"¡Ay mi raza!"

Esta recaudación de datos fue una experiencia que me hizo desatinar ATM! 

Lo que saqué de esta actividad es que a los jóvenes de mi raza les falta mucho para llegar a proveer buen servicio al cliente. En lo que me fijé es que la mayoría de los que me atendieron en dos mercados “El Herradero”,  “El Mezquite” (Central y 98), y el “Pro’s Ranch Market” es que eran jóvenes. Debido a que no les pregunté por su edad no sabría decir exactamente que edad tenían, pero físicamente aparentaban todos menos de los 24 años. En los tratados que tuve con ellos se comportaron sin cordialidad y, yo diría, de manera tonta. Me desanimé porque estos jóvenes representan una porción de mi generación que están dejando mucho que desear. Recuerdo que yo, junto con todos los de mi generación teníamos arraigada la idea que teníamos que respetar a nuestro prójimo y era nuestro deber demostrarlo con nuestro habla. Si estuviéramos en México, quizás esta falta de modalidad me hubiera sido menos chocante si no hubiera sido mi raza. Mi queja es que, de por sí se nos está estigmatizando por ser tontos y ahora estos muchachos, en vez de comprobar que no somos así están propagando lo mismo que no queremos representar. La mera verdad es que me tuve que detener para no decirles algo. Lo primero que me brotó decirles, “¡Oiganme¡, ¿porqué se están portando tan corrientes? ¿Qué nos les enseñaron sus padres nada de como se trata a la gente?”

Sea lo que sea, estamos viviendo en este país. Seamos migrantes, ó tengamos una historia familiar enraizada en este país, tenemos que entender que tarde que temprano nosotros vamos a estar al frente de este país. Seamos profesionales, empresarios, políticos, escolares, eruditas, ó médicos, no importa, nosotros vamos a ser los Americanos que, no solo estaremos al frente del mundo, sino al frente de nuestra gente que ya está aquí. Los ilustrados nos enseñaron claramente que el deber y la responsabilidad de actuar para el mejoramiento del pueblo resta sobre los que saben. Y mi frustración queda en que no creo que estos muchachos no saben... y menos si quieren saber. 

Analisis de datos #3

Análisis de datos #3

             Yo decidí ir a 3 lugares para llevar a cabo este proyecto. Fui al Herradero, Helen’s Bakery, y el Mezquite. Al prinicipio se me hizo un poco difícil hacer las preguntas a los empleados, pero después de hablar con los primeros dos, me sentí mejor y traté de usar otro método de hablar con la gente.

 Fui al Herradero primero y hablé con un hombre que servía comida en el restaurante. Lo que le pregunté fue, “Qué recomiendas, ¿los tacos o las tortas?” Pero eso no me funcionó porque no me contestó el uno ni el otro. Así que empecé a preguntar, “¿Qué son estos?” y fue cuando empezó a decir palabras en plural. Me dijo es carnitas las dos veces que pregunté. Lo interesante es que lo escuché decir loØ tomates, pero no tuve tiempo para pedirle que repitiera porque hablaba muy rápido.

             Después del Herradero fui a una panadería que se llama Helen’s Bakery donde venden panes típicos de México. Le dije a la cajera si le podría hacer algunas preguntas para mi clase de español porque quería aprender más sobre la comida. Señalé varios panes, preguntando, ¿Qué son estos?” Y después de la primera contestación le decía, ¿Cómo? o ¿Perdón? En cada respuesta ella pronunció la s plural.

             En Mezquite usé otro método para hablar con las personas. Les dije que era maestra y que quería aprender más sobre la comida para mis estudiantes, pero traté de conversar más con ellos. A unas muchachas que trabajaban en la estación de queso, les hice varias preguntas del queso, como ¿Cuál es el mejor y para qué se usa? Tardaron más tiempo en decir palabras plurales, pero este método me sirvió mucho. Empezaron a decir los usos del queso como las enchiladas y las tortas, etc. Y cuando les pedí que repitiera las plabaras, era la misma pronunciación. Usé esta técnica con las demás personas en El Mezquite y obtuve los mismos resultados con la s plural. Otro punto interesante es que me topé con una de mis estudiantes de GED del año pasado y tuvimos una conversación breve. Noté que ella dijo loØ niños, pero como era otra situación, no le pregunté que repitiera lo que dijo.

Una nueva experiencia en El Mezquite :)

Primero quiero decir que me pareció muy interesante el haber ido a estas tiendas a recolectar datos. También tengo que admitir que sentía un poco de vergüenza pero al final terminé haciendo más preguntas de las que eran necesarias.  Descarté algunas respuestas porque creí que, como no habían repetido las palabras y me habían cambiado el nombre, eran inadecuadas para este proyecto (pero ahora voy a comentar sobre estas respuestas… así es la vida jaja).
 Antes de comentar estas experiencias creo que es importante hacer referencia a lo que explicó Damián en clase. Me refiero a la diferencia entre la primera y la segunda respuesta. Al principio no entendía por qué tenían que repetir la respuesta pero creo que tiene una gran importancia. Por los resultados que obtuve, creo que estoy de acuerdo que la primera respuesta es menos elaborada, es casi inconsciente (más cuando es algo que forma parte de una rutina) y que quizás con la segunda respuesta ya hay más conciencia. Ahora me he puesto a pensar que quizás algunas respuestas no me fueron útiles para el trabajo pero sí para darme cuenta que es muy claro un cambio entre la primera y segunda respuesta.

Uno de los ejemplos con el que puedo comprobar lo anteriormente mencionado sucedió cuando me encontraba en el área de cocina. Contestando a mi pregunta de qué era lo que yo le estaba preguntando, el joven me dijo: costillitas de puerco, están bien buenas (tono muy amable y en confianza). Después de hacerme la desentendida para verificar la información, el joven me contestó: son costillas de puerco, si usted gusta probarlas. Estoy consciente que lo que estamos buscando es la reducción de la “s” sin embargo solo me parece interesante destacar que es evidente un cambio entre la primera y segunda respuesta.
 El segundo ejemplo, para mi un tanto similar, sucedió con una mujer que contestó a la pregunta: son vasitos de jamoncillo. La segunda vez me respondió que era: dulce de leche, pero en México le dicen jamoncillo. Considero que es interesante destacar el uso del diminutivo en las primeras respuestas de ambas preguntas: costillitas y vasitos. También se me hizo interesante que en la segunda respuesta la mujer cambió jamoncillo por dulce de leche. En lo particular, este cambio lo considero también como una concientización porque la primera vez asume que voy a entender lo que es jamoncillo pero con la segunda respuesta demuestra que se da cuenta que no es una palabra que todos conocen. 

Lowlow’s chile, Theresa’s gallery, and Teo’s castanet tent

When the opportunity presented itself in the form of a groupon (given, that we are both students and live on modest salaries) to take a trip with my novia to northern New Mexico I didn’t have to think twice. Over spring break, my girlfriend and I made a trip to a little bed and breakfast in Chimayó called ‘Casa Escondita’ (it was a great little place, I recommend it highly). We had a couple of things planned, but what happened was pretty special...

Our stay in Chimayó started out with a visit to Santuario where we walked through the chapel, brushed up on our history of the site, and strolled through the gift shops. Before returning to our cozy room at the bed and breakfast, we purchased some chile from lowlow - a man who owns a lowrider shop and deals in fine art and chile grown from his garden - who warned us that we should only use a “pinch” as the chile was sure to have a bite. Marie, mi amor, mentioned later that she thought lowlow was her relative, possibly an uncle, for she had seen him before at family reunions and almost had not recognized him as it had been years since they saw one another. 

Our next stop was at an art gallery on highway 76 at Theresa’s Art Gallery. Theresa and her family are traditional new mexican artists specializing in retablo work. We stumbled into the gallery (which was also her house) and began talking with Theresa, and soon enough we were invited to return that evening to Theresa’s house for dinner. We had a wonderful dinner and talked for hours with Theresa and her family over carne adovada, tortillas y fanta. About 50 people came to eat at Theresa’s that evening, most of them Theresa’s neighbors, who happened also to be family members. It was a great evening as we left with our bellies full, some plates to go, and some great memories of Theresa and her hospitality...

The next day we woke up super early and made our way out of Chimayó and headed to Taos, where we had a meeting at 9am with Teo Morca, a famous flamenco dancer and important icon in the New Mexico flamenco community. After discussing some important noticias del flamenco con el maestro we headed to Teo’s house. Mi novia was purchasing some castañuelas (percussion instruments for the hands) and Teo makes them by hand in a tent in his front yard. Anyway, we hung out with Teodoro for a bit, danced as well, and left with a handful of his books on flamenco technique and arte. 

Dang, what an experience! It was pretty surreal. But that is New Mexico, a surreal place at times, and the north is definitely a special place where these types of occurrences can happen. I’m not sure why, there is a charm and allure about the small towns of northern New Mexico that I have experienced nowhere else. Pretty cool! Next time you head up north, look up Lowlow or Theresa in Chimayó, or maybe you want to learn some flamenco from Teo in Taos! 

Análisis 3 - ProRanch Market/Herradero

Tengo que admitir que fui a Herradero al principio pero no obtuve los resultados que lo había pensado.  Me gustó la tienda y hable con dos personas, tan amables preguntando primero de todas las tipas de carne.  Pense, oh eso va a ser fácil, voy a preguntar de algunas cosas, y ya.  Sin embargo, no fue tan fácil.  No había pensado que hay muchos términos que se pueden indicar singular o plural sin añadiendo la s.  Por ejemplo, le pregunté a un empleado de algunas tipas de carne y él me respondió con el término singular, pero se puede indicar plural también, con palabras como milanesa, menudo, carne de res, y al pastor.  Por eso, tuve que pensar en cosas que si habría tenido añadir la s.  Tengo que decir, que al principio me hizo un poco intimidada.  Entonces, pensé, no voy a preguntar los mismos empleados varias veces, me van a pensar que soy una loca y por eso, me fui de Herradero y llegue a ProRanch Market.

Allá me sentía mejor porque había más gente para preguntar.  Una cosa interesante fue que tuve que mentir.  Escogí unos caramelos y le pregunté el empleado, "Disculpe, me puede decir como se llaman estos?"  El contestó, "Ud. habla inglés?" Y le dije, "No." Así que, no iba a admitir que podría hablar inglés.  Fue muy chistoso porque el paquete dijo caramelos, y yo, como no "hable" inglés estaba preguntando de una cosa con el nombre encima del paquete.  Entonces, el me dijo que son dulces.

Otra cosa que tuve que hacer fue con unas paquetes de churros.  Había la etiqueta encima de la bolsa, entonces la volteé al otro lado para que no veían la etiqueta y fue interesante que ellos se nombraron las cosas con un nombre diferente de lo que estaba en la etiqueta.  Había una bolsa que dijo papitas fritas, pero el empleado me dijo que eran churros saladitas.  También, había otra bolsa que dijo pepitas (creo) y el empleado me dijo que eran dorritos y que los dorritos llevan chile y limón, así que aprendí algo nuevo sobre el producto tan conocido que es 'mas-produced': Dorritos.

Sobre todo, me gustó la actividad y la gente fue muy amable y mi nueva palabra, ayudable!  

Pros Ranch Experiencia

I went to Pro's Ranch market.  I found the 30+ women to be the most friendly to me, and they actually seemed to give me the "oh that's cute that you're learning Spanish" attitude, which actually turned out okay because they spoke slowly so I could tell if they were reducing or not.  Only one male was willing to speak Spanish to me, but many would code switch (unfortunately with the nouns in English).  It was kind of embarrassing, but not really because I have been dumber in public.  Another problem I ran into is people trying to give me the generic noun form, like el pescado- I had to "force" them to use plural with priming.

Comment allez-vous?

I went to Pro’s Ranch Market on Tuesday afternoon to gather my data. The first question was the hardest to ask. After I got over my fear of looking like an ignorant gringa that I have tried over so many years not to be, it became much easier. I tried approaching the employees from two different directions. The first way I asked was by playing as if I was learning Spanish and didn’t know what the items were and I was just curious. I found it helpful to play this role because they always spoke very clearly and slowly to me. The flipside of this role-play was that they would continue the conversation in English instead of Spanish.

My other approach to asking the employees questions was picking an arbitrary food and explaining that I am a Spanish teacher at UNM and many of my students always ask me whatever this particular thing is – in Spanish. This worked well because after they heard me speak Spanish and realized that I wasn’t the blonde American that I look like I am, they would freely have a conversation with me. This made the “mande?” or “como?” question come much more naturally. This worked especially well when I spoke with a couple señoras who were selling jewelry. We had a nice conversation about jewelry and my teaching.

Out of the 10 employees that I asked questions, 9 of them spoke fluent Spanish. One woman said she spoke some Spanish but not a lot. In any case, she knew the word for cookies. All of the employees were very helpful and after I asked them one question, they always asked me what else I’d like to know. They were more than willing to help me out and didn’t make me feel even more stupid and embarrassed than I already was!

I had an interesting encounter with one employee in particular. As I was looking over all of the seafood and fish, he noticed me looking very confused (and I honestly was). Instead of starting a conversation with me in English or let alone Spanish, he started in French! I know very little French so once I got past the “Hello, how are you? Good, thanks” I immediately switched to Spanish! It was weird! He spoke perfect English and Spanish. I left him just as confused as I was before.

Mi experiencia en ProRanch...

Entrar la tienda de “Pro Ranch” con el propósito de recolectar datos lingüísticos sobre la “s” plural me provocaba cierta ansiedad, tal como cada actividad de análisis de esta clase.  Es difícil porque uno nunca quiere sentirse raro ante la gente.  Entré, agarré una canasta y fingí mirar los productos. 

La ansiedad ante el proyecto desapareció después de pedir ayuda de la primera persona, un hombre que me dijo como se llaman los hot dogs en español.  El empleado que me ayudó fue muy amable y cuando me di cuenta que el trabajo de ellos es ser amable me tranquilicé.

Hubo muchos productos en la tienda que solían estar en ingles, entonces aproveché de esto y inventé un dialogo para acercarme y obtener datos de los empleados.  Quería hablar en una manera natural con los empleados, entonces les decía que era maestra de español, que estamos en el capitulo de comida, y que mis estudiantes me habían estado preguntando que “cosas raras” que no sabía como se dicen en español.  Escogí cosas que pensé que no eran culturalmente mexicano o latinoamericano, como gummy bears y biscuits, o cosas que tienen nombres muy variables en español, como agua gaseoso. 

Mi plan funcionó muy bien porque provocó conversación muy natural con los empleados.  Ellos se dieron cuenta de que pudieron conversar conmigo.  Aun después de recolectar mis datos los empleados hablaban conmigo de varias cosas, por ejemplo compartían conmigo de su lugar de origen. Las conversaciones me dejó evaluar su manera de hablar y destacar la presencia de la “s” plural. 

Desafortunadamente en la recolección de datos no hubo mucha variación lingüística, como todos los participantes pronuncian la “s” plural, pero creo que era una representación correcta del demográfico que buscábamos estudiar.   

Will Ferrel all Spanish Interview.. Insults Dora the Explorer....

I think Will Ferrel is one of those guys who can do or say anything and never get in trouble for it. There is something innocent in those eyes.... hahaah. Jimmy Kimmel and him do an interview all in Spanish about "casa de mi padre" and it's great. Link below.

 I think language is funny sometimes. You learn a second one and a lot of times you end up laughing at it a lot.. not at the language itself but the things that are culturally different and I think when you translate it back in your own language literally that is where the funny stuff happens. My friend from Bosnia likes to listen to rap music and translate it directly into Bosnian and ends up at his job, all alone at his desk, with headphones on hearing stuff like "rollin'" and picturing a skier tumbling down a slope while hearing the music y le mata la risa.  See if you can pick anything out in this interview... which by the way, totally makes fun of stereotypes..

Watch it to the end for the explosive Dora the Explorer insult!
 Will Ferrel on Jimmy Kimmel

Richard Rodriguez: Bilingual Ed and Affirmative Action

In my Chicano/a Autobiography class (de Profesora Rebolledo) we are covering some very interesting material. We just read Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez, an author I had never heard of and now find fascinating in many ways. I had to present his life/work yesterday in class, and while doing research on him for the presentation, I found a video of a talk he did years ago on the importance of libraries and books. The topic didn't sound particularly interesting to me,but it was one of the most dynamic and intriguing speeches I've ever heard. If you know what he is known for, you may cringe. If you don't, it just so happens that he speaks out against bilingual education and Affirmative Action. Yes, it is a bit shocking that a Chicano/Mexican-American (what do these mean anyway??) speaks out against these programs, but after reading about his life and listening to his perspective, I am surprised to say that I partly agree with him. He makes some very valid points, and I think it's worth listening to him speak (and reading his books). The talk is about an hour but it's so interesting you won't even notice the time. That was my experience anyway! Let me know what you guys think. I find him incredibly fascinating because he's so controversial, and he makes me think about race, culture, identity and language in ways I hadn't before. Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz2wLvK9p9Q&ob=av3e

"esque habla mexicano"

Yesterday I saw one of my Nuevomexicano friends and I was reminded of an experience I had with his family when I was in middle school. I think his family was probably the reason why I became interested in New Mexican Spanish. My grandparents are from Belen, NM, so I had already had exposure to New Mexican Spanish, but since they had spent time in Mexico it was more “standard”. I recall finding it interesting that even though my friends mother claimed not to know Spanish she would always use Spanish words for certain things. For example I remember that she would always have us take or get stuff from the “cuartito”, never from the shed. One time she was sweeping and she asked me to get the… the… the thing that she couldn’t find a word for. So I said “I call a palita”, to my surprise, she laughed and said “that’s what we call it too. I remember having discussions with my friend and his parents (both Nuevomexicanos) about the differences and similarities between our cultures and our Spanish. I thought it was fascinating how they thought a tripa was a hose when, clearly, it’s an intestine. At that age, I began to form awareness of the variation of dialect amongst Nuevomexicanos and the Spanish that I had learned in Mexico. Perhaps my most interesting experience with my friends’ family was when I met his grandma, the cutest abuelita from old town Albuquerque that you could imagine and with all the attitude that you could possibly have. I distinctly remember my friend introducing me as being “Spanish” and he suggested I talk to her in Spanish. After a short conversation with her she turned to my friend and said “que bonito habla la lengua, esque habla mexicano”. At the time I was confused by that, I didn’t understand why speaking mexicano made my Spanish “pretty”.  Now I have a better understanding, she later told me that she didn’t like her Spanish because she was mocha. I share this last experience because I think it represents the stigma that New Mexican Spanish carries with it due to all the false stereotypes that have been attached to it.

Cuando era puertorriqueña

Cuando leí el artículo de Anderson y Toribio (2007) me di cuenta que cita Cuando era puertorriqueña de Esmeralda Santiago. Hace un tiempo leí esta novela de memorias en inglés (fue escrita en este idioma y después traducida al español) y me llamó la atención su manera de escribir puesto que la autora utiliza una gran cantidad de palabras en español. Recuerdo que en clase se hizo el comentario de por qué la autora no la escribió en español si es su primer idioma. Además algunas personas veían de manera negativa que ella mezclara el español y el inglés en la misma novela, asociando esto con una debilidad en su segundo idioma.

Me hubiera gustado haber tomado esta clase antes para poder entender y poder defender estos puntos de vista que estoy aprendiendo en clase. Creo que cuando no tenemos conocimiento de lo que es realmente algo tendemos a juzgarlo. Ahora que hemos estado hablando en clase sobre “los prestamos” me puedo dar cuenta de las razones por las cuales opta por escribir de esta manera. Creo que, como se ha mencionado de otras novelas semejantes, Esmeralda Santiago tropezó con dificultades para encontrar términos en inglés apropiados para los conceptos puertorriqueños que quería comunicar, sin embargo, esto me hace pensar que no se debe precisamente a una debilidad en el idioma inglés. Por el contrario, es necesario elogiarle su buen conocimiento de ambos idiomas. Creo que ella pudo darse cuenta que tiene la posibilidad de utilizar una palabra en español para poder transmitir al lector lo más cercano posible a lo que desea expresar: el ser bilingüe le da ese privilegio, esa opción.

También me hace recordar lo que habíamos mencionado a principios del semestre, cuando comentábamos de cuando se exigía que los estudiantes hablaran exclusivamente inglés en la escuela, y que en muchas ocasiones fueron castigados. En esta novela, Negi (Esmeralda Santiago) comienza a ir a una escuela en Brooklyn y ninguna de sus clases son en español. Al igual como continua sucediendo hoy en día, intentaron retrasarla un año debido a que no sabia el idioma. Se hace referencia a esa frustración que sentía como estudiante al no poder entender o expresar lo que pensaba dentro de esta escuela con una ideología de “English Only.” Se ve este proceso de aprendizaje del  segundo idioma como una obligación y una necesidad.

?La casa de quién?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5GYrBB86Fo

Ok, Will Ferrell is starring in a new Spanish-language film, La Casa de mi Padre, that is obviously meant to be hilarious. All of the co-stars are native Spanish-speakers. In an interview with Jon Stewart, Ferrell insisted that he did NOT learn Spanish for this role, but that the Spanish he speaks in it is very good (he's been told). What do we make of this??? Is mock-Spanish moving into mock-an-entire-culture in a feature-length film? What do ya'll think? I think we need a class trip to the theater to make a proper assessment.

Undiscovered Amerindians

A picture of Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Coco Fusco in "The Couple in the Cage".

Do you all remember a few weeks ago before Spring Break when Damián showed us a shocking video from Guillermo Gómez-Peña? Of course haha we all do. I found a video of the controversial performance piece that he and Coco Fusco did in the early 90s. They presented themselves as "unknown specimens representative of the Guatinaui people" by dressing themselves in outrageous costumes and performed crazy "native" tasks that included lifting weights, watching tv, sewing voodoo dolls and working on laptops. During feeding time museum guards would pass them bananas through the cage and when they needed to use the bathroom, they were escorted from their cage on leashes. They first staged this performance in 1992 in Madrid. Although Gómez-Peña and Fusco intended for this to be purely satirical, it is obvious that many people believed them to be from an undiscovered island in the Caribbean.

I found a quote from Fusco on an Emory University website: "Our cage became a blank screen onto which audiences projected their fantasies of who and what we are. As we assumed the stereotypical role of the domesticated savage, many audience members felt entitled to assume the role of colonizer, only to find themselves uncomfortable with the implications of the game."

Would people do the same thing today if they were to do this again in 2012? I'm not sure if this is a critique of colonialism or simply a satirical commentary on the notion of discovery, but it must have changed the way in which people began to view how history is packaged up and given to us without question.

Take a look at how this video dramatizes the dilemma of the cross-cultural misunderstanding that we still live with today.

NMCOSS, a window into the culture

So, I've started my extraction and coding for my final project (so I can do tables like Rena Torres Cacoullos), and to do so I have to read through every line of the NMCOSS looking for verbs conjugated in the tu or usted forms.  However, I did't realize until I started doing this that I could learn so much about language attitudes just from reading these interviews.  Pretty cool.  It's interesting to hear the different reasons people have for using or not using Spanish with their kids, or for not watching TV in English or vice versa.  None of the language shift reasons seem to be because they think Spanish is inferior; it seems like most of them attribute language shift to the school system and also to the abundance of entertainment in English.  However, code-switching seems to be just fine and quite prevalent.  I didn't mean to be studying code-switching in my second-person singular research, but I am getting quite frustrated looking for examples of the tu or usted forms and whenever there is a perfect opportunity for the interviewee to address the interviewer they switch to English to call them 'you'!  Ahhh!  I need those tokens!  I am now wondering if there is no vos here (for many reasons) but one of them being because the English 'you,' especially in metalinguistic commentary or discourse markers is taking over some of the spots where a Spanish prefab would be?  Hmmm...  But, one thing is for sure.  The sociolinguistic interview is not the place to study 2s address forms, conversation is.  I can now see why so many sociolinguists in the past found 2s usage to be strongly correlated with the 'dynamics of power and solidarity,' and not as much priming and prefabs.  Because an interview is such a formal setting, I feel like the interviewers are sticking to one form or the other, because it's not as natural as conversation.

Eh, anyways.  I figured I'd share my thoughts on this in case anybody was wondering where they could get some attitudes about both languages and their uses --> NMCOSS.

Code-switching for dummies....

Sometimes I think it is legit and other times I think it is for dummies... like me!

Some days I speak Spanish well.  Some days it's bad. Some days I code-switch. Sometimes feels really natural and flowing. Other times I give up in Spanish & switch to English... admittedly maybe for lack of confidence. I am not a native speaker of Spanish, I began learning at 22.  Sometimes it feels innate & sometimes really foreign.  I wonder if this is how "native" code-switchers feel? 

So is it legit when I code-switch... or does the material only apply to those who are native speakers or both languages? How do we determine these kinds of things, like who is "native" and who isn't?

Can't argue with science!

¡Hola compañeros! Here is a fascinating article that I read in the NYTIMES about bilingualism and cognition. This article reminded me of when we had a guest in our class at the beginning of the semester, Leah, and she said that language and music are two of the best things we can do for our brains. I thought that was so cool...And here is a great article that suggests the same thing. Enjoy, and keep strengthening those cognitive muscles!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-of-bilingualism.html?src=me&ref=general

Experiences in Las Cruces

During the break I went down to Cruces for a few days to visit my sister and go to a wedding. While there, I got the chance to spend some time with an 81 year-old woman from Cruces named Josie. I wanted to share a couple of things she said that I found interesting. I wish I had paid closer attention to her code-switching, but I was too fascinated by her jokes and home remedies. I have bunions which are getting more and more painful, and I happened to mention this to Josie. Well, her solution just might be the most interesting remedy I've heard in a very long time. She told me she used to have bunions too, but was able to get rid of them after a month by soaking her feet in vinegar and water, and then, after thoroughly cleaning a quarter, placing it on the bunion and securing it by wrapping tape around the foot. I've soaked my feet but have yet to use the quarter. I'm excited to see what happens!!  Later she told this joke which I can't really do justice, because you must hear it from miss Josie in a New Mexican Spanish accent, plus I can't remember exactly how she said it, but I thought I'd share what I can recall because it's really cute. 

Un dia unos viejitos van a la casa de otro viejito para visitarlo y consolarlo despues de la muerte de su esposa. "Como esta amigo?" le dicen. "Poco bien", el viejito contesta, y empieza a llorar y recordar a su esposa, describiendo como era a sus amigos. Pues mientras el viejito recuerda a su mujer, empieza a llorar mas y mas, tanto que se le salen las babas de la boca hasta el suelo. Uno de sus amigos, viendo eso quiere ayudar y le dice, "Amigo, y la baba?" "Si..." contesta el pobre viejito entre lagrimas, "y planchaba tambien."

For some reason I thought this was the greatest joke and I couldn't stop laughing!!

On another note, because we've been talking about code-switching and borrowing, I wanted to share something I heard on the street. I was walking out of a restaurant and I overheard a woman say to her friend, "Te hace exfoliate tu skin." I wanted to tell her how cool she is but decided against it. :)

How far "off the boat" as they say?

With all the talk about generations in this class I began thinking about my own genealogy. My grandfather on my father's side had already written several books on it, and according to his work, one of my direct ancestors (William Hele) came from England to Massachusetts in 1640.  But not all of my ancestors have been here that long.

My grandmother on my father's side also wrote a book on the genealogy on her side, and her father's people came through Ellis Island in 1892 from Hungary.  Her mother father's side came from Hugelheim, Wurttemburg, Germany to Pennsylvania around 1750, and her mother's mother's side also came from Germany around the same time.

Unfortunately, my mother's family has not gotten into genealogy until recently and they don't have any books published, but I did find out that I am a fourth generation Norwegian on that side.  My great-grandparents came over sometime in the 1920s and did not speak English.  So, the fact that I speak English and not Norwegian really shows how fast language shift can take place.  All of the great-grandparents I can remember from both sides spoke with heavy accents.

I know this is not really relevant to the Southwest US, but I have to connect the experiences of people here to my own in order to understand the similarities and the differences.  The migration that my ancestors undertook both in Europe, and even after they arrived in the US some moved to Canada and back and many have since moved all around the US.  Also, my father moved migrated to Indonesia, so the situation keeps getting more complex.  It's just interesting to see how people move and fall in love and mate and make society and then move again.

Another funny thing, my ancestor James Healy (1830-1900) is known as the first black Catholic bishop of America (he was half Irish and half African-American).

Knowing all this, I now understand why I was having a hard time understanding the connection that nuevo mexicanos with the Spanish language because so many of my peoples assimilated to English after moving to the states, even if it didn't happen immediately.  However, after knowing this, I understand better why we must work so hard to protect the traditional cultural values of the people that have been here so long.