IntraLatino Language and Identity

“A cutting-edge analysis of how mixed ethnicity Mexican and Puerto Rican individuals position themselves socially and linguistically. Expertly combining quantitative and qualitative methods, Potowski’s study fills a critical gap in sociolinguistics. She lets the speakers’ own voices provide a rich context for understanding how they negotiate and co-create complex and changing identities. Written in accessible language with clear and relevant examples, the book explores how speakers’ individual histories are linked to their linguistic patterns. With a healthy respect for variation within and among individuals, it contributes to a theoretical understanding of the concept of Latinidad in the U.S. At a time when Latinos are increasingly important in the nation’s political and social fabric, the book is timely and insightful.”

“ IntraLatino Language and Identity: MexiRican Spanish is an impressive, state-of-the-art investigation of Spanish dialect contact within Mexican/Puerto Rican families in the U.S. In this innovative study of intrafamilial contact, Potowski analyzes a diverse and detailed linguistic data set using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Her results provide new contributions toward theoretical and empirical issues in sociolinguistics, including dialect contact and acquisition, the role of ethnicity, phenotype, migration, generational change, and construction of identity. Integrating her analyses on multiple linguistic levels (lexical items, discourse markers, phonology, clustering of linguistic features), Potowski provides timely perspectives on Spanish contact in the U.S. The book is clear, well informed, and thoroughly researched -- an authoritative, state-of-the-art source on Spanish dialect contact that will be valuable not only for linguistics, but also sociology, social psychology, anthropology, critical mixed race studies, cultural studies, area studies, and many other related disciplines”

“This is an important addition to the growing literature on Spanish dialect contact in the U.S. Its excellent analysis of ethnic identity discourses of second- and third-generation MexiRicans within the framework of critical mixed race theory is quite timely given current debates about ethnicity and racism and the growing heterogeneity of the U.S. population. Potowski’s study makes a significant contribution to our understanding of dialect contact, how Spanish is changing across generations in the U.S., and new ways of conceptualizing Latino U.S. Latino identity.”