ABSTRACT
In order to examine the complex usage of languages in Latino fiction, it will be necessary to look at the Latino writer’s attitudes toward both English and Spanish. English is the language of the center in Latino fiction, and generally points to the United States. Latino writers nearly always display affection for the Spanish of their Latin American heritage. To explore further the dynamics of the Latino writer’s hybrid language, it seems sensible to examine how translations influence specific Latino stories or novels. The inner voice of the Latino may therefore rise up through linguistic distortions of accepted language, but Latino writers also guide readers beyond language toward the non-verbal. Latino characters share a general distrust of words, particularly the written word. Standing in the margins, the Latino writer feels a conflicting need to dismantle and critique two dominant languages at the same time since both are saturated with Anglo- European perspectives on life.
