FInal Blog

 

Bailey Moore           

Anth 306: Modern Mexico

Fred Krissman

Languages and Identities

            I made the decision to use language as my main topic for this blog assignment, based on my Spanish major, without really having a specific focus. After stressing over what I would focus on for this language blog, inspiration struck me in my Spanish civilization class while watching El Espejo Enterrado (The buried mirror) by Carlos Fuentes, a famous Mexican writer.  "Ninguno de nosotros existiría sin las biografías, la lengua y los sueños de nuestros antepasados."-Carlos Fuentes. Translated this means, "None of us would exist without the history, language and dreams of our ancestors."  What Carlos Fuentes is trying to point out is that we are all connected by our past.  We all are descendants from Africa and have become so many different sets of people with thousands of different languages. Language is a way of connecting culture and people together.  In Mexico the community is a strong cultural aspect, Mexicans identify themselves with their communities of origin rather than the larger nation.  Language similar to the community is part of a person’s identity and can connect people together in a similar fashion. The cultures and languages of people help them identify themselves among the different communities throughout Mexico, but it presents a dichotomy. The barriers it creates can promote a separation between people. There appears to be a hierarchy of this among the indigenous speakers of Mexico, deeply rooted in tradition, down to the Spanish speakers favoring their language keeping them in the modern world, and also including English speakers from the United States viewing Spanish speakers as a downfall in America. The Spanish language is something that unifies Mexico, along with Latin America, however it is also something that creates diversity within communities both positive and negative.  I am looking forward to digging deeper into this relationship between language and cultural identities.

            Carlos Fuentes said that we wouldn’t be anything without the history, language, and dreams of our ancestors.  This quote has resonated with me since the first time I heard it, and also was something in the back of my head as I read our assigned readings.  An important theme throughout Kitchenspace is the loss of tradition in the new generations in Mexico.  The new generations in Mexico are more into the modern world than the traditional one.  Traditional indigenous languages are not widely spoken anymore, as they are seen as old traditional ways and not something kids want to be apart of these days. Here lies a problem of who is going to carry on these lingual traditions down to the next generation. Young people in Mexico don’t want to identify with the traditional including the language or the roles in the family.  The key problem seems to be one of identity, which is something language correlates to.  The younger generations feel that old native languages correlate to not being successful in this modern world.  Language can create so many different relationships between cultures, positive and negative, which is demonstrated heavily throughout Mexico.

    Languages are a key component to a person’s identity just as much as family, religion, or community. Language is something that can unify people together, giving them some common ground.  In Mexico a community or barrio is what people identify themselves with.  This is demonstrated repeatedly in Christie’s Kitchenspace as she interviewed different women in different communities including: Xochimilco, Ocotepec, and Tetecala.  Some of the women she interviewed had lived in a barrio for over thirty years, but still did not consider themselves a part of that community simply because they were not born there.  Identitying with the community is a very strong aspect, just as language is.  Christie also points out in her introduction how her knowledge of Spanish gave her the tools necessary to conduct this personal research of women’s lives in the kitchen.  Having the same language of Spanish as the women in these communities gave them a common identity, helping them feel comfortable around her, which helped her research.  In this sense language was a cultural connecter that unified two different groups of people, Mexicanos and a “guera” Spaniard named Christie.

            Religion similarly unifies a group based on certain beliefs and practices.  My reasoning for comparing language to religion as a cultural identity marker is that there are many similarities between them, including the fact that these identities can also divide and segregate cultures. I made these connections between languages and religions after reading Cahn’s All Religions are Good in TzinTzunTzan, with the tensions between Catholics and Evangelicals, not in TzinTzunTzan, but in the surrounding areas of Michoacán and Chamula.  These Catholics and Evangelicals are both Mexicanos, they could even share the same barrio, and the same language, yet they are divided because of their religion.  This can happen with languages as well.  The Los Angeles Times article titled, “In LA, speaking Mexican to fit in” really demonstrates how language can be a cultural barrier, just like religion. The Salvadorian immigrant who must pretend to be Mexican in order to find work has to deal with pressures of being caught by his fellow Mexican co-workers.  The first thing that gave him away was his accent, which didn’t sound like the accent of a Mexican.  The common language really did nothing to bring together these groups of immigrants who have so much in common, rather it created tensions between them.

            While it is true that Spanish language can divide people, it is also true that it can unify them, especially immigrants here in the United States.  It is comforting to use the language of your home when you are in a place so foreign to you.  There are also problems between the Spanish language and the English language here in the United States.  People view speaking Spanish here as a negative thing, I’ve heard numerous times from a U.S. citizen that they don’t think anyone should be here unless they understand and speak English.  If we could just keep in mind what Carlos Fuentes said, maybe we could understand that we are all products of the same culture that has simply changed and divided over time.  I plan to interview a variety of students to gather different perspectives, hopefully someone who speaks Spanish as their first language, along with a student who has Hispanic background who does not speak Spanish. By finding and interviewing my perspective informants, my hopes are to gain an understanding on the different ways that language has affected people's lives, to see how language can shape your own self-identity.

            “F” grew up in southern California and learned Spanish as her first language.  She learned English by watching children's cartoons on TV and through her older siblings.  Her parent’s are first generation immigrants and do not speak English very well.  “F” says that her parents didn't show interest in teaching her English as a language.  Her parents value traditions and customs and feared they would be lost by her learning English.  I asked "F" if she experienced any discrimination in school but for the most part she hadn't, the schools she attended always had a large Hispanic population.  However "F" felt intimidated by the kids in her school  who grew up speaking English because they seemed smarter and more successful.  While “F” has many American English speaking friends she told me she always has felt more comfortable around Spanish speakers no matter where they are from.  "F" says Spanish speakers can relate to each other off the back because of their cultural similarities.  In this sense "F" saw the power of language as a unifier that connected her together with Spanish speakers here in the United States.  She also felt that her Spanish speaking skills were subordinate to English speakers, which can lead to a disconnection between two groups.

            “M” is a Mexican-American born in the US but she returned to Mexico at the age of 7.  Her parents had gotten involved with child protective services and they were worried their children would be put into the foster care system, so they all packed up for Jalisco, Mexico.  When “M” returned to school in Jalisco it was obvious to everyone that she was American, and they gave her the nickname gringa.  While Spanish was her first language she had an obvious American accent and that created tensions between her and the classmates in school.  After sometime she lost her “gringa” accent and soon after lost all her knowledge of the English language. In order to pursue a higher education “M” left her family at the age of 16 to return back to LA and live with an uncle.  When she returned to school in LA she knew absolutely no English. “M” told me she felt hopeful because there was a large Spanish speaking Hispanic population at school.  Her hopes were mislead, the Mexican-American students labeled her as a “Chunt” and would not speak to her, or offer any help.  “M” told me that these students made huge efforts to become American, and didn’t want to ruin their reputations by speaking to her.   For “M” language separated her from her peers, even when it was the same language.  Perhaps similar to the El Salvadoran entering a Mexican workforce, the students felt that they had worked hard to feel comfortable here, so they wanted “M” to work hard in the same way.

            “J” was my only interviewee that did not speak Spanish as a first language.  “J” is a Mexican-American with Spanish speaking parents who also grew up in the LA area.  “J” said that not knowing Spanish has a negative impact on his personal identity.  He dealt with a lot of taunting from other Spanish-speaking students in high school who labeled him as a guerro or gringo because he did not speak Spanish, even though he looked just as Mexican-American as the other students. He told me, “There were even times I was told I wasn’t a “real” Mexican or Latino because I didn’t speak Spanish.”  During high school “J” felt disconnected with his heritage, but now in college taking Spanish classes has helped him feel more connected.  For "J" language was something that separated him from his peers, however after taking classes and learning Spanish he feels more connected. Language and culture are so closely related that sometimes, as is for the case of "J", without the language of your past you cannot fully understand the culture that surrounds it.

            Throughout this entire process my blog has changed around quite a bit. This is something that occurs regularly with anthropological studies.  One topic or theme can evolve into so many different focuses during the course of research and fieldwork.  I personally experienced this evolution during these past few months working on my blog. My main focus was connecting languages to identity, along with key problems and benefits regarding this connection.  There were some aspects of my blog that I couldn't touch on with my interviews such as the loss of traditional indigenous languages in a rapidly modernizing world.  New generations feel pressure to adapt to this changing world in order to succeed; this includes not taking interest in traditions, customs, or languages of their ancestors.  I do believe that a variation of this idea can be seen in my interview with "M".  The high school students would not communicate with her in Spanish because they are adapted to their modern lifestyle here in the US, which includes speaking English. The loss of language is not only occurring in Mexico with the indigenous languages but also here in the United States with the Spanish language.  Of course there are plenty of examples to show that the Spanish language is used to help people connect and identify with one another.  This connection is even stronger when people are in a foreign country without the language skills.  People can connect and identify within one another because they are both experiencing the same confusion and stress of not knowing the language.  This connection can be seen in my interview with "F" she told me that she always felt more comfortable around other Spanish speakers because they have more in common.

        What I expected my blog to be and what my blog ended up being are completely two different things. I did find evidence to support my claim that language ties in with identity, along with the fact that language can unify people together along with creating divisions.  I found it is much easier for people to unify and bond over sharing a language, "F" being my main example.  What is more of a problem are the divisions that different languages can create, mainly between Spanish and English.  The US and Mexico are two different worlds yet we are all the same and we all strive for success.  In a perfect world speaking Spanish here in the US wouldn't cause any problems and everyone would take Carlos Fuentes' quote to heart.  That is a world that I want to be a part of.