The student news site of El Camino College

El Camino College The Union

The student news site of El Camino College

El Camino College The Union

The student news site of El Camino College

El Camino College The Union

Chicano culture celebration continues with ‘Nahuatl language’

The second of five Chicano culture celebration events took place on Tuesday which focused on the “Nahuatl language.”

California State University Northridge professor Fermin Herrera, who is also the father of Chicano studies professor Xocoyotzin Herrera, and plays in the same family musical group, Conjunto Hueyapan, which played for one of the events on campus, gave a lecture on the Nahuatl language.

The language is still spoken today in Mexico and was also spoken by the Aztecs. Herrera said he spoke about the Nahuatl language by pointing out the characteristics.

“I provided some cultural context for it,” Herrera said.

Herrera also said that the purpose of the speech was to provide information on the Nahuatl language and inform people of the language words spoken today as well as the impact it’s had on the Mexican people.

Monica Bautista, 20, administration justice major, was one of the student attendees of the event. She said she thought it was pretty cool to know another language and how to pronounce different words and countries.

“He told us about certain words that (things) should not be called,” Bautista said. “He told us about how Mexico has pyramids but they should not be called pyramids because they’re for Egyptians; they should be called platforms.”

The next Chicano culture celebration event, “Indigeneity and the Chicano Movement,” will be on Tuesday from 11:15 a.m. to 12:40 p.m. in the East Lounge of the Student Activities Center.

The lecture will be conducted by Mario Aguilar and Virginia Carmelo, followed by a dance performance by Xipe Totec Danzantes Aztecas.

The event which would have focused on “Chicanos in the Military” has been cancelled.

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