Op-Ed: Here’s one way to support L.A.’s Indigenous communities

Los Angeles has recently welcomed a slate of elected officials following the widespread outrage from the leaked audio recording that has exposed deep-seated, racist behavior within L.A.’s local government. The tendency to lump Indigenous communities under the broad umbrella of “Hispanic/Latino” not only erases the diversity and cultural richness of the many Indigenous groups that call Los Angeles home, but it also significantly limits the resources dedicated to language access for these groups by assuming that we are all able to speak or understand Spanish. Executive Directive 32, also known as “Strengthening Language Access in the City of Los Angeles” and introduced by Mayor Eric Garcetti in December 2021, will improve access to information and services for over half a million Angelenos who have limited proficiency in English by requiring every city department to implement a plan to handle language access issues — for instance, constituents’ requests for services in different languages and how information is disseminated to reach non-English speaking communities. Indigenous organizations like Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo have been the primary source behind most of L.A.’s existing Indigenous language resources, such as interpretation services, language and cultural awareness trainings for the Los Angeles Police Department to better identify and assist Indigenous language speakers, and video translations of vital information on COVID-19 into several Indigenous languages. The current lack of language accessibility leaves Indigenous Angelenos unable to access the political resources and information necessary to advocate for their communities’ needs.