By: Marco Guzman  

Welcome once again. This time I would like to comment on the improper use of native terms for spurious purposes…People who, thanks to these aboriginal names, make money without giving any to the indigenous peoples. They try to take possession of them with unspeakable ends. Recently, it has been the groups said to practice spiritual currents and of health who began to make use of music, names, and medicinal herbs/plants, like the term Lakota. They have been utilizing ancestral names that neither can nor should be registered with an economic property for a few impertinent persons.

The list of terms, aboriginal words and symbols has no end. It suffices to mention some examples of this incorrect use by some individuals, companies, social and economic organizations, as well as ecclesiastic, sportive, mining and marine organizations, among others. To begin with, in Uruguay, the word “Inchala”, which means “brother” in the Charrúa language, is used inappropriately. In the city of La Paz, Bolivia, exists a company dedicated to the elaboration of pharmaceutical products; “laboratories drugstore INTI”, and another one dedicated to the exploitation of mines called “Inti Raymi”.

The improper use of indigenous leaders’ names like, Lautaro, Tupac, Wallpa, Ollanta, Thunupa, or that of the mountains’ names like Illimani, Illampu, Huayna Potosí, Chachacomani, Mururata, Wallatani, Ollague, Misti, Machu Pichu, Chimborazo, etc. During the war of the Pacific, there existed a barge with a Chilean flag named Rimac. Musical groups that adopt indigenous names like Inti-Illimani, Kjarkas, Tumi, Pisac, Amauta, Nazca, Rumillajta. When the music group Inti-Illimani made a presentation in the Danforth Theatre of Toronto, I asked the director to explain the meaning of Inti-Illimani, he said that Inti meant Sun and that Illimani was a mountain situated in Chile; he did not even tell the truth, because this sacred mountain is situated in La Paz, Bolivia. 

The multinational Coca Cola, utilizes the word Aymara Coca. As a good Spaniard I would exclaim, “por Dios esto ya está de buen tamaño!” (my God, this is becoming an issue of great importance!). In Middle-America, there is the improper use of the words Abya-Yala, Kuna, Quetzal, Maya, Tolteca, Azteca, and more can be added. To the North of the U.S. they took possession of the word Cherokee to name an automobile’s brand. Many sportive clubs adopted indigenous names, like the Washington Red Skins, Cleveland Indians, Chicago Black Hawks, Atlanta Braves.

In Canada, three years ago I was interviewed at Christie Park, Toronto City, by the Director of the newspaper Latino Post, Miguel Lúcar, on the subject of the use or abuse of the word Inti Raymi in the festival of this same name and that had nothing to do with the sacred Andean event. It was more of a festival of musical repertory, sale of articles and foods with their Catholic saint on one side, of fraud to the Canadian public, and that could have had any other name.

By these means, we politely ask for the respect of the indigenous peoples’ cultural and ancestral values, particularly in the three Americas: South, Middle, and North. The organizations who say to be defending the indigenous peoples, organizations against racism and discrimination, Ombudsman, united Nations and those of ancestral intellectual property rights, are called to protect these terms, words, First Nations’ symbols; we will do it anyways.

First publicated in “ Apacheta”, April, 2003

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