Intercultural analysis

WhatsApp and digital literacy of nhäñhu women in Mexico City

Abstract

During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the WhatsApp application acquired a key function for the Otomi community, or ñhäñhu, mainly among women who took advantage of this digital application as a means of communication in their daily lives and as an essential resource to achieve the completion of the school cycle for the community’s minors, as well as to continue marketing their crafts in a context of social distancing. The qualitative approach was used, based on interviews and direct observation. Five interviews were conducted with ñhäñhu women artisans, between 21 and 50 years old, of various educational levels. For ñhäñhu women, the use of the smartphone and access to mobile data became key factors for their autonomy and the development of digital skills by searching for strategies, the use of these applications as tools promoted learning, social, economic, cultural and educational participation within their community of origin and destination. It was found that nhäñhu women significantly developed self-taught learning in the use of digital tools through individual and collaborative work strategies. This has made visible the role of women and their social participation outside their community in the last two decades, especially on Chapultepec Avenue and Colonia Roma, originating in Santiago Mexquititilán. The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) has allowed women to break with social stereotypes, dispelling sexist ideas, making visible their participation in urban contexts, exemplifying and showing the community interconnected with the public and the private, in addition to adding ethnicity in the use or technological appropriation, resulting in a particular intersectionality that favors digital inclusion, identifying synergies between interculturality and digital literacy.