I want you!... to speak English

I made a visit to Old Town this week with my boyfriend from Ohio.  He was as struck as I was encountering some very racist T-shirts/ material at a store there.  There were shirts that said the following. "Designated Driver".. with a dog driving a horse for what looked to be a native American or Hispanic person.  We saw "They know what happen when you don't control immigration"... with a picture of Native Americans in head dresses.  And this T-shirt (actual picture my bf took):

In the store we were pretty loudly talking about how terrible and racist it was. A gentleman walked by and said "I know! hahaha... so funny!"  I guess he thought we were saying "haha... this is so racist in a good way!"  I posted it on facebook and got some pretty different reactions. Most people were appalled, and one person thought it could be satire.  One guy says that he hopes people wear it so that they can be publicly singled out for being a racist.  I think in order for this to be satire people a large amount of people need to be able to "get" the joke. Most people see this and either think it is terrible... or think it is funny (and not in a satirical sense).  I mention my boyfriend in the post because he is from the north and has very little exposure to Hispanic culture or Spanish.  He said something to the effect of "I can understand something ignorant like this happening in Ohio, where we have little exposure to Spanish, but New Mexico is the LAST place on earth you should see something like this."  This place WAS Mexico a little over a hundred years ago! 

Basically my prevailing thought from this incident was that it seems to have become common place to exploit and trivialize"Hispanic" or "Spanish" things like food and architecture (Old Town) for profit, while at the same time separating them from it's language and true culture.  It is like saying "we own this now and can do what we want with it."  It makes me wonder on a large scale who we (the people) allow to propagate and be the bearers of culture.  Seems to be like "money, money, money, money...moneeeyyyy" pretty much has the final say. 

Clovis' perspective on mexicanos

I just returned from visiting family in Clovis a couple days ago and had a few interesting conversations at the dinner table about Spanish in NM that I would like to share with you all. My mom's family has lived in Clovis all of their lives and generally speaking, Clovis is a very white, sheltered and racist community. Mexicanos (and African Americans) are greatly looked down upon, are constantly called inappropriate names and are not completely integrated into the community. I have a couple cousins (18 and 21 years old), that grew up in Clovis. After speaking with them this past weekend, I could tell that my younger cousin, who goes to school at ENMU in Portales, still holds these racist ideas about Mexicans and Spanish. He refused to take Spanish in high school and still refuses to take it in college. This weekend I heard him using the term Mexican in a very derogatory way and saying a slew of other things that I don't want to repeat. Needless to say, I was very disappointed but because I have known how Clovis is all of my life, I am not surprised. The older cousin is finishing her degree here at UNM and has made great changes in her view of Hispanics in Albuquerque. She no longer uses the terms she used to use that I used to get on her case for so many times, and she loves the Stuff Burqueños Say videos because she can now relate to them. One of the neatest comments she said while at the dinner table was that she thinks Albuquerque is such a cool place because we can throw Spanish words into our everyday English language and no one thinks it is weird. She gave examples like: gracias, de nada, por favor, hola and que pasa. Keep in mind, she does not speak Spanish, but she knows these words well simply because she has lived in Albuquerque for 4 years. Her perspective has really changed since growing up in Clovis.

My aunt (my cousins' mother) was also involved in our conversation that night. She works at an elementary school in Clovis that is made up of low-income non-white families. Many of her kindergartners speak only Spanish when they first come into her classroom and she has to work extra hard in order to integrate them and make them learn English like the rest of the kids. One of her strategies is to receive help from one of the other kindergartners in her classroom. Since my aunt does not speak any Spanish, she asks another child to translate for the new child. She says, to her surprise, that the child looks at her like, you want me to speak Spanish?! She never understood why they were so shy about it and didn't understand why they all of a sudden didn't want to speak Spanish when my aunt is deliberately asking them. I explained the NM school history and explained that the don't-speak-Spanish-outside-the-home attitude could well be passed down from the grandparents, parents and brothers and sisters down to these innocent 5 year old children. Finally, she understood why they were looking at her like, are you going to punish me if I speak to him in Spanish? My aunt said that they will also speak Spanish among themselves when they are alone, but once she walks over to them, they will immediately switch to English.

Isn't it amazing that little 5 year old kids already have these attitudes within them?

El asunto del idioma en el proceso de convertirse en estado sigue relevante un siglo después...
Santorum en Puerto Rico

Fíjense que él tiene una ideas totalmente incorrectas.

What’s in a loan word?

The idea of loan words is interesting to me as we have read that borrowing is not considered code switching, it is however the usage of words from one language’s lexicon to another. What happens when in one language, there is a word that supplies more meaning or significance than the same word in another language? I can think of a couple examples. In English, we have the word “performance,” a word which encompasses a range of different meanings, ideas and usages. I can only think of two words in Spanish that can be used for the word “performance” and that is “teatralización” and “espectáculo,” both which have a limited number of uses compared to the English usage of the word “performance.” Likewise, in Spanish I can think of a similar example with the word “piedad.” In English, we have the words "piety" and "devotion," and again the usages are lacking when these words are used in English compared to that of the Spanish usage. This seems to happen more often than not, and these were two examples that came to mind ... What do you guys think? Other ideas, opinions, or examples?

Turns out my family is from Las Cruces!!

Mi esposa se ha dedicado a sacar el árbol genealógico de mi familia por parte del apellido Salido. 

Resulta ser que el abuelo de mi padre (i.e. mi bisabuelo) y su familia, ¡eran de Las Cruces, Nuevo México!  Usando Ancestry.com sacamos los archivos de mis familiares al principio de los 1900 y se mudaron a Chihuahua, Chihuahua México. Pero lo único que yo he sabido toda mi vida es que todos somos de Chihuahua... ¡y ya! We're Mexicans.. ¡PUNTO!
So.... WTF?!?!

....pausa dramática....

Inmediatamente me quedé, al igual que esta clase, con más preguntas que respuesta, y un cambio absoluto en mi percepción de lo que hemos estado estudiando en la clase. Primero, las preguntas que me urgen: 

1. ¿Porqué nadie en mi familia sabia esto? 

2. ¿Qué sucedió para que se fueran de Las Cruces?

3. ¿Cómo es que puedo obtener acceso a los archivos de Las Cruces?

4. ¿Fueron mis familiares víctimas de racismo?

5. ¿De qué clase / casta eran?

6. ¿Tenían tierras que les quitaron? 

Pero lo que más me ha afectado es saber que todo lo que estamos leyendo aquí en esta clase es parte directa de mi historia. Ya no es la historia de Nuevo México, sino mi historia. ¡Ahora me da más coraje todo lo que sucedió con los home-steaders, las escuelas públicas, y los tratados entre México y los EEUU!

Lo que voy a hacer ahora es enfocarme más en pelear por los derechos míos y de mi familia. 

-Rubén.  

Word borrowing as resistance

We talked about this a little in class today. Although I do agree that loan words mostly develop because of repetition in a given context, I think there are some that develop because of resistance.  I brought up the specific case of "Navidad" & "Crismes" today in class because I believe for New Mexico "Crismes" was borrowed as a sort of cultural resistance instead of a simple issue with repetition, because of the extreme differences in meaning that each word contains.  

In many northern New Mexican hispanic villages the "Navidad" celebration is when a masked figure "El abuelo" comes down from the mountains.  He is a boogyman of sorts. He comes once a year and makes the children dance, say prayers and prove they are learning Spanish.  The children have to appease the "abuelo" or they can be punished.  "El Abuelo" is a guardian of religion and culture in these communities.  This "Navidad" celebration looks nothing like the "navidad" celebrated in other parts of the Hispanic Americas.  The "abuelo" figure also appears in the Matachines dances all over NM.  In fact, many believe that the "Abuelo" figure comes from an indigenous tradition. No possible link to Santa Clause. 

So then we have the loan word "grampa."  Why do people use this although everybody knows the translation is abuelo? Many believe it is the same reason.  El "abuelo" being the boogyman figure and guardian of religion, customs and languages is very distinct from the father of one's mother or father.  

So these loan words "crismes" and "grampa" wouldn't end up in a lot of places in the Hispanic Americas, because these traditions were so distinct to New Mexico (partly from being so isolated).  The development of these loan words could be the result of repetition of the word, within a specific context, but in these two cases I think it is more complex, given the extreme difference in meanings of the words.  New lexicons had to be developed in order to encase the four distinct definitions.

I pretty much took all that from Enrique LaMadrid and Aurelio Espinosa. If you are interested in this kind of stuff here is a good reference below: 

Thomas J. Steele. Hispanic los Agüelos and Pueblo Tsave-yohs. Albuquerque: Southwest Hispanic Research Institute, University of New Mexico, 1992. Working Paper. 

I am interested to see what you think!

Now I Really Don't Like Arizona!!!

My brother moved his family to Arizona a few weeks ago due the growing job market in AZ. Even though they were going to miss New Mexico, their home for the last 20+ years, they were excited for the possibilities and change of scenery. My brother came back with my sister-in-law and nephews to take care of a few loose ends this weekend and they were horrified, mortified, terrified, and extremely upset at what they found over there..... blatant, hard-core, unashamed, racism by "whites" agains anything hispanic.

1. My Luli, my sister-in-law, is a second generation US Citizen, and even though she transferred from the Wal-Mart here, the Wal-Marts in Phoenix did not accept her transfer once they saw her and spoke to her. They asked her to step outside of the office and sent her home. They then proceeded to retract her transfer.

2. They asked for TRIPLE ID because they were unwilling to accept their NM Driver's Licenses..... they might be fraudulent.

3. No one has returned my brother's phone calls for employment, even though he is still young and has over 20 years experience as a automotive wholesaler and repair shop administrator. When he's gone to check on his application, the positions were filled with white people with less experience than him.

4. The school system has refused to accept my nephews until they provide full documentation of their schooling in NM. Their unofficial transcripts and school id's are insufficient. They are asking for full letters of reference and official transcripts from their current school.  WTF?????

5. Luli was horrified that the racism was being propagated on the evening news, when they reported on
how establishments should check NM Id's for authenticity. WHAT THE??????

OK.... They are HardCore Racial Profiling!!!

In spite of all of this, and shockingly enough, I was expecting them to say they were coming back....
I egged them on and asked what they were going to do.... they laughed and said had decided to stay!!!
WHAT THE?????   WHY?????

My brother's answer, resounded forcefully by Luli and my nephews (twins 16yo) was that they were not going to be intimidated by anybody, and once they got situated they were going to fight back!!

I COULDN'T BE PROUDER!!!!!!

Anyhow, this very much resounded with the sentiment that has prevailed among Hispanics in that area for decades and decades. All of a sudden, the polemics, disparity, and language of dominance has hit very close to home and become much more real to me. In the long haul, I know that the situation will eventually change, however it is still extremely sad to see that we're not welcome in Arizona....

Cultura de contrabando

Sometimes it is interesting how classes tie into one another. Tonight I was in a class about Haiti and we were discussing the culture of border territories, specifically between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. However, we began to discuss the culture of New Mexico in terms of border culture and how our culture differs from other parts of the United States. Definitely here in New Mexico we have a very distinct and unique culture where a mixture of persons, goods, languages, and ideas come into contact resulting in hybridization. In my opinion, this hybridization results in the creation of the culture unique to our state. We also began to talk about how border territories have a specific culture of contraband due to the mixture of persons, goods, languages, and ideas. Likewise, language in New Mexico is unique as well as a result of the mixture of English Spanish and Native languages. My question then is, can we think about language in New Mexico as a part of this culture of contraband? Hmmm...

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