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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