Ethnolinguistic Contact Zones: Identity and Language among Mexican-Nuevomexicano Families in New Mexico BY LILLIAN GORMAN B.A., University of New Mexico, 2001 M.A., University of New Mexico, 2004 THESIS Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Studies in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Chicago, 2015 Chicago, Illinois Defense Committee: Frances R. Aparicio, Chair and Advisor Kimberly Potowski, Hispanic Linguistics Richard Cameron, Linguistics John Nieto-Phillips, Indiana University Alejandro Madrid, Cornell University Glenn Martínez, Ohio State University This thesis is dedicated to my grandparents: Gilbert and Ruth Sánchez and Virginia and Robert Gorman, Sr. You are my first inspiration for taking pride in our Nuevomexicano culture and language. Without your example, love, and support, this thesis would not have been possible. In particular, I thank my grandpa, Gilbert Sánchez for accompanying me through every step of this journey. We did it one step at a time, Papa. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my thesis committee---Frances Aparicio, Kim Potowski (Co-Chair), Richard Cameron, Alejandro Madrid, John Nieto-Phillips, and Glenn Martínez—for their mentorship. They provided generous feedback and guidance that led to an enjoyable and truly interdisciplinary process and project. I would also like to thank the UIC Institute for Race and Public Policy’s Write Out! Program and Dr. Michelle Boyd. I am grateful for the UIC Graduate College’s Abraham Lincoln Fellowship and the college’s efforts to cultivate diversity. I would like to extend a special thanks to all of the families who participated in this project. I am blessed to have experienced their generosity of time and spirit. I would also like to thank Nancy Domínguez, Edith Tovar, Jessica Amashta, and Sandra Neilson for their assistance in transcribing the interviews. I also thank Dr. Loretta Salazar of New Mexico Highlands University for her mentorship and encouragement, as well as my colleagues in the summer immersion program at NMHU, the Las Vegas community, and my Spanish heritage learner students in New Mexico and Chicago. I would also like to thank my family of faith and friends in Chicago and New Mexico for their constant support during this journey, especially the Norbertine Community, Abbott Joel Garner, Holy Rosary Parish, Good Shepherd Parish in Little Village, the UIC Newman Center, Juanita Del Toro, MaryAnn Parada, Xavier Medina, Martín Ponti, and Baltazar Campos. Lastly, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my family for their belief in me and constant encouragement. I offer a special acknowledgement to my parents, Robert and Cathy Gorman. I especially thank my dad who instilled in me a cultural and linguistic pride in my New Mexico Chicana identity that always orients my work. I would like to offer one last word of thanks to my uncle Richard Gorman (1953-2014) for his unwavering support. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE 1. SITUATING THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE, IDENTITY, AND LATINIDAD IN NORTHERN NEW MEXICO……………………………. 1 1.1 Introduction……………………………………………………… 1 1.2 Are New Mexicans Really Mexican? Some Notes on Identity in New Mexico…………………………………………………… 4 1.3 Contextualizing the Study of Mexicans and Nuevomexicanos: Difference and Distinction Among Mexican-Origin Groups…….. 9 1.4 Contextualzing the Study of Mexicans and Nuevomexicanos: Inter-Latino Studies and Mixed-Latino Identities………………… 12 1.5 Mexicanidad or Latinidad: A Theoretical Framework for the Study of Ethnolinguistic Contact Zones in New Mexico…………. 15 1.6 Some Sociolinguistic Starting Points……………………………… 19 1.7 In the Zones: Research Questions, Participants, and Methods……. 24 1.8 Position as Researcher……………………………………………... 27 1.9 Approaches to Analysis……………………………………………. 28 1.10 Chapter Summaries………………………………………………… 30 1.11 Some Demographic Notes about Setting………………………… 32 1.12 Participant Portraits………………………………………………. 33 2. (RE)CONTACT ZONES: GENERATIONAL COMPLICATIONS, LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION, AND TRANSCULTURATION…… 40 2.1 Introduction………………………………………………………. 40 2.2 Linguistic Profiling: Reframing Generation……………………… 45 2.3 Initial Encounters: Perceiving Proficiency on Uneven Ground…... 55 2.4 “I’m not losing it as much ‘cause I married a Mexican’: Gauging Recontact……………………………………………………………59 2.5 Reported Weekly Spanish Use…………………………………….. 64 2.6 Rating of Skills…………………………………………………….. 65 2.7 Reacquisition and Communal Recontact…………………………... 67 2.8 Uncovering the Transculturative Dimension of Recontact……….. 70 2.9 Concluding Thoughts: Reterritorialization through Recontact…… 80 3. FROM LANGUAGE SHIFT TO LANGUAGE SHAPING: SPANISH LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE IN THE MEXICAN- NUEVOMEXICANO CONTEXT………………………………………… 85 3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………… 85 3.2 Language Maintenance and Shift in New Mexico ………………. 88 3.3 Gauging Spanish Language Maintenance and Shift: Proficiency………………………………………………………... 93 3.4 Gauging Spanish Language Maintenance and Shift: Lexical Choice……………………………………………………. 97 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) CHAPTER PAGE 3.5 Gauging Spanish Language Maintenance and Shift: Weekly Spanish Use ……………………………………………… 105 3.6 “Somewhere in the Middle”: Language Socialization Practices …………………………………………………………... 107 3.7 Language Shaping: Acts of Maintenance, Agency, and Recovery………………………………………………………. 115 3.8 Reframing Maintenance and Shift around the Mexican- Nuevomexicano Offspring ………………………………………… 125 3.9 Concluding Thoughts: Symbolic Associations and the Complexities Language Maintenance ……………………………. 130 4. THE WEIGHT OF WORDS: SPANISH LANGUAGE IDEOLOGIES, LEXICAL CHOICES, AND AUTHENTICITY IN MEXICAN-NUEVOMEXICANO FAMILIES…………………………… 134 4.1 Introduction………………………………………………………... 134 4.2 Some Notes about Ideology……………………………………….. 136 4.3 Slippery Constructs: Moments of Ideological Contradictions……. 141 4.4 Intergenerational Transmission of Linguistic Hierarchies…………. 146 4.5 Linguistic Power Plays: Deconstructing Correction as an Authenticating Practice…………………………………………. 150 4.6 Concluding Thoughts: Spanish Language Affirmation amidst Linguistic Hierarchies……………………………………………… 163 5. CONTEMPLATING MEXICAN-NUEVOMEXICANO LINGUISTIC FUTURES: REFRAMING NEW MEXICAN SPANISH THROUGH SPANGLISH AND EVALUATING DIALECT CONTACT…………… 166 5.1 Introduction……………………………………………………… 166 5.2 Constructing an Equation: New Mexico Spanish Equals Spanglish………………………………………………………… 167 5.3 Some Linguistic Notes about New Mexican Spanish and Spanglish………………………………………………………… 171 5.4 Spanglish: The Language of the Future?.......................................... 177 5.5 The Intergenerational Transmission of Spanglishes………………. 182 5.6 The Dialectical Future of the Mexican-Nuevomexicanos………… 185 5.7 Concluding Thoughts: Preliminary Predictions of a Mexican- Nuevomexicano Dialectical Future………………………………... 191 6. FEELING HALF AND HALF AND IN-BETWEEN: THEORIZING THE MIXED IDENTITIES OF THE MEXICAN- NUEVOMEXICANOS…………………………………………………… 193 6.1 Introduction……………………………………………………….. 193 6.2 Some Notes on Identity and Hybridity……………………………. 196 v TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) CHAPTER PAGE 6.3 Familial Divergences, Disjunctures, and Differences……………… 198 6.4 Linguistic Flows: The Location of Language in Cultural Identities…………………………………………………………... 206 6.5 Ethnic Labels, Mexican-Nuevomexicano Lives…………………... 213 6.6 Concluding Thoughts: Productive Disjunctures and Identity (Re)Productions……………………………………………………. 222 7. CONCLUSIONS: THE CONTINUOUS EMERGENCE OF MEXICAN- NUEVOMEXICANO ETHNOLINGUISTIC CONTACT ZONES……… 224 7.1 Introduction……………………………………………………….. 224 7.2 Future Directions …………………………………………………. 227 7.3 Conclusion: The Theoretical Implications of a U.S. Latino/a Linguistic and Cultural Home……………………………………... 228 CITED LITERATURE……………………………………………………. 231 APPENDIX………………………………………………………………… 243 VITA……………………………………………………………………….. 246 vi LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE I. U.S. CENSUS POPULATIONS FIGURES FOR NORTHERN NEW MEXICO TOWNS………………………………………………………… 33 II. PARTICIPANT NAMES, AGES, AND TOWN OF RESIDENCY……… 34 III. GENERATIONAL PROFILES…………………………………………… 49 IV. NMX SPANISH-SPEAKING NETWORK AND PERCENT WEEKLY SPANISH USE……………………………………………………………. 62 V. RATING OF SKILLS…………………………………………………….. 67 VI. MEXICAN-NUEVOMEXICANO SELF-RATINGS OF SPANISH SKILLS 94 VII. LEXICAL ITEMS FOR LEXICAL ELICITATION………………………… 100 VIII. MEXICAN RESPONSES TO LEXICAL ELICITATION ACTIVITY……… 101 IX. NUEVOMEXICANO RESPONSES TO LEXICAL ELICITATION………... 102 X. MXNMX RESPONSES TO LEXICAL ELICITATION……………………... 105 XI. PERCENT OF WEEKLY SPANISH USE BY MEMBERS OF MEXICAN- NUEVOMEXICANO FAMILY UNITS……………………………………… 107 vii LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE 1. Family Language Use Patterns of Directionality in Guzmán and Molina Families………………………………………………………… 110 2. Family Language Use Patterns of Directionality in Quintana, Medina, and Jurado Families…………………………………………………….. 111 3. Family Language Use Patterns of Directionality in Loredo and Navarro Families…………………………………………………………………. 112 4. Family Language Use Patterns of Directionality in Santos and Fierro Families…………………………………………………………………. 113 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS MX Mexican NMX Nuevomexicano MXNMX Mexican-Nuevomexicano G1 First-generation G2 Second-generation G3 Third-generation LG Lillian Gorman NMCOSS New Mexico Colorado Spanish Survey MXPR MexiRican ix SUMMARY Previous ethnographic research as well as research regarding language shift do not emphasize the differences within the Hispanic population of New Mexico. The present study seeks to examine these