28.2896, Review: Anthro Ling: Socioling: Betancourt (2016)

Mon Jul 3 15:27:27 UTC 2017

LINGUIST List: Vol-28-2896. Mon Jul 03 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.2896, Review: Anthro Ling: Socioling: Betancourt (2016)

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Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2017 11:27:23
From: Andrea Lypka [alypka at mail.usf.edu]
Subject: Judith Ortiz Cofer and Aurora Levins Morales: The Construction of Identity through Cultural and Linguistic Hybridization

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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/27/27-2770.html

AUTHOR: Juanita Rodríguez  Betancourt
TITLE: Judith Ortiz Cofer and Aurora Levins Morales: The Construction of Identity through Cultural and Linguistic Hybridization
SERIES TITLE: LINCOM Studies in Language and Culture 03
PUBLISHER: Lincom GmbH
YEAR: 2016

REVIEWER: Andrea Eniko Lypka, University of South Florida

Reviews Editor: Helen Aristar-Dry

In “Judith Ortiz Cofer and Aurora Levins Morales: The Construction of Identity
through Cultural and Linguistic Hybridization,” Juanita Rodríguez Betancourt
investigates the evolving diasporic Puerto Rican identity negotiations in the
self-writings of Ortiz Cofer and Levins Morales. The four chapters in this
book, part of the author’s doctoral dissertation, bring together various
aspects of Puerto Rican Diasporic journeys in the US, including the historical
and economic circumstances (Chapter 1), theoretical developments of the
concepts of identity and hybridization (Chapter 2), and analyses of the
interrelationship among various cultures, languages, ethnicity, race, and
gender negotiated “in-between” spaces and within transnational migration
milieus (Chapters 3-4). Through the examination of distinct characters,
events, stories, and physical spaces in two autobiographies, “Analyses of
Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of Puerto Rican Childhood” by Ortiz
Cofer and “Getting Home Alive” by Levins Morales, Rodríguez Betancourt
problematizes how dominant discourses on social class, gender, race, and
assimilation intersect with diasporic journeys and identities. As such,
identity is conceptualized as a social performance and a self-making
navigation process between two linguistic and cultural spaces. The analysis of
autobiographical narratives reveals that these authors strategically drew on
nontraditional knowledge, linguistic and cultural practices to construct their
social status, “separate from the insular conceptualization of being a Puerto
Rican woman while never fully assimilating to the new environment in the US”
(p. 7). 

SUMMARY

The book by Juanita Rodríguez Betancourt consists of four chapters, including
an acknowledgment and introduction, followed by Chapters 1-4, a conclusion,
appendix, and bibliography sections. 

Chapter One, “Puerto Rican Diasporic Literary Production in the United
States,” summarizes a rich historical account of the Puerto Rican diasporic
literary production from the 1800s. The author first introduces works by
expatriate intellectual authors and journalists in New York, who supported
Puerto Rico’s independence from Spain, such as Eugenio María de Hostos,
Gerardo Forrest, Sotero Figueroa, cigar maker Flor Baerga, and Arturo Alfonso
Schomburg, an advocate for the African diaspora. Following the US takeover of
Cuba and Puerto Rico in 1898, Jesús Colón and Bernardo Vega, two activist
cigar makers with interrupted formal education narrated about social prejudice
against Puerto Ricans in terms of class and political affiliation and racial
discrimination. Between 1946-1964, the Sojourners, such as René Marques and
Enrique Laguerre, chronicled a pessimistic view of the diaspora and viewed
living in New York as a threat to migrant morality. From 1965 to the present,
poets Pedro Pietri and Miguel Algarín, representatives of the Nuyorican
Movement, denounced discrimination and the lack of opportunities for the
Puerto Rican middle-class diaspora and recognized the importance of mixing
languages. In their autobiographical works, Nicholasa Mohr, Judith Ortiz
Cofer, Aurora Levins Morales, and Esmeralda Santiago describe the complexities
of bicultural and bilingual identity formation and problematize gender issues
in relation to class, race, and ethnicity in everyday life within the Puerto
Rican Diaspora in the US. 

In Chapter Two, “Theoretical Framework: Cultural and Linguistic
Hybridization,” Rodríguez Betancourt traces the concept of hybridity, using
definitions from the fields of genetics, linguistics, anthropology, and
history to present the theoretical framework of cultural and linguistic
positioning and hybridization that guides her analysis of the autobiographical
writings by Ortiz Cofer and Levins Morales. Drawing on Homi Bhabha’s (1981)
hybrid identity and Third space of enunciation, Fernando Ortiz’ (1995)
transculturation, García Canclini’s (2005) process of hybridization, and
Mikhail Bakhtin’s (1984) linguistic hybridity concepts, she questions
hierarchical, fixed, and predefined identity categories, arguing that
identities can be fused in an in-between space to create alternative ways of
being. 

Chapter 3, “Analysis of Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto
Rican Childhood,” includes an analysis of the memoir, a blend of essays,
stories, and poetry written by Judith Ortiz Cofer in 1990 about her
bicultural/multicultural upbringing. The themes of moving back and forth
between Puerto Rico and New Jersey, questioning gender roles, and negotiating
cultural and linguistic markers are evident in this narrative. Specifically,
accounts of cautionary tales or ‘cuentos’ about moral values,  the rules of
courtship learned through observations, and mixing of words from Spanish, such
as ‘ensayo’ (practice), ‘casa’ (home), ‘cafe con leche’, and ‘pueblo’ signify
culturally and linguistically mediated places and practices that influence
diasporic bilingual identity development.

Chapter 4, “Analysis of Getting Home Alive: Segments Written by Aurora Levins
Morales”, showcases eight essays and poems that proclaim Levins Morales’ ties
with multiple identities and ancestors. For example, in the essay “1930,”
Levins Morales evokes the struggles her grandparents faced as immigrants in
New York, such as the lack of access to food. In “The Meeting of So Many
Roads,” Levins Morales identifies her father’s Jewish heritage as well as
Caribbean, American, Latin American, Taíno, African and European identities
that influence her sense of self. The poem “South” reaffirms identity layers
connected to past and indigenous Taíno roots, by mixing Taíno words, such as
‘guaraguao’ and ‘guyaba’ with English words. 

In their autobiographical narratives, both Judith Ortiz Cofer and Aurora
Levins Morales pay tribute to stories passed down by generations and childhood
memories to make sense of their evolving identities in the present. The vivid
descriptions of holiday traditions, such receiving Christmas gifts on Three
Kings Day, religious practices, such as weddings and burials, the process of
cooking and food, and the coexistence of Standard English with Spanish words,
such as ‘sofrito’ (a seasoning base), ‘pilón’ (mortar with pestle), as well as
some terms not explained or translated into English, reaffirm the acceptance
of linguistic and cultural identities, identities that may not be negotiable
for the monolingual, Anglo reader. In her book, Rodríguez Betancourt delves
into dissecting complex, sometimes ambivalent identity negotiations of
diasporic experiences.

EVALUATION

Overall, “Judith Ortiz Cofer and Aurora Levins Morales: The Construction of
Identity through Cultural and Linguistic Hybridization,” explores the crucial
roles of language and culture in identity building. It contributes to the
literature on transnational, hybrid identity, particularly for contextualizing
the works of Ortiz Cofer and Levins Morales within a chronological timeline of
the Puerto Rican Diaspora in the US. By doing so, it provides a critical
discussion about the influence of family, alternative ways of seeing the
world, and cultural practices interact with wider discourses on English
language learning, formal education, and social mobility.

As a graduate student with a research interest in second language learner
identity, I found this book unique because of its insights on the theoretical
framework (Chapter 2), thematic unity, and analysis of diasporic experiences
(Chapters 3-4). Though this work focuses on the diasporic Puerto Rican
community, the theoretical and analytical frameworks can be expanded to
culturally and linguistically diverse populations. Rodríguez Betancourt
problematizes binary definitions of identity and describes how two bilingual
Puerto Rican Diaspora authors draw on diverse literacy, cultural, and
linguistic resources to negotiate their identities in a reader-friendly
manner. The relevant examples from personal essays and poems illustrate how
Ortiz Cofer and Levins Morales drew on a wide array of lived experiences,
informal knowledge practices, among other resources to maintain multilayered
relationships and communicate their identity struggles in their
autobiographical works. Puerto Rican Diaspora struggles to negotiate
identities within the island and the US links the narrative accounts of Ortiz
Cofer and Levins Morales. Importantly, these chapters highlight the importance
of emic perspectives, individual accounts of identity negotiations and
exercising agency, in bilingual second language acquisition research. 

Though in the Acknowledgements section Rodríguez Betancourt signals that the
identity negotiations of Ortiz Cofer and Levins Morales prompted her to come
to grips with her own evolving identities, the author does not describe in
detail her development in relation to these works. The author’s interrogation
of her identity negotiation would allow for a better comprehension of some of
the concepts, such as ‘cultural schizophrenia’ and ‘child of Americas,’
addressed by Ortiz Cofer and Levins Morales. Additionally, this work would
benefit from a discussion about future research on diasporic experiences.
Overall, this book is a cohesive and well-written analysis that uncovers the
complexities and contradictions of diasporic experiences. It furthers the
dialogue on hybrid identity by advocating for a nuanced, self-reflective
approach. I would highly recommend this book for graduate students and
researchers interested in exploring the relationship among diasporic identity,
culture, language, and everyday experiences. 

REFERENCES:

Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The location of culture. London: Routledge.

Bakhtin, M. (1981). The dialogic imagination. Austin, TX: University of Texas.
Press.

Fernando Ortiz. (1995). Cuban counterpoint, tobacco and sugar. Duke University
Press.

Canclini, N. G. (2005). Hybrid cultures: Strategies for entering and leaving
modernity. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Andrea Lypka is a PhD candidate in Second Language Acquisition and
Instructional Technology at University of South Florida. Her research focuses
on visual research methods, second language learner identity and agency.

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