Somos Mexicanos y Hablamos Mexicano Aquí: Rural Farmworker Families Struggle to Maintain Cultural and Linguistic Identity in Michigan

Abstract

This article presents the narratives centered on intergenerational linguistic and cultural transmission for three farmworker families. It does so through the analysis of personal narratives provided by three families in rural Michigan, which were collected over a five-year span. The participants discuss the sociocultural significance of maintaining their heritage language (HL) despite the dominant society's attempts to supplant their community's language with English. From their descriptions it is clear that Spanish is both a linguistic and cultural marker of group membership and cultural identity and a way to communicate home pedagogies. It is through this HL that intergenerational knowledge is transmitted to assist younger generations in maintaining strong relationships with their ethnic community while developing relationships with the surrounding Anglo-American community. Families utilize home pedagogies to empower youth and sustain networks with other regional HL communities.

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