Preserving culture: Rappers keep the Maya language alive
Angel del Rosario Hau Paat leans over the rainbow-colored hammock where his grandmother lies and speaks directly into her ear: “What do you think of my singing?” he shouts in Maya, the Indigenous language of Mexico’s Yucatan.
Hard of hearing, she strokes his face as she responds. “She’s happy,” he translates, with a bashful laugh. “She says my Maya is good.”
Growing up in the southern Mexican state of Quintana Roo, Mr. del Rosario says he wasn’t interested in learning Maya, the only language his grandmother speaks and which his mother grew up speaking. Spanish is what was useful for him at school and among friends.
But today he is part of a growing trend among young people – here and across the Americas, from Canada to Chile – who are rapping in Indigenous languages. It’s
