Bilinguals and Borders: Patrolling Languages and Identities on the US-Mexico Border

Despite their envied bilingual and bicultural capital, college students who have spent years living and studying in both San Diego and Tijuana (transfronterizos), struggle with conflicting constructions of language and identity that are the result of rigid national and language borders. In particular, intra-sentential code switching, or Spanglish, is frowned upon, because that way of speaking is identified with el hablar mocho de los pochos [‘chopped up Mexican American speech’]. Transfronterizo attempts to distinguish themselves from monolinguals on both sides of the border suggest the creation of a “Migra Bilingüe”, or language border patrollers, akin to the federal agents who track the undocumented. The hierarchy of authenticity that results among Mexicano-Americanos in an era of heightened English-only fervor parallels the Boricua-Nuyorican pattern in several significant ways.