Mulleres na Lexicografía / Women in Lexicography

Bárbara Muelas

Namtrik (Guambian language), Spanish

1945 (Municipality of Silvia, department of Cauca, Colombia.)

Academic, translator, teacher, and linguist. She graduated with a degree and in Linguistics from the Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia where she made her masters in Linguistics as well. She worked as a professor and researcher. Although she is now retired from teaching, she continues to work on the project for the first Namtrik-Spanish dictionary.

● Muelas, B (2024). Relación tiempo y espacio en el pensamiento Misak. Cauca. Editorial Universidad del Cauca. ● Centro Colombiano de Estudios de Lenguas Aborígenes (CCELA) (1994). Nupirau nu wamwan trek kontrai isua porik - Constitución política de Colombia de 1991 en Guambiano. Universidad de los Andes.. Coordinadora de la traducción: Barbara Muelas. Retrieved on October 20, 2025. https://patrimoniodocumental.uniandes.edu.co/digital /collection/constitucion/id/0/

https://www.suin-juriscol.gov.co/turnjs4/samples/guambiano/slider.html#page/1

● Calderon. F. (2025). Ella es Bárbara Muelas, la docente misak que tradujo la Constitución Política de 1991 para su comunidad; acá su historia. Noticias de Cali, Valle y Colombia - Periódico: Diario El País. https://www.elpais.com.co/cultura/ella-es-barbara-muelas-la docente-misak-que-tradujo-la-constitucion-politica-de-1991-para-su-comunidad-1441.html ● Díaz, D. (2025). Mary Grueso y Bárbara Muelas: La primera vez que una mujer afro y otra indígena llegan a la Academia Colombiana de la Lengua. El País. https://elpais.com/america-colombia/2025-07-11/mary-grueso-y-barbara-muelas-la-primera-vez-que-una-mujer-afro-y-otra-indigena-llegan-a-la-academia-colombiana-de-la-lengua.html ● García, F. (2025) Bárbara Muelas: El discurso de la primera mujer indígena en la Academia Colombiana de la Lengua. Cambio. https://cambiocolombia.com/cambio/articulo/2025/7/el-namtrik-y-el-espanol-tiempos-paralelos-territorios-linguisticos-en-dialogo-el-hermoso/ ● Superiódico. (2025). reconhecimento com mais de um século de atraso. Substack newsletter. Superlatina’s Substack. https://superlatina.substack.com/p/10_-reconhecimento-com-mais de-um ● Soto, L. (2017). Los súper poderosos intelectuales afros e indígenas. La Silla Vacía. https://www.lasillavacia.com/silla-nacional/los-super-poderosos-intelectuales-afros-e indigenas/

Among Barbara's most notable achievements is her participation in the first translation of the Colombian National Constitution into the Namtrik language. She was the first indigenous woman to enter the Colombian Academy of Language and one of the first women in her community to access higher education, despite being rejected even from the high school in the city of Silvia due to her indigenous origins. She has helped preserve the Guambiano language (mostly taught orally) through projects with community schools and by creating new vocabulary that previously did not exist in the Namtrik language to translate concepts once considered untranslatable.

● Bárbara Muelas. (2025). Wikipedia, a enciclopedia libre. Retrieved on September 22 2025. https://gl.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=B%C3%A1rbara_Muelas&oldid=7130199 ● Pulencio, O (2025, Agosto 11/ August 11). Doña Bárbara. Cali, Colombia. Universidad del Valle. Retrieved on September 22 2025. https://www.univalle.edu.co/lo-que-pasa-en-la-u/dona-barbara ● Foto: https://www.elespectador.com/el-magazin-cultural/las-claves-del-discurso-de-barbara muelas-en-la-academia-colombiana-de-la-lengua/ Retrieved on October 16 2025

Miguel Lopez

Rebeca Göthin González