ABSTRACT
In a 2014 article in the journal Latino Studies, Ana Celia Zentella calls on Latino studies scholars to conduct research on Latinos and language. She states: Latino studies scholars have a leading role to play in opening the nation's linguistic and cultural borders. The chapter discusses some pivotal studies that have explored the intersections between sociolinguistics and Latino studies. It explores how sociolinguistics and Latino studies scholarship has responded to prejudicial, status quo notions of Latino ways of speaking, and has sought to bring awareness to the discriminatory repercussions inherent in such ideology since the 1980s. The chapter turns to more recent scholarship since the start of the 2000s exploring the incursions of both linguistic anthropology and discursive analysis in issues of Latino language. It suggests future directions towards understanding the role of Spanish and English in Latino lives and examples of productive advocacy that sociolinguists and Latino studies scholars have undertaken to advance language rights in the Latino community.
