How to write outlier POC groups?

PantheraCorax

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I’ve been working on a novel for years now which features three POCs as secondary main characters (the main guy is Greek/Russian). One is a black Canadian and the other two are Yupik Inuit and Mesoamerican (uncertain tribe). Neither of those two have much in the way of their modern lives written (at least online), and I’m curious if anyone here knows how to find proper resources for the marginalized groups which are less well-known than others.
I’m working hard to avoid stereotypes, though one of the two (Mesoamerican) has problems with English (not in a humorous way, I hope), and the other (Yupik) speaks almost perfect English, some slang included.
Should I try to find Yupik slang to add into her vocabulary? Should I have both speak perfect English so as to not possibly confuse readers into thinking it’s a stereotype?

I can describe more about the characters if necessary, though this is more of a general set of questions, I suppose!

Basically...
How does one write cultures that there’s not much literature on?
 

Penelopen

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You should definitely add slang from the other languages that your characters know! I've never encountered a single, multilingual person who doesn't use words from the other languages they know. Also, should you want to avoid suggesting the English of the Mesoamerican character is just for giggles, you should avoid eye-dialect words. I definitely do not think that they should all speak perfect English, if that's not what fits your characters' personalities.
Hope I helped!
 

MynaOphelia

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I am replying because I am curious about this myself! I have also found a few ways to deal with this in my own writing.

The current project I'm doing research for takes place in rural Siberia. One of the main characters is an ethnic Buryat. I have struggled to find resources about modern Buryat culture and the relationship Buryat people have with white Russians around them. My goal has been to find resources written by Buryat people, as resources written by non-Buryat people tend to romanticize and exoticize their culture.

So far what has helped:
  • News articles about these groups and their current struggles within their countries
  • Interviews with people from the group
  • Encyclopedia-like resources, Wikipedia, etc, while obviously only scratching the surface, will often link you to other articles and resources about the group
  • Universities from the countries where the group is from--it is likely that at least several universities in Mexico and Latin America will have a Department of Mesoamerican Studies, or resources about them!

I suspect that if you also look for resources in other languages, you might find more, like for your Mesoamerican character. Maybe you could figure out what google searches you would need to use, translate them into Spanish (or any other language that might yield more results) and translate the results back in English? I've been considering doing this for Russian. Of course, nuance will be lost in translation, but it might help in finding resources written by people of that group.

I am also curious what other peoples' ideas are!

In the end I would also always recommend getting a beta reader from that group.
 
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