In the heart of Chile's Atacama Desert, nestled in the town of San Pedro de Atacama, a linguistic resurrection is quietly under way. The Lickanantay people, who have called this arid landscape home for more than 11,000 years, are on a mission to revive their ancestral language, Ckunsa, which was declared extinct in the 1950s. Yet, among these desert winds and starry skies, the language is finding new life under the stewardship of passionate community members like Tomás Vilca and Ilia Reyes Aymani.
Life and Language in the Atacama Desert
San Pedro de Atacama, with its adobe brick structures and whitewashed facades, is a magnet for tourists drawn to the desert's stunning moonscapes, salt flats, and some of the clearest astronomical views on Earth. Despite the babel of languages aimed at visitors—English, French, German, and Mandarin—before this influx, the region spoke Ckunsa, the original tongue of the Lickanantay.
Tomás Vilca, a stalwart defender of his heritage, sits under the shade at his oasis farm, adamant that Ckunsa has simply been dormant, not extinct. He envisions a resurgence: “We are bringing it back. We are going to revitalize our language,” he declares.
The Multilingual Tapestry of Chile
Chile is a country of linguistic diversity. Spanish is the primary administrative language, but the country hosts a mosaic of other tongues. Aymara and Quechua are spoken in the north, Mapuzugun by the Mapuche in the central south, and Rapanui on Easter Island. Significant efforts have been made historically to suppress Indigenous languages in favor of Spanish, often through educational and societal pressures.
Yet, Chile continues to face the decline of these languages. The Selk’nam people of southern Chile once spoke Ona, now also extinct. Most recently, the passing of the last speaker of the Yagán language marked another somber chapter in this ongoing story of linguistic loss.
Historical Suppression and Modern Revival Efforts
Vilca recounts the historical stigma associated with speaking Ckunsa. “At school they’d tell me I was speaking ‘Bolivian’,” he remembers, illustrating how the process of “hispanization” overshadowed Indigenous languages with Spanish. Records from as far back as the mid-1800s hint at Ckunsa's presence, but it gradually faded in public and educational spheres due to systemic suppression.
However, contemporary efforts signal a renaissance. The Chilean Education Ministry has integrated Indigenous language revitalization into schools via the ‘language and culture of ancestral peoples’ program, initiated after consultations with various Indigenous communities. This curriculum, aimed at children from Mapuche, Aymara, and other backgrounds, seeks to rebuild linguistic and cultural heritage.
Bringing Ckunsa Back to Life
Local initiatives in San Pedro de Atacama are fervently working to revive Ckunsa. The 2021 Semmu Halayna Ckapur Lassi Ckunsa was a seminal event in language recuperation, and in 2022, efforts continued with the distribution of Ckunsa mini dictionaries to young students.
Ilia Reyes Aymani, a teacher and linguistic advocate, embodies this cultural revival, composing songs in Ckunsa to aid local children’s learning. “When they taught you how to sew, for example, they did it in Ckunsa,” she notes, underscoring the language’s deep roots in everyday cultural practices still remembered by the community.
Ckunsa in Education and Tradition
In Calama, a town rendered surreal by its proximity to the sprawling Chuquicamata copper mine, Ckunsa classes are a feature in some local schools. The language is taught not just for its vocabulary, but as a connection to the ancestral way of life. With around 1,500 words recovered, Vilca and other teachers strive to reintegrate the language into both formal education and community life.
Aymani, along with other practitioners, emphasizes the generational dialogue fostered by these efforts: “We’re trying to leave something behind for our children, much as our grandparents and ancestors did for us.” The teaching of Ckunsa provides cultural continuity, offering the younger Lickanantay a sense of identity and pride in their heritage.
The Road Ahead for Ckunsa
The road to full revitalization of Ckunsa is long, yet filled with promise. For Reyes Aymani and others, the language’s growing acceptance and use is a testament to its resilience and value. "It's persistence, that's all," she says, a sentiment echoed by her students and community members who are increasingly receptive to reconnecting with their linguistic roots.
As the Atacama Desert yields its secrets to both visitors and locals, the voice of Ckunsa rises—a testament to the enduring spirit of the Lickanantay and the power of language as a living, breathing thread connecting past, present, and future.
These efforts remind us that the revival of a language offers not just the continuity of a lexicon but the rich, cultural narratives that those words hold—the collective memory of a people encoded in spoken form. The restoration work here is an assertion that Indigenous heritage and modern life can coexist vibrantly, breathing new life into the words that may have otherwise slipped away quietly into the desert winds.
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