Photo by Susan Kalt

We need your help.

Taytay Celestino told us this riddle before heading out to the harvest. “Which young lady has beautifully braided, shining hair and many layers of tattered skirts?” Answer at bottom of page!

Celestino remarked that few people remember such riddles anymore. Riddles are just one form of Quechua folk wisdom that is disappearing as its speakers abandon the countryside.

Since 2009 our team has video-recorded over two hundred interviews with Quechua speaking children and adults in remote highlands communities of Bolivia and Peru. Our conversations reveal resilience and resourcefulness in the face of drought and discrimination. Herders and small farmers in the rural Andes possess a wealth of knowledge borne of living close to nature. Help us support young community members prepared to carry that knowledge forward with pride.

I’m excited to ask you to share in this project – please, send a donation today to help.

• What will my donation be used for?
• To support indigenous Andean people as they pursue advanced studies in linguistics, language education and as they move their collective dreams forward. Our team education page features two current and two former fellowship recipients.

• Is my donation tax deductible? – YES! We are now affiliated with a 501c3 organization and accept checks or online donations with ‘Yachay Simi project’ in comments or memo line. Please confirm your donation by emailing YachaySimi@gmail.com.
  

  Endangered Language Alliance / Yachay Simi project
  3 West 18th Street, 6th floor
  New York, NY 10011

About Us: Project Yachay Simi [Wise Language] joins North and South American linguists and teachers in an effort to preserve and revitalize the language and culture of rural communities in the Andes. Associates include faculty, students and graduates of Andean programs in intercultural bilingual education as well as teachers in-service and community leaders. Dr. Susan Kalt, founder of Project Yachay Simi has been visiting rural communities since 2000. Recently retired from teaching at Roxbury Community College, she’s received awards from the NSF/National Endowment for the Humanities Documenting Endangered Languages Program (USA), American Council of Learned Societies and Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Foundation for Endangered Languages (London) and created the collections “The Speech of Children from Cusco and Chuquisaca” and “Duck and Frog Stories in Chuquisaca Quechua” at Univ. Texas’ Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America.

Answer to the riddle: the qhiwiña tree, with its delicate leaves and ragged layers of bark!

Photo by Alexander Yates