This past weekend, on Saturday, November 16th, 2019, The Ohio State University hosted the 5th annual Quechua Alliance meeting. Each year, this event aims to promote the exchange of ideas about the Quechua language and Andean culture.

The Quechua Alliance event took place in the Ohio Union and began with the first keynote speaker, Diego Tituaña, Maurice R. Greenberg Fellow at Yale University. His presentation was entitled "International Year of Indigenous Languages and Beyond", touching on what the future of indigenous languages looks like. 

Next up was the Warachiku or fair of activities meant to informally enagage attendees with the Quechua language. Américo Mendoza-Mori and Nico Suárez-Guerrero, from the University of Pennsylvania, led Juegos y dinámicas grupales para aprender en Quechua. Carlos Molina-Vital, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, guided the Actividad interactiva con ropa andina. Justin Pinta, from The Ohio State University, discussed The Quechuan Language Family through poster board visuals. Finally, The Hidden Life of Things: Andean and Amazonian Cultural Artifacts and the Stories They Tell pop-up exhibit was displayed for attendees to walk around and explore. 

Following the fair was a series of short presentations, starting with On the Importance of Quechua Linguistics for Educators, by Eva Bacas and Tyler Bokan from The University of Pittsburgh. The following presentation, entitled "Cafecito Quechua" at Stanford as a Model for Quechua Community Classes, was given by Marisol Necochea, Eda Benites Nieto, and David Albán Hidalgo from Stanford University. Finally, Carlos Molina Vital presented The Quechua Innovation and Teaching Initiative (QINTI) and the Need for Quechua Second Language Teaching in Peru. 

To take a bit of a break from The Union, we then traveled to Hale Hall to enjoy a wonderful array of Andean cuisine, prepared and served by Elvia Andia Grágeda and the OSU Quechua Community. We also enjoyed some Andean music and dancing!

Later in the afternoon, we returned to the Ohio Union to listen to the next keynote speaker, Dr. Devin Grammon, from the University of Orgeon. His presentation was entitled Whose Language? What Culture?: Opportunities and Challenges for Learning Quechua through Study Abroad. After a quick break, Dr. Fernando Unzueta presented the 2019 Quechua Lifetime Achievement Award to Luis Morató Peña (see photo). Afterwards, Evelyn Zevallos (La Universidad Nacional Federico Villareal) presented Tuta Puriq: Reflexiones sobre la traducción de textos de Castellano al Quechua and Santiago Gualapuro Gualpuro (The Ohio State University) presented Quechua/Kichwa Writing System. 

To close out the event, the Abya Yala student organization led everyone in an activity to reflect on what was discussed and what Quechua means to us. Elvia then made some closing remarks and we concluded the event with a group photo.

We have compiled all of the photos we have into a Flickr album. 

If you have any photos from the event, please send them to clas@osu.edu!