A Mobile Application for Disseminating Milpa Biocultural Heritage through Nahuatl

Abstract Book of the 11th International Conference on Modern Approaches in Humanities and Social Sciences

Year: 2026

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A Mobile Application for Disseminating Milpa Biocultural Heritage through Nahuatl

Maria Fernanda Orozco Tapia, Frida Alvarez Bravo, Sandra Hernández Rojas, Belén Esmeralda Díaz Valderrama, Betzabet García-Mendoza, Carlos R. Jaimez-González, Lucila Mercado-Colin

ABSTRACT:

The accelerated decline of Indigenous languages represents a global challenge, as it entails the loss of ecological, cultural, and territorial knowledge transmitted across generations. In Mexico, this issue is especially visible in urban contexts such as Mexico City, where the intergenerational transmission of Nahuatl has weakened, reducing the public presence of the knowledge embedded in this language. A key example is the milpa system, a Mesoamerican polycultural agricultural model based on maize, beans, squash, and associated species, whose continuity is closely linked to Nahuatl as a means to name, classify, and interpret the natural world. In response, this work focuses on the design and implementation of a digital system aimed at disseminating milpa biocultural heritage through Nahuatl. The proposal takes the form of a mobile application conceived as a cultural mediation tool for non-formal educational settings, targeted at visitors and mediators of the Botanical Garden of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City. The system integrates a bilingual experience (Nahuatl–Spanish) that allows users to explore vocabulary, concepts, and biocultural relationships in an accessible and interactive way. Its implementation seeks to strengthen the social recognition of Nahuatl as a living knowledge system and to promote meaningful connections between urban visitors and biocultural heritage.

Keywords: Language Revitalization, Traditional Knowledge, Situated Technology, Urban Education, Digital Experience