The Quechua Project inspires indigenous language preservation in the DMV and beyond
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When she was a girl, Shana Inofuentes traveled frequently to visit her grandmother in the Bolivian capital, La Paz, on the Altiplano plateau of the Andean mountains, the highest altitude capital city in the world. At the airport, her grandma would be waiting for her with coca leaves to alleviate altitude sickness. Driving home, they would wind down through the mountains stopping at a market, or “qhatu,” in Chasquipampa, a neighborhood in La Paz, where she would follow her grandma around as she talked to the fruit sellers in Aymara, one of the dozens of indigenous languages still spoken daily in Bolivia.
“There was something about those trips … It made me feel like myself … like everything was right,” Inofuentes said.
When she returned to Bolivia after her grandma passed away, she felt discouraged as she realized she couldn’t speak to las caseras because she didn’t know the language. Inofuentes had lost a connection to them.
“It made me realize how profoundly language connects you with your own people, but also with yourself,” she said.
This epiphany inspired her to create The Quechua Project, a nonprofit that aims to preserve the Quechua language in Andean indigenous communities in the DMV and nationally, like Northern Virginia, the country’s largest Bolivian immigrant population and Inofuentes’ home since childhood.
Bolivians make up a tiny portion of the country’s immigrants — roughly 0.2% of the total foreign born population, or about 84,000 Bolivian immigrants in the entire country, according to census data.
The largest communities live in the Washington D.C. area with Fairfax County, where Inofuentes lives, and Montgomery County, Maryland; the top two population centers, respectively, with smaller numbers of Bolivians living elsewhere in the greater Washington area. New York City’s Queens neighborhood, as well as Miami, Los Angeles and Providence, are home to sizable Bolivian diasporas, according to a report from the Migration Policy Institute.
According to Inofuentes, many Bolivians in the DMV moved here directly from rural communities where indigenous languages and dialects are still commonly spoken, and they often continue to speak Quechua and practice other indigenous customs at home.
Among those keeping their culture alive are Anahí and Sandra Sanchez-Moya, sisters who were born and raised in Northern Virginia. They grew up going to weekly “cancha” soccer games, participating in folkloric dance groups and attending the yearly Bolivian Festival.
Sandra said that she thinks language is part of someone’s identity
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), about 40% of the 7,000 languages spoken worldwide are indigenous languages. According to a study done by the Congressional Research Service on Indigenous Peoples of Latin America in 2021, there are more than 5 million Quechua speakers and more than 1 million Aymara speakers worldwide.
However, like Quecha, many of these languages are endangered; others have gone extinct. The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs estimates that 600 languages have disappeared in the last century. By the end of the century, UNESCO predicts that approximately 3,000 indigenous languages will have disappeared.
The Quechua Project is one of several projects in the U.S. and abroad that aim to reverse that trend and preserve these endangered languages. UNESCO has even declared that the decade 2022-2032 is the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.
Both Sanchez-Moya sisters said they see a growing interest among U.S. Latines learning about their identities, ancestral languages and where they come from.
“Looking toward future generations,” Anahí said young people might think, “how come our family doesn’t have it anymore?” she said, referring to language and cultural traditions that tend to be lost over time.
Inofuentes and Sandra have both participated in Bolivian dance groups, such as Fraternidad Alma Boliviana, Tradiciones Bolivianas and Renegados del Valle, which practice weekly and perform folkloric Bolivian dance at parades, festivals and other community events in the Washington area.
In fact, Sandra said folkloric music and lyrics in Quechua and Aymara help her connect to her culture; the sisters often listen to folkloric music at home.
Inofuentes launched The Quechua Project in 2019 while working on a masters degree in communications at Columbia University in New York City. She gathered a team of community members, including Quechua influencer K’ancha, to create a website and Instagram page as well as a survey to assess the community’s needs and attitudes related to indigenous languages.
“The Quechua project is its own entity,” she said. “It’s a little ball that inspires our young people to use Quechua.”
She says she hopes the project will inspire people to see that embracing one’s culture and heritage can powerfully correlate with success in the United States.
The Quechua Project advances its mission largely through its Instagram account. Inofuentes and volunteers post explainer videos and infographic grid posts about Quechua, indigenous customs and prominent Andean figures, as well as stories featuring a Quechua word of the day.
Social media is a force that connects diasporic communities by fostering a shared sense of identity and language, according to all three Quechua proponents. Sandra stressed how social media can keep culture alive and pass it on to younger generations. Anahí said she sees an unprecedented opportunity to educate mass audiences.
Inofuentes emphasized the power of social media to connect people. Accounts like The Quechua Project, she elaborated, showcase people wearing polleras, traditional Bolivian dresses, and speaking Quechua in their day-to-day lives, making these expressions of culture feel more socially acceptable.
She said that when you see other people do it, “then you’re encouraged to do it.”Now, Inofuentes is looking to expand these initiatives. She said she wants to start monthly Quechua meet ups, where people can practice speaking the language and learn more about the culture. She would also like to launch language classes in Aymara.
Since Quechua and Aymara are both still living languages with millions of native speakers to learn from, Inofuentes wants to inspire young people to create space for Quechua and other indigenous languages in the DMV and beyond, while there is still time.
“This needs to be done now. There is urgency,” she said. “We have living, spoken Quechua in our families. It’s not like a lot of other Native communities. We are very fortunate that we have it alive. If we don’t pay attention, it will fade out in one generation.”
– Story by Eva Leon
– Copy edited by Valerie Izquierdo
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