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Spanglish is Slowly but Surely Being Part of the U.S. Popular Culture
By Mari D. González
Bilingual youth who construct their vocabulary between what they learn at home in Spanish and what they learn at school or work in English are more comfortable with a casual language among their peers that mixes phrases and words of these two languages, commonly known as Spanglish. Spanglish, however, is not simply picking a word or two from Spanish and mixing them up with English as non-Spanglish speaking marketers would like to think and wrongly try it on their advertisement campaigns.
Spanglish is a delicate form of incorporating words to one’s vocabulary in the language they were learned first. In general, words associated with family, emotions, and close relationships might be in Spanish. Words learned first at school might be in English. Spanglish, then solidifies when a group of people shares the same set of words in both languages without the need to translate them into a second language.
According to my research study on language preferences in digital media among second-generation, Latinos/Hispanics, the less acculturated ones side with Spanglish-themed Netflix series and music such as the Bad Bunny phenomenon because traditional media does not resonate with who they are collectively.
*The image is by www.ushispanicministry.com
The Latino Movement and Cultural Integration
By Mari D. González
It is not uncommon to read outrageous statements in discussion in social media. I read this comment on a well-liked Latino blog: “Mexicans have no clue, their Spanish it’s is the worst among the Central American people.”
This was my response:
1) Mexico is part of North America not Central America, and NAFTA refers to the North America Free Trade Agreement between Mexico, Canada, and the U.S.
2) Mexican Spanish includes words from the 60 Indigenous languages officially recognized by the Mexican government. The extent of the Indigenous influence is due to Mesoamerica (Central Mexico southward through Central America) being the center of the first most developed pre-Hispanic civilizations in the Americas.
3) Most Mexicans are proud of their Indigenous background and cultural make up. As a Mexican, I speak Mexican Spanish because that is my mother tongue; I use Spanglish with my Latino(a) friends in the U.S.
While we acculturate and adapt to the United States by keeping up with the challenge of “straddling two cultures” that is a common topic among Latina bloggers, let us not forget where we come from and the values we learned there such as respect for language differences and the nuances of language use. Let us “preserve our unique cultural identities” and “continue defining ourselves” without shoving others out of the way.
Welcome to the sequel or Chicano movement Part II, which is now more about integration than differentiation, and should be termed the “Latino Movement.”
IXMATI 