Was in Montevideo years back for a conference and he gave a talk there, my Spanish wasn't good enough to follow all of it but the room went quiet anyway. Said thank you to him after and he just nodded. Never forgot that.
Their story
Blas Wilfredo Omar Jaime, known in Chaná as Agó Acoé Inó and often called Tató Oyendén, the custodian of ancestral memory, was the last widely recognised native speaker of Chaná, a Charruan Indigenous language of the Paraná river basin in Argentina. Born on 2 February 1934 in Nogoyá, Entre Ríos,…
Blas Wilfredo Omar Jaime, known in Chaná as Agó Acoé Inó and often called Tató Oyendén, the custodian of ancestral memory, was the last widely recognised native speaker of Chaná, a Charruan Indigenous language of the Paraná river basin in Argentina. Born on 2 February 1934 in Nogoyá, Entre Ríos, he learned the language from his mother Ederlinda Miguelina Yelón and other female ancestors at a time when Chaná was already believed extinct by linguists and the public.
His life changed when Argentine linguist José Pedro Viegas Barros interviewed him and confirmed that a living speaker still carried Chaná vocabulary, grammar and cultural knowledge. Together they produced La Lengua Chaná: Patrimonio Cultural de Entre Ríos, published in 2013 by the provincial government, including roughly 850 Spanish-Chaná entries, cultural texts and audio. The work reframed Chaná as recoverable heritage rather than a closed chapter of South American linguistic history.
Jaime became a public advocate for Indigenous memory in Entre Ríos and beyond, speaking in Montevideo and elsewhere, collaborating with documentary makers, and appearing in TEDx talks that introduced Chaná to new audiences. He insisted that language was not only words but a way of relating to land, kinship and the dead. Photographers and journalists, including Sebastián López Brach's coverage later featured by The New York Times, portrayed him as a quiet transmitter rather than a celebrity. In film projects such as Lantéc Chaná he walked audiences through place names, greetings and stories that had survived only in family speech.
On 17 September 2026 he died in Paraná, Entre Ríos, aged 92. Regional newspapers remembered him as the man who defeated the death of a language. Reports said his daughter Evangelina Jaime would continue as guardian of Chaná, extending the chain of transmission he had received from the women of his family.
Blas Jaime's significance lies less in institutional power than in stubborn transmission. Against extinction narratives he proved that one careful speaker, working with scholars and family, can reopen a language's future. He leaves Chaná not as a museum curiosity but as a living responsibility carried in books, recordings and the next generation.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia; Página/12; El País; UNO Entre Ríos; New York Times feature on Chaná; TEDx.
In their own words
“Tató Oyendén, custodian of the ancestral memory.”
Traditional title associated with Jaime's role as Chaná memory keeper
“Agó Acoé Inó, 'dog without owner'.”
His Chaná name, recorded in biographical sources
“How an Indigenous language of the Americas was recovered thanks to the meeting of a retiree and a linguist.”
Página/12 framing of Jaime's collaboration with Viegas Barros
Photos
3Blas Jaime at the Salsipuedes monument, 2019
by People Forever
Blas Jaime, last Chaná speaker
by People Forever
Blas Jaime, remembered as the last Chaná speaker
by People Forever
That TEDx talk of his is still up, worth watching if you never saw it.