his website is a community-based and artistic digital repository that unfolds six years of work and research on the "Western Ngiba" language: a collective, intimate, and rigorous endeavor developed by artist Ulises Matamoros Ascención with the support of his own community — the Ngiba neighborhoods of San António Tierra Colorada and San António Tierra Negra in Santa Inés Ahuatempan (Puebla, Mexico).

This work traces its genesis back to 2018, when the artist, with the help of his Ngiba community, founded Chasen Thajni, a communal space built in the central plaza of Ahuatempan. As a political gesture, Chasen Thajni reclaimed this space to host community gatherings centered on Ngiba language and culture. The audio from these meetings and community assemblies was broadcast live 250 km away through a loudspeaker installed at the Carrillo Gil Art Museum in Mexico City, and later at the City Museum of Querétaro.

"The Times of Our Language. No One Bears Witness for the Witness" suggests the continuation, development, and sharing of the experiences that emerged around Chasen Thajni. In this sense, it is a reflective, critical, and intense exploration of memory, lived experience, and the impossibility of full representation when translating across different linguistic margins.

This site was made possible thanks to the Gwaertler Stiftung and Chasen Thajni, who funded the creation of this website and the first phase: ESSENTIALS. NO ONE BEARS WITNESS FOR THE WITNESS, the vital core that sustains — and will continue to sustain — the entire project.

More than a digital platform, this is a constellation of materials that resist forgetting and celebrate the power of the Ngiba language, listening, and writing. This growing archive does not aim to represent the community, but rather to make space for its ways of speaking, remembering, and orienting. Because no one bears witness for the witness, but we can create the conditions for the voice and its echoes to have multiple places to appear, connect, and dialogue.

This project is not merely a linguistic record; it is a bridge between worlds. It is a guide that seeks to reveal the intellectual richness of living in distinct linguistic margins. It is also an act of sharing with others a language at risk — a language that must be preserved.

Our deepest gratitude to the Gwaertler Stiftung, whose generous support through the 2025 Gwaertler Grant made the creation and realization of this website possible.

Thank you for trusting this project and allowing it to take root and take shape from within.

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