Voices of Play: Miskitu Children's Speech and Song on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua

Acknowledgments

xv The deepest debt of gratitude I have accumulated in this project is to the families who opened their homes and lives to me on Corn Island, as well as other residents of Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast who helped me carry out this research. I cannot mention by name the participants in the study for reasons of confidentiality, but they are continually in my mind and heart. I am also grateful for the sensitive reflections and patient attention to detail provided by my cointerpreters who collaborated in the process of transcription and translation. Angela Abraham spent the most time working with me and brought her insights as a teacher, mother, and trilingual islander to the tasks of transcription and interpretation; she will always be my island sister and intellectual partner. Others who offered their skills from time to time include Simón Abraham, Nacha Bendliss, Miss Celia Castellano, Charlene Briton, Glenda Fletx, Miriam Flores, Julio Lazo, Kennedy Sanders Lino, Dina Leyman Jonathon, and Rosa Leyman Jonathon . Any errors or misinterpretations in the transcripts are entirely my own responsibility. Before I began my fieldwork, I was fortunate to receive Miskitu lessons from Melvin James Olegario in Bluefields and Barnabas Waldán in Bilwi, who offered rich insights into the complexities of language and culture on the coast. Neisy Theodore Schwartz helped me get started with language learning, friendship, and fun during my first visit to Bluefields in 2001. I spent the next summer in Bilwi immersed in the Miskitu language while living with Eufemia Espinoza de Peter, the mother of anthropologist Melesio Peter Espinoza; I thank them and their extended family for the Acknowledgments xvi · Acknowledgments warmth and hospitality they have always shown me. My research was affiliated with the Instituto de Promoción e Investigación Lingüística y Rescate Cultural (IPILC), at the Universidad de las Regiones Autónomas de la Costa Caribe Nicaragüense. I have been awed and inspired by the work of Guillermo McLean, Arja Koskinen, and others associated with IPILC who have tirelessly made intercultural education a reality on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. Through their invitation, I was able to participate in a workshop in Bluefields on the standardization of a writing system for Nicaraguan Kriol English, an experience that affected me profoundly. I would like to thank Maira Vargas and Rigoberto Dávila for helping me with logistics in Managua and Corn Island, respectively. I have space to acknowledge only a few island residents who contributed to this project in multiple ways; I follow the regional practice (in Miskitu and Kriol English ) of using “Miss” to respectfully refer to senior women and “Mr.” to refer to senior men. I am indebted to Parson Manuel Gamez Lazo and his wife, Miss Nimfa, and to Miss Noemi Hopington and her husband, Don José, who allowed me to live with their families on Corn Island. For their support and help with my research, I would like to thank Norma Dixon, Miss Lestel Downs, Mr. Olney Downs, Miss María Leyman Jonathon, Mr. Cornelio Leyman, Mr. Binistro Abraham, Miss Vira Jonathon, Miss Bernicia Jonathon, Miss Eloise Howell, Miss Donna Lee, Miss Nubia Rigby Downs, Gerardo Solano, David Lackwood, Regina, Joana Pablo, Liseth Lorio, Wanda Ramón, Miss Rosa Sebia, Miss Nacha Bendliss, Timoteo Mercado, Miss Libia Pictan, Miss Lotrina Lopez, Miss Bonda Welcome, Miss Esmeralda Hayman Hooker, Miss Cristina Morris, Mr. Natalian Josef, Miss Felicia Josef, Alberto Salciano, Miss Celia Castellano , and their families. This project was first conceptualized while I was a graduate student in New York, where I had the good fortune to learn from many people, especially Aaron Fox and Ana María Ochoa at Columbia University and Bambi Schieffelin at New York University. I thank all my teachers, friends, and fellow travelers who made this journey so transformative. Additional sources of intellectual and institutional support in the early stages of the project include Tim Taylor, Sherry Ortner, Lesley Bartlett, Lori Custodero, Janet Wolff, Marco Jacquemet, Steven Feld, and John Singler. On the personal side, Peter Lewy helped in many ways. The project was further shaped by Atlantic Coast researchers and other regional intellectuals I have had the good fortune to meet. Jane Freeland and Edmund Gordon served as outside members of my dissertation committee and offered important feedback on that stage of the work. Danilo Acknowledgments · xvii Salamanca helped in crucial ways at the very beginning and very end of this...