Cover not available
Article published In:
Memory and memorialization
Edited by Eliezer Ben-Rafael and Elana Shohamy
[Linguistic Landscape 2:3] 2016
► pp. 223–246

Connecting visual presents to archival pasts in multilingual California

Towards historical depth in Linguistic Landscape

| Sonoma State University

Linguistic Landscape (LL) research has emerged as an approach to document and analyze language use in public spaces in present-day multilingual California and elsewhere in the world. This paper extends the conceptual and methodological frame of LL beyond the visual, ethnographic present. It seeks to create dialogue between text-oriented archival research into historical contexts of language and identity, and the present-oriented ethnographic focus of LL grounded in current sociolinguistic, applied linguistic, anthropological, and educational research. Building upon research into monuments and memorialization, this paper develops “memorization” to conceptualize the multilayered historicity, intertextuality and materiality that commit to public memory linguistic, political, and educational discourses — with their constitutive ideologies, practices, and policies — designed to “make the past present for the future” in public space. This paper offers an interdisciplinary perspective on the memorization of the colonial Spanish missions in California and the 2015 canonization of their founder, Junípero Serra. Several methodological opportunities and challenges for LL are discussed for critically connecting present and past landscapes of multilingualism, and their future ethical implications.

Keywords: Spanish, Junípero Serra, Hispanidad, California, multilingualism, historicity, indigenous languages, intertextuality, indigeneity
Published online: 3 March 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.2.3.02tra
References
Arroyo de la Cuesta, F
(1837) Lengua de California: Santa Ynez, Calif., 1837. Part one: “Lecciones de Indios” (BANC MSS C-C 63a). Berkeley, CA: Bancroft Library.Google Scholar
Assmann, A
(2008) Transformations between history and memory. Social Research, 75(1), 49–72.Google Scholar
Bauman, R
(2004) A World of others’ words: Cross-Cultural perspectives on intertextuality. Malden, MA: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Benjamin, W
(2007) Illuminations. New York: Schocken Books.Google Scholar
Blommaert, J
(2005) Discourse : A critical introduction. New York; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013) Ethnography, superdiversity and linguistic landscapes: Chronicles of complexity. Bristol UK; Buffalo, NY: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
California, State of.
(2016) CalEdFacts. Retrieved 15 February 2016, from [URL]Google Scholar
Cañellas Mas, A
(2014) Las Políticas del Instituto de Cultura Hispánica, 1947-1953. Historia actual online (HAO), 33 (Invierno), 77–91. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from [URL]Google Scholar
Castillo, E
(2015) A cross of thorns: The enslavement of California’s Indians by the Spanish missions. Fresno, CA: Craven Street.Google Scholar
Coronel, A.F
(1884a) Oration-given by Antonio F. Coronel on August 22 (28?) 1884 on the 100th anniversary of the death of Father Junipero Serra. Antonio F. Coronel (1817-1894) Papers (Coronel #416 General Collection 1001). Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
(1884b) Father Junipero Serra. Los Angeles Daily Herald 28 August 1884 Retrieved 18 December 2015, from [URL]Google Scholar
Deverell, W.F
(2004) Whitewashed adobe: The rise of Los Angeles and the remaking of its Mexican past. Berkeley: University of California Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Diffie, B.W
(1943) The ideology of hispanidad. The Hispanic American Historical Review, 23(3), 457–482. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, M
(2015) Presidential address 2015-negotiating sites of memory. PMLA. Publications of the Modern Languages Association of America, 130(3), 546–565. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Golla, V
(2011) California Indian languages. Berkeley: University of California Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haas, L
(2014) Saints and citizens: Indigenous histories of colonial missions and Mexican California. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hackel, S.W
(2013) Junípero Serra: California’s founding father. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Hartog, F
(2015) Regimes of historicity: Presentism and experiences of time. New York: Columbia University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heidenreich, L
(2007) “This Land Was Mexican Once”: Histories of resistance from Northern California. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Holson, L.M
(2015, September 30). Sainthood of Junípero Serra reopens wounds of colonialism in California. The New York Times, p. A1.Google Scholar
Jackson, H.H
(1883a, May). Father Junipero and his work. A sketch of the foundation, prosperity, and ruin of the Franciscan missions in California. I. The Century Magazine, 261, 3–18.Google Scholar
(1883b, December). Echoes in the city of the Angels. The Century Magazine, 271, 194–210.Google Scholar
Jacob, W.J., Cheng, S.Y., & Porter, M.K
(2015) Global review of indigenous education: Issues of identity, culture, and language. In W.J. Jacob, S.Y. Cheng, & M.K. Porter (Eds.), Indigenous education: Language, culture and identity (pp. 1–35). New York: Springer Dordrecht.Google Scholar
Jalon, A
(1985, April 4). Spaniard seeks adventure on mission trail. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 July 2016, from [URL]Google Scholar
Jaworski, A., & Thurlow, C
(Eds.) (2010 ) Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Koselleck, R
(2002) The practice of conceptual history: Timing history, spacing concepts. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Madley, B
(2016) An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian catastrophe, 1846-1873. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Maeztu, R. de
(1934) Defensa de la hispanidad. Madrid: Gráfica Universal.Google Scholar
Makoni, S., & Pennycook, A
(2005) Disinventing and (Re)constituting languages. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 2(3), 137–156. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McWilliams, C
(1968) North from Mexico: The Spanish-speaking people of the United States. New York: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Moya-Smith, S
(2015, September 23). Junípero Serra no era ningún santo. CNN. Retrieved 24 September 2015, from [URL]Google Scholar
Nolte, C
(2015, September 22). Ohlone descendant to recite native language at Serra ceremony. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 24 September 2015, from [URL]Google Scholar
Nora, P
(1984) Entre Mémoire et Histoire: La problématique des lieux. In P. Nora (Ed.), Les Lieux de Mémoire. I. La République (pp. xvi–xlii). Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Palou, F
(1787) Relación histórica de la vida y apostólicas tareas del Venerable Padre Fray Junípero Serra. México: Felipe de Zúñiga y Ontiveros.Google Scholar
Pavlenko, A., & Mullen, A
(2015) Why diachronicity matters in the study of linguistic landscapes. Linguistic Landscape, 1(1-2), 114–132. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Payeras, M.F
(1819) CMD 1794 Payeras to Lopez. San Juan Capistrano. 10/14/1819. California Misssion Documents (CMD 1794). Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Barbara Mission Archives Library.Google Scholar
Phillips, K
(2003) Helen Hunt Jackson: A literary life. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Pratt, M.L
(2008) Imperial eyes: Travel writing and transculturation (2nd ed.). London ; New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Renan, E
(2011) Qu’est-ce qu’une nation? Paris: Flammarion.Google Scholar
Rosaldo, R
(1993) Culture and truth: The remaking of social analysis: With a new introduction. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Rosales, F.A
(1996) “Fantasy heritage” Reexamined: Race and class in the writings of the Bandini family authors and other Californios, 1828-1965. In E. Gonzales-Berry & C. Tatum (Eds.), Recovering the U. S. Hispanic literary heritage, Volume 21 (pp. 81–104). Houston: Arte Público Press.Google Scholar
Rubdy, R., & Said, S.B
(Eds.) (2015) Conflict, exclusion and dissent in the linguistic landscape. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rumbaut, R.G
(2009) A language Graveyard? The evolution of language competencies, preferences and use among young adult children of immigrants. In T.G. Wiley, J.S. Lee, & R. Rumberger (Eds.), The education of language minority immigrants in the United States (pp. 35–71). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sánchez, G.J
(1995) Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, culture, and identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shohamy, E., & Waksman, S
(2009) Linguistic landscape as an ecological arena: Modalities, meanings, negotiations, education. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (pp. 313–332). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
(2010) Building the nation, writing the past: History and textuality at the Ha’apala memorial in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. In A. Jaworski & C. Thurlow (Eds.), Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space (pp. 241–255). London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Spain, Jefatura del Estado., & Franco, F
(1940) Ley de 2 de noviembre de 1940 por la que se crea el Consejo de la Hispanidad. Boletín Oficial del Estado, Volume 3121, (pp. 7649). Madrid.Google Scholar
Sulek, J.P
(2015 02/07/15) Junipero Serra: Saint or sinner? Canonization has foes in California. Los Angeles Daily News. Retrieved 24 September 2015, from [URL]Google Scholar
Train, R.W
(2007) ‘Real Spanish’: Historical perspectives on the ideological construction of a (foreign) language. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 4(2-3), 207–235. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2011) Recovering Spanish language education in Alta California: Ecologies, ideologies and intertexualities. In G. Baeza Ventura & C. Lomas (Eds.), Recovering the U.S. Hispanic literary heritage, Volume VIII1 (pp. 99–120). Houston: Arte Público Press.Google Scholar
(2012) Localizing archival memories of Spanish language education in California, engaging with the multilingual histories of the present. L2 Journal, 4(1), 124–141. Retrieved from [URL]. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Trouillot, M.-R
(1995) Silencing the past : Power and the production of history. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 9 other publications

Alamillo, Rosalva
2022. Spanish heritage speakers’ perception of use and socio-geographical distribution of Spanish in public spaces of San Diego county. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Buchstaller, Isabelle & Małgorzata Fabiszak
2021. Editorial: ideology and commemoration in the urban space. Linguistics Vanguard 7:s5 DOI logo
Buchstaller, Isabelle, Małgorzata Fabiszak, Seraphim Alvanides, Anna Weronika Brzezińska & Patryk Dobkiewicz
2023. Commemorative city-texts: Spatio-temporal patterns in street names in Leipzig, East Germany and Poznań, Poland. Language in Society ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Buchstaller, Isabelle, Carolin Schneider & Seraphim Alvanides
2023. Towards a taxonomy of arguments for and against street renaming. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 9:1 ► pp. 5 ff. DOI logo
Huebner, Thom & Supakorn Phoocharoensil
2017. Monument as semiotic landscape. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 3:2 ► pp. 101 ff. DOI logo
Jocuns, Andrew
2021. The Geosemiotics of a Thai University: The narratives embedded in schoolscapes. Linguistics and Education 61 ► pp. 100902 ff. DOI logo
Kitsiou, Roula & Stella Bratimou
2024. “No quarantine to workers’ rights”: Recontextualizing Labour Day Commemoration in the Semiotic Landscape of a Pandemic Demonstration. In The COVID-19 Pandemic and Memory [Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies, ], ► pp. 133 ff. DOI logo
Moore, Irina
2019. Vilnius memoryscape. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 5:3 ► pp. 248 ff. DOI logo
Simungala, Gabriel & Hambaba Jimaima
2021. Sociocultural narratives and the anthropomorphic power of agency in a semiotic landscape. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 39:2 ► pp. 195 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.