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Tell us about your research project and why it is important to you?
My research project focuses on the variant of the Cora language (náayari nyiúka) spoken in the community of Santa Teresa (Kwéimaruuse) and its surroundings, in the municipality of El Nayar, in the highlands of the State of Nayarit.
On the one hand, I seek to make a complete as possible grammatical description of this variant, which has never been described. This task will consist of (among other things) showing the sound system (phonology), the mechanisms of word formation and modification (morphology), and the ways in which words are combined and arranged to form phrases and sentences (syntax).
On the other hand, I am interested in analyzing a genre of verbal art of the Cora people (náayeri/náayari) that consists of long and complex ritual chants dedicated to asking their deities for the preservation and perpetuation of the order of the world in the framework of a way of life that revolves around the cultivation of corn. Through the analysis of these chants, I intend to determine the differences, in grammatical and stylistic terms, between ritual speech and everyday speech in this language, as well as to identify the poetic and compositional strategies that shape this intricate versificatory technique.
The grammatical description will be relevant for linguists specializing in Cora because it will provide the first information on this variant, based on which dialectological comparisons can be used to form a more complete picture of the structure of this language. Likewise, it will be relevant for linguists specialized in the Yuto-Nahua family because it will provide elements to advance the understanding of the phylogenetic ramifications it has undergone over time. The grammatical peculiarities that come to light with this work may also be of importance for descriptive linguistics and typology in general, to the extent that they exemplify phenomena rarely observed in other languages of the world.
The description of the poetics of ritual songs will allow us to understand the complicated system by which this people is capable of creating oral texts of varied and complex themes and structure, whose recitation lasts an entire night. Thus, we will be able to appreciate in a deeper way the Cora poetic genius and its peculiarities in the context of the verbal arts of the world.
While my research will have academic relevance, I am confident that it will also be important to the Santa Teresa community. I plan to produce a vocabulary and a grammatical outline that can serve as reference material and as one of the bases for developing didactic materials for the schools in the region (since the Cora books available to them come from a variant that is not spoken there). My intention is to give all the recordings I make to the community, so that they can complement their oral memory preservation strategies. In some cases (for example, ritual chants and the narration of myths and legends), the oral genres that I have recorded and will record are in danger of disappearing, as there are fewer and fewer people who practice and are interested in them. I trust that, if the community considers it pertinent, the efforts of documenting these genres can help in future projects for their revitalization. In general, my purpose is to give the Coras of Santa Teresa as much material as possible so that, if they so choose, they can use it in their ongoing struggle for cultural and political vindication.
This project is of great importance to me because I have been in contact with the Coras since my childhood and I have always felt a deep bond with their culture and their region. Now that I am acquiring methodological tools from linguistics to approach their language and verbal arts, I have discovered unique and fascinating characteristics, so my passion for this subject has grown exponentially. Likewise, I am forming more and more friendships in Santa Teresa, and cultivating them is of paramount importance to me.
Have you presented or published your research anywhere? Tell us about the experience.
The most important socialization of my research occurs every time I go to Santa Teresa, where I not only discuss my progress with my friends and collaborators, but, according to traditional protocol, I must present myself in a formal assembly before the Council of Elders to tell them in detail what I intend to do and what I have done in the village. I recently (May 2024) gave the Council a rudimentary edition (which I hope to turn into a more formal book in the future) of an anthology of myths and legends in Cora and Spanish that I compiled in 2023.
In the academic field, I presented my insights into the poetics of Cora ritual chants on November 11, 2023, at the Tenth Congress of Indigenous Languages of Latin America at the University of Texas at Austin, and on June 10, 2024, at the conference entitled Emerging Topics in Linguistics at Stockholm University. I spoke about my fieldwork at the Linguistics Open House and at the LLILAS Graduate Research Symposium & Open House at UT Austin on February 15, 2024. Similarly, I gave a presentation on comparative poetics (where I included numerous examples from indigenous languages of Mexico and Central America) at the 10th Biennial Conference of the Graduate Association for Germanic Language Students at the University of Texas at Austin on April 19, 2024. Finally, I received an invitation to present a comparison between Cora and ancient Chinese poetics at the 57th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics at Peking University on October 25-27, 2024.
My experience in presenting to the Coras has been one of continuous learning about the centrality of bringing the interests and concerns of the community to the forefront. The academic agenda must be subservient to dialogue with the Coras, and their voices must be the primary guide for my research. Similarly, I have noticed that several Coras in Santa Teresa are attracted to my project and find the documentation of verbal genres and traditional knowledge relevant to their own lives.
In presenting to scholars I have found that the poetics of the Cora have unique elements in the world and are capable of provoking admiration and interest in a wide variety of audiences (from linguists specializing in Latin America to linguists specializing in Sino-Tibetan languages), which has encouraged me to continue to delve into the wonderful verbal art mechanisms of this culture.
What would you say is something interesting about your area of study that most people don't know?
There are about 7000 languages in the world that have a very wide variety of grammatical systems, so we can always be surprised by some feature of a language that is new to us.
I also think it is important to note that language is intrinsically linked to the way of seeing the world of each community of speakers, so also in that sense the surprises will be abundant for those who have an interest in learning them.
Tell us about your academic or professional collaborations with Mexico.
I am part of a nascent group of linguists specializing in the Yuto-Nahuas languages of Mexico. As a first collective project, we are seeking to make a collective presentation on our linguistic family of study at the next congress of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas.
Similarly, I am participating in the first stages of a project funded by the European Research Council that seeks to develop dictionaries of as many variants of Cora and Huichol (Wixárika) as possible in order to generate a database for historical linguistic analysis. The idea is also to give the documents to the communities involved so that they can use them in whatever way they see fit.
What attracted you to Texas and the University of Texas at Austin?
Since my research focuses on the linguistic approach to verbal art, UT Austin was my first choice for PhD study. The Department of Linguistics at this university is a world leader in this type of research thanks to a group of professors (most notably Drs. Anthony C. Woodbury, Patience Epps, and Danny Law) who have approached their languages of study from this perspective, as well as a number of students who have produced high-level Ph.D. theses in this regard. In addition, my work focuses on the documentation and linguistic description of an indigenous Latin American language, and in that area, too, UT Austin is one of the best universities in the world.
What have been some good things you didn't expect from Texas or UT Austin?
The teaching of descriptive linguistics and verbal art analysis has been outstanding, but I expected that. I have been pleasantly surprised in the other areas of linguistics (e.g., syntax, semantics, phonetics, phonology and neurolinguistics), which are also approached in an extremely serious, interesting, and captivating manner.
What have been the biggest challenges of studying at UT Austin and living in the United States?
At first, I had a hard time making friends and understanding the subtleties of social interaction in this country. Today I have several friends, for which I am very grateful to life. At the same time, I feel that I have learned to handle myself with some ease in this society.
The academic demands are very high and sometimes the stress levels are too. However, this demand results in a very perceptible way to advance in the theoretical and practical knowledge of the discipline studied.
How has the support of ConTex and Conahcyt impacted you?
It has given me a financial peace of mind that I greatly value. It has allowed me to carry out my research and cover the expenses that are inherent to it even when I reach the limit of the fieldwork budget I receive from the university. This helps make my data collection much more expeditious.
What kind of work do you hope to do in the future, and how do you hope your research will benefit people in the U.S. and Mexico?
I hope to learn as much as possible about the Cora of Santa Teresa and its verbal arts, as well as about life in that community. I would like to engage in research in Mexico, continue to contribute to the description of Cora, and work with the speakers of this language to document, preserve and promote it in the ways they see fit.
Likewise, I would like to teach linguistics and contribute to the training of future researchers in my country. I hope to maintain academic ties with the United States and maintain the dialogue about the relevance of the indigenous peoples of Latin America and the need to make ever greater efforts to respect them and to generate a political and social system that treats them with the justice that has been denied them for centuries.
What advice would you give to other Mexican students considering studying in Texas?
I would recommend that you find out in detail the characteristics of the program you want to study and the people who will serve as your advisors and professors. In my case, the academic compatibility with the institution has been total, and I believe that this is because my choice was based on careful research and reflection.
I would also tell them to be patient when it comes to social relationships, but to proactively seek them out. There are very good friendships waiting for us here.
If you come to Austin, be prepared for the heat!
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