Hilaria Cruz is a linguist and native speaker of the Chatino language spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico. She is an Assistant Professor in the Comparative Humanities Department at the University of Louisville. She co-developed a Chatino alphabet and is now creating and publishing children’s books to promote literacy in Chatino and other indigenous languages of the Americas. Together with her students, she has translated and published children’s books in the Bisaya, Chatino, Hupa, Greek, and Ojibwe languages. In her research she documents, studies, and promotes endangered languages for future generations. She has worked with elders and accomplished speakers in her community to record prayers, political, and ceremonial discourse.