road signs

On the road recently in the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico, we drove through villages with names like Dzidzantun, Buctzotz, Oxkutzcab, and Tekax.  This reminded me of my childhood, riding in the car with the family, seeing road signs with names that seemed like from another planet, like Escatawpa, Wacahoota, or Shungopovi.  Although growing up in what was for me a mono-linguistic culture, all around me were these place names from Native American cultures, although those cultures themselves seemed to have vanished. I never heard spoken the languages from which these words originated. 

In the Yucatán, the strange (to me) place names come from the Mayan language.  But it is very much a present, visible culture, including the language. In some villages, the gude book said, Mayan is the primary language. One day, wandering on foot around the city of Merida, I came across a school for the study of Mayan.  Although it surprised me, to find it there tucked into a residential neighborhood across from an old church and hermitage, it is only one of many places that the language is studied.

In my home country, too, the Native American cultures have become more visible and careful about preserving their customs and languages. And over the years, immigration has brought different languages to the streets as well. 

Even where there is one predominant language, though, there are traces of other tongues. So it is with the words on these road signs, which open like doors onto other cultures, and also onto to other times, connecting us to history.