Aisha stays on the sidelines, sitting on a stone between the rubble and the new houses that are under construction. In front of her, her village community is celebrating an Amazigh wedding. Even though it is a festive day, her thoughts are anchored to a pain too deep to let go. She holds it between her hands, tightly interlaced over her skirt, before lifting her head and telling me: “Life goes on, but my heart still hurts.” The earthquake took the older of her two children, who died while sleeping under the rubble of the house, of which now only the memory remains. Since the earthquake, three years ago now, she has lived in a tent in a camp without basic services. Water arrives intermittently, and electricity depends on a few solar panels that are often covered by the dust and debris stirred up by the strong winds of the high mountains.

When we think about the third most spoken language in Catalonia after Catalan and Spanish, our minds often go to English, Chinese, or Arabic. If we hear about Amazigh, on the other hand, we are likely to frown. Amazigh, originating from North Africa –especially present in Morocco and Algeria–, is estimated to be one of the most spoken languages within Catalan territory, as it is calculated to be the mother tongue of the majority of the immigrant population from Morocco.