Cristina Calderón was the only full-blooded member of her people
The champion of Yaghan language and culture died on February 16th, aged 93
THE DESTRUCTION of a language, a culture and a people’s independence can happen swiftly, with one raid or one venturesome virus. More often it is a process of slow decline, over decades or centuries, caused by miscegenation and indifference. Foreign, modern ways prove more attractive; the old traditions come to seem primitive, even shameful; children refuse to learn or speak the complicated words. So the culture disappears, and with it a world that no other people knew.
This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “Last of the line”
From the March 5th 2022 edition
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