Spanglish Throughout Literature

This image is a visual depiction of speaking Spanglish.

What is Spanglish? Spanglish is a hybrid language combining words and idioms from both Spanish and English, especially Spanish speech that uses many English words and expressions.

Spanglish is represented as an emerging language in the United States throughout different works of Literature. Therefore, this blog will highlight a variety of different aspects of Spanglish and the history behind the new language.

During the early uses of Spanglish, many people who spoke the language were viewed as uneducated or speaking an "incorrect" language. Additionally, people who identified as Spanglish speaking were not accepted throughout the community. This resulted in many hardships for Spanglish speaking people and overall lessened their identity and role in society.

These ideas are further presented within different works of Literature such as, "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," written by Gloria Anzaldua.  Within the work, the author describes her viewpoint of identity and acceptance for people who are within different ethnical groups and who may speak a different language, such as Spanglish. Additionally, Anzaldua explains her own personal experiences as she was not accepted by the Hispanic or White people because of her spoken language. As her writing lengthens, Anzaldua eventually embraces her language and decides she will not be ashamed of her background. Anzaldua overall uses her writing to bring light to the Spanglish language.

In addition to Gloria Anzaldua's publication, there are many scholarly articles that also focus on the use of Spanglish as an emerging language. Similar to Anzaldua's work, the articles work to bring light to the language and clarify any misconceptions about the history and use of Spanglish. For example, the  scholarly articles written by Sharon Chappell and by Ilan Stavans both provide insight about the culture and understanding of Spanglish. In both texts, the writers describe how the use of Spanglish played a role within their own lives and the difficulties they faced. Each author describes how Spanglish speaking people worked to maintain their identity within society. Additionally, the authors also focus on how Spanglish was perceived and the changes the language has undergone throughout history. Each piece of writing overall brings attention to the use of Spanglish and leads to the acceptance of the language.

Therefore, there are several different publications that present the experiences of Spanglish speaking people and how those people eventually overcame the hardships. As shown, each piece of Literature lead to the acceptance of the language and changed history forever. Luckily, as Spanglish began to be accepted across the world, the language received more recognition and was soon viewed as a normal part of society. 

Overall, the recognition of Spanglish is valuable to the history of world because it represents all of the different people and their cultures. The language that was once seen as spoken by the uneducated, is now being taught at Universities across the globe. As a whole, the history of Spanglish has come full circle as once being seen poorly, to now having several publications about the use of the language.