The literacy practices of transfronterizos in a multilingual world

Abstract

This introduction provides the background for this special issue by first describing the US–Mexico border, a fascinating context in which to research issues related to Spanish–English biliteracy and multilingualism. We present main points in the prevailing discussion within the field of literacy studies about issues of multilingualism and local–global contexts of literacy. Drawing from literature on transnational literacy, we examine arguments about the recontextualization of texts and literacy practices. In this volume, authors demonstrate how texts, linguistic practices, and discourses are part of the fluid traffic across the US–Mexico border. In the course of analyzing transfronterizo literacy practices, the articles take into account local and global contexts of literacy from different perspectives, such as colonia studies, genre studies, disciplinary discourses and identity, notions of time and space, the continua of biliteracy, and the new literacy studies. Because we see ourselves as border educators and researchers, informing educational practice in sites where these issues emerge as everyday events is the broader intent of this special issue.

Keywords:

• literacy practices
• border
• mutilingualism
• transnationalism
• bilingual