The Importance of Spanglish Representation

Representation of Spanglish in pop culture has a great amount of influence in helping immigrants and first- and second-generation Spanglish speakers feel more represented in American Culture. In recent years songs like Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" have made massive strides in bringing Spanglish into mainstream American culture. 

This kind of representation is extremely important for the more than 50 million Spanish speaking people in the united states, 59% of whom are bilingual, and able to speak comfortably in Spanglish. The blend of Spanish and English commonly seen in bilingual people, called Spanglish is a unique dialect with this own structure and grammar rules. Despite its structure many Americans see Spanglish as a bastardization of English and see those who speak it as uneducated.

Order in English sign outside Geno's Steaks Philadelphia

This view of Spanglish has been used as a way to discriminate against immigrants who come to the United States, as well as the generations who were born and raised speaking both English and Spanish fluently and use Spanglish in their everyday lives. Signs like the one above show how Spanish and Spanglish have been unfairly stigmatized in the U.S. to the point that both the language and dialect, as well as those who speak it have been the subject of unfair ridicule and harassment, as well as outright racist oppression. 

In order to allow Spanish speaking immigrants to feel more welcome and connected to the U.S. the stigma around Spanglish needs to change. One of the best ways to do that is through normalizing the dialect through exposure, we've seen this work in the past with dialects like Yiddish, which was seen as a form of broken Hebrew, and we’re currently seeing it with African American Vernacular English through influences like Hip Hop and Jazz. Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” is a very good example of how Spanglish can enter mainstream American Culture, having been streamed over 550 million times on Spotify, and recently preforming the song during the Super Bowl Halftime Show as seen below. Shakira has been very vocal about the significance of blending Spanish and English in her music, saying that she doesn’t want to lose where she comes from to pander to American audiences.

Shakira Preforming at the Super Bowl 

The song features Wyclef Jean, another Spanglish speaking musician, however Shakira and Jean both speak different forms of Spanglish since they come from different countries and speak different dialects of Spanish. Their collaboration shows Spanglish speakers from any background that there is no “proper” form of Spanglish and allows speakers to feel represented in American culture. Normalizing Spanglish doesn't just change English speakers views, it also works to change the views of First-generation immigrants, who often times refuse to speak Spanglish out of fear of being seen as uneducated as they attempt to assimilate. Normalizing the dialect would allow for them to assimilate to American culture much easier since they would be able to feel more comfortable speaking Spanglish.

Normalizing Spanglish in American pop culture would improve the lives of millions of people currently living in the country, as well as people hoping to immigrate in the future. With songs like “Hips Don’t Lie” this normalization is possible, and is already happening now.