In Dark Winds season 3's cast, the few interactions they have with Bernadette sets up her plotline for the entirety of the season, as she suspects the women are being trafficked.

Even if the mother and her daughter hadn't come along, Bernadette would still have found herself not quite fitting into the culture of the Border Patrol office. It's not in her nature to turn a blind eye to the suffering of others, and the comion she shows the mother and daughter is proof of that. Beyond kicking off Bernadette's Dark Winds season 3 story, however, the mother adds a poignant and historical layer to the worldbuilding of the season, starting with the language she's speaking.

The Migrant Mother Is Speaking Mixtec In Dark Winds Season 3, Episode 1

Mixtec Are The Third-Largest Indigenous Group In Mexico

During the jail questioning scene, eagle-eyed – or rather, eared – viewers likely noticed that while the daughter was speaking Spanish, the mother was speaking something that sounded similar but was not quite the same. As the mother starts urgently conveying something to Bernadette, the new Border Patrol agent is clearly frustrated because she doesn't understand, so the little girl starts speaking to Bernadette in Spanish, which she does understand, albeit not as fluently.

Subtitles reveal the language the mother is speaking in the Dark Winds episode is Mixtec, which is the language of the Mixtecs (or Mixtecos), the third-largest Indigenous Mexican group in the country. The Mixtecs refer to themselves as Ñuu Savi, or "People of the Rain" (via Mixtec.org). Historically, the Mixtec people have occupied the south-central region of Mexico known as La Mixteca, which covers parts of Pueblo, Guerrero, and Oaxaca. Today, it's estimated that up to 500,000 people still speak some variation of Mixtec (via Endangered Language Alliance).

Dark Winds Season 3 Is Honoring Indigenous Mexican Culture In Thoughtful Ways

The Cast & Crew Made A Point To Incorporate More Indigenous People Into The Show This Season

The inclusion of the Mixtec language in the episode is just one of the many thoughtful and respectful ways that Dark Winds season 3 is taking pains to honor Indigenous Mexican culture and tie it to Navajo culture. It's virtually impossible to completely separate Indigenous Mexican culture from Native American and Indigenous American culture in the Southwest. While most Mixtec people today live in Mexico, there are also large populations in the Southwest United States. Mesoamerican cultures like Mixtec and others have been intricately tied to Indigenous peoples in the U.S. through similar histories, co-mingled cultures, and genetic ties.

For example, Dark Winds season 3 illustrates how the Navajo Ye'iitsoh is extremely similar to the Chicano folktale of La Llorona, with both entities haunting the arroyos of the Southwest. Latino names have been sprinkled throughout Dark Winds from the start, from Manuelito to Gordo Sena. Like the Navajo people, the Mixtec have faced challenges throughout their history of conquest, displacement, and a fight to keep their language and culture from being erased. While Bernadette empathizes with the migrant mother and daughter on a human level, through them, she also likely sees echoes of the history and hardships faced by her own Navajo people, which is why they resonate with her so strongly.

Sources: Mixtec.org, Endangered Language Alliance