Yásnaya Elena A. Gil

Yásnaya Elena A. Gil (Ayutla Mixe, Mexico, 1981) is one of Latin America’s leading defenders of linguistic rights. She is a member of COLMIX, a group of Mixe people dedicated to researching, communicating, and promoting Mixe language, history, and culture. She has taken part in many projects related to linguistic diversity, the development of grammar content for educational materials in Indigenous languages, and documenting languages at risk of disappearance. She has helped develop written materials in Mixe and build readerships in Mixe and other Indigenous languages. As an activist, she has defended the linguistic rights of speakers of Indigenous languages and promoted their use online and in literary translation. Together with renowned Mexican actor and director Gael García Bernal, she has also co-presented a series of documentary films about environmental issues in Mexico.