- Spanish in the United States

Catalog description

Have you ever heard a Spanish speaker in the United States say escuela alta, rufo, llamar para atrás o queik? Or have you heard someone switch from English to Spanish in the same sentence? What is Spanglish? Do you have a friend who doesn't know Spanish even though his parents speak it? Is Spanish a foreign language in the US? Have you ever heard someone say that we shouldn't speak Spanish here? The United States has a Hispanic population that is larger than most Latin American countries. But, unlike other Spanish-speaking countries, Spanish is a minority language in the US. In this class, we study various social and linguistic phenomena that arise from this situation. Among other topics, we analyze the history of Spanish in the US, the racialization of Spanish, language policy, Spanish in education, Spanglish, and Latinx identity.