Comments on our last encuesta

I have to say that I really enjoy going out into the community and talking to people about language. So far I've talked to to the same people a couple of times, and they also enjoy being interviewed. I've had some really interesting stories/comments. For example, for the last survey I decided to talk to my boyfriend's dad. He's 62 and he grew up in Pojoaque, NM. My boyfriend remembers that his dad was ashamed of speaking Spanish/code-switching, and that he didn't allow them to speak it in the house, most likely because he didn't want his children to go through the same things he went through. His attitude has completely changed! When I asked him if he thinks people should only speak in English or Spanish but never mix, he emphatically answered, "Oh no. They should definitely mix." His answer made me smile. I've heard horrible stories about people in his generation being denied their language and being punished for speaking a certain way, and it's incredibly refreshing to hear that he's now proud of his speech. I also work with an older woman (probably around 60) who I thought was from up north so I asked her today, "Are you from northern New Mexico?" And she answered very proudly, "Yes! You can tell from my accent, no? I'm very proud of my accent." She went on to tell me that her granddaughter has her accent and that she likes the "Shit Burquenos Say" video. It was neat to hear her speak in such a positive way, especially coming from the older generation. It would be interesting to talk a little more with the both of them in order to determine why they are proud of their accents/speech. I'd guess that she was also treated badly in the past (but you never know), so it appears their attitudes have changed. I wonder what the cause could be??

Rate your "exposure" to America.....

While watching NBC's, Rock Center, I became interested in an interview Brian Williams did with a fellow named Charles Murray who just wrote a book, Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960-2010. After reading Hill's article of "white space," this struck me as something interesting and relevant. Murray states that the cultural divide within the US is growing more and more. After hearing this first excerpt, my ears perked up and I began to engage myself in what he was saying.

 First, when I hear anything to do with culture, I immediately think of all different kinds of cultures, ethnic backgrounds, race, etc. Well, it turns out, Murray dedicated his research to "white America" which does not include recent immigrants, those who have endured slavery, etc. Immediately, I felt that his book was dedicated to an arena within Hill's, "White Space." Although Murray dedicated his research to all different social classes within white America, it immediately segregates many of those who are rightly American. Anyway, being that he disassociates his research from such a vast cultural population of the US, he goes on to say that more and more people within a higher social strata are interacting less and less with those of the lower social strata. If this is the case within one race, it makes me think of just how separated and divided we are if he were to include additional races in his research.

 If you are interested, you can take his online quiz to rate your "exposure" to america, which focuses on just how big your bubble is. Ha. I took it and I rated between a 9 and 12. http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=how-thick-is-your-bubble 

If you are interested in seeing his interview with Brian Williams, feel free: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rock-center/46490567/#46490567

Elite bilingualism in the NW

Since we've had a quite a bit of talk about identities and places of origin, I wanted to contribute a piece of my roots in the Northwest. The show is Portlandia, and although I'm from Seattle & Eastern Washington (where my community includes quite a bit of Spanish), Portland is like a brother (or a sister?) to us. This satire includes a bit on elite bilingualism among other things...!qué disfruten!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCDbY_lXS5A

Choques Culturales...

I was out to dinner with a friend last night. We are both from the north and sort of "foodies" and so we were looking for a Mediterranean place to eat. We got in and were super excited looking at the menu. We started making conversation with the guy working since there was really nobody in the place. He was a younger guy and he started talking about his family owning the place ect. After talking to him and having some friendly banter for a bit my friend asked the guy where he was from (to kind of figure out what country influences their menu the most).  The reaction the guy gave us shocked us. He was taken aback and said "Well I was born here, I am an American.  All of my family is American."  It wasn't just what he said but HOW he said it... It made us feel really bad.  He admitted that his grandfather was from Lebanon. When my friend said "Oh that is great! I have some family from Lebanon" they guy lightened up a bit and told us that he grew up a good part of his life there too.  Friendly conversation returned.

We sat down and discussed the reaction of the gentleman and agreed we'd never had this happen to us before up north.  It was like this guy had gotten used to defending himself constantly, and having to prove how "American" he is.

Although it doesn't pertain to Spanish in the SW, this post does pertain to identities, cultures and the subordinate status of identities to a "white" America.  I feel like here in NM I don't live in "white" America at all and the manifestation of racism or prejudice is stronger than I've ever felt it. This is just not from things I've experienced first hand, but also from stories that my New Mexican friends and professors have told.  NM is unique in that there are some major choques culturales happening here being un estado indohispano. Some of the articles have shed light on this by explaining in order to become a state in the union NM had to collectively conform and prove their "American-ness" or dare I say "whiteness." So this sheds some light on public discourse today. I'm just saying.. it makes me sad!

negative language attitudes everywhere!

This class is fascinating and I'm really enjoying the fact that I am able to witness some of what the articles discuss, specifically negative language attitudes. The other day I was at dinner with some friends and a group of people I had just met, all bilinguals. Somehow we got to talking about the "Shit Burqenos Say" video (hot topic these days!) and New Mexican Spanish. One of the girls mentioned that she is constantly telling her friends back home that people in New Mexico can't speak Spanish, that it's some sort of "made up language." It was discouraging to hear this, but at the same time I thought, "Wow, this is so awesome because I can give her a different perspective that is backed by research." And I did. It sure felt good to defend New Mexican Spanish. :)

Librotraficantes

After reading the Holly Cashman article for today, I agree with Aubrey that this article provided a lot of insight that I needed as well (even having lived in NM for 15 years). As I was reading, I remembered a website that Miguel showed me a few weeks ago titled Librotraficante (www.librotraficate.com). They have a video on the home page of the website of a Latino from Houston, Tony, talking about how "Arizona had the audacity to ban Latino studies". He and his fellow librotraficantes are going to smuggle contraband books back into Arizona during Spring Break: March 12-18. In the video, he introduces a few new words to Arizona: "librotraficante", "wetbook" which are books to be used in underground latino classes, and "dime-book" which are now invaluable books that were once valuable because of "Arizona's fascist laws". He holds up The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and reiterates that this book is banned in Arizona now. Realizing that that book in particular is banned in Arizona really got my attention. I loved reading that book in middle school here in Albuquerque, as well as Bless Me Ultima.

He is attempting to recruit as many librotraficantes as he can to travel from Houston to Tucson next month. Many of the banned authors like Sandra Cisneros and Rudolfo Anaya (author of Bless Me Ultima) are joining him in the caravan, either by hosting them along the way or by joining them in Tuscon. They have many donors as well, including many of these famous Latino writers.

Take a look at the video and the website. It is engaging and entertaining.

"V for victory, vatos."

Thank you Holly Cashman

I have to say that I am most pleased with this article by Holly Cashman for helping me understand what is going on in the Southwest without feeling like I was getting sneered at.  And although she uses the term Anglo, she put an end note on it the first time she mentioned the word.  So, I went to the end note and she said: "I am using the term Anglo the way it is used in the Southwest, to mean any White person."  Well thank you.  The term Anglo is not used where I am from, and I was a bit offended by it constantly appearing in our readings- until this reading.  Now I understand that it is a term used (without insult... I think) in the Southwest, and I don't feel so bad.  By the way, I called up my mother and asked her if I have any Anglo-Saxon blood in me, and she said no.  I was mistaken about having English blood.  So, hmm.  To me that's kind of like calling a 4th generation (which I am) Puerto Rican immigrant to the US a Mexican....  But whatever.  This class is for learning about the issues the Spanish language and native/heritage Spanish speakers have here in the Southwest.

This was a very nice article for me, though, because as I mentioned in class last Thursday, there are a lot of uninformed Whites, Blacks, Asians, etc. that don't understand why Spanish-speakers in the Southwest are so frustrated, and I think nice articles like this can open their eyes to both the objective and subjective side without making them feel defensive.  I think that may be at the root of the problem- people don't like to lose face, and hearing that other members of your group (English-only speakers without any connection to Hispanic culture) are passing discriminatory laws or flat out being racist can make you feel embarrassed and ashamed to wear your skin color in front of someone who represents the oppressed.  It's so complicated on both sides that I think the best thing we can do is put the information out there in a calm and objective manner (with subjective pieces) so that the biggest bigots can see their errors without feeling attacked (not that they don't deserve it).

Funny! Or is it?

After reading the previous post, and enjoying a good laugh, I returned to the original reason I opened the blog: to post this article by Holly Cashman (our author for tomorrow) published on the Daily Grito. I don't mean to put a damper on the fun, but just to think about it a little deeper. Check it out:

http://www.dailygrito.com/holly-cashman/2012/01/20/are-accents-a-laughing-matter/

The article is topped by a picture from the popular show Modern Family. Sofia Vergara provides ample comic relief via her accent, but its also notable that the other major source of laughs are the gay guys, specifically Cam. What is it about the marginalized that the mainstream finds so hilarious? People often cite the presence of the marginal in mainstream t.v. as proof of progress. Is it, when people are being used for comic relief? Or sex appeal, as is the case with most (all?) of the Latinas on tv? Can you guys think of other examples that don't play into the stereotypes? Luis & Maria from Sesame Street are the only ones I can think of...

Spanish Lesson For The Day (Funny)

Hi class,

So this is a funny email I received a few days ago and thought I would share it. It partially has something relevant to the class content because of the "spanglish" we hear in the southwest. It deals more with phonetics than linguistics but I hope you guys get a good laugh from it!

Spanish Lesson SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY: WATER My vieja gets mad and I don't even know water problem is! SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY: BRIEF My homie farted. bad, and I couldn't brief. SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY: MUSHROOM Orale vato, when all my familia gets in the car, theres not mushroom. SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY: CHICKEN My vieja wanted me to go to the store, but chicken go by herself . SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY: LIVER & CHEESE Some vato tried to sweet talk my ruca. I told him, orale loco liver alone, cheese mine. SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY: JULY Ju tol me ju were goin to the store and July to me! Julyer! SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY: WAFER I wanted to go with my mom to the flea market pero she didn't wafer me! SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY: HERPES I had some cake to share with my wife, this is my piece this is herpes SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY: TISSUE I told you if you didn't know how to do it, I could tissue. SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY: CASHEW I was running after you but I couldn't cashew! SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY: JUICY Hey vato, I'm going to eat Paco's food, tell me if juicy him!

If you're judgmental & you know it clap your hands!

So today I took my car to get fixed and a staff person had to drive me home.  He got in the car and started talking and I totally classified him.  He had an accent so I asked him "usted habla español?" And what ensued was a great conversation about how he sees NM & language in NM. I will make this a separate post. The point of this post is to talk about classifying.

So I have to admit I TOTALLY classified the guy.  He didn't look "New Mexican." I just guessed he was probably Venezuelan, and he was! I was not attempting to make any judgements on his character, it just kind of happened naturally. It is kind of the same when people assume I don't speak Spanish because I am white. And I have had a bunch of Spanish speakers do this to me... and there are all kinds of people of different skin tones and races all over Latin America. The people native to these countries know this better than anyone... so why is it that they have a "look" in their heads that a Spanish speaker must have?  Probably for the same reason I thought that guy today wasn't New Mexican.

Maybe this is a blanket statement, but most Spanish speakers would probably have tried to classify the guy too. Most of the time when this happens a really nice conversation will ensue.  I have seen this happen. Yes there might be little jokes that go back and forth about the people, the language, but it goes both ways, and is more like two great friends who like a different football team.  It can be like a bonding thing.

For example: Costa Ricans say "pura vida" so when I worked with a Costa Rican in Guatemala her Mexican, Peruvian, Colombian and Guatemalan friends would walk around saying "purrrrraaaaa viddddaaaaaa!" all the time. :) It made her laugh and thus she did the same to them.

Like Carmella said in an early post, basically it is human to judge or classify  people and I don't think this is naturally bad. We draw off experience we have, and yes, we draw off stereotypes that maybe don't have any basis in reality. I think the difference becomes when you have bad intentions. If I would have had bad experiences with Venezuelans in the past I might have been less willing to talk to him, misinterpret him, judge him in a negative way. BUT I have had great experiences with Venezuelans in the past and this contributed to a lively conversation.

So we all judge but I think the word "judge" has gotten a bad reputation.  Since we all do it I think the key is keeping the FRUIT of our judgement in check.  We are intelligent enough people to realize that our judgements and feelings sometimes go against what is right.  Since I kind of enjoy the poetic idea of original sin I'll put it in layman's terms: We were born bad (or with the ability and drive to be bad) so in every moment we should check ourselves before we wreck ourselves. :)

¿Anglos? Grrrr....

I hate this term Anglo.  I don´t like reading it or using it.  And, I would never refer to myself or any of my friends as Anglo, even if they really have Anglo-Saxon origin.  So what would I use?  If someone were to ask me if I was Anglo, they would probably get more than they bargained for because I would get into a discussion of identity labels before I gave them a label for myself.  On forms where I am asked what my ethnicity is, if they give the option I check I prefer not to disclose.  Being Anglo where I am from means that you have to fight Affirmative Action and go through your genealogy to find any bit of Native American or Latino or Black (Black is the preferred term where I am from) heritage so that you have a better chance of getting the scholarship or the job or whatever it is.  When I am forced to pick a label, there is only one offered to me: White.  Anglo is never on these forms (and rightly so because Anglo-Saxon was a small part of Europe overall), which is part of the reason I am surprised to see it pop up so often in these academic papers.  I don´t want to be German-American, Czech-American, Irish-American, Hungarian-American, English-American, or Norweign-American.  Those are my ´heritages´ but I know nothing of their cultures from my family.  I am ´mixed´ too (I won´t use the term mestizo because of how it makes other people feel), but at the end of the day I am left with American, which says more about me than anything else to out-group members (aka people from other countries), but it says nothing about me to other americanos of whatever race or ethnicity.

I think this is the biggest issue with Whites (and probably many Blacks too) understanding the nature of the identity issues for latinos/hispanos.  We (may) have a hard time understanding identity because we feel so removed from this close-knit communnityness (not as true for all obviously, especially Blacks).  Personally, I don´t even feel connected to my hometown or home state.  Being from Michigan, which is referred to as the Mid-West even though it´s in Eastern Standard Time, people from outside the region will often lump us into the Minnesota/Wisconsin Fargo-type-dialect, which is offensive to us.  So, I dunno, I guess what I am trying to say is that I am trying to understand these identity struggles in the Southwest while dealing with my own dearth of identity, and realizing that identity is clear-cut for very few people in the world.  We are all just a big mess.

Note: Throw gender, personal history, age, and lifestyle into the equation and it gets even harder.

Lables

Disfruté mucho los artículos de hoy.  Pienso que es importante finalmente tener unos artículos los cuales hacen referncia al hecho de que la mayoría de la gente (del mundo, en mi opinion) tienen más de un label.  Es muy obvio en esta comunidad, de Albuquerque.  He asistado fiestas en las que estoy hablando con una persona de mi edad, y le pregunto: ¿Eres de aquí?/You from here?  y recibo todo este dialogo---  de los anglos también.  Gente que en mi (naive outsider) opinion parecen White (or Anglo as the articles say, but I don´t like that term), todavía dice que son Spanish.  También, porque la comunidad es tan mezclada, mucha gente dice que son Indian (too).  Decir que unos es Indian, pienso, es común en los EEUU, (excepto de que en Michigan, de donde soy, nadie dice Indian porque es racista, en vez dice Native American).  Para mí, es super intersante.