#StoriesThatInspire. Meet 10 activists who use digital media to strengthen and promote Mayan languages ​​in Mexico.

Photo of Roger Israel Kuyoc Tuz, by Mildred Yadira Moo Chan, used with permission.

Read the inspiring story of one of the grantees selected for the 2024 Mayan Language Digital Activism Fellowship, organized by Rising Voices. In this personal essay, the author shares his story of activism and the project with which he seeks to promote his native language within his community and online.

The Mayan language is a vehicle to rescue the knowledge that grandmothers and grandfathers have. Through it we can learn the details of traditional gastronomy, astronomy, agriculture and natural remedies. Documenting the ancestral knowledge that exists in the Mayan language represents an important legacy for future generations. Thanks to the transmission of this knowledge, our parents, grandparents, and even ourselves, have managed to survive.

I am Roger Israel Kuyoc Tuz. I was born in the city of Tizimín, Yucatán, Mexico and I grew up in the community of Dzonot Carretero belonging to the municipality of Tizimín, a small place with more than half a century of existence, where different customs and traditions are still alive. The people who live in the community come from other municipalities such as: Mérida, Valladolid, Tizimín, Motul. In addition, there are people from other states who come to work in agriculture and livestock, since the lands are ideal for cultivation.

Dzonot Carretero Community Park. Photo by Roger Israel Kuyoc Tuz, used with permission.

My parents taught me to work in the cornfields and for several years I have participated in projects to promote the Yucatec Maya language. I began speaking Maya with my parents when I was a baby. It was very difficult for me to learn to speak Spanish, so I only learned to read in sixth grade. I thought about leaving school because I didn't find any meaning in learning and it was also difficult for me to relate to my classmates, because I spoke very little Spanish. When I started high school I had very low grades, but I received a lot of support from my sisters and I began to read novels and comics to improve my communication.

My story as a digital activist

Since I was a teenager, I have had a passion for gastronomy and especially Yucatec food. I learned the recipe for cochinita pibil from my time at traditional festivals. My mother taught me how to prepare recado blanco [white seasoning] which is the culinary base of Yucatec cuisine. In addition to gastronomy, I am also knowledgeable about traditional medicine.

Preparation of Pipián. Photo: Manuel Santiago May Kuyoc, used with permission.

My grandparents have taught me to respect the customs and traditions of Yucatan, so my work has been to practice them and document them with the help of a camera, because I consider them to be a great legacy and should be preserved for future generations. At each cultural event, I interview the elderly in the Mayan language to thoroughly understand each symbolic element.

I studied for a bachelor's degree in communication sciences in Valladolid, Yucatan because I am passionate about photography and literature. Later, I studied for a master's degree in education, where I learned tools about emotional intelligence that now allow me to work as a university professor in the area of ​​language and communication.

With the digital tools that I learned during my academic training, I have worked to document Mayan culture through audiovisual materials. These materials are shared through social networks, highlighting the importance of speaking the Mayan language in the community.

One of the most important projects I have participated in is the Corpus Lingüístico T’aansil, where I worked as a documenter of the Mayan language in the eastern part of Yucatán. Thanks to this project I was able to visit different municipalities in the region, learn about and analyze their variants of the Mayan language, transcribe them, and translate them into Spanish. We found words that were even on the verge of extinction, but have now been documented. As part of my work, I interviewed children, adolescents, and older adults who shared their knowledge and everyday experiences with me. Thanks to my participation in the corpus, I had the initiative to create a Facebook page, Red Indígena Maya [Indigenous Mayan Network].

U Muuk’ Kaambal (‘The power of learning’)

My interest in documenting and promoting the Mayan language continues and I am currently developing the “U Muuk’ Kaambal” project so that girls, boys and adolescents can reinforce communication of the Mayan language in digital media. U Muuk’ Kaambal means “the power of learning.”

Workshop for video documentation with Mayan speakers. Photo: César Can. Used with permission.

Through workshops, I will explain the fundamentals of Mayan language writing, so that they can decode the information that we will investigate in the community. Likewise, they will be able to learn more about the most used phrases and words in the area, so that when explaining a topic about gastronomy, agriculture, medicine or customs, they have enough terms to describe it.

The project seeks to create educational short films where children will be trained in tools such as script creation, the main elements of filming and audiovisual editing processes. I will use the Facebook and TikTok platforms to share the results of the workshops, since it is important to continue making the Mayan language visible in digital spaces.

This project will be implemented in 2025 through the Mayan Language Digital Activism Program of Rising Voices that provides support to community projects to strengthen, preserve or revitalize Mayan languages. With this work, I hope that more young people will be inspired and have the tools to carry out projects that promote Indigenous languages ​​in digital media.

My determination has helped me become a digital activist for the Mayan language by documenting and rescuing the knowledge that my language contains through photography, video and audio. My dream is that future generations will respect and strengthen Mayan culture.