Copyright by Aris Moreno Clemons 2021 The Dissertation Committee for Aris Moreno Clemons Certifies that this is the approved version of the following Dissertation: Spanish people be like: Dominican ethno-raciolinguistic stancetaking and the construction of Black Latinidades in the United States Committee: Almeida Jacqueline Toribio, Supervisor Belém López Jossianna Arroyo Martinez Jonathan Daniel Rosa Spanish people be like: Dominican ethno-raciolinguistic stancetaking and the construction of Black Latinidades in the United States by Aris Moreno Clemons Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2021 Dedication To Nancy Preston, my very first translator and friend. Acknowledgements They say it takes a village, and if completing this dissertation is any indication of my village, I am truly blessed. First, I could not imagine arriving to this place without the unconditional and unwavering support of my mentor and advisor Almeida Jacqueline Toribio. I have the deepest gratitude to Jacqueline for allowing me to explore language in a way that made sense to me and in a way that celebrated our shared Caribbean heritage. Thank you for our friendship, your mentorship, for being my biggest cheerleader, and thank you for inviting me into your family when I needed one so much. At least the pandemic has taught us that we can keep up Sunday brunches and life catch-ups online, though I imagine I’ll be back for visits and Pablo cuddles. I would also like to express my gratitude to my other committee members, each of whom has significantly impacted my thinking and understandings of language, race, and identity. Belem López, you have been a teacher, a mentor, a reader, a role model, and a friend, and I could not have asked for a better example of how to do academia. Jossianna Arroyo Martinez, thank you for teaching me what it looks like to be fiercely proud and for grounding me in Caribbean genealogical thought. Lastly, thank you Jonathan Rosa, for giving me a framework from which to situate ideas that had been swirling in my head for nearly 15 years. In addition to my committee, I would like to acknowledge the support and guidance that I have received from teachers and mentors along the way. Thank you to Amanda Brown, Neville Hoad, Rachel Gonzalez, Richard Reddick, and Anne Charity Hudley for your belief in me and your guidance along the way. And thank you to Barbara Bullock for the walks, the laughs, the cheerleading, and the invaluable advice. I will always cherish our Sunday brunches and pep-talks, may they continue for years to come. v To my day ones: Abeje Maolud-Sneed, Kale Woods, Shervanthi Fairman, Asi- Yahola Boutelle, Casandra Robinson, and Starr Reese Bryant. You all knew me before I could buy a bottle of wine and you’ve have been my anchors even as I traveled across the world and back! I am stronger because of you and your friendship has made me who I am. Thank you for teaching me how to do everything with love and the value of self-awareness. Y’all are never afraid to check me and for that I thank you for keeping me grounded during this entire process. Most importantly, you have taught me that love endures and even if I don’t talk every day or check in as much as I should, you will always be there for me and let me yammer about my research even if you have no idea what I am talking about. To the sisters I’ve gained along the way. Danielle McCarthy, you have been my constant over the years. Thank you for jumping on planes to meet me all over the world, for trusting me with our sister secrets, and for keeping it 100 with me at all times. You have shaped me as a person and there is no way that I would have made it through this program without you. Sara Bryant, thank you for being my life coach and keeping my shenanigans in check. Also, thank you for being the kind of educator and woman that I can always look up to. May we have many more adventures to come! Tessa Henry, thank you for our countless conversations, for being dedicated to social justice, and for showing me what direction and dedication gets you when you mix it with just as much adventure and fun. I know we will be playing a game of all fours in some random country soon enough. To my Austin Black Girl Magic Crew, Carlisia McCord, Lakeya Omogun, Rachel Winston, and Amissa Miller, I don’t know how I would have survived a move from Brooklyn without you all making it feel like home. Your wisdom, the laughs, and the celebrations really got me through. One day, we will do some of our incessant traveling together! Carlisia McCord, I knew that we would be friends from the day we met, even though you weren’t that sure. I can seriously say that you are one of the brightest people I have ever met and vi you inspire me. Thank you for holding me all the way down through some of the hardest points of my life. I cannot thank you enough for your spirit and the joy you have brought me. To my Spanish and MALS support system and intellectual thought partners: Joshua Baco Ortiz, Alida Perrine, Daniel Nourry, Arno Argueta, Ignacio Caravajal, and Alhelí Harvey. Thank you all for the countless conversations, for always cheering me on, and for figuring out this system alongside me. Alida, you have read more of my work than possibly anyone and I truly appreciate the time, dedication, and thoughtful feedback you have given me. My success is in no small part due to your willingness to always help a friend out. And to my Spanish linguistics cohort, Salvatore Callesano, Brendan Reagan, Amalia Merino, Luis Aviles Gonzalez, and Anna Lawrence, thank you for the support. Salvatore Callesano, you have been the peer mentor of my dreams and we will write together soon and very soon. Thank you for being my linguistic question emergency contact and for trusting me to be Rudi’s aunt! And to my forever co-author, Anna Lawrence! We are seriously a dream team and I truly thank you for being my friend, my writing coach, and even my therapist sometimes. Thank you for lending me your expertise as part of my Clem Consulting team and for making me look good when you do it. I can’t wait to see the work we produce over the years! To my DABS, Christine Roman, Andrew Ketchum, and Joseph Loeffler, thank you for your commitment to being forever learners with me and for the unconditional support you have given me since the day we met. Thank you for being educators and humans that drive me to be better every day and thank you for being my family. Sorry for taking a bite of your muffin the first week I met you Andrew. To my former students. Though each of my students has left an indelible mark on me as a teacher and human, I want to especially thank Chris Peña, Erick Matos, Rajae Clark, Widyveline Taicha Morin, Samantha Jouthe, vii Adalberto Peña, and Chris Laguerre for our continued conversations about life, love, struggle, and solidarity. You continue to inspire me every day! To my DR Peace Corp Peeps, Zachary Gerth, Sara Samedi, and Clare Strange, may we have many more global adventures. Thank you for being truly dedicated to making the world a better place and for questioning the systems we have been a part of in our quest to do that work. It’s not perfect but we keep pushing for it to be better. To my Spain crew, Jorge Martinez, Sam Serrano, Niki Kruse and Sonna Johns. You made my experience in Spain life altering in the best way possible. Thank you for learning Spanish with me and giving me the strength to immerse myself in another culture. Sam, thank you for trying to get me to go to UT Austin for so many years before I decided to take the plunge. Thank you for all being consistent members of my cheerleading squad of for keeping it real Ethpaña in all our encounters. I’m still waiting for our reunion, this time at Niki’s place since she decided to move back for good! To my Global South Collective fam bam. Amrita Mishra, Nicholas Bloom, Gabriela Rodriguez, Michael Reyes, and Joshua Ortiz Baco, y’all are some serious geniuses and you have taught me what a real life intellectual community looks like. Thank you for the late night library and café conversations and work sessions, the writing sessions, the successful and the failed reading clubs, and the last minute editing of funding applications, publication drafts, and job materials. And thank you for keeping me accountable to the literature! And to my many many scholar groups: NYU Faculty First Look, LRI Qualitative Boot Camp, Blackademics, Spencer homies, and UCSB’s Black graduate student lab. Each of these experiences gave me invaluable guidance and at least one life-time friend. Jessica López Espino, thank you for all of our chats and for never failing to introduce me to your network. Angela Crumdy, how we just gon’ be in two fellowship groups back to back? Thank you so much for our intellectual conversations and viii our sistah chats alongside them.