ABSTRACT
While Spanish and Portuguese are typically regarded as the natural tongues of Latin American literature, works by translingual authors tell a more complicated story in which Amerindian and other European languages play multiple roles. In colonial times, for instance, authors forsake their native Quechua for Spanish to reach prominent European readers, while Spanish speakers occasionally write in Nahuatl or fully embrace Latin for its literary lineage. Since the mid-nineteenth century, often as an outcome of migration, writers searching for avant-garde forms or new readerships adopt French or English, even as indigenous authors continue to switch between Spanish and Amerindian languages.
