This study aimed to describe the gap between Indigenous self-identification and reported mother tongue among undergraduate students of the Northeastern Regional Complex (CRN) of the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Mexico, explore the distribution of this gap across campuses, and make visible the discrimination, institutional ideologies, and perceived language shift surrounding it. A questionnaire was administered online through Microsoft Forms to 747 students across four campuses; 721 gave consent and constituted the sample for analysis, which was conducted using descriptive statistics given the small size of the Indigenous-language-speaking subgroups, focusing on the three campuses with sufficient sample size: Teziutlán, Libres, and Zacapoaxtla. Among students who self-identified as Indigenous (n = 74), 78.4% (58 of 74) reported Spanish, rather than an Indigenous language, as their mother tongue, a gap that varied notably across campuses and coexisted with a linguistic hierarchy positioning English above Indigenous languages in participants’ repertoire, with subtle forms of linguistic discrimination not always recognized as such, and with a perception widely shared among Indigenous-language speakers that Spanish is actively replacing their mother tongues. The findings offer an empirical diagnosis that could guide institutional efforts toward linguistic inclusion at the CRN-BUAP, and represent the first systematic diagnosis of this gap among university students in the Sierra Nororiental of Puebla, a region absent from existing literature on Indigenous higher-education populations in Mexico.
References
[1]
Amano, T., Sandel, B., Eager, H., Bulteau, E., Svenning, J., Dalsgaard, B. et al. (2014). Global Distribution and Drivers of Language Extinction Risk. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281, Article ID: 20141574. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.1574
[2]
Anderson, J. A. E., Mak, L., Keyvani Chahi, A., & Bialystok, E. (2018). The Language and Social Background Questionnaire: Assessing Degree of Bilingualism in a Diverse Population. Behavior Research Methods, 50, 250-263. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-017-0867-9
[3]
Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (2016). Reformas al Estatuto Orgánico de la BUAP: creación de los Complejos Regionales. Gaceta Universidad BUAP. https://repositorio.buap.mx/rdci/public/inf_public/2016/0/suplemento_g209_2_.pdf
[4]
Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (2024). La BUAP celebra 25 a？os de regionalización. Boletines BUAP.
[5]
Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (2025). Anuario Estadístico 2024-2025. https://repositorio.buap.mx/rdocencia/public/inf_public/2025/0/Anuario-Estadistico-2024-2025.pdf
[6]
Canuto, F. (2017). Mantenimiento de una lengua minorizada: El caso del purépecha en Ichán y en Tacuro, Michoacán (México). Onomázein Revista de lingüística filología y traducción, NE III, 77-96. https://doi.org/10.7764/onomazein.amerindias.05
[7]
Cashman, H. R. (2009). The Dynamics of Spanish Maintenance and Shift in Arizona: Ethnolinguistic Vitality, Language Panic and Language Pride. Spanish in Context, 6, 43-68. https://doi.org/10.1075/sic.6.1.04cas
[8]
Chaparro, O. L., Garzón, L., Ciuoderis, K., Vargas, A., Kendall, N., Nieto, J. V. et al. (2025). Ethical Guidelines and Best Practices for Health Research with Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Groups in Colombia: Insights from Experience. Ethics & Behavior, 36, 183-198. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508422.2025.2517153
[9]
Despagne, C. (2019). EFL Teachers’ Perspectives on the Role of English in Two Mexican Private Universities. Profile: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development, 21, 43-57. https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v21n1.69239
[10]
Dollinger, S. (2012). The Written Questionnaire as a Sociolinguistic Data Gathering Tool: Testing Its Validity. Journal of English Linguistics, 40, 74-110. https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424211414808
[11]
Gomashie, G. A. (2022). Bilingual Youth’s Language Choices and Attitudes towards Nahuatl in Santiago Tlaxco, Mexico. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 43, 182-193. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2020.1800716
[12]
Gomashie, G. A., & Terborg, R. (2025). Theory of Ecology of Pressures as a Tool for Classifying Language Shift in Bilingual Communities. Open Linguistics, 11, Article ID: 20250065. https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2025-0065
[13]
González Reyes, H., Mejía-Pérez, G., & González-Callejas, J. L. (2022). La distribución territorial de las Universidades para el Bienestar Benito Juárez García: Entre desiertos y espejismos educativos. Revista Educación Superior y Sociedad (ESS), 34, 123-146. https://doi.org/10.54674/ess.v34i2.625
[14]
Güémez, B. (2026). Ethnic Fluidity as Classification Propensities: Culture, Socioeconomic Status, and Changes in Indigenous Self-Identification in Mexico. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. https://doi.org/10.1177/23326492261432226
[15]
Ibarra-López, I., Calleros, H., & Cortés-Moreno, J. D. (2020). Estimaciones, identidad y la relación entre uso de la lengua y autoadscripción. Papeles de Población, 26, 185-211. https://doi.org/10.22185/24487147.2020.103.07
[16]
Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (2020). Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020, Cuestionario Ampliado. INEGI.
[17]
Kvietok Due？as, F. (2021). ‘Llegando a Secundaria Les Ha Dado Amnesia…ya No Quieren Hablar’: Indigenous Speakerhood Socialization and the Creation of Language Deniers in Quechua Education. Linguistics and Education, 61, Article ID: 100888. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2020.100888
[18]
Levin, K. A. (2006). Study Design III: Cross-Sectional Studies. Evidence-Based Dentistry, 7, 24-25. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ebd.6400375
[19]
Marian, V., Blumenfeld, H. K., & Kaushanskaya, M. (2007). The Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP-Q): Assessing Language Profiles in Bilinguals and Multilinguals. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50, 940-967. https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2007/067)
[20]
Martínez, C., Telles, E., & Torche, F. (2026). From Language to Self-Identification: Indigenous Classification in the Americas. Social Forces, 104, 1630-1651. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soaf152
[21]
Mejía-Pérez, G., & Worthman, S. (2017). La geografía de las oportunidades. El caso de las sedes de las universidades autónomas en municipios con poca oferta de educación superior. Revista Iberoamericana de Educación Superior, 8, 25-48. https://doi.org/10.22201/iisue.20072872e.2017.23.244
[22]
Muehlmann, S. (2008). “Spread Your Ass Cheeks”: And Other Things That Should Not Be Said in Indigenous Languages. American Ethnologist, 35, 34-48. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2008.00004.x
[23]
Mursa, R. A., Patterson, C., McErlean, G., & Halcomb, E. (2025). How Many Is Enough? Justifying Sample Size in Descriptive Quantitative Research. Nurse Researcher, 33, 35-40. https://doi.org/10.7748/nr.2025.e1958
[24]
Navarrete-Cazales, Z., & Alcántara-Santuario, A. (2015). Universidades interculturales e indígenas en México: Desafíos académicos e institucionales. Revista Lusófona de Educa？？o, 31, 145-160.
[25]
Ng, S. H. (2007). Language-Based Discrimination: Blatant and Subtle Forms. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 26, 106-122. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927x07300074
[26]
Quiroga Curín, J., Mayo, S., & Becerra Lubies, R. D. (2025). Language Revitalization and the Persistence of Mapudungun: A Review of Critical and Territory-Based Perspectives. íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura, 30.
[27]
Roux, G., & Soler Millán, G. C. (2024). Unilingualism and Unibilingualism in Colombia. Applied Linguistics, 45, 348-363. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amad030
[28]
Shulist, S. (2016). “Graduated Authenticity”: Multilingualism, Revitalization, and Identity in the Northwest Amazon. Language & Communication, 47, 112-123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2015.04.001
[29]
Terborg, R. (2006). The “Ecology of Pressures” in the Shift of an Indigenous Language to Spanish: The Presentation of a Model. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 7, Article 39. https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-7.4.167
