Roberto Elvira Mathez presented his poem book Lenguas Extintas (Visor) at UAM, a search and evocation on the languages that each year disappear when the last of its speakers die. This book, awarded with the City of Badajoz award, aims to preserve, at least a verse, the poetry of some of these languages and its vocabulary, and with that preserving also some communities, increasingly exposed to violence of the world.
During the presentation, Roberto read different poems, each one followed by a brief conversation with Lara Alonso, MIRCo member and Lead Researcher of the Migrant Voices project, under whose framework this event was organized. In this conversation, different issues were discussed, such as the humanization of language extinction, reminding that it is a process linked to specific human lives; the material, geopolitical and ecological processes that foster language disappearance today; the understanding of language as a social practice; the connection between language and culture and the world view of human groups; and poetry-essay as a genre that allows for critical reflection and that generates personal and emotional connections through reading.
Around 40 people was present during the event, mainly students from the courses of Applied Linguistics to Communication II (from the degree on Modern Languages) and General Linguistics (from the degree on Hispanic Studies). The public engaged by discussing some of the topics, first on small group and then with the author and the public in general.
