Spanglish: Positives and Negatives

Spanglish Is the use of Spanglish seen as a term of "disparagement," as linguistics Professor Ricardo Otheguy asserts? Or is the mixing of English into Spanish "helpful" and "…as normal as breathing and as natural as life itself" to the ethnic mix of Latinos and Anglos in Southern California and elsewhere, as journalist Kimberly Ortiz insists? This paper presents both sides of the issue; some say that using Spanglish as a hybrid language is a bastardized version of English and Spanish; others believe Spanglish, besides being here to stay, is perfectly legitimate as an alternative kind of language.

The Positives Relating to Spanglish PBS NewsHour host Ray Suarez interviewed author Ilan Stavans about Stavans' book, Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language. Stavans is the president of Latin America and Latino culture at Amherst College and he steadfastly defends Spanglish as a "…way of communication where one starts in one language, switches to the other" and goes back and forth or "perhaps coins a few new words…" along the way (PBS).

Stavans adds that Spanglish is "a very creative jazzy way of being Latino in the U.S. today" (PBS). Host Suarez questions whether Spanglish is truly a language, and to that Stavans answers that Spanglish may be in the "process" of becoming a language. And Stavans adds that there is really not one single version of Spanglish because Cuban Americans in Miami have their own particular version and Mexican-Americans have theirs as well.

He equates the different versions of Spanglish with the dramatic differences within the Latino community: there are "…a number of different Latinos" including those of Puerto Ricans heritage, of Mexican heritage, the Cubans and Venezuelans as well (PBS, p. 2).

Stavans makes a good point when he says that every time another immigrant group arrives in the U.S., that group in time "wants to become part of the so-called melting pot" and hence there is a "period of transition" between the immigrants' native language and the acquisition of English -- and the two become blended in some fashion unique to those immigrants (PBS, p. 2).

In his book, mentioned on the first page, Stavans agrees that "Yes, it is the tongue of the uneducated," and "Yes, it's a hodgepodge," but the professor goes on to say that the evolution of Spanglish is legitimate, and moreover it reminds him of how jazz got started (Stavans, 2004, 3). African-American musicians who hadn't necessarily been to music school and learned the hardcore basics they nonetheless began creating improvisations with their music -- hence, jazz evolved.

Stavans references a comment by iconic jazz legend Herbie Hancock, who was asked to explain jazz, and replied: "It is something very hard to define, but very easy to recognize" (5). Kimberly Ortiz writing in the Southwestern College publication, The Sun, says some purists see Spanglish as "unprofessional" and they claim it reflects "a loss of culture." But she explains that it is hard to always transition from one language to another, and some words simply don't "translate well or at all in English and vice versa" (Ortiz, 2014).

Ortiz believes rather than "ruining and disrespecting English and Spanish," she believes that Spanglish "honors both"; and besides, she goes on, it is used "primarily in casual settings with friends and family" (p. 1). Moreover, she does not accept that Spanglish is "slang," and in fact Spanglish is used in English courses at Southwestern College, including English 116 -- a class called "The Latino Reader," in which Latino writers use Spanglish to "further express their feelings in their poems and stories" (Ortiz, p. 1).

The Negatives Related to Spanglish Linguistics Professor Ricardo Otheguy insists that there should be a "rejection" of the term "Spanglish" because "…there is no objective justification for the team" (Otheguy, 2010). The professor goes on, saying Spanglish expresses "an ideology of exceptionalism and scorn" that he believed "deprives" Latinos in North America of a "major resource," which is the "mastery of a world language" (85).

As was mentioned in the Introduction to this paper, Otheguy finds Spanglish a term of "disparagement," because it is used to "…disparage Latinos in the U.S.A. And to cast aspersions on their ways of speaking" (86). Students in his classes at City University of New York sometimes say, "I'm not good at Spanish; I speak Spanglish"; but Otheguy is intolerant of the use of Spanglish because it has "…mostly negative implications…it's a bastard jargon" (86).

It clearly annoys Otheguy that so many people use the term Spanglish and speak using hybrid words and phrases; "We believe that the term contributes to the fiction that Latin Americans in the U.S.A. And their children speak a hybrid language that is fundamentally different from Spanish" (97). In fact Otheguy's objections to the use of Spanglish go beyond linguistics and languages per se: he is angry because there are cultural implications involved.

To wit, he says not only is the term "technically flawed," but the use of Spanglish "…contributes to the closing of doors of personal and economic progress" to those who see themselves as speakers of Spanish. And Spanglish should be replaced -- and instead use the "simple term Spanish" (Otheguy, 98). Meanwhile, writing in the "New Generation Latino Consortium," Silvina Jover-Cirillo refers to Spanglish as evidence of "…the destruction, deformation and negative evolution that one of the most beautiful languages in the world is being faced with" (Jover-Cirillo, 2011).

She further explains that using Spanglish is like "a false cognate or false friend" because using Spanglish suggests that you are using "…words that share form, but not meaning" (p. 2). Use of Spanglish in Latino Children's Literature Certainly not every educator thinks that the use of Spanglish is a bad thing for students, or for children per se.

In the peer-reviewed journal Children's Literature in Education, the authors explore the use of Spanglish in seven children's books; the authors were looking for "…practices of and attitudes towards Spanglish, standard Spanish, and individual and societal bilingualism" (Chappell, et al. 2007). First the authors give the positives and negatives before delving into the children's books, and the way they describe the highs and lows of Spanglish is interesting and valuable.

One ideological approach is to see Spanglish as "…a legitimate victory of Spanish that is acceptable," and for children, those who acquire and use Spanglish "…are capable of expressing complex ideas, of making use of.