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Language as form of Identity






This J-Term, I took a Hispanic Studies course called The Latino Experience in the US. I took this course because of my environmental studies capstone and  the relation with the US-Mexico Border. I also wanted to take it because of the curiosity I had about the experience of latinx here in the US. Listening and learning from others about what it means to be Latinx is here in the US. Throughout the course we read from different authors, like Gloria Anzaldua, Hector Tobar and Junot Diaz. Their experiences were shared experience, but not homogeneous and that’s what it was all about. How being Latinx in the US is not always the same for everyone, but there are some common things. Languages. Language as the form of identity. This is where Spanglish for me is a form of identity, where Spanglish works as the tool to fully express oneself with others, with my kind, with the world. This is why I wrote this short poem about Spanglish and what it means to me. 

Spanglish la lengua

Hola, I speak in Spanglish.
Lo uso when I am just hanging con mis friends or when I talk with my sister
Aveces it’s because I don’t feel that English fully gets me, but then again Español doesn’t get me either
This is because I live aquí,  in this soil
On this side
En este lado
Where lo automatico that my brain does is code switch
Because it feels natural
It feels like that’s how I can fully express myself
English is great
I can use it to express myself, but I can’t fully  
Spanish, can't either
I do this because I am in between
In this space where this language
Spanglish is spoken by some, not all
Is seen as form of identity, but not always
It can be positive, but also seen negative
By others
By us
By you
But eso no importa
Because the mixing of both
Can create new identities
Nuevo spaces
It gives me the ability to hablar and be heard
I used the mixing of the both to express me, to be me and speak the la lengua to my people
Spanglish is when one cannot find the word of something in English, but I know that Español has my back
Because this is one historia of the in between



- Kindra 



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