Spanish not spoken here: Accounting for the racialization of the Spanish language in the experiences of Mexican migrants in the United States

For Spanish-speaking Latinos in the United States, the Spanish language is a component of identity that is often viewed as fundamental to their human experience. This deep connection between language and identity becomes problematic as a result of what we suggest in this paper is a deeply racialized...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ethnicities 2014-10, Vol.14 (5), p.676-697
Main Authors: Davis, Tiffany Y., Moore, Wendy Leo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ethnic Identity
Ethnicity
Ethnocentrism
Ethnography
Ethnology
Hispanic Americans
Hispanics
Human ecology, environment
Human settlements
Identity
Interviews
Language
Mexicans
Mexico
Migrants
Migrations
Morphological source materials
Oppression
Physical anthropology, ethnobiology
Police
Race
Racism
Regional dialects
Spanish language
U.S.A
United States of America
White people
Whiteness studies
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Summary:For Spanish-speaking Latinos in the United States, the Spanish language is a component of identity that is often viewed as fundamental to their human experience. This deep connection between language and identity becomes problematic as a result of what we suggest in this paper is a deeply racialized attack on the use of the Spanish language. Drawing upon ethnographic and qualitative in-depth interview research with first-generation Mexican migrants in the US, we bring together the literatures on race and ethnicity to facilitate a more nuanced understanding of the ethnic and racialized processes involved in reaction to and treatment of the use of Spanish in the US. Centering the voices and experiences of first-generation migrants, we are able to explicate their experiences with respect to intersecting mechanisms of ethnocentrism, language oppression, and racism.
ISSN:1468-7968
1741-2706
DOI:10.1177/1468796814523740