ABSTRACT
This chapter describes events and practices that took place in Ocongate, a small Andean town in Southern Peru. It emphasizes that women are not intimidated by the presence of men or village authorities. The chapter outlines the differences in the use of Spanish by men and women in Ocongate and argues that people may use more or less Spanish at different times of their lives. It demonstrates how certain discursive practices associated with the constitution of racial or ethnic identities articulate with salient representations of masculinity and femininity. The use of a gendered idiom to articulate racial domination makes it difficult for women to become confident bilingual speakers. The chapter argues that the differences in the speech of men and women lie in the latent meanings that affect the way in which talk is interpreted. Before looking in detail at Quechua and Spanish usage, it is worth considering the ways in which silence operates as a meaningful aspect of communication.
