25 abr 2012

Café-con-leche public space?

Carrie and I were revisiting the idea of "white public space" for our project and began to wonder if we were encountering "brown public space" or even "café con leche" public space. I suppose these would be defined by the dominant language--Spanish only, or Spanglish only? Do you guys feel that you encounter spaces where it would be rude to approach a stranger and speak English? Or spaces where to really know what's going on, you have to be bilingual? Would that be enough to constitute a different space, or does the overarching hegemonic power of English override all other spaces? Personally, I think there are pockets all over the nation of other kinds of space--South Valley, Chinatowns in various cities, Miami to name a few big ones. Any thoughts?

Also, at a soccer game this weekend, I really enjoyed noticing the strong bilingualism of many players and the revelation of bilingual spectators when, for example, the keeper yelled at one of his players "juega con la cabeza!" and the reply came from the sideline, "No buey, con los pies!" Everyone who laughed was bilingual!

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