Although the origin of Spanglish can be controversial, it has actually been around for centuries; some believe that Spanglish existed when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848. After the signing, the United States gained a massive portion of Mexico. As a result, the two languages came together; Spanish speakers began to learn English and vice versa.
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| 9 Memes Every Spanglish Speaker Can Relate To |
In 2017, over 50 million people in the United States spoke Spanish; of those 50 million, a whopping 59% were bilingual. For those raised in bilingual households, Spanglish was a fun and easy approach towards communication.
As illustrated in the image above, Spanglish is known to include a feature known as code-switching, which is when a person shifts between two languages in a sentence. In this case, a person is alternating between English and Spanish, thus creating Spanglish. The above image, for example, starts in English, and by the end, shifts to Spanish. Although code-switching deems Spanglish certain qualities such as "cluttered" and "improper," it is of high importance; code-switching is an element with many functions, including but not limited to emphasizing more meaning through communication.
In today's society, Spanglish has remained a popular phenomenon. In recent times, Spanglish has taken over the music industry. If you have ever found yourself singing along to a song with a few Spanish lyrics and have no idea what they mean, congratulations - you interacted with Spanglish!
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| The Story Of... 'La Isla Bonita' by Madonna |
In 1987, Madonna released her hit song "La Isla Bonita." The Latin-inspired song was dedicated to the diversity she experienced living in New York. Madonna admired the culture and beauty of Latin America and their people so much that it led to one of her greatest tracks. Though the majority of the song is sung in English, there are Spanish lyrics that fit well with the Latin-influenced rhythm. For starters, the title of the song is Spanish and translates to "The Beautiful Island." In the second verse, Madonna sings "Warm wind carried on the sea, he called to me / Te dijo te amo." The integration of Spanish for the phrase "he said I love you" is much more creative and holds more of a romantic tone than it would have in English. Moreover, in the bridge Madonna belts "When it's time for siesta, you can watch them go by." The majority of the lyric is expressed in English, but the use of "siesta" illustrates the code-switch.
The impact Spanglish has had on the media is incredible, especially for popular music. Several artists today are adding Spanish into their lyrics to be more inclusive, such as Cardi B and Demi Lovato. Overall, the appreciation of Latin culture has seriously improved the music industry for the better.
Hi Allison,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post! I loved that you chose a Madonna song that featured Spanglish. It was something I would've never thought to choose in terms of the language and you did an excellent job in describing the various features of Spanglish throughout the lyrics and the impact at the end that it had on the media was interesting. When you brought up two more music artists like Cardi B and Demi Lovato, I began to think about which of their songs might've had the Spanglish features. The link behind the image that you chose gave a little bit of a humorous approach to the troubles that Spanglish speakers face today and that added to the main theme of your blog post, which was about the continued rise of its speakers.
Hi Allison!
ReplyDeleteI like how you discuss the history of Spanglish as a language before talking about its use in the media because it allowed me to understand how Spanglish came about. The statistics that you provided were also helpful because it shows just how popular Spanglish is in the United States. Your overall post was entertaining as well, I especially liked when you wrote "If you have ever found yourself singing along to a song with a few Spanish lyrics and have no idea what they mean, congratulations - you interacted with Spanglish!" because it is so true! I always catch myself singing to Shakira "Hips Don't Lie", Erin mentioned this song in her post, but I never understood what I was saying. I really enjoyed your blog post and think you did great on it! I learned a lot from it! :)
Hi Allison! I didn't know that Madonna had a Latin-inspired song. I also had no clue that Cardi B or Demi Lovato were adding Spanish to their lyrics either, but I am glad to know that they are making the music industry more diverse. I think that diversity in music will help people understand other cultures more. It surprised me that in 2017, there were 50 million people who spoke Spanish in the United States, and I wonder if the 59% who are bilingual often speak in Spanglish. Also, I really liked the link you provided to the Spanish memes. My favorite one was the one about the phone auto-correcting the user's Spanish in a text message. Overall, I think your post was really informative and fun to read.
ReplyDeleteHi Allison! I really enjoyed reading your post since we wrote about such a similar topic. I thought it was really interesting that someone like Madonna, who is not of a Spanish background, felt it was important to release a song Like "La Isla Bonita" dedicated to her experiences in New York. The increase of these types of songs in mainstream US music is exposing English speakers to new Spanish vocabulary which I think is really cool. I like how you brought up artists like Demi Lovato and Cardi B because it shows the influence of Spanglish music on the industry. These artists may have never had a Spanish feature or included Spanish lyrics in their songs if it weren't for artists like Shakira and Pitbull. I agree that this inclusion has improved the music industry!
ReplyDeleteHi Allison! I really liked your post, we both wrote about very similar subjects, however I liked how you looked at Madonna's song as a source of Spanglish in pop music. I think it's really cool that Madonna's inspiration to write a song in Spanglish came from her experiencing the diversity around her in New York, it's a really good symbol of how American culture has become more diverse and accepting that people who don't come from a Spanish background can be so influenced by it. I also really like how you mentioned that other artists like Demi Lovato and Cardi B are going to include spanglish influences in their music, it's exciting to see the dialect growing in popularity. I also noticed that we used the same source for 59% of Spanish speakers in the United States are bilingual, which I just thought was a funny coincidence. Anyway really good job on your post!
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