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>>From the issue dated 7/11/2003<BR><BR><BR><BR> Beware the Language
Police<BR><BR> By WILL H. CORRAL<BR> <BR> Even my
university's e-mail system is getting in on the trend<BR> toward policing
language: It automatically signals me whenever<BR> I use Spanish or
English words and expressions that "normal<BR> readers may find
offensive," guarding my network much like a<BR> neighborhood "defense
committee" in Castro's Cuba. One of the<BR> tragicomic aspects of today's
language police is that it is<BR> self-anointed. Another is that its
officers seem uniformly<BR> inept in their training and obstinate in their
eagerness to<BR> pass their sense of victimization on to future
generations. <BR> <BR> The rules of engagement began to be laid down
in the 1960s,<BR> and have become ever more rigid. By the time I taught
at<BR> Stanford University in the late-'80s through the
mid-'90s,<BR> they were already occupying center stage. So the
recent<BR> publication of Diane Ravitch's The Language Police
brought<BR> back unsettling memories of codes instilled early, in
primary<BR> and secondary schools, and brought to college by
students.<BR> <BR> I came to this country from Ecuador in the
mid-'60s, when I<BR> was 13 years old, and was thrown into the
sink-or-swim<BR> instructional approach of the time. I struggled, perhaps
even<BR> more than today's immigrants, and became a professor of<BR>
Spanish-American literature without the benefit of courses in<BR>
bilingualism or English as a second language, and without<BR> being taught
to feel good in class about my native language.<BR> You'd think I would be
pleased with the development of<BR> sensitivity to minority students,
civilized discourse, ethnic<BR> empowerment, respect for other cultures,
and the like.<BR> <BR> Well, not with the language police. Although
I do not speak<BR> for the immigrant community of which I can be
considered a<BR> member, whoever meets me can note that I am physically
a<BR> stereotypical "Hispanic-American." As a result,
assumptions<BR> about what a Hispanic-American is or should be
have,<BR> sometimes, been shoved down my throat. That leaves me
puzzled<BR> by the gap between what I know myself to be and what
some<BR> Anglo-American colleagues and other people think I am
or<BR> should be. <BR> <BR> By the time I started teaching
graduate students, training in<BR> the humanities had become politicized,
especially at elite<BR> institutions. By then, recognition of my
"positioning" as an<BR> ethnic "subject" had to be the point of departure
for whatever<BR> I espoused, whether I thought such notions pertinent or
not.<BR> One of the first graduate courses I taught was on what
was<BR> then called "colonial" Spanish-American literaturei.e.,<BR>
chronicles of the Spanish discovery and conquest of the New<BR> World. The
Renaissance view of "man" was part of the context I<BR> provided for the
course. A "European-American" student<BR> complained that my use of the
generic hombre excluded women.<BR> Before letting me explain the
admittedly "sexist" worldview of<BR> the Spanish conquistadores, she
insisted I use personas<BR> (persons), or that I employ the formula
el/ella (he/she). I<BR> reminded her that personas was feminine in form
and therefore<BR> also sexist, even though its meaning included women and
men. I<BR> further explained that el/ella was an adaptation of
trendy<BR> Anglo-American terminology, and that no native Spanish
speaker<BR> went around saying el/ella. <BR> <BR> "We are in
the United States," she responded. Many Hispanic<BR> students in class saw
the "Imperial I" putting us in our<BR> place. No matter. To get on with my
teaching (in Spanish), I<BR> urged the complainant to use whatever
synthetic form of<BR> Spanish made her comfortable. Almost 15 years later,
in a<BR> recent issue of El Pais, a daily from Spain, the "Defensor
del<BR> lector" ("Defender of the Reader") responded to a rash
of<BR> letters objecting to her use of el/ella in her column.
She<BR> said that henceforth El Pais would officially not employ
that<BR> formula, since "the result would be an illegible
newspaper."<BR> <BR> In principle, I have always avoided such
awkward usage, since<BR> it is not my job to save a language that has
needed no<BR> defenders for more than a thousand years. But I was working
at<BR> Stanford with professors who saw their task as saving<BR>
Hispanics, and they cared not at all whether they or the<BR> students
spoke the language properly. Heritage, as a term of<BR> recent coinage,
like training in bilingualism, seemed to mean<BR> that students were under
no obligation to make any effort to<BR> acquire full competency in the
language their parents or<BR> grandparents probably spoke
correctly.<BR> <BR> Today, the literacy police has expanded to
elementary and<BR> secondary textbooks. Consider some of the words
and<BR> stereotypes to avoid when discussing Hispanic-Americans,
which<BR> Ravitch draws from a glossary compiled by a historian
to<BR> advise writers and editors preparing textbooks for K-12<BR>
students:<BR> <BR> Latinos who are migrant workers.<BR>
<BR> <BR> Hispanics who are warm, expressive, and
emotional.<BR> <BR> <BR> Hispanics in urban settings (ghettos
or barrios).<BR> <BR> <BR> Hispanics wearing bright colors,
older women in black, girls<BR> always in dresses.<BR> <BR>
<BR> Mexicans grinding corn.<BR> If newly arrived Hispanics were to
live, not just talk, those<BR> language rules, a number would have to
assiduously avoid a<BR> whole range of activities and behaviors. Further,
equally<BR> grave, is the barely disguised assumption that
Hispanics<BR> belong to a certain class, or to one or two nationalities.
No<BR> matter. To bring the guidelines cited above to fruition,
let<BR> me propose that all immigrant Hispanic-Americans make
the<BR> following efforts:<BR> <BR> If you have a college
degree, but do not speak English, do not<BR> work in factories or fields.
It does not matter that you have<BR> to feed your family, have no time for
English classes, and are<BR> happy to have any kind of job. Hispanic
students should take<BR> down Cesar Chavez posters. Che Guevara, as
homophobic as he<BR> was, is still fine for our self-image.<BR>
<BR> <BR> Be distant, inexpressive, and phlegmatic. Do not watch
Don<BR> Francisco Presenta, or any Venezuelan, Colombian, Mexican,
or<BR> Puerto Rican soap operas.<BR> <BR> <BR> Live in
manicured academic enclaves like Cambridge or Palo<BR> Alto; the real
barrios (disregard the full Spanish meaning,<BR> simply neighborhoods)
next to those communities are now<BR> reserved for academic research, done
strictly in English, on<BR> such topics as bilingualism. Be careful,
because your original<BR> linguistic codes might throw off scholars who
survive on<BR> cryptic allusions to what a barrio does to or for
you;<BR> nevertheless, do not become a monolingual English
speaker,<BR> which would also confuse academics, who emphasize (usually
in<BR> English) your innate ability to be bicultural and
bilingual.<BR> <BR> <BR> Even older women, wear anything
Jennifer Lopez might use, even<BR> if you're in mourning. Guideline
authors will attribute your<BR> disrespect to "your culture."<BR>
<BR> <BR> Avoid eating Salvadoran pupusas, tortilla chips,
plantains,<BR> etc. Only Anglos can safely enjoy them.<BR> Of
course, you may find yourself mired in a few<BR> contradictions. Yes, it
is preferable to present<BR> Hispanic-Americans as very intelligent,
ambitious,<BR> hardworking, and competitive. But also keep in mind
other<BR> guidelines, cited by Ravitch, on images to avoid when
speaking<BR> about Asian-Americans: very intelligent, ambitious,<BR>
hard-working, competitive.<BR> <BR> The problem is that all such
rules seek to avoid stereotypes;<BR> but all have the effect of
homogenizing language, culture,<BR> thought, and even appearance. I
wonder: Were the guidelines<BR> above determined by asking real migrant
workers, Hispanics<BR> toiling in factories, grandmothers, urban dwellers,
or<BR> lifelong farmers what they thought, instead of academics
who<BR> appropriate "essences" through reticence and euphemism?<BR>
<BR> The poor economic conditions of Hispanic countries are<BR>
partially responsible for the popular stereotypes to which we<BR>
Hispanics fall prey in this country. But so are the<BR> pedagogical
impositions that cosmetically change what has<BR> historically defined us.
The paternalistic and condescending<BR> academics who impose the
regulations want us to conform to<BR> particular worldviews -- broadly
based on trite utopianism<BR> about natives -- and to the Anglo guilt and
politics that<BR> underlie those views.<BR> <BR> Of course, if
academics were consistent in their beliefs, they<BR> might refuse to eat
in fancy restaurants in which Hispanics<BR> are not management; the Modern
Language Association might not<BR> want to patronize hotels that employ
Hispanic maids. But<BR> wouldn't boycotting hotels only cause those maids
to lose<BR> their jobs? A former Stanford colleague's unending<BR>
breast-beating over the fact that she had Hispanic "help" made<BR> her
raised consciousness transparent for what it was:<BR> ideological bullying
and hucksterism about diversity.<BR> <BR> The guidelines that the
language police have laid down in<BR> textbooks and classrooms are
nonsensical and unethical. They<BR> are also pedagogically unsound, for
they give Hispanic<BR> students an unfounded social confidence, rather
than a<BR> realistic view of how images can become a standard. Why do
we<BR> let impositions recondition young minds -- perhaps the
most<BR> vulnerable to indoctrination -- in clearly forced ways?
Maybe<BR> because academic ideologues feel good if they can
change<BR> linguistic realities, even though that does nothing to
alter<BR> the actual lives of the Hispanics about whom they are<BR>
flaunting their concern.<BR> <BR> Will H. Corral will become a
professor of Spanish-American<BR> literature and culture at California
State University at<BR> Sacramento in the fall. His book Contras ciertos
dogmas<BR> latinoamericanistas (Against Certain Latin Americanist
Dogmas)<BR> will be published in November by Paradiso Editores.<BR>
<BR><BR><BR>_________________________________________________________________<BR><BR>You
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