*any underlined words are hyperlinks*
“Spanglish” is a term most Americans, those who are hispanic/latino or not, are familiar with. It is generally associated with people who are bilingual and have the tendency to combine English and Spanish in the same phrase or sentence. In some parts of America Spanglish may come with a negative connotation because it is combining the familiar English with the less familiar Spanish. In popular media, however, it seems that there is a general acknowledgment of Spanglish as it’s own language, and it is even occasionally encouraged to be learned. It is portrayed as it’s very own language with an extensive history that is constantly being developed and popularized.
An article by The Guardian titled “US Spanglish Puts Spanish on the Run” talks about the rising Hispanic demographic as well as their increased use of Spanglish throughout this century. This article presents the topic of Spanglish positively, which is different from the typical stigma surrounding the language combination. The article has a light focus on demographics which makes it credible and all of the information appears to be accurate. The article also has direct quotes from Ilán Stavans, an established Mexican-American author, publisher, teacher, and TV personality along with many other titles. Stavans has published a piece in World Literature Today about Spanglish, “Tickling the Tongue” where he speaks about the functionality of Spanglish.The incorporation of Stavans input on Spanglish makes this representation of the language slightly too academic for popular media. Overall this article is very short and does not offer the audience a complete description of Spanglish.
The New York Times also published an article about Spanglish, “For the Love of Spanglish”. This article begins with an example of a Spanglish conversation which enables the readers to understand and identify what exactly Spanglish is. It has a rather unnecessary and somewhat inappropriate focus on Puerto Rico’s economy. This aspect of this article makes it too political and is very off topic from the remainder of the article. The mention of Puerto Rico’s economic and political situations introduces a simple misinterpretation that there is a parallel between controversial politics and “code switching”. The article extends to speak about other Hispanic countries and provides multiple examples and real world situations, such as use in popular media. This makes this article very credible and thorough, unlike the portrayal of Spanglish in The Guardian.
All three articles neglect to mention the role of Spanglish in classroom settings where it is widely used and very controversial. The lack of the mention of this in the media proves the point that there is not enough attention around Spanglish as used by young students and that Spanglish needs to be analyzed as it’s own language that is acceptable in situations such as schools. If Spanglish is becoming so widely accepted and popularized in media, casual conversation, and is studied academically, why is there no acceptance for students who struggle speaking one sole language?
This age from http://www.oldvallarta.com/?p=698 represents the role of Spanglish in the classroom.
