Subverting Cervantes: Language Authority in Global Spanish

Abstract

This article seeks to situate Spanish as a global language by exploring both the top-down institutional processes that promote it and the bottom-up grassroots actions that are also increasingly important in the spread and maintenance of global Spanish. This article argues that one of the most important influences now in the explosion of Spanish worldwide is that of the U.S. Latinos, and this article examines how they engage with or are engaged by processes of linguistic globalization. An important aspect of this is the commodification of latinidad through diverse popular cultural outlets. While manifesting examples of imposition by external agents, there are significant and growing instances of popular resistance to such hijacking and a desire for local ownership. In exploring the nature of this resistance within the Spanish-speaking community and worldwide, this article particularly focuses on so-called Spanglish and contemporary Latino music, such as hip-hop and reggaetón, as examples of grassroots-initiated linguistic globalization.

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