Tourism and Policy in Preserving Minority Languages and Culture: The Cuetzalan Experience

Abstract This article outlines the sociolinguistic environment in Cuetzalan, Puebla, Mexico, and how the evolution of tourism influenced, in what appears to be a positive way, the preservation and maintenance of Nahuat, the language spoken by the Nahua Indians of this area. There are many remarkable consequences to this story, however, this article will concentrate on the principal movers, indigenous women, and how their proactive solution to economic hardship led to language preservation. With the focus on language usage, much of the community culture and traditions are recovered and revivified. This study focuses on the situation of a particular group of Nahua women who joined together and formed an economic cooperative to improve their very limited existence. Through diligent work with an implicit policy of self‐determination, they succeeded in organizing themselves into different work areas as well as investing time to educate themselves. A majority of the women began promoting tourism and in return tourism appears to have been a very important factor that motivated them to revive and maintain their language, culture, and traditions.