Easy de Traducir: Geomapping Spanish Language Billboards in Texas to Raise Critical Language Awareness

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Language, Identity, and Resistance: English, Spanish, and Spanglish in Bi-/Multilingual Education (Table 1)

Abstract

Fort Worth, Texas, is the 12th largest city in the United States and at 35%, Latinos make up the second largest ethnicity in the city. Although Spanish is frequently heard in many parts of Fort Worth, the explicit and very public display of written Spanish in the linguistic landscape (e.g., billboards) of Fort Worth is not representative in number of the percentage of Latino individuals nor is it thematically balanced with the themes found on English billboards. Using the geopmapping app Lingscape we have discovered a pattern of primarily using the Spanish language to advertise for alcohol companies. We argue that this sends a clear (albeit unconscious), unspoken message of the place, value, and role of Spanish in Fort Worth.

Authors

• Steve Daniel Przymus, Texas Christian University

• Melissa Mendoza, Texas Christian University