Redalyc.Functions and Valorization of Language in Puerto Rico

Centro Journal ISSN: 1538-6279 [email protected] The City University of New York Estados Unidos Pousada, Alicia Functions and valorization of language in Puerto Rico Centro Journal, vol. XX, núm. 1, 2008, pp. 4-11 The City University of New York New York, Estados Unidos Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=37720101 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative CENTRO Journal Volume7 xx Number 1 spring 2008 Functions and valorization of language in Puerto Rico introduction Al i c i A P o u s A d A , Guest Editor ilingualism a n d l a n g u a g e c o n t a c t (primarily between Spanish and English) are topics of great interest and controversy in Puerto Rico, linked as they Bare to the burning issues of cultural identity, political status, pedagogy, and economic development. However, while there is a wealth of written opinion (both journalistic and academic) regarding the dynamics of bilingualism and numerous accounts of the rather bizarre history of chaotic language policies in the public school system, there is a much more limited body of work that examines the roles that Spanish, English, and other languages play on the island, their discourse structures and functions, and the values attached to each. The current issue of the CENTRO Journal presents some of the most recent additions to this fund of knowledge. The contributions cover a wide range of genres, including interview, poetry, discourse analysis, short story, text analysis, ethnography, Internet language, legal discourse, historical analysis, and biography. Most of the contributors currently live in Puerto Rico or have only recently moved to the U.S. A few live in the U.S. but have intimate ties to the island. Some are veteran researchers or writers, while others are only beginning their careers. The issue begins with two pieces dedicated to Luz María Umpierre, Puerto Rican poet, literary critic, and social activist, born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, and presently residing in Lewiston, Maine. The first is an interview with Dr. Umpierre by Carmen Haydée Rivera, professor of literature at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Río Piedras. The second is a discourse analysis of Luzma’s poetry by UPR, Río Piedras linguistics professor, Alma Simounet. [ 4 ] The interview focuses on questions of bilingualism and language valorization among Puerto Ricans, both on the island and in the diaspora. It also explores the multiple literary influences in Luzma’s life, the development of Latino(a) studies in the U.S., the many obstacles faced by Latina writers in particular, and the effects of homophobia and cultural narrowness in academia. According to Luzma, for Puerto Ricans on the island, “Spanish is the language of the soul, and English is the language of survival.” For Puerto Ricans in the U.S., “Spanish is still loved dearly, although many new generations of the diaspora do not speak it.” She quotes linguist Bill Van Patten as having said: “Puerto Rico is one place where Spanish is in constant development…because of the exchange with English.” Luzma also explains the use of English and Spanish in her poetry and defends the literary employment of code switching and Spanglish by referring to Czeslaw Milosz, who claimed that “language is our only homeland.” She declares that “Spanglish and code switching are just as valuable as speaking any other language that exists” and concludes, “If your house within is speaking multiple languages, so be it.” Simounet’s deconstruction of the counter-discourse of Umpierre’s work utilizes Teun Van Dijk’s (1993, 1994, 1999, 2004) model of critical discourse analysis. By “counter-discourse,” she refers to the language of cultural resistance that empowers oppressed individuals (in this case, Puerto Ricans, women, and lesbians) Luzma also explains the use of English and Spanish in her poetry and defends the literary employment of code switching and Spanglish by referring to Czeslaw Milosz, who claimed that “language is our only homeland.” in their struggles against the patriarchal and “othering” ideologies of the Catholic Church and of academia. Critical discourse analysis elucidates the ways in which language and power interact. Simounet isolates linguistic and rhetorical devices at the macro and micro levels, the macro being the entire poem as a text and the micro referring to internal elements within the poem. Among the devices she examines are language choice (Standard English, Standard Puerto Rican Spanish, Relaxed Spanish, code-switching, and jeringonza [similar to Pig Latin]), the use of taboo topics (lesbian sexuality), lexical choices (selection of words with subtle connotations and manipulation of word morphologies in verbal play), and the shifting among varying registers and styles. Simounet concludes that Umpierre’s unceasing and valiant struggles against accepted norms indicate that she would “rather be marginalized than erased.” The two pieces about poet Umpierre are followed by three poems that express different aspects of language valorization in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rican poet Elidio La Torre Lagares’ heartrending poem “White Blindness” describes his trilingual grandmother’s gradual loss of her Italian, Spanish, and English skills “when the hands in her clock started spinning backwards.” Though she always taught him that “the world is made of language,” in the end she was tragically left in a “white blindness” void of language. In “Learning Spanish,” UPR, Río Piedras English professor Richard Marx Weinraub laments his failed attempts at acquiring Spanish despite having resided [ 5 ] in Puerto Rico for many years. He expresses a wistful desire to absorb the language in his sleep by listening to a tape of Neruda’s poetry until he awakens “Hispanic and holy, speaking in tongues so rolly that even my stoniest student can understand me,” but concludes that perhaps his only option is to access the language by entering “the gloss and glottis” of a “Spanish darling.” Puerto Rican poet Urayoán Noel (now living in the Bronx) utilizes repeated code switches and cross-linguistic word play in his poem “You are now entering Bronx Piedras.” He dramatically brings to life the lively cultural nexus “where the Río Piedras meets the Bronx River” and “the Grand Concourse meets la Ponce de León” and considers “the fate of these cities in mindscape” from the perspective of the transplanted Boricua. The three poems are followed by a short story by José Delgado-Costa of Ohio University titled “Fifo’s Pizza,” which expresses the linguistic and cultural ruminations of a return migrant in Puerto Rico (“otro Boricua desenraizado acabadito de regresar” [another uprooted Puerto Rican newly returned to the island]). The story is written primarily in Standard Spanish but with extensive use of English loanwords and phrases typical of Puerto Rican Spanish (or Boricua, as he terms it), glossed in footnotes for the readers’ convenience. It is an excellent example of the creative use of code switching to convey a multicultural persona. He considers that, just like the pizza he is now devouring, neither Spanish nor English were born in Puerto Rico. The narrator contemplates Puerto Rican cultural identity while waiting for a friend at a bustling pizzeria near Arecibo. “Fifo’s Pizza es el purito new world order rugiendo a full.” [Fifo’s Pizza is pure new world order roaring full blast.] He muses about how he arrived in the States at the age of 18 and has now returned to the island more than twenty years later, only to discover that he doesn’t sound like a native of either place—“Otro jodido deslenguado” [another tongueless unfortunate]. He considers that, just like the pizza he is now devouring, neither Spanish nor English were born in Puerto Rico. He refers to the cultural syncretism which has resulted from the contact between the two imposed colonial languages as an “entrecruce” [cross breeding] that has ended in “transculturación” [intercultural transformation]. As he munches and waits for his friend, he asks himself why Puerto Rico spends so much time debating language and identity and taking its own cultural pulse. “Será porque se siente acosado, en peligro?” [Could it be that it feels threatened and in danger?] He concludes that Puerto Rican culture is the most flexible on earth due to being pulled between two opposing cultural giants. He also calls for a recognition of Boricua as the official language of the island and describes it as one of many offshoots of Spanish being created around the world (“la ovejita negra del castellano” [the black sheep of Castilian Spanish]). The next group of contributions to this issue on language function and valorization in Puerto Rico is written from an anthropological and linguistic stance. Catherine Mazak, professor of English at the UPR in Mayagüez, provides an ethnographic description of the English literacy practices of ten teenagers and adults [ 6 ] in a rural school library in Puerto Rico. Her research is informed by the theoretical precepts of Bakhtin (1981), who sees language diversity as inextricably linked to ideology and embedded in sociohistorical context, and who conceives of language users as active agents appropriating language for their own uses. The research is also rooted in Gloria Anzaldúa’s (1987) notion of the “linguistic borderlands,” in which languages rub elbows and generate new structures and practices. Mazak’s data (which are coded for socio-contextual domain, age, gender, and level of English expertise of speaker) stem from four months of participant observation and from interviews with the ten focal participants. In direct contrast to the popular belief in Puerto Rico that rural people do not use English, Mazak is able to identify many English literacy practices.

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