ABSTRACT
This essay draws a pedagogical experience in Spanish and English language classrooms in the Midwest, first at a large research institution and then at a regional university. Linguistic theories provide scholars authors work with and the students teach with the tools they need to examine code switching in Latino/a literature. The readings give students a clear idea of the importance of the Spanish language to the newly annexed Latino/a populations and bring to light the language attitudes that color language debates today. Participants who hold prescriptivist, anti-Spanglish beliefs will indicate that they would not say any of the phrases. Generations of speakers of Spanglish stand to lose or gain from a linguistically informed perspective of Spanglish. I begin by asking my students to provide linguistic evidence from the texts that describe the relationships between four dyads: Mother-daughters, Father-daughters, Mother-Father, daughters-daughters in this witty novel.
