Converging Languages in a World of Conflicts: Code-switching in Chicano Poetry

Abstract

The contact and interaction of English and Spanish, of Mexican and Anglo-American cultures, lies at the heart of the Chicano experience in the United States. Accordingly, code-switching has been a salient feature of many Chicano literary works. The simultaneous incorporation of both languages into poetry and other artistic forms is sometimes interpreted as an expression of the ambiguity permeating the historical evolution of this people. However, it can also be explained as part of the Chicanos’ attempt to achieve cultural definition and autonomy in a conflicting reality.