EAVESDROPPING ON THE PAST: AN ORAL HISTORY EXPLORATION OF ENGLISH AND SPANISH IN CONTACT IN TEXAS’ RIO GRANDE VALLEY, 1904-1945 AARON CUMMINGS EAVESDROPPING ON THE PAST: AN ORAL HISTORY EXPLORATION OF ENGLISH AND SPANISH IN CONTACT IN TEXAS’ RIO GRANDE VALLEY, 1904-1945 The following was originally written as an M.A. thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts in English as a Second Language (University of Texas – Pan American). By Aaron Cummings COMMITTEE MEMBERS Dr. John Foreman Chair of Committee Dr. Deborah Cole Committee Member Dr. Yong Lang Committee Member May 2015 Copyright 2015 Aaron B. Cummings All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Cummings, Aaron B., Eavesdropping on the Past: An Oral History Exploration of English and Spanish in Contact in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, 1904-1945. Master of Arts (MA), May, 2015, 297 pp., 9 tables, 8 figures, references, 180 titles. The present work investigates the interaction of English and Spanish L1 communities in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas from 1904 to 1945 (an era of mass English L1 migration from the Northern United States and Canada to this historically Spanish-speaking region) via analysis of oral interviews that record both language communities’ memories of the era’s social structures. Collectively, the interviews tell the story of the region’s sociocultural and sociolinguistic environment with a view to exploring how members of each community reacted to the presence of the other language during the first years of significant English/Spanish language contact in previously linguistically isolated areas of the Rio Grande Valley. The primary goals of this project are to (1) to explore how the early 1900s South Texan social setting affected speakers of English, Spanish, or both; and in so doing, to (2) pilot a narrative-based model for future historical sociolinguistics research. iii DEDICATION This paper is dedicated to the good people who participated in the interviews now stored in the Rio Grande Oral History Collection. Without these individuals’ decisions to preserve their memories for future generations of South Texans, a project such as this would have never been possible. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My thesis committee (Dr. Deborah Cole, Dr. Yong Lang, and Dr. John Foreman) provided valuable feedback and support while I was attempting to generate the following string of words and ideas. The staff of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Collection at the University of Texas – Pan American (Adela Cadena, Deandra Cavazos, Janette Garcia, Lisa Huerta, and Mayra Gonzalez) was full of helpful suggestions whenever I needed to dredge up some bit of information that seemed at first to have been misplaced a century ago. I would be remiss to neglect to mention the co-workers, fellow graduate students, and friends at the University of Texas - Pan American who afforded me the conversational space to think about this project (you know who you are). The credit for anything good in this project is due to the input of all these co-conspirators and mentors who have guided me through the project. Of course, any mistakes that may have crept into this manuscript are exclusively my own. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………...…...………….iii DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………...……………….iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………..…….…………..v TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………..……………………..…vi LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………….……………….…..xiv LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………..…...………..xv PART I: BACKGROUND AND THEORY……...………………………………………………1 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION………………….…………………………………...…………2 Background…………………………………………………………………………….….2 Research Question………………………………………………………………………...3 Value of the Study………………………………………………………………………...4 Sociolinguistic Significance………………………………………………….……4 Historical, Anthropological, and Sociological Significance…………….…..…….7 Interdisciplinary Usefulness…………………………………………….….……..8 Social Significance………………………………………………………...………9 CHAPTER II: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND TO SPANISH AND ENGLISH IN TEXAS…11 Geographical Setting……………………………………………………………………..11 Chronological Setting……………………………………………………………....…....12 The Spanish Origins of South Texas………….………………...………………..….......12 vi Spanish Survival in South Texas Post-1836…………….……………………………….19 Spanish Schools in the Isolated Areas………………………………………...…22 Emergence of Multilingualism along the Rio Grande……………...........................……23 Germans in the Texas of the Era of the Republic………………………………..25 French in 1800s South Texas………………………………………………….…26 Brownsville, Language Laboratory…………………………………………………...…27 English in Brownsville…………………………………………………………..30 The Old Guard’s Last Stand: The Cortina Wars………..………………….……30 At the Turn of the Century………………………………………………………………30 After the Railroad: Population Explosion and Language Transformation after 1904………………………………………………………………………...31 Knowledge of English among Early 1900s Texans…………………….………………..38 Situation of Spanish and English in the Early 1900s Lower Rio Grande Valley………..39 Rapid Growth of English L1 Population……………………………………...…39 Donna, Sample Town………………………………………………………….…44 New Money and the Displacement of Established Bilingual Families…………..45 Spanish Language Maintenance…………………….…………………………………...47 Factors Undermining Language’s Written Component (in Spanish and English)…....…49 South Texas: A Multiplicity of Histories (and their Linguistic Consequences)…..…..…50 Beyond the Valley: National Linguistic Perspective……………………….…….……...55 Pre-World War I Linguistic Diversity…………………………………………...55 Post-World War I Isolationism……………………………………………..……56 Social and Sociolinguistic Consequences of the Land Rush……………….…………....58 vii CHAPTER III: ORAL HISTORY THEORY AND THE RGV ARCHIVES……….…..…..….61 Sociolinguistic Value of Available Oral Interview Recordings……………………..…..61 Selected Archive and Methodology……………………………………………….….….62 Language of the Oral Histories………………………………………………….…….…64 Need for the Rio Grande Valley Oral History Collection……………………….…….....64 Complications with the Rio Grande Valley Oral History Collection……………………65 Additional Complications Common to Oral History in General…………………...……68 Unhappy Interviewees: Ethics…………………………………………….……..68 Happy Interviewees: The Problem of the Assumed Unsaid……………………..69 CHAPTER IV: SOCIOLINGUISTICS THEORY – TOOLS FOR THE PROJECT…….…..…70 Wanted: Theory Connecting Language to Society………………………………………70 History and Language Learning: A Clear Connection…………………………………..70 Social Economy of Linguistics: Pierre Bourdieu’s Marché Linguistique………….……71 The Unification of the American Language Market: Park and Wee…………………….74 Applications of Theory to Bilingual Situation………………………………..….75 The Problems of Unification……………………………………………………………..76 Cautions and Caveats…………………………………………………………………….79 Micro and Micro…………………………………………………………...…….79 Joseph Sung-Yul Park on Value…………………………………………………80 Multiple Markets………………………………………………………………....80 Which English(es)? Which Spanish(es)?...............................................................81 The Interconnected Sociologies of a Language and Its People………….………82 Concepts to Keep in the Reader’s Pocket………………………………………………..83 viii Stance……………………………………………………………………………84 Intra- and Inter-Cultural Taken-for-Granteds (TFGs)………………………..….84 Power and Discourse Analysis………………………………………….…….….85 Beyond Coercion: Agha and Linguistic Commodities……………………..……86 Second Language Acquisition……………………………………………….…..87 The social nature of language learning…………………………….…….87 Input and interaction………………………………………………….….89 Mixing Linguistics and Oral History: Agha & Singh on Metapragmatics………………89 Narrative: Concretizing Theory and Empowering Knowledge………….………………90 Beyond Existing Theory…………………………………………………………90 Narrative as a Means to Empowering Knowledge……………………...……….91 PART II: NARRATIVES OF SOUTH TEXAS LANGUAGE CONTACT, 1904-1945.....……93 CHAPTER V: BILINGUAL RANCHERS PRE-1900…………………………………….……97 Champions and Smiths: Early Immigrant Spanish Learners…………………………….97 Andrew Champion……………………………………………………………….98 Maria Brewster Castillo……………………...…………………………………………102 Elias Cavazos: Bilingual Ranching Families in New English-Dominant Cities……….109 CHAPTER VI: A LAND RUSH AS EXPERIENCED BY IMMIGRANT ENGLISH L1S….114 Andrew Jackson Munger: Social Realities in Early McAllen-Mission…………..…….114 Roy Lester Ryde: Spanish as Taught in the Dakotas versus South Texas……...………117 John R. Peavy: A Lawman and a New Language…………………………………....…120 Maude Henson Finney: Spanish Lessons for a Missouri Nurse……..………...……….123 Sophie Anne Hyba : Complicated Feelings for Spanish……………………………..…125 ix Edna Doris Parks Dubois’ Husband : A Misled, Homesick Soldier in McAllen….…...127 Northeast to McAllen…………………………………………………………...127 M.J. Baily: A Canadian Learns Spanish on the Job……………………..….……..……130 Lloyd Glover: Excerpt 1, Land Sales Tactics and Sociolinguistic Implications……….134 Susan Alma Norton: “No One Spoke Spanish” ………………….……………………137 Floyd Everhard: Social Dynamics among English L1 Missourians in the Valley…..…138 Beulah Bell Stuart: Excerpt 1, “New Country”……………………….…………..……142 Ola Lance: Mutual Anxiety about the ‘Other’…………………………...………….…145 Nina Grace Neptune: A Family’s Divergent Language Trajectories…….………..……147 CHAPTER VII: WAR IN MEXICO AND A SPANISH L1 EXODUS TO TEXAS……........153 Revolution and Poverty in Mexico Spur a Resurgence of Spanish in Texas……......…153 Isabel Loya and José María: Excerpt, Spanish L1 Texans Caught in the Crossfire…....154 Manuela Barrios: Refugee from War-Torn San Luis Potosi………...…………………156 Lucio