The separation of Church and RAE

Sunday Aug. 21th will bring lots of smiles to kids faces across Argentina. We will celebrate what -used to be?- called "Día de los ni?os".

Well, I thought we were. But celebrations seem to have gone to a far place in the background while a more important topic is being brought to discussion at every household: INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE.

But, nothing's what it seems (1) and we should all know better by now - maybe we don't,

Allow me to elaborate:

"Día de los ni?os" is meant to state "Children's day" but since we have a strong demarcation in gender across Latin America, it ended up linearly translating to "Boy's day" in the absence of:

1) interest to even consider moving towards an inclusive environment

2) a better word to cover for all genders

Little success did the efforts of several organisms and collective movements had since the festivity started to be addressed as "Día de las infancias" ("Childhood day") a couple years ago. Long gone are the days where this could have slip. No sir, what is this? The year 2022? How could we let such horrendous renaming happen, and worst of it all, let those fighting for equality even try to shed some light in our still mostly patriarchic homes.

Little did we -the black sheep- know that clever 'ol patriarchalism would come back to bite us in the butt. Well, not literally of course, we all know they do not fight their own battles... wink wink.

So here comes into scene the previous generations (maybe 2 generations back for some of you). With their fear of someone breaking down the mold in which they poured dreams, hopes, church-shaped expectations, stirred it all together and came out with the world-approved picture-perfect family portrait.

Off to battle they go. Off to the social networks. To battle against language changes they quote old linguistic organizations here and there (RAE), throw in some insults, put their foot down against change and call it a day.

At this point you may think this is just an innocent confrontation from different generations, different points of view... Something completely innocent.

(1) But nothing's what it seems. There are 2 main political parties in Argentina, each of them with their own strong postures in favor or against some hot topics such as abortion, inclusiveness and diversity. It is by no means a coincidence that the previous generations are attracted and aligned to the political wing blocking women's right to decide on their bodies, humans rights to be gender fluent and for all of us to provide inclusiveness. They are battling against our rights, against children's future and they are USING LANGUAGE AS A WEAPON.

Children are the casualties of this war.

Period. There's no second-guessing. There's no fate, bad luck - whatsoever, involved.

While a coward soldier goes on to write/create a post to enrage the conservative masses and keep them entertained for the weekend, there are thousands of kids starving to death because of the lack of involvement of those in the power.

A girl died 3 days ago. She starved to death. Year after year the case was raised, no one did anything about it. Some isolated help from those around her. Just as much help as you can provide in a neglected neighborhood, in a forgotten school, in an invisible kids' world.

Still here we are. We, the audience, the ones who eat, breath and live language as if it was our oxygen, what keeps us running

Exposed to those who use language as a piece of cheap shiny mirror to distract us from the true issues

Here we are, being led to believe that the real problem is whether to call it Children's day or Childhood day. Here we are, banning women's rights, shouting down kids, and god-forbid we ever let the next generation be themselves and have FOR ONCE a gender neutral, inclusive holiday to show them our support early in life.