Global South Indigenous Socio-Linguistic and Cultural Manifestation in the United States
Event Start Date: October 04, 2024 4:00 PM
Event End Date: October 04, 2024 5:30 PM
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Global South Indigenous Socio-Linguistic and Cultural Manifestation in the United States
talk by Santiago Gualapuro, Southern Illinois University
Friday, October 4 | 4:00 pm | Grinter 376
This presentation explores the premise of linking the indigenous origins in the Global South and their ways in how they integrate in modern world, with a particular focus on the Chicagoland area. The Kichwa Otavalo community, which traces its roots back to the Northern Andean regions of Ecuador, has been migrating to the United States, specifically to Chicagoland, since the 1990s. Despite their sizable population, Kichwas often remain invisible within both the Ecuadorian and broader Latino communities. However, the Kichwa community in Chicagoland has recently gained momentum compared to other Kichwa communities in the United States. The community’s efforts to preserve their linguistic and cultural traditions, as well as their commitment to passing on their heritage to the next generation of Kichwas born in the United States, merit scholarly attention. Consequently, this presentation aims to underscore the significance of preserving the legacy of the Kichwa’s indigenous linguistic and cultural expressions in Chicagoland and its implications for other Kichwa communities in the United States and their homeland in Ecuador.
About Santiago Gualapuro
Santiago is a Kichwa scholar from Otavalo with a research agenda investigating the linguistic and social aspects of Imbabura Kichwa in Ecuador and the Kichwa diaspora in the United States. Santiago has a Bachelor's degree in Agricultural Business from the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador, an MA in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin, an MA in Hispanic Linguistics from The Ohio State University, and a Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics from The Ohio State University. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University in the United States. His activism in Kichwa and involvement in the revitalization efforts of the Kichwa language are the primary motivation for his research agenda in Kichwa linguistics. He has worked on and published the first Kichwa English dictionary in collaboration with fellow linguists at the University of Alberta. USFQ PRESS printed this dictionary in Ecuador in 2018. He has also worked in experimental work on pragmatic interpretation of quantifiers in Imbabura Kichwa and Ecuadorean Spanish. Santiago is fully committed to empowering Indigenous people, cultures, languages, and ideologies outside the academic world. He is also a founding member of the Kichwa Institute of Science, Technology, and Humanities - KISTH Foundation, an Ecuadorean NGO that aims to empower indigenous youth to pursue academic careers.