Español
Edy Benjamín López Castillo, Maya Popti’, nació en Jacaltenango, Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Es docente, traductor e intérprete (Popti’-español) y activista digital en lenguas indígenas en internet (Lengua Popti’). Edy trabajó 4 años como facilitador de lengua popti’ en colegios de la región huista (Jacaltenango, San Antonio Huista y Santa Ana Huista) y 7 años como traductor e intérprete de lengua popti’ en la Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala -ALMG-.
English
Edy Benjamín López Castillo, a Maya Popti’ man, was born in Jacaltenango, Huehuetenango, Guatemala. He is a teacher, translator and interpreter (Popti’-Spanish) and digital activist in Indigenous languages on the internet (Lengua Popti’). Edy worked four years as a Popti’ language facilitator in schools in the Huista region and seven years as a Popti’ language translator and interpreter at the Academy of Mayan Languages of Guatemala (ALMG).
The Popti’ language, also known as Jakalteko, has around 33,000 speakers in the Popti’ or Huista Maya region, encompassing various municipalities in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, as well as speakers in Ixcán, Quiché, Guatemala, and southeastern Chiapas, Mexico. Popti’ is classified as an endangered language, with a limited presence on the internet. As such, efforts are being made to upload content and raise awareness of the language.
Edy’s project is creating 31 educational videos which will serve as teaching resources for learning the 31 letters of the Popti’ Mayan alphabet and approximately 300 basic vocabulary words associated with the alphabet. These videos will be hosted on his YouTube channel, B’alunh Noh (Popti’), made accessible for schools, homes, and other Popti’ language learning centers. Each video will follow a structured format, including the presentation of a letter’s name and sound, pronunciation of the phoneme accompanied by relevant vowels, exemplification of vocabulary words associated with the letter, and other engaging activities for the viewer. The videos aim to strengthen language skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing, with additional methodologies implemented by the teacher to enhance writing proficiency. The overarching goals of these initiatives are to increase the visibility of the Popti’ language on the internet, taking advantage of the most popular social networks common in the Huista region.
Wikitongues Fellows are bold, community-rooted leaders driving the future of their languages. Through a year-long accelerator, they receive funding, hands-on technical training, and strategic mentorship to launch and scale projects in documentation, education, lexicography, media, and Wikimedia platforms. Each Fellow joins a global cohort of language activists who share tools, experiments, and hard-won lessons, transforming local initiatives into sustainable movements. The result is practical, community-owned work that keeps languages spoken, taught, recorded, and alive for generations.
