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date: 26 January 2021

Abstract and Keywords

This article reflects on the importance of language studies as an essential yet forgotten portal through which to appreciate politics, society, and culture. Written in an accessible tone in direct response to the insistently obtuse academic style that isolates such explorations from the reading public, it looks at grammar, semantics, syntax, and lexicography as interconnected disciplines always linked to the history and currents defining culture. Structurally, the article is divided into two parts: the first part is a personal reflection of linguistics as a discipline; the second is a proposal for a never-before attempted history of the Spanish language written from the perspective of a Latino scholar.

Keywords: Latino identity, language, philology, Spanglish, Spanish

Ilan Stavans

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. His books include The Hispanic Condition (1995), On Borrowed Words (2001), Spanglish (2003), Love and Language (2007), and Gabriel García Márquez: The Early Years (2010). He is the editor of The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories (1998), The Poetry of Pablo Neruda (2003), the 3-volume set of Isaac Bashevis Singer: Collected Stories (2004), Becoming Americans (2009), The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature (2010), and The FSG Books of 20th-Century Latin American Poetry (2011). His play The Disappearance, performed by the theater troupe Double Edge, premiered at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles and has been shown around the world. His story “Morirse está en hebreo” was made into the award-winning movie My Mexican Shivah (2007), produced by John Sayles. Stavans has received numerous awards, among them a Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Jewish Book Award, the Southwest Children Book of the Year Award, an Emmy nomination, the Latino Book Award, Chile’s Presidential Medal, the Rubén Darío Distinction, and the Cátedra Roberto Bolaño. He was the host of the syndicated PBS show Conversations with Ilan Stavans (2001-2006). His work has been translated into a dozen languages.

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