Spanish in the USA Linguistic, translational and cultural aspects

Delving into the uneasy relationship between English and Spanish in the United States of America, this book approaches specific topics from a variety of perspectives, ranging from the more cultural to the more linguistic. The contributions explore the problems arising in Puerto Rico as a consequence of the unique political status of the island; the linguistic peculiarities of codeswitching, and its use in legal and medical contexts where interpreting is necessary and in educational contexts with heritage language students; the (non)use and the ideological implications of translation in colonial museums; the connections between language, ethnicity and gender identities in the South West; and the role played by the Hispanic press in promoting intercultural dialogue in the New York City area. Engaging with previous publications, the book examines these topics from an interdisciplinary standpoint, offers new insights into the problems of this cultural and linguistic contact, and suggests new areas of research. This book was originally published as a special issue of Language and Intercultural Communication.

Introduction – Languages in contact, cultures in conflict: English and Spanish in the USA Roberto A. Valdeón 1. El engañol y el cuco: metaphors in the nexus between language and status in Puerto Rico Elaine Shenk 2. Institutional representations of ‘Spanish’ and ‘Spanglish’: managing competing discourses in heritage language instruction Rachel E. Showstack 3. Colonial museums in the US (un)translated Roberto A. Valdeón 4. Double intercultural dialogue in the Hispanic press in the United States: the case of New York newspapers María José Coperías-Aguilar 5. The universality of syntactic constraints of Spanish-English codeswitching in the USA Mónica Moro 6. The role of translators and interpreters in hybrid English-Spanish contexts in the USA Beatriz Cortabarria 7. Intersecting communities, interwoven identities: questioning boundaries, testing bridges, and forging a queer latinidad in the US Southwest Holly R. Cashman

Roberto A. Valdeón is affiliated with the University of Oviedo, Spain. He is a research fellow at the University of the Free State, South Africa, and an honorary professor at Jinan University, China. He is the Editor-in-chief of Perspectives and the General Editor of Benjamins Translation Library.