1 / 22

Valeria Valencia Applied Linguistics University of California, Los Angeles Seventh Heritage Language Institute

Purepecha Heritage Speakers’ Linguistic Biographies. A contrastive case study of Purepecha heritage speakers born in the U.S. versus born in Mexico. Valeria Valencia Applied Linguistics University of California, Los Angeles Seventh Heritage Language Institute.

creda
Download Presentation

Valeria Valencia Applied Linguistics University of California, Los Angeles Seventh Heritage Language Institute

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Purepecha Heritage Speakers’ Linguistic Biographies. A contrastive case study of Purepecha heritage speakers born in the U.S. versus born in Mexico. Valeria Valencia Applied Linguistics University of California, Los Angeles Seventh Heritage Language Institute

  2. The purpose of this research is: To explore the language ideologies of Purepecha heritage speakers around Purepecha, Spanish and English • To examine how these speakers’ language ideologies have an impact on their linguistic choices: everyday language use, language acquisition and/or maintenance. • To analyze how these language ideologies influence their Purepecha, Mexican, Latino and/or American identities.

  3. Current linguistic situation of the Purepecha community in Mexico and the U.S.

  4. The 2010 Mexican Census points out that there are around 100, 000 Purepecha speakers in Mexico settled mainly in the state of Michoacán. • The Mexican census only accounts for language proficiency, there is no way of knowing how many individuals of Purepecha origin are mainly heritage speakers and have shifted to Spanish.

  5. The 2010 U.S. Census points out the existence of 2,397 people of Purepecha origin in the U.S. • Only 470 acknowledge being Purepecha speakers. • 60% Purepecha heritage speakers • Almost half of them are settled in different parts of California, alone. • Other U.S. states are Illinois, Oregon, Texas, North Carolina, Colorado, Nuevo Mexico, Arizona and Washington

  6. Purepecha heritage speakers born in mexico

  7. Language that interviewees’ children speak

  8. Shift to Spanish in Mexico • Some exposure to English in Mexico. • Acquisition of English in the U.S. • Incidental Purepecha acquisition in hometown and at home. • In the U.S. little additional efforts to acquire Purepecha

  9. Purepecha heritage speakers born and raised in U.S.

  10. Shift to Spanish at home • Acquisition of English in the U.S. at school. • Some efforts to acquire Purepecha

  11. Language Ideologies around indigenous languages in México • Originally colonial language ideologies, mark a sharp opposition between: Spanish  as a language associated with civilization and education Versus Mexican Indigenous Languages  generally associated with savagery, primitiveness and ignorance (Van Dijk, 2005, p. 84).

  12. Ideologies about Purepecha

  13. Justinoand Lucio Justino:Purepecha is a dialect not a language. Spanish is a language, English, French are languages. The difference is that certain ethnic groups speak it [...] like now in Michoacan. Lucio: In my understanding dialects are, for example... In Mexico different dialects are spoken. The country was divided into several languages. Justino: No, dialects. Lucio: Yes, dialects! ...and with the Spanish conquest the dialects started to disappear.

  14. Racialization of indigenous speech and speakers Rosendo: • “There are people who are my same age (me included) that are ashamed of our origin. There are people that say, uhm, for example, who try to pretend to be from the largest city in the state. [and for example] -‘Where are you from?’ -‘I am from Morelia or Uruapan’. No. I always say: -‘I am from Cherán’. You know, they used to tell me: -‘Oh, so you are ‘Indio’?’ -‘No, I am not Indio. I am from an indigenous community, which is different, all right?’

  15. Language ideologies of purepecha born in the U.S.

  16. Ireri • “Well my dad says that my grandfather tried to teach him words in Purepecha, but never showed much interest. Especially because he started migrating here (the U.S.) when he was nineteen years old, when they were young, my dad and his brothers. So they were more interested in learning English and never paid much attention to their parents or to try to understand [Purepecha]. My paternal grandfather [...] never wanted to teach their children much either because he had come to work here in California since the Bracero Program… And he felt ashamed. He felt like they [other non-Purepecha Mexican] would make fun of him and his children for speaking a language that other Mexican, who were also peasants, did not understand”

  17. Tosummarize: • Interviewees distance themselves from racialized ideologies about their heritage language • Because of language policies interviewees had no education in their heritage language. Spanish had a higher value both in school and at home as parents did not speak Purepecha with them. • The added physical distance after immigrating to the U.S. leaves little opportunities to link Purepecha to a Purepecha community identity. Interviewees’ children opt for Spanish and English primarily and not Purepecha.

  18. Thank you!Suggestions, questions and comments welcome Contact info: valenciavz@ucla.edu

More Related