Researcher and professor of Latinx and Latin American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Ilan Stavans, has identified Spanglish as the fastest-growing hybrid language in the world—with an estimated 50 million speakers.
Linguistically, Spanglish is the combination of Spanish and English, spoken primarily by Hispanic populations in the United States. Criticized as an impure form of Spanish and English, the growth of Spanglish speakers demonstrates a move from the periphery of culture to its center. Moreover, increased efforts today have boosted visibility for Spanglish speakers.
From the blend used by Chicano communities in California and Texas to the “nuyorican” dialects of Puerto Rican communities in New York City, Spanglish is widespread in communities across the United States and beyond. Though it is loosely defined as a combination of Spanish and English, this hybrid can take many different forms, often combining Spanish and English words, using grammar structures from one language in the other, or simply involving a flow between the two languages while speaking.
Ana Sofia Gomez Garza, an Orange County high school senior who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico at age four, explains that switching between languages can feel like “transferring from one brain to another.” She notes that some Spanish words have different connotations in English or lack direct translations entirely, often making it easier to alternate between the two languages.
This unique linguistic hybrid is not necessarily a new phenomenon, however: its origins lie in the modes of communication made necessary by the contact between powers in the Mexican- and Spanish-American wars. The 20th century, however, saw a significant growth in this way of speaking along with increased Latin American immigration to the United States.
“It’s an inevitable part of migrating and moving to other places, everything’s going to change a little bit,” Gomez Garza said. “Change isn’t bad.”
However, along with the historic growth of this hybrid in immigrant communities, Spanglish speakers faced intense discrimination from both sides; often criticized by other Latinos for not speaking Spanish fluently enough and criticized by Anglo-Americans for speaking Spanish at all. In fact, until 2016, California had strict ‘English-Only’ laws that limited bilingual education in schools. The law targeted speaking of Spanish in classrooms and limited support for Spanish-speaking children.
In recent years, the growing use of Spanglish has emerged in popular culture, appearing in everything from theater productions to children’s books and reggaeton music. This has promoted greater acceptance of the linguistic hybrid, with Hallmark even releasing a line of Spanglish greeting cards. Hallmark even recently releasing a line of cards in Spanglish.
Other linguistic hybrids are a common occurrence along the borders of countries with different national languages, such as that spoken along the border of France and Spain, known as frañol. Spanglish, in turn, has been able to gain influence beyond the region and can now be heard throughout the United States and many places in Latin America due to growing media representations. Stavans has watched his audiences go from laughing at his research, viewing Spanglish as strange or foreign to now see it as an everyday thing.
Many view Spanglish as an important form of cultural expression, especially in Southern California, where Spanish-speaking Hispanic communities, particularly Mexican-Americans, have historically been marginalized. The popularity of the hybrid, as well as its growth in media representation, highlights newfound visibility for Hispanic Americans—many who have often dealt between two cultural identities.
“It shows the resiliency of the Mexican community,” Gomez Garza said. “Even though we have been told to suppress our identity, we have instead celebrated our [Mexican] culture and our American culture as well.”
