Zapotec Talking Dictionary Kick-off Event for Summer 2026 at Jardín Pochote

Jack Moumdjian

June 26, 2026

#events, #interns, #jardínpochote, #JM, #TalkingDictionary, #tlacolula

Moisés García Guzmán speaking at the event

Meet the author

My name is Jack Moumdjian and I am a rising junior at Haverford College. I am interning with the Ticha team this summer, supported by funding from Together with Humanities, where my primary projects will be the Tlacochahuaya and Teotitlán Talking Dictionaries, the Teotitlán wills, and writing blog posts such as this one.

Moisés García Guzmán and I speaking at the event

Zapotec Talking Dictionary kick-off event for summer 2026 at Jardín Pochote

Zapotec language educators from nine pueblos across the Tlacolula Valley and beyond gathered on June 25, 2026, to discuss their work on creating Talking Dictionaries for their respective languages. Zapotec educators shared their needs, experiences, and goals working with their languages with one another in Zapotec, taking steps towards an ongoing future where Zapotec languages are used across communities and in all spaces.

Group discussions with community members and interns!

The meeting began with introductory words from Dr. Felipe H. Lopez, reflecting upon the 13 years of Ticha’s collaboration with Zapotec communities and anticipating the upcoming summer collaborating with a record nine communities. Moisés García Guzmán, the director of the San Jerónimo Tlacochahuaya Talking Dictionary, then explained his experience with his Talking Dictionary and its capabilities for audio, video, and additional materials, which are especially useful for his Dictionary’s use in schools teaching Zapotec youth their heritage language. Professor Brook Danielle Lillehaugen, one of the co-directors of Ticha, then offered some words celebrating 13 years of collaboration with and for Zapotec communities, that started with work with Janet Chávez Santiago and two Bryn Mawr College students. She then invited the interns to introduce themselves.

Dr. Felipe H. Lopez speaking at the event

Janet Chávez Santiago, the Dictionary director for Teotitlán del Valle, then outlined the schedule for communities. At this point, community members took the floor and briefly introduced themselves to the group and spoke about their hopes and aspirations for working on their dictionaries this summer.

Janet Chávez Santiago outlining the schedule

Following this there was informal time for student interns and Dictionary teams to start to get to know each other and plan their first working session together.

Group introductions and getting to know each other!

The night was an enjoyable and successful start to a thirteenth summer of work in collaboration with Zapotec communities across Oaxaca which will be followed by four weeks of mutual support and progress towards each community’s goals!