
thing
when
we
spoke
to
the
people
at
clo.
That
was
very
important
for
them
is
they
said?
Not
everyone
has
a
laptop,
so
some
people
might
be
joining
on
mobile
phones.
We
want
to
be
able
to
play
with
our
friends
and
our
family
even
outside
of
the
class.
We.
F
One
thing
that
really
struck
with
me,
in
my
experience
at
least,
is
that
whenever
someone
comes
here
like
to
the
US
from
a
foreign
country,
they
try
to
learn
English.
But
someone
who,
for
example,
like
like
me,
who
already
knows
English
but
wants
to
learn
more
about
their
their
native
tongue
and
wants
to
learn,
for
example,
sapotec.
They
can
play
together
and
learn
together
since
you
can
mix
and
match
languages.
So
it's
not
just
for
children.
It's
for
really.
Everybody.
J
J
We
had
to
do
this
in
JavaScript
and
we
chose
to
use
the
react
framework
in
order
to
provide
a
structure,
and
that
is
not
a
language
and
a
framework
I'm
used
to
working
in
which
can
be
very
uncomfortable,
like
I
know
exactly
what
logic
I
want
to
write,
but
I,
don't
know
the
syntax
I,
don't
know
how
to
structure
it
in
functional
JavaScript
in
modern
JavaScript.
Mine
is
sort
of
an
amalgamation
of
spaghetti
jQuery
code,
which
was
not
going
to
cut
it
for
this
project
being
made
in
2022.
J
Under
normal
circumstances,
I
would
sort
of
have
to
rely
on
a
lot
of
heavily
heavily
use
of
search
engines
and
looking
for
syntax.
How
do
I
do
what
I
want
to
do
going,
Clips
off
of
stack,
Overflow,
hoping
that
it
was
the
correct
answer
and
not
buggy
code
and
constant
testing,
but
with
copilot
it.
It
almost
worked
like
a
translator.
I
knew
what
I
wanted
to
write
and
from
the
file
name.
J
It
knew
that
I
wanted
react
and
I
could
start
writing
and
it
would
oftentimes
pop
up
the
whole
method
now
I
still
needed
to
go
through
and
do
my
due
diligence
and
make
sure
that
the
variables
were
correct,
that
it
was
Secure
that
it
was
doing
the
right
thing,
but
especially
given
that
I
was
essentially
working.
I
don't
want
to
necessarily
say
foreign
language
like
a
human
spoken
foreign
language,
but
I
was
working
in
a
computer
language.
That
is
not
is
not
my
first
computer
language.
It
is.
J
K
Able
to
make
it
really
easy
for
an
organization
that
may
not
be
as
technical
to
use
GitHub
and
they
can.
We
can
just
walk
them
through.
This
is
your
game,
it's
one
repo
and
that's
all
there
is
it's
really
easy
for
you
to
add
other
languages.
You
could
just
add
another
file
and
there
you
have
it
another
art
file,
and
there
you
have
another
language
on.
There
is.
J
It's
such
a
beautiful
project,
helping
people
reclaim
an
indigenous
language
that
they're
in
the
process
of
losing
making
sure
that
the
people
in
their
community
and
the
children,
even
outside
of
where
they're
traditionally
from
will
still
be
able
to
have
this
language.
In
this
culture
there
is
at
least
one
dialect
of
zapotec
that
now
has
more
people
like
more
speakers
of
that
dialect
living
in
the
LA
area
than
living
in
the
mountains,
where
they're
from
and
that's
a
story
of
in
some
ways.
J
Tragedy
like
the
human
migration,
the
droughts,
the
turmoil,
the
conflicts
that
drive
people
away
from
their
homes
and
land
that
they
have
this
huge
deep
connection
with,
but
it's
also
a
story
of
resilience,
finding
new
communities
and
within
those
communities,
doing
activist
work
to
make
sure
that
your
children
and
your
grandchildren
won't
lose
that
connection
to
culture
and
won't
lose
that
connection
to
their
language.
This.
J
The
culture,
if
I,
were
doing
this
as
my
job
would
be
that
I'd
probably
have
a
kpi
that
was
around
some
Metric,
like
how
many
users
do
we
have
and
so
say,
I
built
this
game
and
I
said.
Look
everyone.
We've
successfully
got
10
1,
000
users
worldwide,
learning
zapotec
that
might
be
successful,
but
not
really
because
why
would
that
be
important?
That
10
000
people
who
have
the
time
and
luxury
to
like
sit
in
Rome
or
in
London
or
in
LA,
and
learn
on
their
phone?
Some
Zap
Attack
like?
J
Why
would
that
be
more
meaningful
than
there's
a
classroom
of
five
zapotec
children?
Learning
zap
attacks,
so
I
think
that's
one
of
the
biggest
differences
on
this
project
is
the
scale
doesn't
matter
it's
helping
in
a
small
way
provide
just
a
modicum
of
justice
and
restoration
through
like
these
time
and
resources
being
shifted.
J
Colonial
governments
have
spent
billions
of
dollars
working
to
get
rid
of
indigenous
people,
get
rid
of
their
language,
get
rid
of
their
culture
and
so
in
just
my
own
small
way
being
able
to
say
we're
going
to
take
some
of
those
resources
and
some
of
that
time
and
we're
gonna,
give
you
a
tool
that
you
asked
for
in
the
way
you
wanted
it
and
and
give
some
language
back
to
your
children.
I
think
is
probably
the
most
important
thing
to
me
about
this
whole
project.
H
H
J
G
Peaceful
learning,
some
sample
Tech
words
and
also
kind
of
the
culture
and
ideas
has
really
allowed
me
to
go
back
to
my
grandmothers
and
talk
to
them
and
ask
them
more
questions,
interrogate
them
about
what
were
the
different
ways
that
they
lived
previous
to
migration.
What
were
the
different
ideas
that
they
held
because
I
think
that,
just
personally
like
it's,
it's
raised
a
lot
of
questions
for
me
right
like
what
else
are
we
missing.