Spanish in an Amazonian community in virtual environments: literacy practices of @Nación Éseeja

Abstract

This article analyzes the discursive and literate practices of the Facebook profile @Nación Éseeja, associated with the Ese Eja indigenous community of Peru. This study is framed in a context of traditional writing, recent literacy and imminent digitization of indigenous communities. The main objective is to explore how analog and oral literate practices adapt to the virtual environment in the midst of tensions between cultural tradition and Western discursive structures. The analysis reveals that the @Nación Éseeja profile predominantly uses Spanish, in a dynamic of diglossic Spanish-Ese Eja bilingualism. Its publications stand out for their vindictive tenor and their adaptability to new formats. In writing, discursive strategies such as the use of adjectification, nominalizations, proverbs and linguistic markers typical of political and legal discourse can be identified. At the graphic level, the design of an institutional coat of arms reflects a non-oral hybridity (visual and written) that articulates elements of the Ese Eja oral tradition with Western heraldry. The study concludes that these hybrid discursive practices are tools of adaptation to a globalized society and, at the same time, tools of resistance in the midst of ideological tensions derived from linguistic and cultural contact.