Gabriela Pérez Báez: Understanding linguistic diversity for well-being, labor rights and social justice (Lecture Series: Language, Communication & Cognition)
| Lecturer(s) | Gabriela Pérez Báez |
| Contact person | Uta Reinöhl |
| uta.reinoehl@linguistik.uni-freiburg.de | |
| Date | Thursday, 15th January 2026, 14:15 - 15:45 |
| Location | KG I, HS 1016 Freiburg Germany |
| Save this event | iCal |
Understanding linguistic diversity for well-being, labor rights and social justice: Mesoamerican languages among US farmowkrers from Mexico and Guatemala
Gabriela Pérez Báez
Abstract:
Prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, a team of community-based organizations and scholars in the US state of Oregon documented the linguistic diversity of farmworkers from Guatemala and Mexico. Among 300 farmworkers, speakers of 29 Mesoamerican languages were identified. A second survey with over 180 participants revealed additional languages for a total of 51.
The team assessed the impact of the pandemic on Mesoamerican farmworkers: they experienced greater information and accessibility gaps, needed more supplemental food sources, and lost more work time than others. We argue that this was due to the labeling of immigrants from Guatemala and Mexico as “Hispanic/Latino” and the ensuing assumption that they are speakers of Spanish.
I close by explaining that while this research initiated in response to a particular time in history, the data and methods are being used to respond to violations of the constitutional rights of immigrants by the US government, and to support social services for this highly diverse population.
Meeting ID: 580 775 4066
Password: 4hTgcgZSG