Assimilation Through Spanglish in "The House on Mango Street"

 Sandra Cisneros' "The House on Mango Street" is a series of vignettes that account for the individual experiences of the author as a child growing up in a Spanish-speaking community while living in an English-speaking country. The intermixing of English and Spanish has led to the hybrid language of Spanglish. Spanglish has become a marker of identity for a specific group of people, Hispanic immigrants looking to assimilate to English culture. It is this deliberate attempt to assimilate that distincts them from native speakers. Esperanza, our narrator-protagonist, begins to reject her Spanish culture once assessing her reality as a young woman in America. She villifies her language and culture and prioritizes English. 

Cisneros depicts the unique experiences of Hispanic immigrants that reveals the universal feeling of otherness which drives our narrator to a point of assimilation. The author highlights the growing want for sameness from Esperanza into English cultural norms beginning with language. The use of Spanglish is deliberate and helps further the author's themes of race, identity, gender, class, etc. There is cultural context intertwined with the use of language. 

                                                                

Regina Betz discusses the clashing of cultures and identity in "The House of Mango Street" through language. Betz begins her discussion of language by reiterating the importance of the methods in which people communicate. Language reveals key information about someone's identity especially ethnic background. Esperanza utilizes Spanglish, a particular and deliberate choice to use this hybrid language, a direct product from surrounding influences. In this case, Esperanza uses Spanglish to fit into her environment as she mirrors the lingual habits of those around her. Spanglish, in this context, is seen as a point of pride, openly celebrating the community's ability to be from 'neither here nor there,' not exclusively "Mexican" or "American." Esperanza sees this from a different perspective as her Catholic school offers her "English-only" experiences. This calls her identity into question as she struggles between her English tongue and her Spanish roots. The author uses diction to villify Spanish as it keeps her from assimilating and identifying as English-only, glorifying her end goal of assimilation.

Jayne Marek  begins the discussion of assimilation through the explanation of essentialism. Essentialism is the belief that all things must exist within a predetermined set of guidelines that will be followed and stand the test of time. This belief is perpetuated through Esperanza's Catholic school education, the root of her identity crisis. The exposure an American education offers Esperanza an insight on the ways Hispanic and Chicano culture is perceived by non-minorities. Thus she begins 'code-switching' speaking perfect English around her classmates and then reverting to Spanglish and Chicano slang when she's back in her vecindario. The "otherness" effect brought on by her Catholic education and the way it perpetuates Esperanza's assimilation further beyond her use of Spanglish.