Irma Álvarez Ccoscco

Irma Álvarez Ccoscco

Ñawinchay, mayqin simipi: Runasimi castellano

Irma Álvarez-Ccoscco is a Quechua poet from Apurímac Perú. She is also a song-poem (taki) performer, a language activist supporting the use of indigenous languages in software environments (L1), as well as a translator, educator, and an interpreter of visual art to written forms. Selections of her poetic work can be read in both print and digital magazines from the United States and Perú, such as Ínsula Barataria, Atuqpa Chupan, and And Then 21.

Álvarez-Ccoscco has participated in projects focused on the localization of various software programs, including: educational games for children Tux for Kids and the Chamilo e-learning environment. She also participated in the implementation of the first offline dictionary for indigenous languages, Simidic and has worked on podcast projects such as Llaqtaypa Rimaynin, and together with the Kichwa community of NYC, she has recently contributed to Amaru Taytakunapak. On social media she manages @hablemosquechua, a bot that shares tweets in Quechua.

Álvarez-Ccoscco was a fellow of the Smithsonian Artist Leadership Program and undertook research at the Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC within the Quechua community archives. Under the auspices of the Campesino Animation program (Animación Campesina) at the Centro Bartolomé de las Casas in Cusco, she led Quechua community workshops such as L1 “Runasimipi Qillqaspa”. In her career as a poet-performer, she writes in Quechua without translation or generates bilingual and multilingual creations, including: “Kawsaq” and “Abyayala”.

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Kawsaq

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Imprison my flesh, if you want,
Harm my heart, if you want,
Tear away my hair, if you want,
Tie my hands and feet, if you want.

Perhaps,
Maybe you do not stop
Until you see my body rot.

If it is going to be like that,
Only my worms will take me to my mother Pachamama.

I will be there too!

I will feed the trees
with my rotting skin.

Yes,
I will grow fruit in any plant
So that my brothers
So that my sisters
Will be fed.

And, then my brothers,
And then my sisters
They will be strengthened
With my rebirth.

And, likewise,
I will scream
In the voices of my brother and sister:

“Yes! I’m Quechua!”

Do what you want!
Do what you want!

But, Never ever
Will you take away
who I am.

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