by Maria Melendez
Language is an ideological functioning of social
relationships that influences the role adopted in specific societal contexts. Depending on the context, different language
usages imply different statuses. The
United States in particular is affected by a national ideology that places
English as the most important language despite the multicultural reality of the
population. This is made possible by
government policies, educational values, and internal and external
identification (which is a question of how people view you and how you identify
yourself). These dynamics can be seen by
looking at the development of identity in the context of Latinos in a liberal
arts college in Bonnie Urciuoli’s article “Whose Spanish? The tension between linguistic correctness
and cultural identity” and Shalini Shankar’s article “Speaking like a Model
Minority “FOB” Styles, Gender, and Racial Meanings among Desi Teens in Silicon
Valley” in a Desi high school in
California.
Language is seen as intrinsically linked to culture (Urciuoli
3). This idea leads to such
misconceptions as all people of Latino origins speak Spanish as an inherent
cultural trait or a factor of identity. This
issue is addressed in Latina comedian Marga Gomez’s performance “Long Island Iced Latinos”. Here she brings up a difficult subject of
within-group discrimination of Latinos who cannot speak Spanish and are derided
for their lack of knowledge by being called “bobo/a” which means stupid. She says that she is “part of a minority that
is oppressed by the majority of Latinos who can speak Spanish.” She also admonishes the “Anglo-tinos” in Berkeley,
California who harass her by speaking Spanish to her and who cannot believe
that she does not speak Spanish. These
issues are telling of the issues faced by Latinos when language is naturalized
as a part of cultural identity.
Therefore,
language of Latino students in a largely white population may be expected to be
a natural knowledge and necessary for the authentic representation of their
culture. This poses a problem for people
who do not speak academic Spanish and also an identity disparity for those who
speak with what is deemed an inauthentic accent. New York University is an example of a
college with a low population of Latino students, its previous year’s freshman enrollment percentages ran at nine percent. Although there are programs and scholarships
such as the Higher Educational Opportunity program that allow for Latinos and
other minorities to enter this private university, the in-school population
presents a disparity with the large presence of minorities in New York.
This lack of representation leads to situations where a
Latino student may find themselves serving the role of the in-class
representative of all Latinos. For
example, in one of my non-Spanish classes at NYU, we were looking at a poem in
Spanish and since I was the only Latina in the class, I was asked to read it
out loud. When the professor heard that
my pronunciation was not what he expected he relieved me of my duty and asked a
non-Latina to read it and to my further embarrassment, her accent was much more
exact than mine. This is one of my many
instances of being called on to perform my Latina identity in ways that I was
not used to in my pre-NYU career.
As Urciuoli points out, “correct Spanish” is perceived as
“cultural and symbolic capital” that causes pre-college modes of language to be
devalued. Also, being a Latino is made a
more “salient element of their identity” in college where knowledge of Spanish
and Latino history are made academically cool.
I definitely agree with this idea as many of my classes at NYU have been
Latino courses that have had a large if not complete population of Latinos. An interest in the subject is significant because
much of what is learned in these courses has not been taught in most
traditional high schools so this knowledge empowers people and their claim to
their identity by ascribing to it symbolic capital.
Social associations with knowledge of other cultures differ
from this Latino college level paradigm.
The example Shalini Shankar discusses is the cultural contrast of
popular Desi teens compared to Fresh Off the Boat (FOBs) in a high school in the
Silicon Valley of California. In this
setting, there is an emphasis on differences in appearance, display of cultural
knowledge, and income. For example, FOBs
are usually middle class and said to not “adequately following fashion trends,
having oily hair, speaking Punjabi in school, and speaking Desi Accented
English”. (Shankar 270) Desi popular
teens however still associate with Indian culture but do so in strategic ways
that emphasize their upper class position through material ways such as wearing
prom dresses that are Indian or blasting Bollywood music, but not openly
socially.(270) For example, their public
display of language is mostly in English in order to separate themselves from
the FOBs.
The use of language even translates into the familial
setting where the upper class Desi families tend to speak English at home. FOBs in contrast speak Punjabi at home and
use code-switching in public as a means of creating a unity and even talking
about the popular Desi teens. This position
of language as a divider of groups along class lines is an interesting
within-group distinction because it relies on many social aspects of identity
and divides people not because of lack of knowledge of their heritage culture,
but because of lack of knowledge of the American culture. This may be due to the fact that Indians are
part of the “model minority” which suggests that in order to be able to
represent this role they have to be able to embody American values and identity. FOBs also are known to appropriate Latino
fashion which is a striking decision because it could potentially diminish
their stance as model minorities because they are appropriating the culture of
a marginalized group. However, their use
of Spanish language phrases as a means of humor is worth questioning because it
could be seen as a way of putting down another culture in order to improve the
standing of their own such as was done by non-Anglo whites in their attempts to
claim whiteness.(274) It would be
interesting to look at if these social constructions translate to other school
settings such as college or if there would be a hipness associated with
cultural knowledge as there is in the Latino college experience.
These dualities of language knowledge or the lack thereof
are telling of the social differences involved with language use. The context of language use is a determinant
of the significance it holds amongst different members of the groups. Both Desi and Latino groups have an oppressed
minority within them that are discriminated against because of their lack of proficiency
or their high usage of the language in public spaces, based on the idea that
bilingualism can either be an asset or an encumbrance.
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