Oral Presentation | McNair Research Conference | UCLA | July 2019

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA | AUGUST 2019

¿ESTÁS READY?: UNCOVERING AFRO-LATINX IDENTITIES THROUGH LANGUAGE Elisabeth Rios-Brooks

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Background Research Questions Methodology Results Conclusions

INTRODUCTION WHAT IS AFROLATINX? "[Afrolatin@s] are the people of African descent in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, and by extension those of African descent in the United States whose origins are in Latin America and the Caribbean."

(Román, Flores 2010)

INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND Language as a means of gaining social and cultural capital Language as a unifying factor in collective identity Translanguaging

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

How do Afro-Latinx students navigate different cultural spaces and negotiate which linguistic conventions to employ at a given time?

How can translanguaging be used to claim identity and cultural relevance in one’s community?

METHODOLOGY POPULATION UF students who identify as AfroLatinx (aged 18-30)

INTERVIEWS Hour-long semi-structured interviews

THEMATIC CODING Transcribe interviews and create a set of codes from which to derive 4-5 main themes from

ANTICIPATED RESULTS PREDICTIONS Afro-Latinx students may have vast linguistic repertoires that allow them to easily fluctuate between dialects or languages in Black, White, and Latinx spaces . This identity offers entrance into many spaces because they have not only the linguistic, but also the social and cultural capital to fit into said spaces.

Depending on the space, these identities purposefully use their cultural and linguistic capital to fit in (Bordieu, 1991).

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED QUESTIONS: Are you Black?

Are you Hispanic?

Who is Black?

Can you be both Hispanic and Black?

Hypotheticals

QUOTES D. Although we like to say, 'Oh be yourself'. That's not what we actually mean... We mean be the socially acceptable version of yourself

E. I am AfroLatinx, but I wouldn't directly be racialized as Black in America.

E. What I have on my head already isn't good enough.

S. I'm like too proper and had been told to like take it down a notch

S.

A. I came into this interview... worried. I wanted to be Black enough and I wanted to be Latino enough for your interview, if that makes sense

S. I'm not mixed enough

It's kind of weird because in some ways they want you to like look more white. In other ways, they don't.

D.

It's not 100% Black, it's not 100% Hispanic, it's 100% Afro-Latinx

A. I think it's unique... I've grown to like my curls I've grown to like the color of my skin and just like everything.

*UPDATED* RESEARCH QUESTIONS

How do Afro-Latinx students navigate predominantly White spaces and negotiate which performative conventions to employ?

How does proximity to Whiteness impact how Afro-Latinx individuals perceive themselves vs. how they are perceived?

NOW WHAT? THEMATIC CODING

Themes & Concurrent Codes PROXIMITY TO WHITENESS Performance of whiteness Need to adapt as a means of survival Keen awareness of surroundings Keen awareness of how one is being perceived Accommodating Whiteness Exhaustion

"NOT ENOUGH" "Not fully Black" Lack of experiences related to what the Black/His. experience is "supposed" to be "Half Black & half Hispanic" Language as a primary identifier of identity Speaking "white" Cannot be both

HAIR Hair as identity Hair as symbol of pride/empowerment & rebellion Hair as a source of power Straightening/cutting/re laxing hair - conforming to white standards of beauty

CONCLUSION ARE THERE ANY BENEFITS OR DEFICITS OF BEING AFROLATINX? A. I think it's unique... I've grown to like my curls I've grown to like the color of my skin and just like eberything.

S.

A.

Honestly, I just love the fact that I'm not just one thing.

I like myself as AfroLatino or mix or whatever the hell I am

S. Straight benefits across the board... I haven't wanted to like fit in a box and I feel like having this intersecting identity just lets me - I'm still working up to being more comfortable, but I don't have to be one or the other. I kind of have two cultures to embrace and there's never ending fun.

QUOTE It's not 100% Black, it's not 100% Hispanic, it's 100% Afro-Latinx -D

BIBLIOGRAPHY Jiménez Román, M., & Flores, J. (2010). The Afro-Latin@ reader : history and culture in the United States. Duke University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=cat04364a&AN=ufl.035116426&site=eds-live Abrahams, R (1972) Stereotyping and beyond. In: Abrahams RD, Troike RC (eds) Language and Cultural Diversity in American Education, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, pp. 19–29.

2Bourdieu, Pierre (1991) “The Production and Reproduction of Legitimate Language.”In: Language and Symbolic Power (John B. Thompson, ed.; transl. by Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson) Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 43-65 (Part 2) Chun, Elaine W., and Adrienne Lo. 2016. Language and racialization. In The Routledge handbook of linguistic anthropology. Edited by Nancy Bonvillain, 220–233. New York: Routledge.

Price (2010) What is Spanglish? The phenomenon of code-switching and its impact amongst US Latinos. The Undergraduate Journal of Languages, Linguistics, and Area Studies 1 (1), 25-33.