An active member of her community, she learned Spanish from a very young age and worked for many years knitting the Yaghan baskets, a long-time Indigenous tradition that helped her look after her nine children and fourteen grandchildren.
On Wednesday, 93-year-old Chilean Cristina Calderon, the last native speaker of the Yaghan Indigenous language, died to COVID-19 in the Magallanes region.
Born in 1928 in Isla Navarino, Calderon lived throughout her life in the Villa Ukika community, where she maintained the customs and beliefs of her ancestors, canoe nomads that for 6,000 years inhabited the Tierra del Fuego archipelago.
An active member of her community, she learned Spanish from a very young age and worked for many years knitting the Yaghan baskets, a long-time Indigenous tradition that helped her look after her nine children and fourteen grandchildren.
However, most of her family members were reluctant to learn the Yaghan language for fear of discrimination. “When my sister Ursula passed away, I was alone, with no one to speak Yaghan with,” Calderon told outlet El Pais in 2016.
Cristina Zarraga, who is Calderon’s granddaughter, created a Yaghan-Spanish dictionary which is accompanied by a CD recording Yaghan words. She also edited a book of Yaghan legends, songs and tales.
Cristina Calderon was recognized as a “Human Living Treasure” by the Chilean Culture and Arts Council and declared Illustrious Daughter of the Magallanes Region and the Chilean Antarctic in 2009.
“I have deep regret for not being with you when you passed away. Be sure that everything I do is in your name and in that of our people,” tweeted Calderon’s daughter Lidia Gonzalez, who is Vice President of the Constitutional Convention.
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Courtesy: TeleSur
