TUSD's Cholla High School Expands Yaqi Language Classes

TUCSON, AZ — Tucson Unified School's Cholla High is bringing new life to a dying native language by adding a second year to the Pascua Yaqi foreign language course.

On Tuesday, TUSD's board members voted to approve the addition of the second year to the Yaqi language classes, giving the native students a chance to expand the knowledge they learned from the introductory classes, according to the Arizona Daily Star.

Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo called it a "bold new step."

For now, the courses are only offered to the native cohort who registered for the first year, but there are plans to open the classes up later.

Teachers in the program tell the Star its a chance for native students to connect with their heritage and to deepen their identity.

The second year program will get the students more comfortable with speaking in the Yaqi language. One of the co-teachers, Emilia Gonzalez, told the Star her students did not know their history or where they came from until they took the class.

About 20,000 people make up the Pascua Yaqi nation that stretches from Southern Arizona to Sonora, Mexico, but very few are fluent in Yaqi.

Read the full story on the Arizona Daily Star.