That's amazing. I have always loved the way that language works, especially in places like Ocotlán, where it's small enough to still be kind of pre-industrialization, but at the same time modern. Like farming there doesn't involve chemical pesticides and it's all based on the rainy season, but people still have satellite TV. It has no cell service, except in one spot, but there's wifi.

And that kind of thing kind of kept the languages intact until recently. When my mom was born, her grandfather still spoke 2 dialects with some of the older people. And their Spanish had the accent of their dialect, so my grandparents and my mom learned Spanish words with lots of "tl" and "zi" sounds at the end of their words. Kind of how I usdd to say Chicago with the Spanish "ch" instead of the "sh" sound that's common here.

But my great-grandfather didn't ever get around to teaching his kids or his grandkids any of the old dialects, so the language died with him. And my mom moved to the city, then to the US and she modified her pronounciation because people are mean. So by the time it got to me, I didn't even know they had spoken another language in my mom's pueblo until I started asking about some of the names of places. Like mexicatl, which is not Spanish.

And that spiraled into a family history obsession, and that is where I am now.