Language and Race in Transnational Space:
Shifting Identities
Marcia Farr
Professor Emerita of English and Linguistics, University of Illinois at Chicago
Professor of Education and English, Ohio State University
Comments from Jorge Porcel
Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Spanish and Portuguese
View lecture (QuickTime player and high-speed Internet connection required.)
Tuesday, September 14, 2004, 4:00 pm
1418 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Drive
University of Wisconsin-Madison
This presentation will explore shifting racial identities and ideologies in the daily
talk of a transnational community based both in Chicago and in a Michoacán
rancho (rural hamlet). Coming primarily from Western Mexico, many Chicago
Mexicans have formed transnational communities that maintain Mexican regional
identities, the most salient of which is called ranchero. Rancheros are rural
campesinos who identify primarily with their predominantly Spanish heritage,
contradicting widely-held racial assumptions in both the United States and
Mexico. In the United States they disrupt a black/white dichotomy, and in Mexico,
because they are rural and poor, they are assumed to be Indian.
Discourse analysis of a tape-recorded joking session in a van traveling from
Chicago to Mexico illustrates how ranchera women use Spanish, English and
even Polish to play with the ambiguities inherent in their racially imposed
identities both in Mexico and the United States In this language play, the women
construct "double voiced" identities that simultaneously acknowledge traditional
and emergent racial assumptions, the latter stemming from transnational living
experiences. As they articulate these multiple identities, they resist categorization
in the racial hierarchies of both Mexico and the United States.
This series is free and open to the public. It is made possible with generous support from the Schoenleber Foundation. |
