by Lara Boyero Agudo , PhD Candidate,  Department of Romance Languages 

“If you are white and speak Spanish, people say: ‘Wow, that’s awesome, you speak two languages’; but if you are Hispanic, speaking Spanish, it’s more like: ‘Oh, another wetback’... and people don’t recognize you as bilingual.” —Luz, Mexican woman resident in Springfield, OR  

Oregon’s Latino population has kept growing during the last three decades. According to the Migration Policy Institute, the percentage of Latinx immigrants doubled from 25.8% in 1990 to 42% in 2017. Despite Oregon’s multiculturalism, there is a political and cultural environment where xenophobia has been accepted, and there is a tendency to dehumanization that creates isolation and fear among the Latinx community. In fact, in 2017, Woodburn was subjected to ICE raids and public space became a menace. Latinas were in danger if they were grocery shopping, but at the same time, they had to meet that need.  

Within patriarchy, the idea of “home” is often created with the interaction of women and the service sector. It is a race-gender-class issue how Latina women have to deal with public services, transportation, supermarket landscapes, or schools. Moreover, within the context of the U.S. and the language ideologies that favor monolingualism in this country, Spanish-speaking Latinas are exposed to more discrimination.  

People mostly detect racism during visible attacks when an immigrant is shouted at: “Make America great again! Go back to your country!” However, subtle acts of discrimination are more challenging to perceive and therefore normalized and perpetuated. As Celia, another woman from my study, states: 

“When you go shopping, if you don’t know English, the service is difficult because the worker doesn’t meet your needs. You have to use the translator on your phone... And you realize that, ‘ok, he is friendly and polite, but he doesn’t understand you,’ and sometimes you have to leave without buying what you needed. I think Hispanic people deserve quality service. However, not one in which we use gestures because we are not limited physically, or mentally, or anything.” —Celia, Cuban woman resident in Eugene, OR  

The CSWS grant has allowed me to recruit 25 participants in different towns in Oregon. Using my own instrument, I conducted Spanish semi-structured interviews with Latinas in Oregon Communities (Portland, Springfield, Eugene, Corvallis, Salem, Clackamas, etc.). The study seeks to examine: (1) their ideologies and linguistic attitudes toward Spanish, English, and Spanglish after their experiences outside the home; (2) their agency after their exposure to the public interactions; and (3) how their personal interactions in the public sector affect, or not, the maintenance and transmission of Spanish to their children at home. At the same time, this project yields a portrait of some forms of intersectional discrimination these women face. 

Preliminary findings reveal that participants in this study are aware of many structural inequalities. Some Latinas expressed that, although hospitals usually offer services in Spanish, they still have to schedule the translator service in advance. If they go because of an emergency or they visit a specialist, the service is not offered. Thus, as Rosa and Díaz (2019) and Zavala and Back (2017) explained, institutions become actors that reproduce white supremacy. Public space should serve everyone equally, not privilege the dominant group. Spaces automatically operate to disadvantage some racialized groups. Keeping in mind Celia’s testimony, we see the naturalization of unequal treatment throughout linguistic discrimination. Everything beyond the limits of “whiteness” becomes marked and has to be fixed. Racism is versatile and has a greater capacity to transform and survive. Likewise, racism takes various forms to fit changing historical circumstances to maintain economic and social privilege in different contexts. 

Concerning Latinas’ agency, Latinas in my study attested that they are not the “problem.” They pointed out the perceptions and ideologies of the white listeners responsible for the racialization they experience. If their English is good or bad, it does not matter because some participants with a high level of English proficiency reported the same treatment (Rosa, 2016). So, the person who listens racializes and stigmatizes them. They mark Latinas. 

Regarding the Spanglish ideologies and their maintenance, Spanish, as a minoritized language in the U.S., has little prestige in official contexts where there is no institutional support. Moreover, as these women explain, there is no radical language change in the family, and they remain firm in Spanish use. These Latinas also made clear the need to have new generations that speak both languages to help the community. As another interviewee explained: “My grandson does not forget that Spanish is a language that will take him far.” Even when they talk about Spanglish, none of them described it as a variety with less prestige. They are aware of the language contact and are happy about the biculturalism that is being formed. 

I will continue to develop my research project as I am able to interview not only more women but also men. I hope this research project fills in the gap of studies in the field and helps to challenge the status quo in the U.S.  

—Lara Boyero Agudo is a PhD candidate in Romance languages. She received a 2020 Graduate Student Research Grant from CSWS.  

REFERENCES 

Back, Michele & Zavala, Virgnia, Racismo y lenguaje (Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Fondo Editorial, 2017).  

Rosa, Jonathan, “Racializing Language, Regimenting Latinas/os: Chronotope, Social Tense, and American Raciolinguistic Futures,” Language & Communication 46 (2016): 106-117.  

Rosa, Jonathan, & Diaz, Vanessa, “Raciontologies: Rethinking Anthropological Accounts of Institutional Racism and Enactments of White Supremacy in the United States,” American Anthtopologist 122.1 (2019): 120-132.