Spanish-Speaking Latin Americans in Catalonia: Constructions of Catalan
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Spanish-speaking Latin Americans in Catalonia: constructions of Catalan. Stephen John Marshall Institute of Education, University of London PhD ABSTRACT Catalan is an autochthonous minority language within the Spanish state that is undergoing a programme of linguistic normalisation which is widely regarded as a successful model. Today, its progress is being challenged by globalisation, mass migration, and the sociolinguistic agencies of new migrants, in particular Spanish- speaking Latin Americans, who are allochthonous speakers of marked varieties of the official language of the Spanish state. The micro-level focus of the study is on how Spanish-speaking Latin Americans are constructing Catalan: how Catalan is being incorporated into repertoire (in-group and inter-group), and how and why individuals are forming conflicting constructions of being addressed in Catalan. At the macro level, the focus is on how policies of linguistic normalisation of the Catalan language are responding to the challenges of globalisation, and to the sociolinguistic agencies of new migrants, especially Spanish- speakers. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 44 informants, and recordings made of the interactions of 11 of them. The focus of the data collection was on [i] Spanish-speaking Latin Americans' interactions involving Catalan, [ii] on the paths of migration and of identity formation along which individuals' epistemologies evolve, consolidate and transform, and [iii] on informants' opinions about language policies. The study is framed around 'structure and agency' (Giddens, 1984), and the data analysed according to a view of language as recursive social practice, which links the macro and the micro, seeing individuals' agencies as the outcomes of social structures and also as engendering change in these structures. Central to individuals' recursive language practice is knowledgeability and reflexivity (Giddens, 1984) as they interact in a heteroglossic Catalonia (Pujolar, 2001), and negotiate codeswitching norms of practice that are specific to Catalonia, in particular an 'accommodation norm' (Woolard, 1989) which involves Catalan speakers often switching to Castilian with interlocutors who do not look or sound Catalan. 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this thesis. Firstly, all of the informants and my friends in Catalonia who kindly gave up their time to participate, in particular, the Byrne-Bellorin family. Secondly, at the Institute of Education, University of London, my two supervisors, Catherine Wallace and Euan Reid, for their invaluable advice, and David Block for his help. Next, my employer, University College London Language Centre, for supporting my professional development. And a final thanks to everyone in my family who gave me encouragement in this project: Earl, Helen, Noni, Miki, Joey and Jamie. I hereby declare that, except where explicit attribution is made, the work presented in the thesis is entirely my own. Word count (exclusive of appendices and reference list) 92,701 words 3 CONTENTS page Prologue 5 1.INTRODUCTION 7 PART 1 15 2. SOCIOLINGUISTIC SITUATION: PAST AND PRESENT 15 2.1 Historical background 15 2.2 Catalonia today: globalisation and multiple modernities 22 2.3 Immigration: disjuncture in Spain and Catalonia 27 2.4 Paths of migration: new migrants moving into new spaces 29 3. NATIONHOOD, POLICY AND IDENTITIES 39 3.1 Nation, state and nationalism 39 3.2 Latin Americans in Catalonia: a sociolinguistic minority 47 3.3 Language rights and group rights 53 3.4 Language policies 55 3.5 Language policies and education 63 3.6 Identity formation 65 4. LANGUAGE AS RECURSIVE SOCIAL PRACTICE 76 4.1 Bilingualism and codeswitching 76 4.2 Micro approaches 82 4.3 Macro approaches 83 4.4 Spanish-speaking Latin Americans constructing Catalan: my approach 89 5. METHODOLOGY 100 5.1 The informants 100 5.2 A qualitative, partially ethnographic approach 102 5.3 Collecting the data: interviews, recordings and follow-ups 109 5.4 Ethical issues 114 5.5 Transcription of data 117 PART 2 119 6. PATHS OF MIGRATION AND OF IDENTITY 119 6.1 Migration paths 119 6.2 Discrimination and racism 124 6.3 Narratives of transition 129 6.4 'Latinos' and `sudacas' 133 6.5 Paths of identity formation 136 7. POLICY AND LEARNING CATALAN 147 7.1 Linguistic normalisation 147 7.2 Catalan: to learn or not to learn? 153 7.3 Catalan in schools 159 8. CONSTRUCTING CATALAN: INTERVIEW DATA 166 8.1 Constructing Catalan: incorporation into repertoire 166 8.2 Conflicting constructions of being addressed in Catalan 171 8.3 Conflicting constructions of being addressed in Catalan: reasons 179 9. CONSTRUCTING CATALAN: RECORDINGS OF INTERACTIONS 185 9.1 Inter-group: all-Catalan interactions 186 9.2 Inter-group: interactions involving codeswitching 189 9.3 In-group: interactions involving Catalan 192 9.4 Comparison: researcher constructs versus informant constructs 197 9.5 Comparison: self-report data versus recorded data 208 10. CONCLUSION 216 10.1 Summary of findings 216 10.2 Meeting the aims of the study 220 10.3 Research questions 221 10.4 Limitations/future research 233 References 236 Appendix 1: Un Cambio (abridged short story) 244 Appendix 2: Excerpts of policy documents 246 Appendix 3: Interview questions 249 Appendix 4: Original Spanish/Castilian/Catalan transcriptions 251 Appendix 5: List of informants 287 Appendix 6: Table of informants whose interactions were recorded 293 4 Prologue After returning from a visit to Barcelona during the early stages of collecting data for the study, I received the following short story unsolicited in my email inbox. It is the reflections of a 15-year-old Latin American teenager as she looks back on her own migration to Catalonia. I include it as it raises several issues to be addressed in this study. The original Spanish version can be found in Appendix 1. Un Cambio (A Change) It was strange when they told me we were leaving. They said that next school year I wouldn't only be changing school but also city and country. I didn't want to go, I had my family here and my friends, I'd miss them a lot, and also 'why should we move?' I heard the grown-ups saying that the situation was getting bad, there was a crisis and not much work. In the other place there'd be work, and also a better education for me and my brother and sister and that over there I wouldn't be woken up by the sound of gunshots and shouting... I knew they were gunshots because when I leaned out the window I didn't see beautiful fireworks like at New Year, but below our eighth floor apartment there were people running and others lying on the ground. The shouting wasn't happiness or excitement at seeing the beautiful fireworks in the sky, they were cries of fear and sadness. I remember that once I saw a man force another into the trunk of his car, I think he had a gun, I don't know because my mother wouldn't let me see as we quickly left the car park. That was quite a long time ago, I was around four years old but I still remember. So, we're leaving. I've been told to Europe, but they still don't know if it'll be Milan or Barcelona. I know that Barcelona is where the Olympic games are going to be held and that it's in Spain, where they have bullfights, and that Milan is in Italy and that some cousins of mine live there in a town nearby. It'd be great to go to Milan and to learn Italian. Two months later. My dad's been there for a month and a half and he's found a job and a flat, he was really lucky. I say he was lucky to find a decent flat so quickly because no one wanted to rent him one because he had a sudacal accent, as they say there. I think that apart from not having my family there and certain objects of sentimental value that I won't be able to take, that will be the most difficult thing for me to get used to: to being the new one, the foreigner, the different one. Day 5 in Barcelona Last week we moved to Barcelona!! We arrived five days ago, mum, Patrick, Daniela and me. We left for Maiquetia very early in the morning, the lights from the shanty- Sudaca is a pejorative term used in Spain to refer to Latin Americans. 5 town at the foot of the Avila were still shining and even though I know they symbolise the decadence of my country, when I saw them from the car window they looked beautiful to me and I felt sad even though I was excited by the great experience ahead of me. We did our final errands before boarding and as we had some spare time with my uncle, we drank our last Maltas, Frescolitas, Hit Uva and Polar Beer for a long time. My mum and my uncle talked about politics and how for sure there'd be a military coup just like in lots of other places in South America. I decided not to talk during that conversation as I didn't know what to think. We finally had to go through to where our uncle couldn't come as he wasn't a passenger and we said goodbye with lots of kisses and promises to write and visit each other. He said he'd definitely come to Barcelona in the middle of August for the Olympics. After going through, the first thing we did was go to see the airport's duty-free shops and bought our favourite sweets that we knew we wouldn't be able to get over there, we tried not to eat too many and to save some for dad who said he'd be waiting for us at the airport in Barcelona.