Translanguaging With Taíno: Reclaiming Indigenous Language Words Found in Spanish

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Translanguaging and Criticality in Multilingual Classrooms and Communities (Table 1)

Abstract

This paper analyzes how two individuals from the Taíno Community, Irka Mateo and Cacike Jorge Baracutei Estevez, identify and reclaim words found in the Spanish language by emphasizing their Indigenous language origins. Emphasizing the words' origins while communicating in Spanish or English can be considered translanguaging because a linguistic repertoire that includes knowledge of Indigenous languages is needed to do so. Concentrating on the rhetorical strategy of recontextualization (Canagarajah, 2011), the paper finds that their translanguaging approach functions to counter Indigenous language erasure and raise awareness of current cultural practices associated with these words. This research is pertinent to bilingual education because it provides ways to emphasize the influence of Indigenous languages and contextualize differences found in Spanish language varieties.

Author

• Martha Rosas, Lehman College - CUNY