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Abstract
Inspired by Hill's work on the uses of Spanish among Anglo-Americans, this article exposes ‘Household Spanish’ as a discursive site for the reproduction of racism and social order. Also called ‘domestic’ discourse, this use of Spanish consists largely of one-way directives given by native English-speaking, middle-to-upper class homeowners who intend to ‘communicate’ with their Spanish-speaking housekeepers and gardeners. This domestic discourse has, for many years, been taught and sold as pocket-sized mini-textbooks; these are tremendously appreciated by busy, time-tied homeowners for their brevity and approachability. The author investigates one such text so popular that it has been newly republished. A critical look into Harvey's Household Spanish aims to provide an introduction to the teaching and culture of domestic discourse, including a historical overview of the US Spanish-speaking domestic labor force. Discussions of indexicality and the elevation of Whiteness follow, as well as, of course, close discourse analyses of particular Household Spanish examples.
Notes
1 Fishman Citation(1991) in fact, addresses similar ideas of language as strategically and socio-politically functional, although in specific reference to schools as sites for language revitalization.
2 Hill was also referring to what she labels ‘Cowboy’ and ‘nouvelle’ registers (Citation1993, p. 147).
3 It is interesting, however, that Harvey does feature subsections labeled El Superespañol (usually found at the end of chapters, and independent from lists of commands) where he has readers memorize sentences that include phrases like ‘favor de’ and ‘debe Ud.’ However, he encourages readers to practice these ‘key phrases’ in order to enhance confidence and fluency (‘in order to raise your language skills to a whole new level,’ p. 29)—not as means of indexing politeness and/or respect.
4 Reader reviews, as retrieved from the Internet on 3/28/05, are copied verbatim (including any errors in spelling, grammar, style, spacing, etc.). Besides their written editorial, readers provide a numerical rating for the book (on a scale of 1 to 5 ‘stars’), a title for their review, and a name (sometimes an alias) and/or location. Amazon.com automatically stamps the date of when the review was written.
5 Readers of Harvey's book may choose to follow along with Household Spanish audiocassette tapes. While Harvey and Barron's produce these tapes, they are sold separately from the text itself. Admittedly, I was unable to access and listen to these tapes.
6 According to my colleague Elise DuBord (a doctoral student and instructor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Arizona), carne de vaca is a highly unusual translation for ‘beef.’ For some, Harvey's choice literally reads as ‘cow meat,’ as opposed to the term carne de res, more commonly used in Mexican and US/Mexico borderland Spanish. However, a reviewer for this paper maintains that carne de vaca is indeed used in regions of Latin America to distinguish ‘beef … as a specific cut of cow meat …’ from other meats, ‘such as pollo (‘chicken’) and carne de cerdo' (‘pork’).
7 It should be noted that ‘parte del tiempo’ does not necessarily translate to ‘part time’ (as in ‘part-time’ work/labor). In this context, expressions such as medio tiempo (half time), cuarto tiempo (quarter time) and tiempo completo would be more fitting. (Thanks to Dr. Jane Hill for reminding me of this!)
8 I presume here that Cohen has mistakenly omitted an accent mark, which, if placed over the ‘i’ in ‘sí,’ would re-translate the phrase as ‘Yes, I like it.’
9 Harvey fails to properly cite any scholarship that suggests such ‘exciting news.’
10 The idea that Spanish is easy to understand has solidified as a widespread notion, a particularly marketable ‘hook’ for US monolinguals interested in learning the language quickly. While an exploration of this topic is certainly beyond the scope of this paper, a simple google.com search of the key phrase ‘Spanish is easy’ (retrieved 7/5/05) returns over 14 million Web sites. A large majority of these advertise books, tutorials and online courses which casually teach Spanish to English-speaking beginners. Unforgettablespanish.com proclaims: ‘Learn Spanish really fast. An astonishingly fast and easy way to learn Spanish. Words just stick’ (http://www.google.com/search?q=spanish + is + easy&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&start=0&sa=N, retrieved 7/5/05).
11 In her research, Hill points specifically to the term no problemo as Mock Spanish (under the idea that monolingual Anglos feel free to add the suffix o to turn any English word to ‘create’ their version of chic, colloquial Spanish). While Harvey correctly substitutes problema for the Mock problemo, his intentions to quaintly ‘toss in’ a Spanish ‘phrase’ at the end of his congenial preface (which suggests that Spanish and the people that speak it are imperfect and simple) index the same pejorative stereotypes associated with the use of Mock Spanish.