ABSTRACT
In this chapter I analyze the discursive landscape at the public hospital in Buenos Aires where I conducted my fieldwork. Its main purpose is to understand the tension between an institution which presents itself as monolingual and monoglossic and a number of actors who are diverse and navigate the public space through an invisible landscape that is not publicly visible, but audible. Through discourse landscape analysis, ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews, I describe a double process of privatization of public communication and invisibilization of linguistic diversity in the public space. Between both extremes, mediators such as health workers or migrant’s siblings are the ones who actually allow people to understand the hospital and access healthcare.
