New Speakers for Established Listeners: Multilingual Regimentation for the Global Listening Subject in Peru

ABSTRACT This article explores how institutionalized Indigenous language education practices perpetuate relationships of coloniality by regimenting the legibility of Indigenous linguistic knowledge in relation to the figure of a privileged, non‐Indigenous, listening subject. I analyze heritage Quechua‐ and Aymara‐language teaching practices in a secondary school program in the regional capital of Puno, Peru. My analysis of the practices and comments associated with Quechua‐ and Aymara‐language classes reveal how teachers, parents, and youth privilege specific forms of Quechua and Aymara linguistic and cultural expertise that are framed for the listening needs and expectations of a privileged, non‐Indigenous listening subject. Through this, I argue that seemingly post‐colonial and neoliberal forms of embracing linguistic and cultural diversity in Puno, Peru, continue to engage colonial modes of managing and recognizing linguistic multiplicity that are legitimated by an elite, monolingual listener.