Abstract

Through an analysis of historical censuses and related official documents, I trace the history of Chilean censuses and the historical, ideological, and political conditions in which they emerged in order to discuss both the absence of language questions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the recent inclusion of an Indigenous languages question in the 2024census. The analysis shows that the census has historically operated as a mechanism to support particular discourses about language, mobilized to reinforce hegemony, present Spanish monolingualism as an incontestable sociolinguistic fact, construct difference, and sustain inequalities in line with language and racial ideologies as well as political and ideological projects in the making of the Chilean nation. Furthermore, recent censuses are inconsistent with official discourses and language legislation that recognize language diversity in the country. Its latest iteration, however, disrupts this monolingual bias by including a question about Indigenous languages. The analysis shows that these changes have been brought about mainly by changing national and international political conditions. Despite this, the 2024census still perpetuates deep-seated ideologies about Sign language and immigrant languages. It is yet to be seen whether census’ results will promote more consistent language management initiatives on a national scale