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• The public launch event for the Chilean edition of this book – co-edited by UNESCO and Chilean publisher Planeta Sostenible – will take place at the La Moneda Cultural Center on August 9th, International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples.
• The book is intended for readers of all ages and invites them to reflect on the value of all languages, including indigenous languages. It is part of the United Nations International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032).
• "What Makes Us Human" will be available in Chilean bookstores and on the 

According to data from the UNESCO Atlas of Endangered Languages, there are approximately 7,000 living languages in the world, According to UNESCO, around 1,500 languages are at risk of losing their users in the near future. And when a language dies, the human heritage, local history and ancestral knowledge disappear with it.

It is in this context that "What Makes Us Human" (2023) was born: a book that aims to bring children closer to the idea and importance of communication, and its main expression: languages. The intention is to sensitize readers to our ability to express ourselves and relate to one another, either through articulated sounds or other non-verbal systems like signs or writing.

Presented as a riddle that reveals new clues with every turn of the page, the book eventually reveals its core theme: language, in all its breadth and diversity. The publication is a bilingual co-edition in Mapuzugun and Spanish from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the 

UNESCO data estimates that a new language disappears every two weeks. For the co-editors of "What Makes Us Human", it is therefore urgent to sound the alarm especially for indigenous languages, and to urgently call on the international community to preserve, revitalize and celebrate their existence. One of the components of this plan is to convey this message to new generations, so that they recognize the linguistic wealth they inherit and act to preserve it.

Claudia Uribe, director of the Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC/UNESCO Santiago) highlights the importance of this issue, as "languages are our identity, our history, our way of thinking and our knowledge. Promoting the vitality of languages is to promote our cultural wealth and our diversity as peoples. This publication seeks to value our languages, not only as a way of communicating, but also as a way of recognizing ourselves in our differences, valuing the diversity of our cultures and lifestyles."

"Indigenous languages are part of the culture of peoples who have known how to coexist sustainably with nature since ancient times. Language and culture are indivisible, they form a living body that needs to be preserved and disseminated because they teach us to live in harmony with the environment. Monolingualism leads us to a black and white world, fragile and dependent, while multilingualism opens the doors to a diverse, multicolored planet, rich in answers to the problems we face today as humanity or will face in the near future," says Juan Francisco Bascuñán, general director of Planeta Sostenible.

The official launch of "What Makes Us Human" will take place on August 9, 2023, in the framework of the International Day of Indigenous Peoples. The event will be held at the La Moneda Cultural Center in Santiago, Chile, at 6 p.m. The gathering will feature representatives from UNESCO, the Chilean Ministry of Education, the Planeta Sostenible publishing house, and traditional translator and educator Nevenca Cayullán.

"What Makes Us Human" will be available in bookstores across Chile and on the