Hilaria Cruz develops film for linguistic research in Mexico

Hilaria Cruz, a Neukom Postdoctdoctoral Fellow, produced a six-minute film entitled TlyaF ‘lunch’. The film’s narrative concerns a young boy harvesting bananas in the field; his sister and grandmother bring him lunch, and they enjoy a delightful picnic together.  Afterwards, the girl picks banana leaves for tamales and they return home. The woman who plays the grandmother is one of the last remaining speakers of Ayoquezco, Zapotec, a moribund indigenous language spoken in the valley of Oaxaca. The film is intended to be used by TESOL teachers, as well as scholars doing research in Central or South America as stimuli for eliciting stories.