Focusing on Mexico, this presentation addresses how Indigenous and Afro-Mexican actors have challenged coloniality and the language politics that depicts them as "primitive" and "backward". The presentation will analyse published studies and first-hand writings that document how Indigenous peoples repositioned themselves as multilingual and multiliterate individuals at the onset of colonial times in the 16th century.

Through a decolonizing lens, the presenter will first present the case of the trilingual "Indians" at Colegio de Tlatelolco in the 1500s. Second, he will present the history of Afro-Mexican peoples in Mexico and their current movimientos to gain official recognition in Mexico. Lastly, based on the life stories of two Indigenous women, he will show how indigenous practices may extend our notions of language and interlocutors. The address will show how coloniality has been resisted in Mexico by different actors and how the field of language policy and planning could learn from them.