The Spanglish Revolution Has Reached the Airwaves
By: José Armas
© 1995 Hispanic Link News Service
Today, my theme is about ... well ... it's about
revolution.
This revolution has been happening right under
our very noses -- or ears -- here in the
Southwest. I realized it when my friend Dr. Bob Gish, an administrator at
a prestigious
West Coast university, closed a letter to me: "Hasta soon...''
He awakened me to the insurrection going on with
our language, not only among
Hispanics but throughout Anglo culture and across the border into Mexico.
The change is
accelerating at an alarming rate. It's way beyond slang or outcast or low
language. It's
now legitimate.
The border culture has always been a hybrid of
values, customs, language, food, music,
architecture -- and blood. The new language is being legitimized by many
contemporary
writers, and by Spanish radio personalities who have taken up the language
of the
common folk and adopted this unique bilingual format.
Much to the chagrin of many academicians, Spanish
teachers and nationalists who hold
that Spanglish is nothing more than a bastardization of both languages which
will doom our
culture, its usage and acceptance are spreading. They cross many boundaries
--
geographic, social, cultural. It's not a proper-language issue any more,
gente. It's beyond
being a social dilemma.
Jesse Quintana is mejicano; his wife Ileana is
a U.S.-born Hispanic. They have three fully
bilingual children. Ileana insists futilely that both languages be spoken
correctly in her
home. "When I hear the words mapiar, quota, parkiar, lockiear, craques
(mop, quarter,
park, lock, crackers), it grates on my ears,'' she says.
Maybe Spanglish is grating on many ears, but there's
no stopping the evolution of the
culture that's streamrolling along.
Albuquerque's KABQ radio has been a leader in this
legitimizing transition. It's been four
years since its owner, Ed Gómez, changed to a complete bilingual
format. Announcers,
newscasters and their editorials combine Spanish and English words, phrases,
sentences.
They don't translate; they switch from English to Spanish at random points
in their speech.
Gómez, who speaks perfect English and Spanish,
makes the point that this language has
been used forever, especially along the border. His format has captured
a younger
audience whose Spanish language is more in keeping with the contemporary
Hispanic. He
says, "Even some Anglos who may not be completely conversant in Spanish
listen,
because they can follow the conversation.''
Our English, of course, bears little resemblance
to that of the British. It's a mestizaje of
German, French -- and Spanish. The British laugh haughtily at our pronunciation
of what
now passes for proper language here. And the way they talk bemuses us.
English here has continually appropriated Spanish
words into its lexicon for almost 200
years. Some of the most common words include the idiom of the cowboy/vaquero.
So
ingrained are these Spanish words some Anglos would argue these are not
Spanish words
at all; words such as rodeo, hombre, coyote, corral, lasso....''
The mestizaje of the language has also been occurring
in Mexico for years; "OK,
grácias'' is a common refrain by Mexican clerks and waiters. Certain
words are a mangled
versions of their original on both sides of the border. Avid Mexican baseball
fans talk
enthusiastically about the honron that won the beisbol game. Over here,
the word car
becomes carro and brakes become brekas. It's gone way beyond right or wrong.
It's
become reality.
My friend Bob promised, upon his return to Albuquerque,
to invite me to bagels and
huevos rancheros, but that's another story. As New Mexico writer Ed Chávez
says,
"Bueno, bye...''
José Armas writes a weekly column for the Albuquerque
Journal.