{"id":119952,"date":"2026-01-04T17:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T17:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/119952\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T17:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T17:31:08","slug":"at-csulb-a-retired-judge-pieces-together-the-language-once-spoken-by-her-ancestors-long-beach-post-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/119952\/","title":{"rendered":"At CSULB, a retired judge pieces together the language once spoken by her ancestors \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Linguist Deborah Sanchez grew up hearing only a few words in \u0160muwi\u010d, an Indigenous language originating from the central Californian coast. \u0160muwi\u010d words peppered her parents\u2019 speech, giving Sanchez glimpses of the language of her heritage.<\/p>\n

Now, as faculty and a current master\u2019s student at Cal State Long Beach, Sanchez is devoting her life to stitching these words together, revitalizing and sharing the language, which has been dormant for decades. She sees it as \u201can ancestral responsibility to carry these things forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u0160muwi\u010d exists in the family of Chumashan languages, spoken across the region encompassing what is now San Luis Obispo to Malibu, as well as interior land stretching toward the Central Valley. Approximately two centuries ago, close to 90 languages were spoken in California, then the most linguistically diverse area of North America, according to the California Language Archive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Indigenous languages \u201cdid not magically cease to be spoken,\u201d Sanchez wrote in her Cal State Long Beach master\u2019s of linguistics thesis. Rather, she wrote, they were systematically suppressed and eliminated by settlers. \u201cOnce obliterated,\u201d Sanchez wrote, \u201cthey were substituted in with the prevailing colonial language.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last first-language speaker of \u0160muwi\u010d, Mary Yee, died in 1965. She left behind \u201cremnants,\u201d Sanchez said \u2014 an archive of hundreds of recordings. Yet they remained inaccessible to the community for years, Sanchez said.<\/p>\n

That began to change in the 1980s. A friend gave Sanchez\u2019s mother a dictionary of 2,000 \u0160muwi\u010d words \u2014 part of linguist Kenneth Whistler\u2019s dissertation \u2014 and she passed a copy onto Sanchez. The lexicon proved helpful, but without any syntax, Sanchez had no idea how words fit together, she said.<\/p>\n

She earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in sociology from CSULB in 1982 and went on to earn her law degree and become a Los Angeles Superior Court judge in 2006. Yet she continued studying \u0160muwi\u010d, poring over recordings of Yee speaking the language. \u201cOnce that became available, then you can actually hear the cadence,\u201d Sanchez said, a breakthrough. With the help of mentors, friends and family, she began piecing \u0160muwi\u010d together.<\/p>\n

In 2007, Sanchez attended a gathering of Indigenous people. A group of Mayan elders clarified that the end of the Mayan calendar, December 2012, was not the end of the world as many interpreted, but rather \u201centering the galactic dawn,\u201d Sanchez said, a message which prompted her to ask how she could make the world a better place. \u201cI prayed about it, and the answer came back: to learn the language.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanchez threw herself into studying \u0160muwi\u010d and began apprenticing and collaborating with others working to bring Chumashan languages back into daily use. By 2010, she had learned enough to begin teaching the language to about 20 Chumash and Indigenous community members in Santa Barbara.<\/p>\n

Isabel M Ayala was one of Sachez\u2019s early students and described her as a generous, compassionate teacher. \u201cShe challenges you, but she doesn\u2019t confront you,\u201d Ayala said.<\/p>\n

In 2013, Ayala and Sanchez traveled to Washington DC for an Indigenous language workshop. In their hotel room, Ayala heard Sanchez speaking to her mother in \u0160muwi\u010d. \u201cThat\u2019s what I want before I die,\u201d Ayala remembered thinking at the time. \u201cI want to be able to have a conversation in my language.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning \u0160muwi\u010d transformed Ayala. \u201cI wish I\u2019d learned that language as a child,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s knowing who you are,\u201d which \u201cbrings wellness to your spirit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Deborah Sanchez stands in the hallways of a Liberal Arts building at Cal State University Long Beach. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Sanchez observed that Indigenous populations have significantly worse health outcomes and lower life expectancy than other racial and ethnic groups, as the Department of Health and Human Services has documented<\/a>. She understood these health outcomes as the product of colonization and cumulative trauma across generations.<\/p>\n

And as she gained fluency, she saw language itself as a healer, and she left her seat on the bench to explore these questions at CSULB. Sanchez\u2019s research and other scholars have revealed the power of reconnecting to culture and heritage through words. \u201cWe can get well by our language,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you lose everything, it becomes the biggest factor in your own well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanchez has composed and taught dozens of songs in \u0160muwi\u010d. She leads a group of 12 women, the Chumash Dance Sisters, who have sung and danced at the Hollywood Bowl, the Aquarium of the Pacific and powwows across California.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are more of a community because of the language,\u201d said Ayala, age 72 and the oldest of the dance sisters. Sanchez convinced Ayala to start dancing, despite having \u201cthree left feet,\u201d she said. Now, Ayala is teaching \u0160muwi\u010d classes, and though she can\u2019t hold a fluent conversation just yet, she\u2019s close.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Linguist Deborah Sanchez grew up hearing only a few words in \u0160muwi\u010d, an Indigenous language originating from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-119952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}