Linguistic discrimination eafecta to autosestima
Today we see many things about mental health, we read about bullying, about depression, among other things;But very rarely we listen to linguistic discrimination and how people can affect people’s self – esteem. More and more languages are disappearing due to linguistic discrimination, languages which we should practice and feel proud of them, it should be worthy to teach our children the Quechua;However, it is a language despised by society and seen as lower by the people of the coast.
Unfortunately there are those who do not teach Quechua to their children for fear of being called "mountains". Discrimination is so strong that many Quechua speakers, according to the 2017 census, 13% of the Peruvian population decide to transmit the language to their descendants for fear of being mocked. )
“As a child I learned that Quechua was not a good thing. My mother said that I was not going to use it in Lima and my dad did not show me for vanity, since he did not accept for any reason to be told Serrano, and at that time the discrimination was very hard for migrants, ”says José CaveroTorres, a merchant from the Andean region of Apurimac, who now works in Lima.
The Peruvian government has been responsible for putting Spanish as a main language, at the macro and micro linguistic level, leaving aside native languages. This generates a lot of pressure when using and conserving our languages. These conditions have made Peru one of the geographical spaces with more linguistic discrimination in the Andean area. Consequently, many Peruvians are isolating themselves from their peoples in order to lose maximum contact with their certain languages.
In the same way, it occurs in places not as far away from us as indigenous peoples, Peruvians ensure that we all speak Spanish when in many they have grown by speaking another language, this takes away millions of opportunities to grow as a person and/or as a professional and as a professional andthat there are no institutes or universities where these languages are practiced.
An example for this is Catalonia. Catalonia has as a law for schools to take Catalan as the first language, leaving Spanish only for the course with the same name. In this way Catalan citizens grow proudly from their language in this same way they continue to be cultivated from generation to generation and proudly teaching their descendants.
‘In our country, discrimination is a public problem that the State has decided to attend in a priority because it damages the life project of people, encourages violence and strengthens the gaps that prevent the exercise of the fundamental rights of people’, said Minister of Culture, Ulla Holmquist.
Linguistic discrimination affects the self – esteem, honor and pride of the person, making it feel less simply by having a language different from Spanish, making it feel inferior just by continuing and respecting their culture and origins. Not only does it affect their self – esteem but affects the development of each community by not providing the same amount of equal opportunities as Spanish -speaking people. I think that in the 21st century, and in a country as diverse as Peru it is necessary to claim for the justice of those who are marginalized by our own government and we, its citizens. Personally it seems admirable to know more than one language and that better than learning languages that represent you as Peruvian, languages that should fill you with pride in representing who we are and our culture. Peru is rich in cultures and history. However, due to our negligence and ignorance we are losing much of these valuable tools, having already lost many of our native languages and having several of them at high risk of extinction .
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