Language and Meaning

Each language expresses meaning in a different way. Words are chosen to express thoughts and feelings within specific cultural contexts. I think we can find this in the books we have read so far. This falls under the field of linguistic anthropology, of which I don’t know much of. But the collection of books we have read pinpoint main pillars of meaning in each of the communities they focus on, and how that meaning is conveyed. Down these mean streets puts a lot of emphasis on how race can be changed through language; Squatter and the Don we can denote the power of the accent and how it influences social prejudices; in this novel as well we find that being rich surpasses an accent; and, overall, we notice the trend that all three authors specifically choose not to translate certain words.

First, in Down these mean streets we find that being Puerto Rican and a Spanish Speaker classifies Piri as a non-Black man. This is how he is granted access into the brothel, in pretending that he didn’t understand English. This magically “erases” the fact that he is black, his appearance is transformed through language. The opposite occurs when he forcefully imitates a southern accent to irritate his father. His father was in denial of the American conception of being black, which was immediately associated with the South. Gerald is another character that has the power to change his appearance through language. Because he has some Puerto Rican ascendency and knows some Spanish, he claims it as his identity. He has a wider range of choices due to being of “lighter tone” as well. On the opposite side, a character like Brew shows us how solid identity can be, for apparently has no choice to choose to be something he is not, and that is what he advocates for the whole time. Only speaking English and being from down south he checks all the boxes for the stereotype set for him by society, and he wants Piri to be the same.

Second, in Squatter and the Don there is the part where Mercedes goes to a Ball. She is advised to imitate a French accent because she and her family would be recognized for, they would immediately be associated with their accent. She is advised to either do an Irish brogue or a French accent. Even among accents there is a hierarchy as to which is more refined, “she passed herself of as a stammering French girl, who was very talkative, (…) maintaining her rôle so well (…)” (ch.21). When her family lost all their prospects, they were immediately rejected from their social circles and forever pinned as foreign due to their accent and language, which stereotypically labels them as aliens. Here language serves as a tool for either inclusion or alienation.

Lastly, we see that in both of these novels there are sets of words in Spanish. These are kept because if translated to English the phrase or expression would lose its meaning, its purpose in a specific context. Piri mentions the importance the barrio de noche in the prologue and his mundo, these words used in Spanish evoke emotion in a different way than in English, not only that they might be also used by an insider community, by other boys and men in the barrio. Words evoke sense of community, of belonging. We see this in the use of the diminutive for personal names and nicknames Carlito, Negrito. As we noticed in both these books, language outlines the barriers between cultures. Piri is reminded of that constantly, the same goes for the Alamar family.