CSULB alumna works toward saving an Indigenous language and culture

Deborah Sanchez ‘82 is committed to saving her ancestors' language.

“I’m just one person in the timeline," Sanchez said. "I feel that the ancestors have given me a task, a mission.”

The alumna, faculty member and retired judge has Chumash, O’odham and Raramuri heritage and is set to soon defend her linguistics thesis on heritage languages enhancing well-being among Indigenous speakers.

Her Cal State Long Beach studies build on her learning Šmuwič, an historic Chumash language, and her devotion is such that she retired from the bench to focus on her academic pursuits.

“It was more important to me to help my language survive,” Sanchez said. “I can help this language, and I needed to finish.”

Sanchez is both student and teacher, helping new speakers, and intends to spend her life ensuring her ancestors' language will be spoken for years to come.  

From law to linguistics

Sanchez earned her bachelor's in sociology from The Beach, went on to law school and served with the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, also volunteering with the Southern California Indian Center.

Her interest in the historic Chumash language first developed in 2002. The last person who learned the language at home died in 1965, so Sanchez listened to recordings, eventually picking up individual words. These moments elicited feelings that Sanchez described as giddy excitement, leading her to call loved ones to announce breakthroughs.

Gaining fluency, Sanchez started teaching community classes in 2010. She has taught about 50 students, and some have passed their newfound knowledge to others.

“They turn around and teach their families,” she said

Her legal career also progressed: She won election as a Los Angeles Superior Court judge in 2006 and joined CSULB’s faculty in 2013 to teach American Indians and the Law for the American Indian Studies Department.

She began her master’s program in 2021 and her studies center on Indigenous people experiencing positive outcomes through language learning. Interviews with new speakers affirmed that learning heritage languages brings about joy and healing. She has also composed about 30 songs, with lyrics honoring women, expressing mourning and admiring the natural world.

“When they take your land, they take your language - all of this,” Sanchez said. “Your language is part of your culture that you can practice.”

“This becomes pivotal,” she continued. “That becomes the primary healing source in your life.”

Safe haven

CSULB is sometimes referred to as Cal State Puvungna in recognition of the land’s historic name. People of the Gabrielino/Tongva/Kizh and Acjachemen/Juaneño tribes lived at Puvungna, also remembered as a sacred place. The Beach, in 1968, became the first California State University campus to establish an American Indian Studies department.  

Sanchez’s family has had close connections to The Beach for more than four decades. She and her mother, Georgiana Sanchez ‘84, ‘92 attended simultaneously while splitting time between classes and caring for the younger Sanchez’s son. Deborah Sanchez recalled that a tight-knit community of Native American students enhanced their undergraduate experiences.  

“Cal State Long Beach is more than a school for me,” Deborah Sanchez said. “It was a safe haven for me.”

Georgiana Sanchez also served on the American Indian Studies Department faculty. Freddie Sanchez ‘91, father to Deborah and husband to Georgiana, is also a Beach alumnus.

Sanchez is grateful for her judicial service and is also confident that she made the right choice by committing her time and energy to linguistics. She now hopes her work affirms the importance of Indigenous languages.

“It’s a hopeful thing,” she said. “It’s something to help people understand that it can be done, it’s worth it. It’s worth it for the way we feel, for the connections we make, for our spirituality.”