First news broadcast in Quechua launches in Peru

World Today

Peru has launched its first news broadcast in Quechua, the principal indigenous language. It’s spoken by millions in Peru and across South America.

CCTV America’s Dan Collyns reports.

“We have four million Peruvians and this is the first program which has been designed and produced to speak Quechua. This, we believe, will transform the relation from the government, from the state, from some people that speak a different language,” Fernando Zavala, the prime minister of Peru said.

Starting 5:30am to catch early-risers in the countryside, Nuqanchik is broadcast simultaneously on state TV and radio

Quechua is the most widely spoken indigenous language in the Americas but until now millions of Peruvians have never watched or listened to a national news broadcast in their mother tongue.

For Quechua activist and now presenter of the show Marisol Mena, it was fulfillment of a dream.

“It’s an opportunity and historic achievement for our language Quechua, the language which the Incas left us. We’ve struggled for a long time to see this initiative and now we are here broadcasting this information to our Quechua brothers and sisters,” Mena said.

For centuries, Quechua speakers were discriminated against so much that some decided not to teach the language to their children.

Even so, experts said, while 13 percent of Peruvians speak it fluently up to a third of Peruvians understand some of the language.