The Generational Gap and the Road to Well-Being: Language and Natural Environment in the Discourses of Indigenous Old and Young in Tlaxcala

In this paper, the attitudes of Indigenous people to the problems of language shift and ecological changes are examined through a lens of intergenerational gap. The area under study is the rural and historically Nahuatl-speaking communities of Tlaxcala that experienced urbanization as well as linguistic and cultural assimilation during the twentieth century. A disparity between the older and younger generations is an ordinary phenomenon in such context, but in this case, the interviews recorded with both young and elderly residents show that the gap is probably more perceived than real. In their discussions on well-being and a better future that they wish for themselves and their communities, the interviewees of different age groups raise the same or quite related themes, reflecting on what has been lost in comparison to the past and what benefits the modernity has brought. It appears that such aspects as fresh water resources, amount of trees, and speaking Nahuatl, which declined as a result of the industrialization, have value for the younger community members as well as for the elderly. These shared values still provide an opportunity for a dialog and transmission of knowledge between the two divided generations.