Racialized Identities in Second Language Learning: Speaking Blackness in Brazil 9780367197469, 9781138927780

Table of contents :
Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Dedication......Page 6
Contents......Page 8
Acknowledgements......Page 9
Introduction: Why a Book on Race in Language Learning?......Page 10
1 The African American Experience in Language Study: A Review of the Research......Page 18
2 Translanguaging Identities......Page 33
3 Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research......Page 50
4 Nina’s Story: Race and Ethnicity in Classrooms and Outside......Page 67
5 Didier’s Story: Translanguaging Black Manhood in Multicultural Contexts......Page 98
6 Leti’s Story: The Racialized, Gendered, and Social Classed Body......Page 136
7 Rose’s Story: Redefining Participation and Success......Page 179
8 Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language......Page 226
Bibliography......Page 242
Index......Page 260

Citation preview

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Racialized Identities in Second Language Learning

This compelling and erudite volume should be required reading for foreign language educators and study abroad professionals. —Celeste Kinginger, Department of Applied Linguistics, Pennsylvania State University, USA

This book provides a critical overview and original sociolinguistic analysis of the African American experience in second language learning. More broadly, this book introduces the idea of second language learning as “transformative socialization”: how learners, instructors, and their communities shape new communicative selves as they collaboratively construct and negotiate race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and social class identities. Uju Anya’s study follows African American college students learning Portuguese in Afro-Brazilian communities and their journeys in learning to do and speak blackness in Brazil. Video-recorded interactions, student journals, interviews, and writing assignments show how multiple intersecting identities are enacted and challenged in second language learning. Thematic, critical, and conversation analyses describe ways black Americans learn to speak their material, ideological, and symbolic selves in Portuguese and how linguistic action reproduces or resists power and inequity. The book addresses key questions on how learners can authentically and effectively participate in classrooms and target language communities to show that black students’ racialized identities and investments in these communities greatly influence their success in second language learning and how successful others perceive them to be. Uju Anya is Assistant Professor of Second Language Learning in the College of Education at Pennsylvania State University.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Routledge Advances in Second Language Studies Edited by John Hellermann and Søren Wind Eskildsen

1 Racialized Identities in Second Language Learning Speaking Blackness in Brazil Uju Anya

Racialized Identities in Second Language Learning Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Speaking Blackness in Brazil

Uju Anya

First published 2017 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Taylor & Francis The right of Uju Anya to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-138-92778-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-68228-0 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

For my mother Marie Shirley Anya, my best and most beloved teacher

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Contents

Acknowledgements

1

viii

Introduction: Why a Book on Race in Language Learning?

1

The African American Experience in Language Study: A Review of the Research

9

2

Translanguaging Identities

24

3

Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research

41

4

Nina’s Story: Race and Ethnicity in Classrooms and Outside

58

Didier’s Story: Translanguaging Black Manhood in Multicultural Contexts

89

5

6

Leti’s Story: The Racialized, Gendered, and Social Classed Body

127

7

Rose’s Story: Redefining Participation and Success

170

8

Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language

217

Bibliography Index

233 251

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my husband Robert Vaindiner for, simply, everything. I could not have successfully managed my teaching responsibilities and finished this book without his love, patience, encouragement, unwavering support, and all the work he did caring for our children, our home, and taking away my worries. I thank my mentors Susan Plann and Celeste Kinginger, who nurture both my personal wellbeing and professional success. I thank Bonny Norton, who refused formal credit, but generously lent her time and expertise to reshaping and liberating my ideas at the beginning of the project. I thank my series editors John Hellermann and Søren Wind Eskildsen for including my book in their vision and providing me with so many thoughtful, invaluable ideas to improve it. I thank my original publishing editor Margo Irvin for her initial work on the project, Elysse Preposi for seeing it through to publication, and Routledge/Taylor & Francis for the resources and institutional support to make it all happen. Finally, and most importantly, I would like to express my boundless gratitude to the participants of the study upon which the book is based for generously allowing me such intimate access to their ideas and experiences. Thank you!

Introduction

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Why a Book on Race in Language Learning?

The Barack Obama era of our history in the United States, ushered in by the hitherto unimaginable election of the first (and two-term!) African American president, contributed to a renewed sociopolitical focus on blackness, group identity, and personal agency. Obama’s election also reinforced for some the idea that we reached a “post-racial” era in American history where problems of inequity can no longer be convincingly linked to race. However, while there has been profound improvement in race relations and material conditions in this country, when comparing the present with not even as far back as fifty or sixty years ago, glaring race-based disparities in opportunity, treatment, and achievement still persist. The disparities remain alongside outright terrorism and violence against blacks, as was seen in the South Carolina mass shooting and church burnings in the summer of 2015, the white supremacist shooting at a Black Lives Matter gathering in Minnesota that autumn, and the beatings meted out to black protesters by rage-filled white attendees of Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump’s political rallies during the tumultuous 2016 election season. These conditions and incidents do not escape the notice of anyone with access to mass media, Internet, and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, which have become formidable platforms to publicize and debate issues of race and racial injustice. With the now ubiquitous cell phone cameras, members of black communities plagued by police abuse record the events, post them online, and provide evidence contradicting official denials and cover-ups to challenge public characterizations of victims as “thugs” deserving of sanction through justifiable force. Increased mainstream attention on cases like these and their widespread discussion from more diverse and democratized perspectives disabuse us of the notion that electing a black president signaled our evolution into a color-blind society. The new forums for public debate on race where the cases are made widely known also serve as staging areas for political activism to create awareness of pervasive racial inequity, organize public manifestations to demand institutional change, and build movements around calls for justice. These forums lend support to serious deliberation on race in the United States, not merely in response to individual episodes of racial discrimination but

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

2

Introduction

also as an indictment of the systemic racism that marginalizes and subordinates African Americans in major societal institutions, creating conditions for disparities in outcomes within them. With the exception of law enforcement and the criminal justice system, nowhere else are these inequities as apparent as in the field of education, where, for example, we observe abysmally low rates of participation and advancement of African American students in foreign language programs, coupled with their woeful underrepresentation in applied linguistics and second language learning research (see Brigman & Jacobs, 1981; Davis & Markham, 1991; Davis, 1992; Moore, 2005; Watterson, 2011; Glynn, 2012; Charle Poza, 2013; Gatlin, 2013). To address the inequity found in both academic language study and language learning research, this book shares knowledge gained from the experiences of some blacks who did advance to completion of a language program, and from these students, we learn what it takes to be a success as an African American multilingual.

Doing Race and Speaking Blackness Race typically describes a group sharing phenotypic characteristics (e.g., skin color, facial features, hair texture) that set it apart from other groups. This type of human categorization was originally proposed in 1735 by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus and elaborated upon in 1776 by German anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, whose treatise On the Natural Varieties of Mankind introduced the terms “Caucasian,” “Mongolian,” “Ethiopian,” “American,” and “Malay” for purposes of racial classification (for a detailed account of this history, see Snipp, 2010). Blumenbach’s nomenclature gave birth to a variety of terms that fall in and out of favor, but maintain the underlying notion that the fullest and most significant range of human difference is encoded on our skin, nose, lips, hair, and eyes. Ethnicity can be defined as membership in group(s) sharing common kinship ties, history, nationality, language, culture, with the most important characteristic of the group(s) being a belief in their very existence as a group (Waters, 1990). As such, it is inherently not fixed, serving instead as a form of social positioning or what Anderson (1991) called an “imagined community.” However, to clarify usage in this book, the ethno-racial identification of an African American and an African differ in that, while they may both be black in racial terms, they originate from very different ethnic backgrounds. With regard to race, it bears mention that any understanding of it as fixed and stable because of its origin in perceived ancestral differences is incomplete. Such an essentialist or biological conception of race is complicated by the social perception of and belief in those types of differences as significant enough to warrant value-laden categorization. In other words, belief in the significance of race is primarily what makes it real, and the manifestations and import of the differentiation vary wildly. Thus, as Omi and Winant (1994) and Moya and Markus (2010), I negate the biological significance of racial categories,

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Introduction

3

because they are easily invalidated by social context, and they function much more powerfully as formative, socially constructed, individual, and institutional agents. In this view, race is a social practice we do, not some quality we have or are. We do race, because we use certain physical characteristics or associated stereotypified behaviors as the basis for group categorization and the justification of hierarchy, privilege, and inequity. Hence race functions mostly as racism and racialization (Miles, 1989, 1993), which appropriates fixed and stable elements of our identities, such as physical appearance and ancestry, in ideological and social ways that result in real, organizational, and institutional structures; material conditions; and inequality. Apartheid in South Africa was one such real manifestation of ideological racialized othering, which was painfully suffered in the bodies and lives of the segregated and disenfranchised black majority. The separation of the races and marginalization of black people were based upon specious criteria that the white ruling minority declared fixed, biologically deterministic, and infallible. But at the same time, the South African government still found enough space and flexibility to grant Japanese immigrants the category and privileges of “honorary whites” (Osada, 2002) as a magnanimous gesture made to court Japanese business interests and much-needed trade agreements. Similarly, according to Stuart Hall (2006), commonly held notions of blackness racializes and joins all sorts of disparate people into one equivalent by inscribing their histories into their skins. But he reminds us, “It is not because of their skins that they are Black in their heads” (p. 53). That is to say, blackness is defined by the contextualized, racialized experiences we live while having black skin, not the actual skin itself. This book describes the personal transformation experienced by black American participants of a university Portuguese language study abroad program in Brazil. The students learn to live and speak Portuguese through living and speaking their multiple identities. These identities are racialized in significant ways because of the centrality of blackness in African American lives and the location of the program in a majority Afro-Brazilian city. For example, the students learn about linguistic, historical, sociocultural, ideological, and political filters through which seemingly simple choices such as racial self-categorization must pass, along with the racialized gender and social class implications of their options. Furthermore, opportunities to practice their skills in Portuguese are presented and mediated by race. This process of shaping racialized selves through which they understand and communicate their identities according to existing and newly gained understandings is what I refer to as learning to speak blackness. Ultimately, the African American students’ development in the new language is mutually constitutive of their growth into new consciousness of how to do and how to be black in this new context. Through experiences and participation in different communities within and outside classrooms, the students are transformed into new ways of understanding, doing, and speaking blackness in Brazil.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

4

Introduction

In this book, I illustrate how black students navigate language learning and multilingualism to discuss ways to duplicate conditions that engender their success and ameliorate circumstances that impede it. I reject deficit ideas that ponder why African Americans may be unmotivated, uninterested, or unable to excel in multilingualism and ask, instead, how language learning can be a personally relevant, meaningful journey in self-discovery and transformation for black students. African American lives are powerfully mediated by race and fundamentally shaped by racialized consciousness and identities. Experiences in learning a new language are no exception to this reality, because black students’ racialized identities and investments in multilingualism impact how successful they become or how successful others perceive them to be in language learning. Of course, in terms of universal cognitive processes, blacks do not learn languages any differently than anyone else. However, the individuality of the black experience makes for unique sociocultural and sociolinguistic perspectives in language learning, which we should understand and take into consideration if we seek to encourage more African Americans to participate and thrive in our field. Keeping in mind the ideal to attract and retain more black students in language and cultural study programs, my main goals in this book are to show that 1) learning a new language is transformative socialization, which is how learners, instructors, and their communities enact new communicative selves as they collaboratively construct and negotiate multiple identities; 2) African American students’ language learning is mediated by racialized identities that shape their participation in different communities; and 3) black students’ investments in participation within these communities lead to the success they achieve or are seen to have achieved in language learning. In addition to these primary goals, I also have the secondary objectives to show how 1) a multilingual approach to theory and practice in new language learning can be reconciled with the monolingual bias of foreign language study, 2) findings from the research project described in this book can inform language pedagogy, 3) study abroad programs can work to attract and better serve the needs of African American participants, 4) applied linguistics and second language learning research can promote antiracist and feminist goals, and 5) service-learning can serve as praxis for meaningful identity transformation when learning a new language. In this book, I focus on discourse, interaction, and participation within communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) as the primary contexts through which I examine identity in language learning. This focus derives from my sociocultural and sociolinguistic approach to language learning research, which prioritizes discourse and interactions as the primary sites where we shape and negotiate identity. The study upon which the book is based was also conducted from a critical perspective that calls attention to the fundamental influence of sociopolitical, historical, cultural, and ideological contexts, power, and dominance in interaction to challenge oppression and make proposals for change. Greater details on the approach

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Introduction

5

are provided in Chapter 3, but, broadly, critical language researchers assume an explicit position and make plain the principles and agendas that drive our work. We also incorporate detailed narration in the presentation of our research, telling personal stories and experiential accounts of how the issues we address originate from lived realities and profoundly impact our study participants and us as human beings. In this way, our approach rejects notions of descriptive neutrality and pretensions toward objective, apolitical, and, as Kress (1991) describes them, “value-free scientific practices.” However, while openly demonstrating our commitment to issues beyond our particular academic discipline, critical language researchers still strive for methodological rigor—a goal we believe is strengthened by this very openness and full disclosure of the sociopolitical agenda that orients our work. I conduct critical applied linguistics research to promote an antiracist and feminist sociopolitical agenda. I seek to highlight the marginalization of African Americans in the academic study of languages and propose solutions for how to include and encourage them in multilingualism through ways that engage their backgrounds, interests, and identities. I do this work because I recognize the cultural and socioeconomic value of multilingualism, and African Americans have been excluded from meaningful participation in foreign language education and equitable access to resources that reduce their isolation from our globalizing world. I endeavor to promote multilingualism among blacks, because most large urban areas in the United States have multilingual populations; qualification for and advancement in desirable jobs favor multilingual applicants, and vital peaceable, mutually beneficial coexistence among different groups is demonstrably benefited by linguistic and cultural openness and dexterity. Recently intensified national debates on race, institutional racism, ethnicity, immigration, identity, and demographic change in the United States make this book very timely. The personal significance of this book is also that it advances my Pan-Africanist goals of facilitating interchange and coalition building among members of African Diaspora communities in the Americas and Caribbean, whose historical and social commonalities can be leveraged to promote mutual understanding and political advancement. One participant in this study described a moment when her life paradigm and notions of blackness and community shifted. Quoted in the following extract are some thoughts she had while socializing with black Brazilians at a nightclub: Nina (from Week 10 Interview) And there’s been a time, you know, when I was in São Paulo and it was just an amazing thing. I remember just like looking around and being like, look at all these black people. You know? Speaking another language. Look at them. Look at them interacting. Look at them existing. Look at them. Look at these black people. And I don’t know why

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

6

Introduction I thought it was so interesting. You know, just seeing black people in another language. And I know, I think it has a lot to do with not a lot of blacks can afford to travel in the States and we don’t have these stories. We don’t give talks to each other about this. No one got to tell me that I would feel this way. There was no writing telling me that I would feel this way. You know, black people in the States just—you know that is a generalization and it’s a very true one—generally can’t afford to travel. So, you know, maybe that’s why it’s so odd. Because I’ve never been exposed to the fact that I was going to go somewhere and there was just going to be these black people looking, looking like me walking around, speaking another language. It’s sort of, even though I’ve been here, when I think about it, I think it’s so odd. And I tell my family, I’m like, I went to the club, you know, you know, kicking it, everybody’s black, speaking in Portuguese. They’re like, wow, that must be so weird. I’m like, well, you know, it kind of is. And it’s just, just—And you stare at them like, look at these black people.

Nina’s revelation is the sort of experience that I believe is important to make more accessible to African Americans. We must create more opportunities for them in language study abroad. We should build more programs for them to study African languages, but also make widespread changes in how we represent blacks as principal cultural agents in the languages that they are studying right now. This is not merely so African Americans can marvel at the fact that black people feature prominently among the populations that speak the Spanish and French languages the majority of them study in school. The changes will help counter both their perceptions and actual experience of cultural and historical isolation here in the Americas. This book shows how important such issues are to black students and demonstrates the benefits of engaging their racialized identities in language learning.

Structure of the Book To tell the story of African American college study abroad participants who undergo personal transformation learning Portuguese in Brazil, I start by describing the goals of the research project detailed in the book, which was conducted to address the underrepresentation of black students in language and cultural studies programs. In the first chapter to follow, I situate the participants’ journey within the African American experience in foreign language study, research on black students learning a new language, and sojourns abroad. I then describe the primary participants of the research project. I provide general background information on these students, their language learning history, and the preparatory courses and other groundwork that was laid for their participation in the Portuguese language study abroad program. Finally, in this first chapter, I provide some background on race in Brazil, its color hierarchy or pigmentocracy, and key ways in which

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Introduction

7

these differ from the U.S. context. I describe the city where the program is located, along with the different classrooms, activities, and local communities where the students interacted and participated in varied ways to develop their expertise in Portuguese. In Chapter 2, I present the theoretical foundations of the book. I describe the book’s conceptualization of languaging and translanguaging as social action and collaborative, contextualized, meaning-making, and identityshaping practices. I discuss the challenge of the monolingual bias in second language learning research and the paradox of the foreign language classroom, which remains ideologically and pedagogically bound to languages as independent and isolated systems, in contrast with the multilingual paradigm and communicative realities of our globalized world. Additionally, I describe how this book addresses the challenge by introducing multilingual processes and practices in understanding and supporting the development of linguistic expertise in a new language within a foreign context. I go on to introduce the notion of language learning as transformative socialization through which new communicative selves are shaped, and I present key ideas and research on race and the racialized identities and intersectional gender, sexual, and social class identities collaboratively structured and negotiated in this process. I then conclude with a discussion on the impact of social identities on students’ investments and participation in different learning-centered communities, which profoundly influence the outcomes that they experience learning a new language. I describe in Chapter 3 the methods of interpretive research that I used to conduct the study upon which this book is based. I discuss the antiracist sociopolitical agenda that drives my scholarship and the notions of critical research in applied linguistics, specifically, critical race theory (CRT) and critical language and race theory (LangCrit), informed by which I engage in academic scholarship to call attention to racism and race-based inequity in language education and to make proposals for change. I describe my positioning within the study as its fifth participant, and I tell my personal story to show how my multilingual, multinational, and multicultural background, family, and schooling history contributed to my questions and interest in conducting research on race and identity in language learning. I end the chapter by presenting questions that guided the study, how I went about gathering information to answer these questions, the thematic, descriptive, and critical discourse analysis methods with which I examined the data, and, finally, how these approaches are situated and understood within my field of inquiry. Chapters 4 through 7 are detailed examinations of the four main cases that comprise this study by telling the stories of the primary participants, Nina, Didier, Leti, and Rose. I describe experiences from their audio-recorded interviews, their personal and academic writings, and video-recorded episodes from classroom interactions that illustrate how the four study participants learned to speak blackness in Brazil. I discuss how diasporic affinity fueled

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

8

Introduction

by historic, social, and cultural similarities between African Americans and Afro-Brazilians incentivized and contributed to all four study participants’ investments in learning Portuguese and how their understandings of blackness clashed with Brazilian notions of race, nationality, and gender roles and performance, as well as social class. I discuss the participants’ attempts to understand and learn new practices in languaging cultural, religious, and sexual fluidity, along with their negotiations of material, ideological, and linguistic belonging in race-identified culture and language practices that are at the same time very familiar and completely new to their conceptions of blackness. I discuss how the participants managed challenges and difficulties in learning a new language and differences between their participation and treatment within multiple classroom and local Brazilian communities. I address the expectations and monolingual bias of the study abroad program and how some participants were positioned as weak or strong language learners, who did or did not measure up to strict standards. I then describe how the study participants clearly and appreciably developed in their linguistic expertise and made key communicative gains while interacting in communities where they felt more connected, comfortable, relaxed, and respected. The final chapter of the book is a discussion of the critical import of investments and communities in learning a new language, and I illustrate links between all the study participants’ racialized and intersectional identities, their choices and efforts, and participation in transformative socialization. I examine notions and realities of success in language learning and outline the implications of the cases discussed in previous chapters for programs to incentivize and foster meaningful, sustained, and successful participation in foreign language and cultural study among African American students. I return to the challenge of the monolingual bias in language learning research and discuss how educators can translate dynamic multilingualism into effective pedagogy and incorporate it into school-based language learning and teaching practices to engage students’ entire discursive repertoires to the benefit of new language expertise and to develop effective languaging strategies both at the emerging and experienced levels. In this last chapter, I go on to describe the value of a social justice orientation in applied linguistics, and I make proposals for changes in materials, curriculum, classroom practices, study abroad programming to promote greater diversity and inclusivity that will reflect and be made more positively relevant to African Americans students. I call for greater incorporation of service-learning into language study to complement, enrich, and make student experiences more meaningful and beneficial. And, finally, I present short descriptions of where the study participants are and what they are doing now—in their own words—to show how far they have come in their individual journeys in multilingualism.

1

The African American Experience in Language Study

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

A Review of the Research

Part I—The Call for African Americans to Study Languages In 1933, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History held its annual meeting in Washington, DC, from October 29 to November 1. African American scholars and professors, teachers, archivists, and administrators from universities, junior colleges, vocational institutions, and school districts throughout the country attended the gathering. Also in attendance were the president of Howard University, the Haitian ambassador to the United States, a municipal judge, and representatives from the French Embassy (ASAALH, 1934). Such was the prominence of this historical society founded in 1915 by African American historian Carter G. Woodson for the research, preservation, and worldwide promotion of the history of blacks in the United States. At that time, black historians and scholars from other disciplines were actively excluded from national conferences and journals by the segregationist practices of their mainstream professional organizations. The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History’s annual meetings and two flagship publications, the Journal of Negro History and the Negro History Bulletin, offered African American scholars the opportunity to share their work. Through these outlets, they challenged the racist historiography published in the mainstream journals that, couched in scientism and academic legitimacy, argued for black inferiority and complacency in enslavement (Goggin, 1983). A speaker of note at that 1933 meeting was African American linguist and Romance languages and literatures professor W. Napoleon Rivers. In his address, published the following year in the Journal of Negro History, Rivers (1934) listed compelling reasons why African American college students should study Romance languages such as Spanish, French, and Italian. He cited the ability to compete for jobs and economic opportunities in the United States and abroad, as well as access to international communities and new ideas. He wove a historical tapestry of centuries of black presence and contributions in major world events, cultures, and the foundations of Western civilization. He adduced the North African domination of the Iberian Peninsula, the fourteen black generals of the French Republican armies,

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

10

The African American Experience in Language Study

the African lineage of the first duke of Florence Alessandro de Medici, black participation in great expeditions and conquests in the Americas, luminary black writers, and the expanse and import of African civilizations in Niger and (then called) Dahomey. Rivers contrasted examples of European and American writings about the same black person or subject matter and pointed out tremendous differences in length, interpretation, and slant. He implored African Americans to study foreign languages to gain firsthand access to the historical information in primary sources published outside the United States, which he believed were untainted by racially and culturally biased alterations, falsifications, belittlement, and omissions commonly made by American English translators. Rivers was convinced of the more equitable and favorable treatment of blacks in European history, art, literature, and social sciences in comparison to work produced in the United States, and he declared that only through foreign language study can black students appreciate their cultural heritage, understand the extent of black agency in world affairs, and “rescue the truth” from those who deliberately distorted, redacted, and detracted from it. Finally, Rivers called on black foreign language scholars and program faculty to edit and publish more textbooks and other instructional materials that would broaden the presence and improve the image of black contributors in diverse and international communities. He spoke with considerable authority, having earlier that year published a groundbreaking detailed profile of faculty, students, curricula, and educational resources at foreign language programs in thirty Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)—the postsecondary institutions that until the 1970s educated the majority of African American college students in the United States and that continue to produce the largest number of black scholars in fields where they are least represented. Fifteen years after Rivers’s (1933) survey and call to action, Virginia Nyabongo (1948) conducted a similar study of twice the scope and number of participant institutions. She predicted that Rivers’s call would be heeded, because World War II had a marked effect on the desire among black students (many of them GIs returning from overseas) to study foreign languages. Nyabongo also, however, reported problems with fulfilling such desires at the majority of HBCUs she surveyed. Significant social and financial pressures resulted from the explicitly racist and exclusionary policies of the American educational system, which segregated, marginalized, and denied blacks adequate facilities and instruction. Consequently, HBCUs typically employed only one overworked and overextended foreign language instructor, who not only divided time among French, Spanish, and sometimes German, but was often also required to teach English literature. A few years later, Miller (1954) replicated and expanded Rivers’s and Nyabongo’s studies to include information from faculty, administrators, and students at seventy black colleges. What he found revealed systemic and institutional sources of problems that we experience today with African American student enrollment and retention in the advanced-level study

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

The African American Experience in Language Study

11

of foreign languages. Miller reported that the majority of HBCUs had limited resources, coupled with institutional and ideological mandates to train blacks in “more practical and utilitarian” vocations along the lines of what Booker T. Washington envisioned were the necessary trades for socioeconomic independence (e.g., farming, industry, cookery). Juggling precarious finances with tough choices, HBCUs typically sacrificed funding for well-trained language instructors, adequate foreign language libraries, and language teaching materials. This was not the case among larger and financially endowed institutions such as Howard University, with its strong tradition in language, literature, and cultural studies education and renowned contributions to the field. However, most HBCUs were not so well placed. To ease the burden on staffing, resources, and services, most of the institutions waived foreign language course requirements for home economics and elementary education majors. Students from these disciplines later, as homemakers and schoolteachers, would arguably wield much influence over subsequent generations of black youth excluded from the academic pipelines and traditions of foreign language study. Other troubling findings revealed that white foreign language instructors at HBCUs openly expressed low opinions of African Americans’ intellectual capacities, native English language skills, and motivation to learn in comparison to those of their previous white students. Such attitudes undoubtedly dampened any great expectation, insistence, or support for great outcomes in language study. My much more recent personal experience in school-based language study in the United States revealed that black students are still mostly missing from advanced-level language classrooms. I studied and taught Portuguese and Spanish languages from 1994 to 2007 and was troubled by the fact that I was typically the only black student in my undergraduate and graduate language and literature classes, and, as a foreign language lecturer in two major universities on opposite sides of the country, I never once had a black colleague. A host of scholars empirically validate my personal observation of African Americans’ low rates of participation and advanced-level study in foreign languages and cultural studies when compared with other minorities and whites (see Brigman & Jacobs, 1981; Davis & Markham, 1991; Davis, 1992; Moore, 2005; Watterson, 2011; Glynn, 2012; Charle Poza, 2013; Gatlin, 2013). Figures from the U.S. Department of Education1 also confirm that blacks hold only 4% of undergraduate degrees in foreign languages conferred between 2009 and 2012. In comparison, they earned 10% of all bachelor’s degrees from that period and represent about 12% of the U.S. population (2010 Census). Some scholars sought an explanation for the underrepresentation of blacks in the academic study of languages using deficit theories of inherent and cultural disadvantage. For instance, when discussing early literacy gaps between black and white children, Bereiter and Englemann (1966) and Deutsch (1967) argued that the African American English (AAE) often spoken by black youth contributed to their linguistic deprivation and inability

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

12

The African American Experience in Language Study

to excel in language-based academic subjects because of the incompatibility of this supposedly rudimentary, unstructured, and bastardized dialect with more complex, cognitively demanding, and standardized forms. But sociolinguistic research made it clear that such claims are unfounded, and coming from a home language background in AAE does not prevent black students from doing well in any academic subject (see Perry & Delpit, 1998; McWhorter, 2001; Baugh & Hymes, 2002; Delpit & Dowdy, 2002). Furthermore, assumptions of their overly negative or unusually prohibitive attitudes toward language learning were also challenged by Davis and Markham’s (1991) survey of 770 black students at 53 colleges and universities nationwide and, more recently, Gatlin (2013), who looked at the experiences of 571 black students at 4 universities, as well as Charle Poza’s (2013) study of 110 black foreign language students at her university. All found that African Americans held favorable opinions of learning new languages and strongly desired to do so. This leads us to question the role of academia in contributing to the institutional racism that excludes blacks from advanced language and cultural studies when we examine how the instructional environments where African Americans typically engage in language study—among other contextual factors—encourage only a modest number to advance to higher levels and alienate many more. Because, for the majority of blacks in the United States, foreign language study occurs in an elementary, high school, or college classroom, and when Davis (1992) and Glynn (2012) examined African American attitudes and performance in this content area, they showed how language classrooms failed black learners. The students they surveyed and interviewed were motivated and held overall positive attitudes toward learning different languages. However, they also reported negative classroom experiences, citing poor instructional environments, unfavorable (and racist) teacher and classmate attitudes and perceptions, low expectations, and curriculum and learning materials they deemed unappealing, inappropriate, and irrelevant. Given what we have seen in the history of African Americans in foreign language study, such observations are easily situated in a history of systemic institutional failures and injustice.

Part II—The Call for Language Learning Researchers to Study African Americans Along with African American underrepresentation in foreign language and cultural studies programs, research on the experiences, differences, and concerns of blacks in language learning is also largely absent. No learner studies a new language stripped of individual aspects of social identity such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and social class; however, research in the field was until relatively recently dominated by a psycholinguistic, cognitive paradigm of inquiry principally concerned with universally applicable mechanisms of the mind that devoted “more attention to the processes of acquisition than

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

The African American Experience in Language Study

13

to the flesh-and-blood individuals who are doing the learning” (Kramsch, 2009, p. 2). This approach assumed that the aspects of learner specificities listed earlier had limited bearing on the cognitive and affective processes common to everyone, thus traditional second language acquisition (SLA) research mostly theorized static relationships among learner attributes, language input, interaction, intake, information-processing, output, and prioritized research through formal testing and controlled experimentation. Before Firth and Wagner’s (1997) call two decades ago for more focus on the dynamic nature of language and the social complexities and mutability of language learners and human interactions, which largely initiated what Block (2003) dubbed the “social turn” in our field, notions of learner diversity were typically grouped among a secondary class of contextual variables (e.g., language background, age, attitudes, and environment), which were judged important only as they accounted for differences that could not be cognitively explained. Hence the dearth of academic literature on African Americans learning new languages may result from what was for a long time the lower status of learner difference and identity research in applied linguistics. Additionally, it may be attributed to the field’s resistance to openly addressing polemics such as racism, sexism, xenophobia, colonialism, homophobia, and elitism—uncomfortable topics that arise on any close examination of race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, and social class in language learning. Underrepresentation of blacks in advanced levels of language and cultural studies also contributes to the scarcity of research on African Americans, because students from such programs are the ones who typically become language educators and scholars, such as the minority voices featured in the Curtis and Romney (2006) volume on race and language teaching. They are those who may choose African Americans as principal participants in their studies out of the sense of personal relevance, knowledge, and interest that inspire many social science researchers. They may also have greater access, understanding, affinity, or identification with people from a similar ethnoracial background, but, sadly, we cannot manage to keep most in language and cultural studies classrooms past basic required levels. Among the relatively few studies addressing new language learning among African Americans, some examined their overall beliefs and attitudes (Davis, 1992; Watterson, 2011; Glynn, 2012; Charle Poza, 2013; Gatlin, 2013) and found that these students viewed multilingualism quite positively and wanted to achieve it. However, as previously discussed, the studies that looked specifically at classroom experiences found many negative reports of poor instructional environments and curricula. To counteract the problems of access, discrimination, and institutional neglect in education that have historically been the lot of African Americans, Brigman and Jacobs (1981) recommended that black students take foreign language classes as early as they are offered. Haj-Broussard (2002, 2005) demonstrated the benefits of having this early start at foreign language learning through her examination of the experiences and academic achievement of students in a partial French

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

14

The African American Experience in Language Study

immersion second-grade class in Louisiana. She found that black students— girls in particular—gained tremendously from participation in the language immersion program in terms of their self-image, their peers’ perception of them, social inclusion, academic engagement, and the many valuable opportunities for extended one-on-one interaction with teachers. Furthermore, analyses of the general education test performance of black student participants in the language immersion program showed that they scored just as high as nonimmersion white students, while their nonimmersion black counterparts did not. In light of these promising results, we should do more to examine the types of student-affirming learning environments created through effective foreign language study and their beneficial role in promoting academic achievement among African American students. With the exception of Moore and English’s (1998) six-month ethnographic case study of ten black male adolescents studying Arabic at a public middle school, my pilot project exploration of the ideals, motivations, and experiences of blacks who succeeded in language learning (Anya, 2011) and Calhoun’s (2012) interviews with African Americans discussing racialized identities in multilingualism, published research that takes a close look at black student experiences in language classrooms is nearly nonexistent. In a rare case of an extended, in-depth qualitative study focused exclusively on black students, Moore and English (1998) examined classroom video recordings, field notes, student and instructor journals, and the observable results of exploratory teaching methods to identify the contributing factors and pedagogical strategies that best supported their language learning. They found that these students (most of whose school records listed problems with absenteeism, suspensions, marginal performance) showed strong desires to move around the classroom, interact with one another, touch and feel instructional visual aids and materials, dramatize, and stylize new words and grammatical forms, often through composing rap songs and poetry in Arabic, which they used to showcase new vocabulary or recount short narratives. With a flexible, accommodating instructor, who allowed them freedom to discover and express their authentic selves in emerging bilingualism, while utilizing all the resources in their linguistic and cultural repertoires, the African American seventh and eighth graders felt comfortable to learn in ways that best suited their styles and interests, and they were given many opportunities to collaborate in the selection and presentation of the cultural topics that accompanied regular reading and writing exercises. The students regarded these opportunities to lead class lessons very seriously, taking great pains to prepare original, informative, and accurate presentations and listen attentively, ask questions, and participate in their classmates’ lessons. In contrast to prevalent ideas about African Americans’ lack of interest in foreign languages, and to the surprise of other teachers who considered Moore and English’s middle school Arabic students troublesome and unmotivated, the study found the group to be particularly active, engaged, and successful in language learning.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

The African American Experience in Language Study

15

In this book, I introduce another group of African American students actively and successfully engaged in learning a new language, and we follow the journey of these college undergraduates studying Portuguese in an Afro-Brazilian city. Excerpts from their video-recorded interactions, student journals, interviews, and writing show how their multiple intersectional identities are enacted and challenged in this journey, and we see how they do and speak blackness in a multinational and multiethnic context. Thematic, critical, and descriptive discourse analyses describe ways that black Americans speak their material, ideological, and symbolic selves in Portuguese and how language action reproduces or resists power and inequity. Ultimately, I address how students can authentically and effectively participate in multilingual classrooms and communities, and we see how this participation results in both successful and problematic outcomes.

Part III—African American Student Sojourns Abroad A sojourn to study abroad is typically undertaken for a predetermined period to fulfill an articulated academic or educational purpose. Although some programs are offered for elementary, middle, and high school, the majority of these sojourns take place at the post-secondary level for the enrichment of a home-based degree program or to complete requirements as part of a longer educational process. They vary in duration from a few weeks to more than a year and by the level of integration and interaction within local communities. They are organized by participants’ schools, commercial or voluntary organizations, or by the participants themselves, and usually, the programs have formal study as a primary goal—a common example of which is the study of a foreign language. For seminal, authoritative volumes detailing the history and research on American student language learning sojourns abroad, see Freed (1995), Kinginger (2009), and Kinginger (2013a), especially as they provide in-depth explorations of identity in this enterprise. There is very little published literature on African American students who journey abroad for language learning. However, language researchers concerned with identity and transformation in study abroad can learn a lot from the black sojourners who complete non-language learning programs about these students’ experiences with race, identity, and living blackness abroad. Unfortunately, the inequity and exclusion of African American students in our educational system is also seen through their low levels of participation in study abroad as a whole. The problem of black student underrepresentation in study abroad can be attributed to barriers imposed by institutional gatekeepers, such as faculty and staff, who do not recommend African American students to apply for special or prestigious programs, and study abroad trip organizers, who do not actively advertise to blacks or create sojourn opportunities in locations of unique interest and appeal to this population (see Cole, 1991; Dawson, 2000; Penn & Tanner, 2009; Murray Brux & Fry, 2009 for detailed studies). Additionally, a critically important

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

16

The African American Experience in Language Study

cost factor prohibits many black students from studying abroad, since they are disproportionately represented among those who cannot attend college without parallel employment and considerable financial aid. Furthermore, concerns related to their singularly acute experiences of race-based hostility are expressed by many African American students, who fear intensified levels of the isolation most already feel as the only or one of a few blacks among the majority-white, middle-class study abroad participant groups will be exacerbated in a foreign location far from support systems they may have at home. Many worry about encountering yet another form of racism in the foreign land for which they may not have or be able to use the same coping strategies as in the United States. These apprehensions still do not damper African American students’ overall desire to study abroad. The ones who actively pursue sojourn possibilities are especially interested in studying in locations and exploring topics related to their ethno-racial heritage to live a sense of global blackness, and they return with fascinating accounts of self-discovery and personal transformation resulting from diasporic experiences and connections in Africa and the Americas (see Dungy, 1991; Dahl, 2000). Black students find tremendous value in programs that explicitly seek to provide opportunities for personally relevant and culturally meaningful journeys, and participant experiences teach us a lot about how these students define such meaningfulness and cultural relevance in an organized sojourn abroad. Participant narratives and case studies of African American experiences in Africa, for example, show how they revel in a sense of belonging and relief from feelings of alienation and otherness that these students typically experience as a maligned minority in the United States. Through study abroad in Africa, they defy their expectations and stereotyped images internalized about other blacks in the world. Moreover, they reevaluate their social class positioning and economic privilege as citizens of a wealthy nation; they broaden their notions of religious and cultural diversity among blacks, and they deepen their understanding of their ancestral history and the rupture caused by transatlantic abduction and enslavement (see DayVines et al., 1998; Dawson, 2000; Morgan et al., 2002). Language learning is not always among the objectives nor is it the primary goal of the black students who journey abroad seeking diasporic connections, as it was for the Portuguese program participants I present in this book. Nevertheless, much can be learned from the experiences of diasporic sojourners about how powerfully race mediates the experiences of African Americans living abroad and the ways they live their blackness in multiethnic, multicultural, and multilingual contexts. This book contributes to both study abroad and language learning research by deepening our understanding of diversity among program participants and their experiences. It differs from previous studies on language learning sojourns abroad by highlighting the import of race and its accompanying and intersectional gender, sexual, and social class identities at play in the multilingual experiences of African Americans. It differs from other examinations of journeys in diasporic

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

The African American Experience in Language Study

17

African exploration, self-discovery, and personal transformation by highlighting the centrality of language in this endeavor. These differences shape new and necessary lines of inquiry within study abroad and language learning research. Furthermore, the study upon which the book is based takes a critical approach that challenges the field of applied linguistics to address important issues of inequity, power, and dominance, as well as resistance— all of which influence language learners’ choices, efforts, and participation in multilingual communities. The Students of Focus This book is based on a study of the experiences of African American summer abroad program participants, who embarked on a journey to learn Portuguese by living, studying, and interacting within different communities. Four black university students, three female and one male, ages 19 to 22, participated in the study2 (Table 1.1). Their descriptions and stories appear in greater detail in their individual case study narratives found in Chapters 4 to 7. Three of the participants, Rose,3 Didier, and Nina, were undergraduates and one, Leti, was a master’s degree student at a small private liberal arts institution I call Geisel College. To qualify for the Geisel Portuguese program in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, the participants earned a minimum grade of B+ in Intensive Portuguese 1 (studying five hours a day for a nearly three-month period, equivalent to a complete first-year course) before the end of the academic year prior to the summer they spent in Brazil. Table 1.1 Study Participant General Profiles

Age Gender identification Ethno-racial identification Social class identification Inherited languages Additional languages Inherited languages in schooling

LETI

ROSE

DIDIER

NINA

22 Female

19 Female

19 Male

19 Female

Black Creole, African American Middle class

Black African American Middle class

Black Black Afro-Caribbean African American American Working class Lower middle class English, English Spanish Italian, German, Latin, Portuguese Spanish

English, Spanish, French Creole Spanish, French, Latin, Arabic, Portuguese Portuguese

French, Portuguese

n/a

n/a

French4

English

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

18

The African American Experience in Language Study

In the host country, they lived with local families for ten weeks and took Geisel College-accredited Portuguese Language, Brazilian Literature, and Afro-Brazilian Culture and History courses at a private school, which I call the Brazilian-American Cultural Institute (BACI). All the study participants considered themselves black; however, Leti and Didier also self-identified as other additional ethnicities or nationalities— Afro-Caribbean, Dominican, and Creole. Nina, Leti, and Rose were born and raised in large urban areas in the United States, whereas Didier’s hometown was small and rural. The four participants attended both public and private elementary and high schools and were raised in middle-, lower middle-, and working-class families. They all spoke English by birth affiliation; however, two of them, Leti and Didier, had an additional inherited language—Spanish and Louisiana French Creole, respectively. In addition to Portuguese, the participants had sometime during their lives also studied French, Spanish, Latin, Arabic, German, and Italian in school. Classroom Communities I accompanied the study participants to the primarily Afro-Brazilian city of Salvador and stayed with them during all ten weeks of the Geisel College Portuguese language program, wherein they engaged within a variety of classroom communities. They arrived in Salvador during the penultimate week of June to begin their three-month stay in Brazil. I joined them on their study abroad as an observer and program companion. I attended all sessions of the Portuguese language and Afro-Brazilian Culture and History classes, as well as program workshops in Brazilian music, Afro-Brazilian dance, and Capoeira (Afro-Brazilian martial arts). I also accompanied the group on all organized activities, such as city tours, museum visits, two Afro-Brazilian religious ceremonies, boat rides, and travel excursions to beaches and nearby cities. Both white and Afro-Brazilian instructors, most of whom spoke English, had previously lived outside Brazil, and had considerable experience teaching and interacting with international students, led these classes, workshops, and activities. Table 1.2 shows the schedule and routines of a typical week. With the exception of the Capoeira workshop, which took place at a nearby sports academy, and the tours and travel excursions, all the Geisel College Portuguese program activities were held in small classrooms and in the main auditorium at the BACI. Founded in 1941, BACI is a nonprofit private school with three well-appointed campuses in the most exclusive neighborhoods of Salvador. It primarily provides expensive and high-quality English language courses to moneyed Brazilian individual, corporate, and institutional clients and similarly premium Portuguese language and Brazilian culture programs for foreign students and universities. BACI also offers some free English courses for elementary-age children and adolescents as part of its partnerships with local community service organizations; however, the availability and accessibility of those classes depend on the

The African American Experience in Language Study

19

Table 1.2 A Typical Week for the Study Participants MON

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Before 8:30 a.m. 8:30– 10:20 a.m.

10:30 a.m.– 12:20 p.m. 12:20– 2:00 p.m. 2:00– 5:00 p.m.

TUE

WED

THU

Breakfast with host family Brazilian Literature Class

AfroBrazilian Culture & History Class Portuguese Portuguese Language Language Class Class Lunch at home

Free period AfroBrazilian Culture & History Class Brazilian Portuguese Literature Language Class Class

FRI–SUN Free days for rest, overnight excursions

Weekly Afternoon workshops, program activities/ Brazilian short excursions (varying days and times) film viewing Between 7:00 Occasional evening programming (e.g., outings to and10:00 p.m. restaurants, theater)

individual partner projects and the youngsters’ involvement in them. In addition to being a language school, BACI is also a prominent and elite cultural institution in the city of Salvador. The campus that annually hosts the Geisel College Portuguese study abroad program boasts its own theater, art gallery, multimedia center, and multimedia library. It is located in one of the city’s oldest and wealthiest oceanfront neighborhoods, which houses the majority of its mostly white and upper-class residents on tree-lined streets in luxurious and heavily guarded condominium buildings surrounded by tall electrified fences. Aside from occasional forays into other parts of town for nightlife, most program participants did not venture far from the BACI neighborhood and equally well-to-do surrounding areas where they studied and lived. Most did not experience firsthand how the great majority of Salvador’s predominantly black and working-class population lived. Communities Outside Classrooms Salvador is an idyllic tropical city replete with postcard scenery of brightly colored Iberian colonial architecture, mild temperatures, palm trees, and pristine blue skies. It occupies the southern end of a peninsula between the Bay of All Saints and the Atlantic Ocean and is a year-round domestic and international tourism hub—my reasons for characterizing this as a “tropical paradise.” Salvador is also a bustling urban center with large ports and the most influential shipping, banking, and commercial interests in the northeast region of Brazil. It is the capital of the state of Bahia and the area with

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

20

The African American Experience in Language Study

the country’s greatest concentration of descendants of formerly enslaved Africans. In this city of nearly three million inhabitants, blacks form 80% of the population;5 however, they are almost entirely absent from the city’s leadership and rarely seen among upper-middle or elite classes. The dearth of black representation among leaders and the socioeconomic elite in a nearly all-black city is indicative of the fraught history and present circumstances of racism and social exclusion in Brazil. The political and economic exclusion of blacks in Salvador mirrors the country’s profile as a whole. In a nation with more black residents than anywhere else in the world except Nigeria, the overwhelmingly white leadership, middle and upper classes, and popular media do not reflect the 53%6 of the population that identifies as Afro-Brazilian. What’s more, until very recently, with the increased political prominence of the movimento negro (black movement) and the creation of affirmative action policies and programs to attenuate the historical exclusion of blacks from higher education, the country has evaded a serious reckoning with the pervasiveness of institutionalized racism and inequality in all levels of society. It does this primarily by highlighting the large number of Brazilians with a “mixed” ethno-racial heritage and appearance, plus its history of no legally enforced segregation and antimiscegenation policies like the United States and South Africa. This notion of Brazil as a “racial democracy” free of race-based antipathy and conflict is popularly attributed to the 1930s writings of Gilberto Freyre, Brazil’s most famous social anthropologist and theorist of the multiracial formations of the nation. However, in a fascinating account of the history of the collocation and significance of the idea, sociologist Antônio Sérgio Alfredo Guimarães (2005) notes that Freyre did not coin the term nor even like it, since it included the biologically restrictive concept of racial ancestry, and his ideas of “social democracy” were anthropologically conceptualized as openness and fluidity in ethno-cultural exchange. Nevertheless, Gilberto Freyre fully endorsed and was chief promulgator of Luso-tropicalism. This concept was the idea that Portuguese colonizers and slave masters screwed their way into a uniquely benevolent and nonracist society in Brazil (let’s call it the “killing me softly” theory of benign human enslavement, mass rape, torture, and murder), proof of which could be observed in how much color and culture mixture all that interracial sexing produced. Racial democracy has since lived on as one of the most enduring myths of Brazilian society, and this fact Ianni (1987, 2004) and Campos and Nascimento (2008) observe is not a fortuitous or innocent coincidence, given that it has been purposefully and forcefully promoted by successive nationalist and authoritarian regimes, the military dictatorship, and their enabling oligarchy to depoliticize civil society, run it from top down, and discourage social fragmentation, political activism, or any other such troublesome discord in a nation fundamentally characterized by profound inequality. However, to say that there is race-based stratification and inequity in Brazil does not mean that they function in the same way as the United

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

The African American Experience in Language Study

21

States. Brazil held 40% of all enslaved Africans in the Americas, was the last country in the Western hemisphere to abolish slavery in 1888, and has long maintained a de facto social, political, and economic marginalization of its black population. But instead of outright legally codifying and enforcing separation of the races as did the United States and South Africa, Brazil took an alternate approach of attempting to eliminate its black population through official government branqueamento or “whitening” policies that incentivized and monetarily supported immigration of Europeans from Italy, Germany, and Poland with the hope and explicitly elaborated plan that they would increase the country’s white population, intermarry with blacks and, over a few generations, lighten them up into nonexistence (Skidmore, 1993). Unlike our American reliance on the “one-drop” hypodescendent rule of blackness, which seldom accommodates intermediary distinctions in racial castes and categories, Brazilians ascribe to an elaborate pigmentocracy based on skin color, hair texture, and other aspects of physical appearance—not ancestry or blood relation—with numerous intermediate categories between white and black (e.g., mulato, pardo) and allows for immediate blood relatives to be identified as different races (Telles, 2004; Guimarães, 2012). Additionally, many Brazilians negatively view American facility with open and public dialogue about racial groups, divisions, and race-based affinity. The very notion of racial classification and acknowledgment of race-based inequity (until very recently) has been rejected as “un-Brazilian” by government, media, public intellectuals, and general society, because national identity is elevated as most significant above any other social categories (Lesser, 1999; Campos & Nascimento, 2008). The sociopolitical and cultural investment made to preserve and promote a proud national image of Brazil as free of racial division and antagonism is so profound that one is considered racist for merely speaking of race and racism or mentioning that someone is black (Nascimento, 2006). Despite the Brazilian aversion to openly acknowledging racial classification and racism, despite political, economic, and geographic marginalization of blacks in Salvador, the city is thoroughly impregnated with blackness. It is defined by a cultural hegemony, wherein the local cuisine and traditions, major religions, popular movements and music, and even the regional dialect of Brazilian Portuguese are all identifiably African. The city of Salvador and state of Bahia are so emblematic of African and Afro-Brazilian culture that both domestic and international tourism in that area actively promote them as the place to have the most authentically black experience in all of Brazil. They are the epicenter of a recent explosion of Afro-diasporic “roots” tourism fueled by thousands of middle-aged and older blacks who travel there annually from the United States to vacation and explore AfroBrazilian heritage (Santana Pinho, 2008). The city and region are also rife with tensions resulting from socioeconomic inequality and exploitation. In Salvador, the Geisel College study abroad program participants had varied opportunities to interact with Brazilians and participate within diverse

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

22

The African American Experience in Language Study

Figure 1.1 Areas of Salvador where participants resided and frequented

communities outside their classrooms (see Figure 1.1 map). They lived in the homes of local host families, most of which were white middle to upper middle-class, two-parent households with children around the participants’ age and domestic staff who lived with the families or came to work daily from home. The participants quickly made friends in the city. They socialized with these friends in their homes, spent time at the host family homes of other program participants, took dance and martial arts classes around the city, volunteered at a local nonprofit organization, partied at clubs and bars, and traveled with Brazilian and study abroad program friends for various activities and tourism in other regions and cities throughout the country.

The African American Experience in Language Study

23

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

In all, the accounts and analyses of the African American students’ sojourn abroad detailed in this book are primarily drawn from the study participants’ experiences in Salvador within and outside their different classrooms, as well as other types of multilingual, multiethnic, and multicultural communities.

Notes 1 https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d13/tables/dt13_322.30.asp 2 Other students, instructors, staff, and local residents peripherally participated in the study, as they were present and interacted with the individuals of focus during the observational period. 3 All institutions and participants in the study were unidentified or assigned pseudonyms. 4 Gave Didier many benefits of studying an inherited language because of its closeness to French Creole. 5 The 2010 national census figures from the IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística). 6 The IBGE 2014 PNAD report calculates Afro-Brazilians at 53% joining categories preto and pardo. http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/presidencia/noticias/imprensa/ppts/ 00000024052411102015241013178959.pdf

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

2

Translanguaging Identities

Part I—Language, Languaging, and Translanguaging I was born in Nigeria into the familial and geographic inevitability of multilingualism. My mother was from the small Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, and my father was a Nigerian of Igbo ethnicity. In Nigeria, the more than 168 million residents from 250 ethnic groups speak 522 languages. English remained the country’s official language even after the end of British colonial rule to provide some common ground for government and interethnic communication. However, while going about the business of everyday life in a land with vast differences in access to education and learning in English, far more gets done in the national and regional pidgins and the hybridized local varieties of communities in close contact than in any formal or standardized code (Faraclas, 2004; Igboanusi, 2008). As a child in my multinational home, I remember relatives and domestic staff communicating across language and cultural boundaries fluidly in conversations throughout the home, speaking in northern and southern varieties of Igbo and British, Caribbean, Nigerian, and pidgin Englishes. Although we could all understand them, none of us spoke every one of these languages. Some just spoke two or three very well, some also spoke entirely different languages elsewhere with other people, and some like me were still young and emerging in expertise. But we all contributed and participated according to individual ability, using whatever resources were available to make ourselves understood and to follow along with others. This was who we were and how we did language based on what needed to be said to whom and how best, most easily, stylishly, appropriately, and comprehensibly it could all be achieved. Furthermore, our way was not a unique or extraordinary thing in any urban area of Nigeria because of what Vertovec (2007) would call the “super-diversity” in our mix of nationalities, ethnicities, languages, socioeconomic classes, castes, cultures, and religions. This fluidity of movement in how most Nigerians communicate shows language as action and social practice—something we do—as opposed to its typical conception as a system or structures that we use. Becker (1995) helps us understand language in both ways by distinguishing between language as

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Translanguaging Identities

25

a structured, rule-based system of signs, sounds, and meanings, and languaging as the interaction-level act of reshaping thoughts and texts for relevant and particular use. Becker’s dichotomy of language and languaging illustrates the contrast between Saussurean structuralist notions of language as a fixed, preordained sign-signifier system that resides outside of and is merely appropriated by its users and poststructuralist ideas of language as interactive meaning-making, negotiation, and constantly evolving construction of such a sign system, which cannot be separated from the persons and social contexts involved (see Bakhtin, 1981, 1984, 1986; Bourdieu, 1977, 1991; Weedon, 1987 for more in-depth discussion). In this way, language is not merely codes, tools, or idealized and standardized structures and forms we use in social activity. But instead, just like in my Nigerian family’s conversations, whenever we speak, write, and communicate with our bodies in the different communities where we participate, engaged in whatever meaning-making and signifying practices are relevant to that context—even when we work within what can be formally identified as only one language system—we are languaging as a highly localized self and other-identifying social activity. Seeing language as a practice and social action that goes beyond its underlying structures also calls into question the traditional notions of bilingualism and multilingualism as merely shuttling independently between two or more autonomous linguistic systems. The sort of active, dynamic multilingualism practiced in my family is akin to what García (2009) describes as an allterrain vehicle moving and adapting to the bumps and gaps along rugged and uneven communicative paths. Such a notion of flexible multilingualism does not presume simultaneous, parallel monolingualism (Heller, 1999) and more clearly represents languaging practices in action. Most importantly, it emphasizes the agency and centrality of speakers making choices and creating strategies in interaction and situates those choices and strategies in their social, political, and historical contexts. García (2009) calls this flexible, reciprocal, dynamic multilingualism in action “translanguaging,” which she adopted from the original Welsh trawsiethu concept and pedagogical practice introduced by Williams (1994). Elsewhere, Canagarajah (2013a, 2013b, 2014) uses the term “translingual practice” to describe this process of how multilinguals draw on multiple “modalities of signification” (Kramsch, 2009) from the linguistic resources available within their individual repertoires to create new language practices that work for the needs of a particular interaction. Unlike what may be seen as code-switching between autonomous monolingual systems that can be used without referencing each other, translanguaging posits that multilinguals are not using codes from separate systems, but instead have one unique linguistic repertoire that informs all the different strategies they employ for effective communication. In action, translanguaging is a joint, performative, improvisational social accomplishment in which interlocutors work with one another’s linguistic contribution to the interaction to anticipate and fulfill communicative needs and collaboratively construct meaning.

26

Translanguaging Identities

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Translanguaging in Foreign Language Study So far, the framework of translanguaging has been largely applied and theorized as it relates to more experienced multilinguals who were born in and move fluidly within different and multiple semiotic contexts, for example, Latino students in New York City public school bilingual education programs (García, 2011a, 2011b) and British children of immigrants to the United Kingdom studying Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati, and Turkish at heritage language schools (Creese & Blackledge, 2010, 2011). Nevertheless, it has great relevance for examining and describing how speakers do language at the emerging levels of the continuum of expertise. Throughout this book, I examine how African American students’ engage in translingual practice while learning Portuguese as a new language, and in the final chapter, I discuss how translanguaging can be leveraged for effective foreign language pedagogy. The real tension that we come up against when applying translanguaging to theory and practice in the field of foreign language study or second language learning, however, is what Kramsch and Huffmaster (2015) poignantly describe as the “paradox of the foreign language classroom in an age of globalization” (p. 114). We purport to teach the standardized forms of a national language, literature, and culture of a certain speech community to prepare learners to encounter monolingual native speakers of their target language, when in reality, the boundaries of the communicative contexts where these languages are actually spoken are not so neat, and the possibilities for those spaces to include multiple languages and involve other multilingual non-native speakers are high. What’s more, this paradox can be further extrapolated to the enormous conceptual challenge facing the field of applied linguistics and second language learning. A thorough and highly recommended treatment of this challenge is presented by May (2014) in an edited volume of multiple voices and trailblazing theorists in SLA, TESOL, and bilingual education, who describe it as the field’s obstinate resistance to dismantle and move past our “monolingual bias” (Kachru, 1994; Block, 2003). This paradigm of parallel and sequential monolingualism is evidenced by the very terms “first” and “second language” and our dichotomized presentation of multilingual speakers as “learners” and “users” (Block, 2003, 2015). All of which demonstrate that we are still not walking the walk of truly understanding languaging as localized and contextual social practices, but instead we cling to the ideological, theoretical, and pedagogical insistence upon languages as nation-bound, independent, and isolated systems to which users have discrete and differentiated access and for which native speakers serve as privileged, reified benchmarks of competence. Canagarajah (2013a, 2013b, 2014) proposes that we face the challenge and overcome it by prioritizing usage and functionalism to understand language as constitutive of actual practice, to approach learning as developing “performative competence,” and to liberate both emergent and experienced

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Translanguaging Identities

27

multilinguals from being erased or subordinated to target and idealized monolingual speakers. Block (2014b) suggests more interaction between the areas of language learning and multilingualism research to re-conceptualize both as embodiment and multimodality in languaging practices. This book is an answer to such proposals that embrace and engage multiplicity as a fundamental principle in language learning theory and pedagogy. The new paradigm is a natural fit for any examination of the various identities and perspectives that inform multilingual practice—be the participants at the emerging or experienced stages of developing their expertise. However, regardless of how strongly this book and the type of study upon which it is based are grounded within such liberatory new directions, my work is not immune from the paradox of researching foreign language classrooms, many of which remain fossilized in a monolingual bias that does not always adequately represent the world outside. I recognize the tension of making arguments for an orientation toward multilingualism and translanguaging practices, because, while I aim to challenge the present monolingual foreign and second language paradigm, I still draw from lines of inquiry established within it. In reality, my work belongs in two worlds, which have not yet properly merged, and this book is a bridge to join our thoughts on multilingual approaches to theory and practice of new and additional language learning. The sociopolitical, cultural, and geographic existence of the majority of the United States is still monolingual. And most English-speaking Americans who set out to learn additional languages—especially those who sojourn abroad for further study—are still doing it with the intention to enter and experience a different, separate, and, yes, foreign world. Our students who go abroad endeavor to see, know, understand, and do language like the resident native experts. Therefore, if we purport to conduct language learning research from usage and practice-based perspectives, and we focus our inquiry on individual experiences in the development of linguistic expertise, then the learners’ goals, desires, and contexts for learning matter. We cannot discount the importance of a monolingual or foreign language bias and ideologies in creating the very phenomenon that we study by trying to impose upon it theoretical constructs that may not be perfectly conversant with the nature of the beast. So, despite the apparent incongruence between the multilingual orientation of the present study and the monolingual bias of the study setting and broader field of inquiry, this book’s multiplicity in transformation and practice-based account of language learning shows how black students are both “being” and “becoming” multilingual (Block, 2015; Cenoz & Gorter, 2015), or, in other words, how they language and translanguage their multiple selves, how they understand and naturally conduct communication in classrooms and outside, and, most importantly, the actions they take, the choices they make, and the support they receive to facilitate their development in a new language in a foreign context.

28

Translanguaging Identities

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Part II—Shaping New Selves in Transformative Socialization Just as language is more than semiotic systems and structures, identity is also part of a larger, more active and performative scheme, beyond our psychosocial self (Erikson, 1950, 1968, 1982), beyond the fixed, stable, and material aspects of an individual, or our group memberships. Even our individuality is not achieved by ourselves, because we are identified in many ways through our different relationships to others, and we think and make choices about how to be within the context of our worlds. Thus identity is where our person meets society in a perpetual struggle, a work in progress that is never neutral, never completed, never stopping at being, but always becoming, always in process of formation and identification, always changing, and always positioned from the other (Hall, 1990, 2006; Bhabha, 1994). Ultimately, identity is how we understand doing, being, and becoming in our world. It is through language, languaging, and translanguaging practices that we construct our sense of self while defining, performing, and positioning these “subjectivities” in relation to others. Therefore, human identities are not merely drawn from feeling like or being oneself in one’s world and part of different social groups. Weedon (1987) reminds us that identities are also inextricably linked to language, which guides us to think, understand, and give voice to our life experiences within the specific localized, meaning-making terms, the ideologies, and discourse practices of our social contexts, all in existence before we learned the language. In short, it is through language that we enact ourselves. We do certain actions and take certain positions in thought, oral/written/symbolic speech, and body language according to our understanding of how people from our group do them. Those who interact with us also interpret our language actions and positions based on their resources and understandings of how certain people do them. Together, through the meanings that we mutually draw from and assign to language, we build social identities. Note that a complete understanding of identity cannot ignore its stable, fixed dimensions (e.g., blood kinship) and define it solely in terms of unstable, nonessentialist components. As troublesome as fixed categories of identity may be, they still exist and should be considered, since they create, limit, and expand conditions for becoming. However, identity is ultimately a sociocultural phenomenon that emerges and takes shape through discourse and our relations with one another in different contexts of interaction. Thus identity is the product, not the source of our languaging practices. Through these practices—these socially, historically, contextually specific performances of our multiple selves—we engage in our perpetual becoming. It is also through language in action and interaction that we, as social agents, jointly produce and position our multiplicities in relation to those of our interlocutors, claiming identities, assigning similar or different ones to others—that is to say, we negotiate who we are.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Translanguaging Identities

29

An example of this negotiation is translanguaging. Emerging and experienced multilinguals draw and join resources from different aspects of their history, background, communities, knowledge, linguistic abilities, ideas, and beliefs as they make a coordinated, interactive, and contextually relevant performance, thus creating as well as working within what Li Wei (2011) describes as “translanguaging space.” This notion of translanguaging space can be viewed in the semiotic sense of meaning-making processes in communication, but it is also very relevant in imagining how we construct, present, and juxtapose our different identities through discourse and interaction. As in most collective and collaborative endeavors, a perpetual struggle for power is inherent within the co-creating and negotiating of identities. The struggle is realized through languaging practices that position some identities as dominant or more worthy and others as less valuable or subaltern, through the resulting ideological prioritization of the practices associated with some identities over others, through making claims to truth in naming and shaping identities, or even through the basic determination of one’s right to participate and have a voice. Racialized, Gendered, and Social Classed Identities Among the multiple subjectivities that are worked out within translanguaging space, contexts, and practices of the discursive creation and management of our many selves within our worlds, this book focuses on the co-construction and negotiation of racialized identities of African Americans to examine how study abroad program participants learn to language blackness in multilingual and multicultural contexts. Race does not exist as a fixed and immutable human trait. It functions as the racialization we do by appropriating stable elements of our identities such as physical appearance and ancestry in ideological and social ways. Languaging practices are fundamental to racialized social identification and othering, so much so that they often supersede phenotypic classifications. For example, Bailey (2000) showed how Afro-Dominican teenagers in New York resisted essentialist categories of race and ethnicity by speaking Spanish whenever they wanted to emphasize their non-blackness, because within their immediate and most relevant social contexts, Spanish speakers were seen as members of an ethno-racialized group (Latino) not typically considered black. Similarly, being oyibo or white in Nigeria—where nearly everyone is black—often has little to do with actual skin color and is instead a result of one’s otherness as a foreigner or one’s native-speaking abilities in Westernized English, also called oyibo. This phenomenon is especially apparent in my personal experience. I have spent the majority of my life in the United States, but I was born in Igboland. Regardless of sharing similar dark chocolate skin color, broad facial features, and tightly curled hair texture with most Nigerians, I am called “white” when Nigerians hear me speaking the oyibo that comes with having a Caribbean mother and living outside Nigeria since I was ten.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

30

Translanguaging Identities

By the same token, using AAE or “talking black” can ethno-racialize whites and Asians into being seen by others not just as acting black, but as becoming or actually being considered black (Morgan, 1994; Smitherman, 1994; Bucholtz, 1999; Chun, 2001). Gender, sexual, and social class identities also bear certain stable, structural, and essentialist dimensions, but are mostly enacted through social and discourse practices. The differentiation between the terms sex and gender illustrates this dichotomy. Sex, on one hand, refers to traits and characteristics of biological origin (e.g., female/male genetic profile, anatomy, reproductive function), whereas gender (womanhood/manhood) encompasses an array of social and cultural meanings, roles, and other implications of one’s particular biology. In essence, gender is our social performance of the differentiation between the sexes in accordance with historical and contextually specific understandings and practices (see West & Zimmerman, 1987; Butler, 1990; Godley, 2006; Muehlenhard & Peterson, 2011). Likewise, depending on social conditions, possibilities, viable options, and context, one’s sexual orientation—his or her innate homosexual, ambisexual, or heterosexual attraction to others of the same and/or opposite sex—may differ from that individual’s actual practices, displays, and expressions of sexuality (Sell, 1997; Balthazart, 2012). With regard to class, traditional and fixed notions of socioeconomic status that divide lower, middle, and upper groups based on different scales and strata of accumulated and family wealth, income, education, and occupation are being reexamined as we shift from structure to practice-based accounts of the expression of social position (Bottero, 2004). Bourdieu’s (1977, 1991) concepts of habitus (a group’s dispositions, propensities that create and shape parameters for how to know, how to be, and how to do), capital (economic, material, human, social, cultural resources for knowing, being, and doing), and field (settings of social practice in knowing, being, and doing) are often used to illustrate dynamics of positioning, identification, and differentiated levels of power associated with social class identities. For example, Savage et al. (2013) operationalized Bourdieu’s notion of economic capital to measure household income, savings, and house price; social capital as one’s occupation and networks of contact with people from thirty-seven different occupations; and cultural capital roughly as one’s preferences in leisure, music, food, and vacations related to “highbrow tastes” and “popular culture” to divide the more than 160,000 respondents to their survey across Britain into seven categories of elite, established middle, technical middle, new affluent worker, traditional working, emergent service worker, and precariat classes. For this book, I am inspired by Block’s (2014a) multifaceted and comprehensive understanding of class, which is fundamentally an economic notion describing socially reproduced conditions, resources, and practices in differentiation that include the following key dimensions and markers of distinctions: property, wealth, occupation, place of residence, education, social networking, consumption patterns, symbolic behavior, spatial relations, mobility, and life chances.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Translanguaging Identities

31

I present and define these concepts of social class, gender, and sexuality in addition to previous discussion on race and ethnicity because, although the main focus of this book are the racialized identities of African Americans in language learning, race does not influence lives in discrete and singular ways. Experiences in racialization also cut across gender, sexual, and social class lines, creating complex, interconnected dynamics in how blacks identify and engage with others, as well as the particular ways in which oppression and privilege intersect. This notion of “intersectionality” was originated by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989, 1991) and also described by Patricia Hill Collins (1990) as the “matrix of domination.” However, the idea goes much farther back to speeches in the 1830s by free black journalist, orator, and abolitionist Maria Stewart and in 1851 when the formerly enslaved black abolitionist and orator Sojourner Truth famously declared “Ain’t I a woman?” at a women’s rights conference as she recounted how she endured forced labor and beatings as hard as any man while bearing thirteen children. Truth’s declaration evoked her intersectional identities to challenge white male hecklers who claimed women were too weak for politics. She also reminded the white women conference organizers that their black female allies’ experiences of womanhood were painfully different, and inasmuch as white women suffered gender oppression perpetrated by white men, they were also complicit and active participants in the racial oppression of black women (Crenshaw, 1989). In all, the notions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and social class describe human identities in terms of self-concept, individual attributes, and group membership, but, more importantly, in terms of what we do, how we relate to, are viewed, and are treated by others in social roles and action. Furthermore, considering intersectionality, or the interrelatedness of our multiple selves in how we experience the world, is key to understanding dynamic and nonessentialist conceptions of identity in social action. This implicates language and translanguaging practices and spaces, cultural paradigms, and ideologies in our construction and negotiation of identities when we look at how certain oral/written/symbolic speech and embodied discourse index, signal, or articulate blackness, femininity, masculinity, queerness, social status, etc. Translanguaging space, or discourse, wherein we collaboratively structure, position, and negotiate our different intersectional identities, is also rich with possibilities for examining power, dominance, and oppression, as well as the creation of discourses and identities of resistance. Transformative Socialization in Translanguaging Spaces Since language is inextricably linked with identity and shapes our subjectivities in socially specific ways, we constantly co-create and negotiate these multiplicities through thought, discourse, and interaction. A fundamental mechanism through which all this occurs is language socialization—the notion of which was originated and defined by anthropologists Ochs and

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

32

Translanguaging Identities

Schieffelin (1984) as the process whereby newcomers in social units or communities (e.g., families, peer groups, workplaces, schools, organizations) are apprenticed into group norms and ideals, membership, and legitimate participation. The process is mediated by language, since learning occurs through linguistic and social interactions between novices, experts, and other novice and expert peers. It ultimately leads to the novice’s development of what Bourdieu (1977, 1991) termed habitus, described in the previous section as a group’s dispositions and propensities that create and shape options and parameters for how to know, how to be, and how to do. Through language socialization, newcomers participate in communicative practices to learn how the group conducts them. Learning occurs as both the product and process of novices interacting with interlocutors. The novices are thus explicitly and implicitly socialized into communicative competence, along with the values, ideologies, and dispositions that those languaging practices entail. Additionally, while being shaped through socialization, the newcomers also remain active agents in the process, as they communicate their needs and negotiate to meet them. Learning a new language entails language socialization (see Poole, 1992; Rymes, 1997; Kanagy, 1999; Duff, 2007, 2010; Wright-Fogle, 2012 for full discussion). Discourse patterns, rituals or repeated activities, and interactional routines multidirectionally socialize participants into the ways of thinking and meaning-making in languaging practices of their classrooms, families, and other multilingual communities as they co-construct and negotiate multiple identities within them. The discourse and interactions of socialization into additional languages—plus the learning communities themselves—are quintessential translanguaging spaces. Participants and interlocutors draw and join resources from different aspects of their history, background, communities, knowledge, linguistic abilities, beliefs, as they collaboratively make meaning, learn, and do new language practices in creative, contextually relevant ways. Through discourse, participants also collaboratively create, position, and negotiate different intersectional race, gender, sexual, and social class identities as they think, work through, and give voice to their experiences, drawing from their own as well as the new understandings and practices of new groups and communities. Learning transforms our identities by changing how we think, what we can do, and our future possibilities in becoming (Mezirow, 1978; Wenger, 1998; Illeris, 2014), and the translanguaging space of new language socialization has this “transformative power” (Li Wei, 2011) to create new identities, values, and practices. Thus language learning can be seen as learning to speak and do our multiplicities in a new language drawing from the forms, notions, and understandings of both present and new worlds. It is how we shape new communicative selves through interactive, transformative socialization in translanguaging spaces. This transformation in identity occurs as emerging and experienced multilinguals first imagine themselves participating in new communities speaking additional languages, then work within

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Translanguaging Identities

33

different contexts of socialization to realize the potential as their abilities, desires, interactional possibilities, resources, and perspectives change. Participation in interaction is key in the notion of transformative socialization into new language identities. Recalling Bakhtin’s (1981, 1984, 1986) dialogic view of language as belonging to both oneself and the world, transformative socialization does not envision new language learning as an individual’s acquisition and proceduralization of new structures and systems, but instead as both the process and outcome of “becoming” and speaking new selves while participating in new communities. This book examines the experiences of four African American students engaged in identity transformation through participation in a Portuguese language study abroad program in Brazil. In their journey of transformative socialization, the students learn Portuguese through living and speaking their multiple identities, which are racialized in powerful ways because of the singular import of blackness in African American lives and the program’s location in an AfroBrazilian city. Their development in the new language accompanies their understanding in being and becoming black in a new context. As they participate in different communities in classrooms and outside, the students learn to speak blackness in Brazil. Identities in Language Learning Research This study on how African Americans learn to speak blackness in Brazil is a new contribution to applied linguistics and language learning research because of its spotlight on a learner population not widely studied and its choice of race as the most prominent aspect of identity to be examined. The book’s novelty notwithstanding, it rests on a foundation of more than two decades of identity research in our field. This line of inquiry on the ongoing co-construction and negotiation of identities in discourse and interaction that examines how learners become themselves in a new language has yielded important work on the experiences of language learners, who are not all African American, but whose journeys, nevertheless, reflect some key themes that are explored in this book. For example, we cannot ignore the intersectionalities, roles, and relational positioning of those who are learning a new language and the fact that they can often speak from one identity, but not from another less privileged one. Therefore, to understand the learning experiences and development of new language learners, especially those interacting with others in unequal positions of status and power—such as an immigrant domestic worker and her employer—it is important to know how and in what contexts and social relationships they feel valued and what contribution they feel permitted to make when participating in different communities. It is also important to examine social class in the second language experience, especially as it relates to learners’ privilege and access to resources and capital that facilitate success, their experience with and attitudes toward learning, their treatment of and

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

34

Translanguaging Identities

by others, power, ideologies, and the relevance, practicality, and usefulness of learning activities, materials in challenging life circumstances (for more detailed treatment, see Norton, 2000, 2013, 2014; Gordon, 2004; Kinginger, 2001; Vandrick, 2011, 2014; Darvin & Norton, 2014; Shin, 2014). The impact of unequal economic status and power on language learners’ ability to interact within their desired communities can also be as significant as the effects of gender-based dynamics, such as the silencing powerlessness provoked by sexual harassment in a new locality, or differentiated treatment, accommodations, and considerations of one’s legitimacy to take advantage of learning opportunities and participate in interactions based on ideologies of a man or woman’s rightful place. Language classrooms do not exist outside societal beliefs and practices, and, even without overt mention, the class is still a space where sexual identities are present, discussed, and culturally readable. When there is overt reference to sexuality, personal relationships, marriage, and family, the cultural mandate to display what we consider acceptable sexual identities—heteronormativity—shapes attitudes and opinions, language choices, and practices in interaction. Thus the opportunities that new language learners, classmates, teachers, peers, and other potential interlocutors have to engage one another in meaningful and equitable ways, or, in some cases, an individual’s personal safety, are all influenced by ideologies of the right sort of relationships, gender performances, and sexual identities that may be openly acknowledged or validated (Polanyi, 1995; Nelson, 1999, 2009; Teutsch-Dwyer, 2001, 2006 Special Issue on queer inquiry in language education of the Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 5). The experiences of new language learners, their choices, and opportunities for participation and growth in desired communities are also fundamentally influenced by nationality and race. Those who experience racism and discrimination within these communities can grow distanced and isolated from its members, limiting opportunities for meaningful interaction and language development among them. They can be marginalized and silenced in classrooms if their attempts to discuss negative treatment are met by teachers and peers’ skepticism or accusations of thin-skinnedness and cultural misunderstanding due to the discomfort provoked by having to deal with the polemic of racism in class. On the other hand, race and power dynamics in the hierarchy and relations of the broader community may oblige a new immigrant and new language learner seeking greater local acceptance to avoid identifying with what is perceived as her low-status race or nationality and assume entirely different ethno-racial identities. Such choices to transform oneself and escape outsider status also implicate choices in new language learning. They can motivate impressive gains in linguistic expertise if, for example, the learner is impassioned by the urgency to speak like an insider and hide a nationality or background locally considered undesirable. The cases of Misheila, an African American university study abroad program participant struggling with racism and sexual harassment in the local community while

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Translanguaging Identities

35

learning Spanish in Spain (Talburt & Stewart, 1999), and Maria, an adolescent immigrant from Mexico living in the United States and attempting to pass as African American in her majority-black high school (Bashir-Ali, 2006), are fascinating accounts of these two perspectives. An additional layer of ethnic and cultural differences between members of the same racial group influences the choices and practices of new language learners. For example, black Africans learning English in the United States and Canada consider which varieties are most desirable and practical for navigating various communities and institutions. Community contact, popular culture, and social media grant ready access to African American talk, dress, and embodied language through film, TV, literature, social media videos and memes, and musical entertainment. Many black Africans in North America consider African Americans cultural icons and, as immigrants in a dominant white society, identify with their similar struggles against discrimination, voicelessness, and political disenfranchisement. When learning English as a new language, many black Africans choose to adopt the English most closely associated with black identity. For them, speaking African American English—especially through hip-hop influenced slang, structures, gestures, and styling—contributes to shaping new language identities that most authentically represent who they already are, while at the same time signaling who they desire to be. Others, however, are more ambivalent about how closely to approximate and adopt the language and social identities of a maligned minority. As they are already associated with this marginalized group by color, some Africans seek sociocultural distance. Many new immigrant working-class Africans live with their black American counterparts in geographic proximity that challenges a curated and styled pop culture image. They witness the institutional neglect of African Americans, their undesirable social status and suffering with police abuse, and other sundry discrimination. They see risk in their choices and participation in languaging practices being too closely identified with the American brand of blackness popularized in hip-hop culture. They navigate racism, family, and community disapproval, and perceptions of home culture abandonment. They also confront theirs and others’ racist ideologies of blackness as an impediment to socioeconomic upward mobility. Ibrahim’s (1999, 2014) ethnography of adolescent Francophone Africans in Canada and Bigelow’s (2010) examination of the experiences of Somali teenagers in the midwestern United States explore such complexities and boundaries in multilingualism and new language learning. All this work that language learners do when considering the conditions, possibilities, resources, limitations, risks, and incentives of speaking new selves highlights the significance of the multiple identities and positionalities that inform transformative socialization. They illustrate the historical, socioeconomic, cultural, and political contexts and factors that shape participation in different communities. Race, gender, sexual, and social class identities are implicated in where individuals learning new languages wish to

36

Translanguaging Identities

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

belong; how they imagine themselves participating in their desired communities; how, where, and with whom they seek opportunities to participate, if they are even given a chance to participate; how they understand and voice their experiences in participation; and ultimately, what new understandings and practices they take from participation to speak themselves in new ways.

Part III—Investments in Personal Transformation As discussed in the previous section, learning an additional language is the enactment of new subjectivities through interactive, transformative socialization. It is learning to speak one’s different identities in new ways in new communities. Emerging and experienced multilinguals participate in the translanguaging space of discourse and interaction within multiple contexts and communities through which they develop new abilities, perspectives, and interactional possibilities. Participation in discursive and material translanguaging space is both the process and result of shaping new communicative selves in new communities. But not everyone participates the same, nor will all experience the same success. Identities and how they influence choices and efforts made in participation help us understand these differences. Take, for example, this excerpt from the language learning history I wrote for an applied linguistics course describing my adolescent experiences learning Spanish: I had spent my life so far surrounded by Africans and West Indians, with only a distant connection to my mother’s Creole biological father (possibly of Venezuelan origin) who everybody only just whispered about, because he was my saintly grandmother’s secret, and nobody dared discuss how she had three mocha children from one man and two espresso ones from another. But I held on to that flimsiest line of a vaguely Latin grandpa as justification of my legitimate claim to the Spanish language and “latinidad.” With help from my teenage tits and ass explosion and accompanying impulses of adolescent hormones, I began to view my Spanish class rivals with new eyes. They were hot! The minority population of my high school was equally divided among blacks, Asians, and Hispanics, but my neighborhood was all spic and spade. I had seen my share of cute black boys, but the rolly-r’ed, tawny-skinned, and silky curly haired Latin Americans were exotically brand new. Some of them in the hood didn’t even speak English like the ones at school, and I was ready to learn Spanish and bring the party to them! And boy, did I try to learn Spanish. Throughout 9th and 10th grades, the unstoppable forces of teenage crushes propelled me harder and faster than my already near-pathological academic competitiveness. I was on a mission of fraternity and fraternizing of such intensity, even the UN would have envied its success. I befriended all the Latina girls at school with the added bonus of access to their brothers, cousins or any other

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Translanguaging Identities

37

young male hangers-on. I spent precious babysitting money intended for hair relaxers and bus fare on salsa tapes and concert tickets. I even joined the Spanish club, where I met my Puerto Rican homegirl Flor Martinez. Flor invited me to be a dama at her quinceañera, where I bore the disgrace of not knowing how to dance merengue, the most basic and idiot-proof of all Latin rhythms. Less than six months after that fiasco, I redeemed my good name as Latina wannabe número uno when I discovered that by casting my romantic net outside school and meeting older boyfriends from the hood or public transit, I could sneak out of my mother’s lockdown at night and accompany them to clubs where the serious business was really happening. In exchange for sweaty kisses and the occasional groping of my jailbait assets, horny lotharios willingly took me out to dance, listen to music, and speak lots and lots of Spanish, mostly in between the grunted whispers of “no,” “sí,” and “baby, por favor.” They tried to get me drunk on these outings to better lubricate their chances, but inevitably gave up when they discovered I had no interest in liquor and was only out to dance, dance, dance. I complemented these valuable lessons through in-home consumption of all the music I heard at the clubs. I owned every Spanish language pop hit from 1991 until 1994, and if I couldn’t find it at the Zodiac record store, I would look out for the video or artist presentation on Telemundo. I also spent loads of time at my Latina friends’ houses, where I was enveloped in culture-specific food, slang, family drama, celebrity gossip, and national identities. The best times were the rides home in Flor’s mom’s car listening to her sing along to Juan Luis Guerra. Mine was a normal teenage life and activities revolving around the typical spheres of school, music, MTV, movies, and boyfriends. It all just had an extra Latin component, which became ingrained and automatic enough for me to one day no longer be able to identify whether I was doing all that I did to learn Spanish, or learning Spanish because I was doing it. My drive to speak Spanish fluently began with the desire to do as well in Spanish class as I did in others. However, the discovery that language learning provided me with opportunities to crush on dreamy boys and the new experiences I had in participation within my desired communities engendered my transformation and development of new language practices and possibilities for participation. This transformation was not solely fueled by my individual aptitude and motivation to learn. It also had to do with the resources that were available, the contexts where I could participate, how I was treated in those communities, the beliefs I and others had about my legitimacy and voice as a participant, how possible I thought it was to achieve fluency in Spanish doing what I was doing, and the risks and benefits I and those who interacted with me anticipated and experienced from my participation. Hence the most significant connection between identity and language learning, other than

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

38

Translanguaging Identities

the actual transformation into new language-speaking selves, is the influence of learners’ identities—where their person meets their world—on the investments that they make in this process of becoming. Identity research has shown that we should take into consideration the profound influence of a person’s world when examining the individual’s motivation to work at learning a new language. From my earlier example, social contexts and many other factors outside of my individual drive to learn contributed to my success. Similarly, Bashir-Ali’s (2006) new immigrant teenager in a U.S. ESL class, who rejected what she deems “white” or “nerdy” sounding standardized academic English in favor of learning the African American variety that is more powerful and relevant in her immediate social context, was labeled “unmotivated” by teachers who only witnessed her classroom disinterest in bookish language but not her very successful efforts and participation in the community with which she most closely identified. The complexities and multiplicities of both new language learners and their worlds matter. My story and others described in identity research illustrate the need to broaden the idea of motivation—or what moves individuals to learn—beyond traditional psycholinguistic conceptions of learners’ seemingly immutable, singular selves acting within similarly static worlds. In the five decades since its introduction into the field, Gardner and Lambert (1959, 1972) and Gardner’s (1985, 2001) work have dominated thought on motivation in SLA with their theoretical model of acquisition in which learners’ efforts are compelled by either the utilitarian or “instrumental” motivation of the academic, social, political, and material rewards of new language proficiency, or the “integrative” motivation to be closer to and assimilate themselves into a desired community. Dörnyei (2009) solidified the psychological grounding of Gardner’s ideas on motivation by looking even further inward to learners’ cognition, identification processes, and self-concepts with his proposal that the link between their personal and motivated behavior is the constant maintenance, reactivation, and reinforcement of their vision of an idealized future new language-speaking self. These major theories present an account of why individuals engage in relevant goal-oriented strategies that drive new language success; however, they fall short in critical ways. They assume a unitary and essentialist learner with stable, ahistorical personhood, uncomplicated by intersectionalities, contextual positionality, or even mere ambivalence or incongruence in their desires as related to efforts. Furthermore, psychological conceptions of motivation encourage an oversimplified, binary characterization of new language learners as either “motivated” or “unmotivated” while insufficiently addressing their multiple, intersectional identities that shift over time, along with the influence of resources and practices, as well as the often inequitable relationships and power dynamics within different learning contexts. Not to argue that we should abandon the psychological model of theorizing motivation in new language learning; however, identity research has shown that we need a more nuanced understanding of the efforts and

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Translanguaging Identities

39

choices learners make to participate or not in transformative socialization, and Norton’s (1995, 2000, 2001, 2010, 2013) concept of investment is the appropriate frame. As a sociological complement to psychological motivation, we should also consider investment, which is manifest in the complex ways that one’s often ambivalent desires and efforts to achieve the material, symbolic, economic, and social benefits and capital that come with fluency in a new language interact with perceptions of the feasibility of reaching these goals. We should consider the return in symbolic and material gains to boost cultural capital that one expects from investment in identity transformation within particular contexts and communities, which may signal why the individual would make more, less, or varied efforts at different times. Thus one can be highly motivated to learn, but at the same time have little investment in the practices of a given language learning classroom or community that are problematic (e.g., elitist, sexist, racist, homophobic, or just irrelevant to personal goals), and as a result, this person can be excluded from participation within and eventually cast aside as “unmotivated” or a “poor learner.” For this reason, Norton (2013) suggests, and this book will show, that if a classroom language student declines to speak or participate in activities, instead of a teacher or researcher asking if he or she is unmotivated to achieve success, we would do much better and achieve much clearer understanding to look at how this individual—who might be very motivated to learn the language—has been made to feel uninvested in or dissatisfied with the learning community. As previously discussed, classrooms and other social contexts, communities, and interactions in new language socialization are transformative translanguaging spaces where participants and interlocutors collaboratively create, position, and negotiate new selves. When emerging and experienced multilinguals set goals and embark on a journey to learn a new language, before they experience transformation in translanguaging space, they first envision themselves as participants in new and desired communities and conceptualize their place and their identities within these imagined communities, a term coined by Anderson (1991) to describe how nation-states were created to unify citizens and foster a sense of belonging and communion among multitudes who will never meet. Imagined communities is a significant notion for language learning research, as it helps us better understand how new language learners’ imagined identities and desired future influence their investment, agency, participation, and resistance. The notion of imagined communities is also useful in conceptualizing how those wishing to learn additional languages imagine past communities to which they compare their experiences, present communities in which they participate, and future communities to which they aspire to belong. Imagining one’s place in past, present, and future communities implicates investment in language learning, because, since emerging and experienced multilinguals want to belong to and build identities within new communities, they invest time and effort into learning and doing what they believe

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

40

Translanguaging Identities

makes them succeed there. Through their choices or circumstances as participants and nonparticipants in contexts of transformative socialization, especially in “mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared enterprise” with others, they can be seen as members of what Lave and Wenger (1991) termed “communities of practice” (p. 73). An emerging or experienced multilingual’s sojourn abroad into an imagined community in a foreign land to be transformed into an imagined and desired new language-speaking identity provides an ideal context for the examination of transformative socialization in multilingual and multicultural communities of practice. Circumstances surrounding and influencing participation and nonparticipation in different classrooms, cultural activities, host family homes, nightlife, hair salons, local travel excursions, and community service organizations offer insight into the investments that the four African American college students profiled in this book make in identity transformation during a Portuguese language study abroad program in an Afro-Brazilian city. The chapters that follow address the unique significance of their racialized identities, their choices and efforts to participate or not in different contexts of transformative socialization, the nature of their (non) participation, and, ultimately, how all of the aforementioned contribute to successful and unsuccessful outcomes.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

3

Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research

Part I—A Place for Critical Inquiry This book is based on a qualitative case study research project, which examined multilingualism and additional language learning among African American college students on a study abroad program in Brazil. It was interpretive, in that I sought to understand the complex, dynamic nature of language learning through the exploration of the meanings that those engaged in this enterprise assigned to it, filtered through the greater social, symbolic, and material world. Additionally, I looked at how both the study participants and I, the researcher, collaboratively constructed the reality of the language learning activities and interactions. The study was primarily descriptive with the intention to make proposals for pedagogical and programmatic change based on insights from the project. Also, as Coleman (2013) did when looking at British graduate students in Senegal, I endeavored to “embrace whole people and whole lives” and explored facets of the study participants’ identities and experiences beyond their designation as “learners” (p. 30). Multilingual classrooms and other language learning contexts are not self-contained and isolated from our world. Therefore, I conducted this study oriented by a critical approach to language research (Pennycook, 2001; Alim, 2010), which examines how the social and historical relations among interlocutors impact language practices and linguistic interaction, accounting for the reproduction of societal systems of power, inequality, domination, and resistance therein. This approach serves ultimately to do something about the problems we see, or, as van Dijk (1993) idealized, to bring “change through critical understanding” (p. 252). To identify problems and then propose and work toward change, critical language researchers take an explicit sociopolitical stance and make clear the principles and agendas that drive our inquiry. In my work, I promote an antiracist agenda, and so my research on African Americans in language learning is informed by critical race theory (CRT), originally formulated by Derrick Bell and Alan Freeman to address how traditional civil rights legal debates failed to produce widespread sustainable reform (Crenshaw et al., 1995), and was adopted to address educational inequity by Gloria

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

42

Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research

Ladson-Billings and W. Tate (1995, 1998). My work is additionally influenced by critical language and race theory (LangCrit), the framework elaborated by Crump (2014) to investigate the intersections between linguistic identities and racialized identities in performance and negotiation within multilingual spaces. The key notion in CRT, LangCrit, and also fundamental to this study, is that racism goes far beyond overt displays of bigotry. It operates in normalized cognition and structural realities and inequities so deeply woven into societies, social interactions, and institutions that it seems natural and often functions invisibly. So enmeshed in our world is the lived reality of race that one need not be actively or intentionally racist to participate in racialization, as well as to benefit from the outcomes of racism. These outcomes manifest in educational contexts through languaging practices and differentiated treatment (Moya & Markus, 2010; Lee, 2015), through curricular silencing and erasure of nondominant populations, along with the promotion of white, upper-class, male voices as “standard knowledge.” They appear in approaches to instruction and assessment that presume African Americans are somehow deficient or uniquely difficult, and also in practices of assumed colorblindness and multicultural education that essentialize complex relations into superficial banality such as “celebrating diversity” through ethnic foods and festivals. Vital to understanding critical race theory is the significance of voice, which necessitates the integration of the experiential knowledge of those who have lived oppression into their scholarship. Therefore, research that is conducted and presented from the CRT perspective includes stories that personalize and contextualize racism, along with the intersectionalities of racialized sexism, classism, and homophobia, to name the reality and highlight minority or subaltern viewpoints. As in all aspects of critical inquiry in social science, language learning research informed by critical race theory is conducted not merely to call attention to racism and race-based inequity in language education but also to make proposals for change—for example, actively countering the deficit view of African American students and moving past multicultural superficiality to engage in “provocative thinking” (Ladson-Billings, 1998) about the mismatch between our ideals and lived realities. Such approaches and goals are challenging in applied linguistics, language learning, and education research. Kubota and Lin (2009) bore witness to this struggle when they were accused of calling other authors racist because they critiqued as a dichotomous colonialist discourse the one-dimensional portrayal and othering of English learners as members of traditional, collectivist cultures that are always deferent to authority, in contrast to Western individualism and critical thinking. They were also accused of being racists themselves and subverting positive values of colorblindness in our multicultural field because they introduced race, racism, and racialized identities as topics of study. Reactions like these underscore our sensitivity to race, and the resistance to discussing it is also due to the individualized moral

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research

43

judgment automatically assigned to racism as the sole purview of innately bad actors who knowingly hate and discriminate. Therefore, if one considers oneself a good person with good intentions, and our language classrooms, curriculum, and research are, likewise, made by well-intentioned people with demonstrated inclinations toward multiculturalism, integration, multilingual, and multiethnic exchange, then the nonreflective scholar coming from a place of privilege considers that race and racism do not apply. Research informed by critical race theory and critical language and race theory, such as is presented in this book, counter a surface “bad actor” understanding of race and racialized identities in language learning, which, ultimately, silences the deeper, more impactful discussions of institutionalized and naturalized practices of racism, along with the particular racialized ways African Americans experience our field. Thus the critical approach to language learning research presented in this book rejects descriptive neutrality and pretensions toward objective, apolitical, or “value-free” social science (Kress, 1991). Furthermore, the study upon which the book is based features two key aspects of critical research— namely, self-reflexivity and positionality—as it actively incorporates my voice and personal stories to illustrate my part in shaping the problems, settings, and findings presented in my work (Pillow, 2003). Some would indict these fundaments of a critical approach as undermining scientific rigor. However, critical research represents a “socially committed scientific paradigm” (Wodak, 1996), and the commitment to issues beyond a particular academic discipline reflects even greater scientific rigor by virtue of the very consciousness and open disclosure of its agenda and sociopolitical stance that would purportedly detract from it. Norton (2010) reminds us that this sociopolitical engagement of critical language investigators, as well as their self-reflexivity and positionality regarding their personal impact on the research, are laudable and necessary goals. She also rejects the assumption that any research can be objective or bias-free, arguing, “All research studies are understood to be ‘situated’ and the researcher integral to the progress of a research project” (p. 352). This study of the multiple identities of African Americans in an Afro-Brazilian city learning Portuguese on a college program, a study conducted by a black woman who also learned Portuguese as alumna of that same college and language program, is certainly no exception.

Part II—Where I Come From I tell five stories in this book. Through four case studies and reflections from my experiences, I explore the identities and investments of African American multilinguals and how they learn to speak their different selves in Portuguese. I am in many ways the fifth participant of this study since my myriad identities were integral to the conception and elaboration of the research project, and the questions I sought to answer were equally relevant to my journey learning Portuguese in Brazil. However, even before I first

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

44

Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research

traveled there, my family history had already shaped and filled me with these questions on language, race, ethnic, gender, sexual, social, economic, and cultural positioning that I continue to ask today. I ask how members of the African Diaspora experience and learn to speak blackness in the Americas because I am an African, West Indian, and American still working it all out. I was born in the southeast Nigerian city of Enugu. My father was an ethnic Igbo whose mother was a market seller and father a blacksmith. My mother was from the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Her mother was black and a cook in the home of a “local white” Creole doctor who fathered three of my grandmother’s five children, financially supported them, but let her black husband give them a name and legal paternity. My father’s family members were farmers and merchants, but my mother straddled different socioeconomic and color status realities, moving between the doctor’s city mansion where she was raised in the backyard servants’ cottage, her exclusive convent school sponsored by her wealthy father, and the modest rural house where her mother’s black husband and darker-skinned siblings resided. My parents met in England during the late 1950s when my father was studying law and my mother nurse midwifery. They married and moved to Nigeria where they became part of an emergent elite. My late father was a linguistic tyrant, and my present fascination with languaging is a direct legacy of how he doggedly policed speech. He mostly spoke Igbo and reserved English for work, social events, and my mother. His chosen variety of English was the Nigerian standard, based on British Received Pronunciation, which he insisted that his children master. He tolerated colloquial language and Nigerian pidgin from adults, but never spoke either and angrily corrected his children when we did. My father’s hang-up with what he deemed “proper speech” came from linguistic indoctrination at colonial schools and being a village English teacher, novelist, and owner of a publishing house. At university in England, racist classmates jeered at his African accent while readers failed him on written exams for language they complained was “too florid” and needlessly elaborate. Their unmasked disdain gave my father a massive chip on the shoulder, which manifest in his compulsion to out-English the English, relentless prescriptivism in monitoring his children’s speech, plus an ironic haughtiness toward those who he believed did not speak well. Today, I rebel against my father’s tyranny by using all sorts of vulgarity. I delight in dropping f-bombs in formal environments and once gleefully retorted to a student, who grumbled at how unbecoming of a professor some of my language choices were, that I earned a PhD in linguistics and, therefore, had dick to prove to anyone about knowing proper speech. Needless to say, regardless of such inane bravado, my neck remains underfoot of my father’s language obsession, seeing as I dedicated my career to examining how people talk. For her part, my mother’s language battle began with reams of love letters from my father, filled with the same florid prose that failed his exams. She married and followed him to Africa, but he soon abandoned her at home

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research

45

to collect girlfriends and mistresses. A major reason my father gave for his neglect was that my mother did not speak his native language and thus could never truly understand him, talk to him, or relate to his deepest being. This linguistic rejection also came from other family members who teased my mother when she attempted to speak Igbo, or just ignored and spoke around her. When she disciplined the children, we seldom took her threats seriously, because what we saw as her weakness in language defanged whatever impending doom she had clumsily described. In Nigeria, my mother’s light skin and natural hair length and texture drew both admiration and scorn. Her nickname, nwanyi ocha or “white woman,” was often squealed at her in affection, but also many times hissed as an insulting, alienating slur. To my father, she was beautiful by Western standards—the sort of woman one could show off for pictures, host events, and impress friends. However, he preferred others with a comfortable and familiar African appearance. Although my father rejected my mother for language and color, she loved and married him for those very reasons. She chose my father, a man whose nickname was “Negro” (in Nigeria!), among many dedicated suitors precisely because he was the blackest and best spoken. My mother was determined to overcome her family history of racism, class prejudice, and gendered abuse, and she saw my father’s blackness and marriage proposal as a path to the legitimacy and acceptance she had been denied as one of the three daughters sired by her black domestic servant mother’s white employer. She especially resented the limitations imposed upon her mother, who was born working class in 1910 in the sugar cane and cocoa plantations region of Chaguanas less than a lifetime after the abolition of slavery in 1838, with living relatives who witnessed human enslavement on an island that still remained the private color and caste-based fiefdom of white barons. My present determination to promote antiracist and feminist goals through my research is another direct legacy of the people who raised me, and I intimately connect with the identities, experiences, and journeys of my African American study participants. The microcosm of my family background mirrors overarching structural, institutional, societal dynamics that I investigate and address in my work. My mother’s upbringing was indelibly marked by racism, patriarchal abuse, and classism, and knowing our family’s story fueled my desire to explore how we conduct the everyday work of promulgating and resisting these ills. For example, circulating throughout different interactions within my childhood communities were certain terms used to describe my mother, who was always lighter complexioned with naturally longer and straighter hair than those around her. The Nigerians called her oyibo and nwanyi ocha, and the Trinis called her “red.” Accompanying the names were distinctions, sensitivities, and macrocosmic histories that informed the microcosmic ways racialization worked in her life. Understandings and practices governing our familial interactions implicated race, gender, class, and sexual mores invoked every time my mother was seen and named.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

46

Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research

My parents’ twenty-five-year marriage ended when I was ten years old, and I moved with my mother to the United States to join her Trinidadian relatives living there. I moved from being around mostly Africans to mostly West Indians and Americans, among the latter, black Americans and Latinos. During my adolescence and young adulthood in the United States, I struggled not only with the same issues of self and belonging most American teens encounter but also with linguistic, national, social, and cultural identities. I grew apart from Nigerians since I no longer spoke Igbo fluently, and language was key to feeling and being treated as authentically Nigerian. All I knew about being Nigerian I learned in my youth filtered through observations in limited contexts and conversations where children were allowed. The rest I experienced as I grew up, receiving information secondhand through family stories about Nigeria and watching relatives who moved between there and the United States. While not being a fully acculturated Nigerian, or Trinidadian, I also remained not fully American. My past and my people were not the same as my peers, and my cultural frame of reference did not always match theirs. I eventually learned to speak American English, but always uttered some sound or phrased my words in a way that would make people ask where I was from. My Nigerian English, Igbo, and Trinidadian patois would signal some native insider status, but immediately marked me as a foreign nonexpert. Just as the African American students chronicled in this book are shaping and negotiating their multiplicities in multilingual and multicultural interactions, my own life journeys and languaging practices demonstrate my constant construction, adjustment, and positioning of various intersectional and often conflicting subjectivities. An important shift in my social class positioning came when my mother left the family’s wealth behind in Nigeria to start over in America. I had considerable social and cultural capital from an elite early upbringing stemming from connections with different types of educated professionals, multilingualism, strong literacy, and academic language in standardized English, college-educated parents, global travel, familiarity with leisure activities, references, and conversation associated with privilege. This background was juxtaposed with our initial poverty in America, when at twelve years old I joined my mother in cleaning houses, caring for children, and serving the elderly. During most of my early adolescence, my mother simultaneously held an average of three jobs to support the household. Eventually, we secured U.S. citizenship, my mother found one good job as a registered nurse, and she purchased a small house in a working-class neighborhood of mostly African Americans and new immigrant Latinos. Legalization of our immigration status brought access to public assistance programs, scholarship eligibility, freedom to travel, and, also, a serenity that my undocumented relatives, acquaintances, and neighbors did not enjoy. We were very cash poor and constantly struggled to pay bills. However, we were rich with diverse contacts in a vast network through which my

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research

47

mother could procure everything from legal services to personal loans, and this made it easier to provide for us without my father’s support. In school, my low-rent clothing and off-brand supplies showed I had scarce material resources, but my social and cultural capital ingratiated me to teachers, who gave me the kind of extra time and attention that children from affluent homes socialized into a sense of automatic deservingness typically demanded and received. I was recommended for and benefited from affirmative action programs designed for historically disadvantaged, low-income, and firstgeneration college attendee student populations, when in reality, the only things that made me truly deserving of such assistance were sharing skin color with America’s most reviled and abused population and my mother’s short money. Nevertheless, institutional agents and gatekeepers encouraged and facilitated my entrance into higher education, where I thrived and found my love for academia. I entered Geisel College to study Romance languages, having already learned fluent Spanish. After I enrolled in an Italian course, an African American friend studying Portuguese recommended I take that instead. In his words (and he knew me well), “Unless you’re going to study art or sing opera, you should be learning a language that’s more relevant to who you are.” I discovered what he meant on the first day of Portuguese class when the instructor showed a video of carnival scenes from different regions of Brazil filled with black people. My friend knew that I, along with many black students in primarily white institutions, were starved for educational experiences that connected in meaningful ways with our ethno-racial and cultural backgrounds. He knew how exciting it is for black people to see one another in different and exotic places or recognize ourselves parched in the desert of personal significance that is Romance language education. My friend also knew that, as someone with a Nigerian background, I would love how African Brazil was. By the end of senior year, I had taken all of the Portuguese courses offered by the school and completed both of its study abroad programs in Brazil. After graduation and completion of a master’s degree in Portuguese language and Brazilian studies, I lived there for two years working with an Afro-Brazilian women’s nonprofit and took literature and anthropology courses at a São Paulo University. In the United States, I taught Portuguese as a university lecturer for three years. All this contributed to what is now a more than twenty-year relationship with Brazil, nurtured through close friendships, work, academic study, research, constant contact with Brazilians through social networks, conferences, news, and annual visits. Living, studying, working, and traveling in Brazil led to a great deal of self-discovery and a comfort I had not felt since my childhood in Nigeria. I learned that most enslaved Africans taken there were from the Gold Coast, and AfroBrazilian culture was identifiably Nigerian with many of the same names, foods, dances, drumming styles, animist religious deities, and traditions I recognized from childhood.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

48

Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research

When I updated my curriculum vitae recently, a colleague suggested I include the titles of my past theses to show the topics in literature and cultural studies I had investigated before my doctoral studies in applied linguistics. My undergraduate honors thesis was a study of Afro-Brazilian women’s racial, sexual, and national identities in the work of “favela writer” Carolina Maria de Jesus. My master’s thesis also investigated these identities through feminist Afro-Brazilian literature and an analysis of the writings of Miriam Alves. When I saw them juxtaposed against this present project, it became clear that, for a very long time, I have been troubled by the same basic questions on blackness and how the African Diaspora experiences the Americas. I saw also that these questions were linked as intimately with the construction and enactment of my multiple identities as with those of my study participants. The Geisel College professor and director of the study abroad program in Salvador—a white-haired Brazilian man of Italian and Portuguese descent— was also my undergraduate professor, advisor, honors thesis supervisor, mentor, former colleague, and friend. My close relationship with the director granted me full access to the program, and he allowed me to simply accompany the study participants and observe with no formal role. His glowing praise of me as his best pupil and a good person endeared me to his students, or perhaps his position of authority as their professor and program leader exerted pressure on them to accept me—or both. The fourteen Geisel students who traveled to Salvador seemed to trust me readily. All consented to participate in my study either as principal or peripheral subjects, and each person knew to which cohort she or he belonged. The students also often came to me for guidance as someone who “had been through all this before” and sometimes asked me to mediate individual or group issues and conflicts with the director on their behalf. My closeness to the program director, the students, and my similarity to the study participants in life, background, and academic experience introduced complexities into the study. Furthermore, my questions on their investments and the enactment of their multiple identities in Portuguese language learning also directly relate to me. All of this positions me as the study’s fifth participant and complicates my analysis. Therefore, throughout the project, I made active efforts at self-reflexivity, and I address throughout this book how my own subjectivities, biases, and interests shaped and were shaped by the study.

Part III—Examining Identities in Interaction So far in this book, I have argued that the discourse, interactions, and communities of socialization into multilingualism are transformative translanguaging spaces where participants and interlocutors draw and join resources from different aspects of their history, background, knowledge, linguistic abilities, beliefs to make meaning, to learn, and to do new language practices in creative, contextually relevant ways. In these spaces, while

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research

49

drawing from their own and new understandings and practices, they also collaboratively build, position, and negotiate different intersectional race, gender, sexual, and social class identities to give voice to their experiences. As such, learning an additional language is shaping new communicative selves through transformative socialization within translanguaging spaces. This transformation in identity occurs as emerging and experienced multilinguals first imagine themselves as participants in new communities speaking additional languages and then make choices and efforts to realize this potential as their abilities, desires, possibilities, resources, and perspectives change. In other words, becoming multilingual is both the process and result of becoming and speaking new selves while participating in new communities. This book examines such a journey of becoming among African American college students on a Portuguese study abroad program in Brazil. So how do African American student sojourners in an Afro-Brazilian city engage in transformative socialization? How do they imagine themselves participating in different multilingual communities? What investments do they make to participate in these communities? How do their investments shift as they interact with the participants and practices of different communities? How do they make sense of and give voice to their experiences? With regard to one particularly salient and intersectionally resonant aspect of their multiplicities, how do they learn to be to be black, to speak blackness, or, as Stuart Hall (2006) put it, how do they learn to come into an identification? How is becoming black and speaking blackness done in Portuguese in a black city in Brazil? How is this becoming done in classrooms and other communities? And, finally, how do these identities, investments, and participations contribute to both being and being seen as successful in multilingualism? I answer these questions by presenting analyses of the background, related documents, and interactional dynamics of four Portuguese study abroad program participants’ classroom and outside activities, as these contribute to our understanding of how black students imagine and maneuver within communities of becoming and being multilingual. I explore the reasons why they first decided to learn Portuguese and the conditions and experiences that facilitated this option. I examine the choices and efforts the participants made toward achieving success in learning an additional language, as defined by their personal expectations and those of the study abroad program. I explore their backgrounds, interests, access to different social resources and networks, contexts and circumstances of multilingualism— highlighting how their identities were engaged throughout—and identify factors that supported or frustrated their goals. With regard to how their investments shift as they interact with the participants and practices of different communities, I examine differences in the participants’ experiences and investments, including differences in how others regarded and responded to them as they maneuvered within their Portuguese Language and Afro-Brazilian Culture and History classrooms, the BACI workshops, the program excursions and activities, host family homes,

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

50

Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research

extracurricular activities, the streets of Salvador, the bars and clubs they frequented, and their social interactions with Brazilian friends and romantic partners. Within these translanguaging spaces, I investigate how the study participants expressed their ideas, desires, and racialized identities according to their new understandings of Portuguese language practices, and I show how these understandings and practices were informed by ones with which they were already familiar. I primarily focus on how the participants conducted acts of self-reference and representation, especially in terms of voicing and defining racialized, gender, sexual, and social class identities. I also examine how, in personal writings and interview statements, they drew from different resources in their individual linguistic repertoires to articulate their struggles and successes with racialized self-representation and expression in Portuguese, and, more importantly, how they configured and spoke blackness according to their understanding of race in the Brazilian context. Additionally, when looking at how the participants came into an identification or learned how to do and speak blackness in Brazil, I analyze their video-recorded and self-reported interactions to see how racialized identity positions and relations emerged in languaging and translanguaging via overt use of labels and categories; via lexis, structures, and embodied language ideologically associated with specific social identities; via implicatures, suppositions, and interlocutors’ understandings of affiliation; via interactional orientations, footings, and roles; and via styling and stance. To show the participants’ racialized identities macrosocially enacted on microsocial levels of interaction in translanguaging space, I pay special attention to local meanings, coherence, sociopolitical and cultural implications of discourse. As a whole, I examine and describe how language practices indexed identities in being and becoming. Then, finally, with regard to how the participants’ racialized identities, investments, and participation contribute to success in multilingualism, I recall observations from the previous discussions to examine patterns in the students’ participation, indifference, or total disengagement from different communities to show how these signaled their levels of investment in the practices of those communities, how they influenced the opportunities the students’ had to develop new understandings and practices in Portuguese, and how it all shaped outcomes and perceptions of success in multilingualism. How and From Where I Gathered Information I attended all the classes (except for those in one course), and all the activities and excursions of the Geisel College Portuguese language study abroad program in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. The instructor for the Brazilian Literature course did not consent to have his classes observed, so I was not allowed direct access to them. From the remaining two courses (Portuguese Language and Afro-Brazilian Culture and History), activities, and excursions, I made 100.2 hours of video recordings. To minimize the invasiveness caused

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research

51

by the video camera and my constant presence, I typically placed the camera in a corner of any room I filmed and adjusted it to face the individuals interacting in that space. During the sessions, I usually sat somewhere close to—but not behind—the machine while writing notes and not touching the camera to move it or zoom in or out. Occasionally, when it was necessary to record an off-camera event or image to which the participants were attending, I rose and turned the camera. I only held and looked into a camera to record activities when I was taking picture stills or filming events held outdoors that involved movement and large crowds. I chose not to video record the participants at their Brazilian family residences, nor in contexts outside communal spaces and activities of the program. This was a decision I made to try and minimize what I perceived as my intrusion into private spaces, and it had consequences of limiting my records of their actions within them. For information regarding their experiences at home and while socializing with others during their private time, I relied upon participant reports and, if I happened to be present, my observations. I interviewed participants individually and as a group before and after the ten-week duration of the program and made 10.4 hours of audio recordings of those sessions. In addition to the recordings, I made field notes of my classroom/activities observations and collected 107 pages of documents, including copies of written tests and essays from their Portuguese Language, Brazilian Literature, and Afro-Brazilian Culture and History classes, as many weekly journals as they were able to complete and submit to me, and the four- to sixpage language learning autobiographies (LLAs, see Bailey 1980, 1991; Bailey et al., 1996; Schumann, 1997) three of the participants wrote for me. All these documents and recordings constituted my principal sources of data. In the process of gathering information for this study, there were a few problems. I met three of the study participants—Nina, Didier, and Rose— two months before they traveled to Brazil when I visited Geisel College to attend a few sessions of their Level-1 Portuguese course and to ask for consent to include them in my research. Leti was not enrolled in that course, and I did not meet nor have the opportunity to recruit her to participate in the study until after the group arrived in Brazil. This is important to note, because it was during this first meeting period on the Geisel College campus that I asked the participants to complete LLAs, which I received from the three participants from Geisel College and the fifteen African American students from two different colleges for an exploratory pilot project on the integrative ideals and experiences of blacks who were successful in multilingualism (Anya, 2011). I include in this present study the LLAs that the three Geisel College participants wrote describing their backgrounds and experiences learning languages in naturalistic and formal environments as important data sources containing valuable insight on the students’ investments in Portuguese language learning. Another problem had to do with the completion of the weekly language learning journals I had requested from the participants. I met with all

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

52

Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research

participants before the study abroad program began to review the research procedures and ask for their signed consent. At this time, I also asked them to write a weekly journal of experiences in classrooms and outside. This activity was not mandatory for participation in the study. All participants e-mailed me their journals during the first and second weeks in Salvador. However, the third week, I received only two; the fourth week one; and the fifth week none due to the participants’ computer troubles and difficulties managing a journal and regular coursework. During the final weeks of the program, I gently urged them to write a ten-week summary journal entry but received only one. Two additional submissions arrived after the end of the study’s formal observational period. Although it is common for researchers not to obtain full compliance in self-reported data submission from their study participants, a weekly journal from all the study participants would have yielded more information about their experiences closer to the actual time of the events and with less possibility for details to be forgotten or excluded when trying to summarize them all at the end. How I Examined the Information I Gathered My discussions throughout this book rest on a fundamental notion of the enactment of social identities through language, which begs an explanation of the exact mechanism of this connection between our languaging practices and our subjectivities. This link is not direct, in that few language features and acts explicitly encode identity, but instead the relation of language to identity is mediated by interlocutors’ understandings of what our languaging practices say about who we are. In other words, we are all beneficiaries of socialization with backgrounds, histories, ideologies, and other resources to know and understand social meanings in our world. Thus we build our identities together with others in communication and interaction based on how we understand to perform the language practices in the ways people like us perform them. And on their end, interlocutors with whom we communicate recognize us as people like us based on their own understandings of social meanings and commonly shared notions of how certain types of people do language. According to this principle of indexicality (Ochs, 1993), we build social identities by performing socially recognizable verbal acts, such as making a request, and by displaying stances, or socially recognizable attitudes, like asking sheepishly or authoritatively. People then understand these acts and stances and link them to specific social identities based on how they index the range of social meanings available to use for interpretation. Some stances are assumed so often by certain people that, over time, they become very closely linked to specific social identities. Additionally, speech acts can include direct mentions, explicit naming, and self-references to certain identities. All of these are resources available for analysis of how we language social identity. The analysis shows the collaborative shaping, structuring, and positioning of identities in discourse. I also look to see what kinds of communicative selves

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research

53

are created in the doing of language in one way or another, especially, what sorts of new identities are built as new understandings of language practices in new contexts are developed. I examine discourse, which I define as situated, locally relevant oral, written, and embodied language that connects to and can be interpreted and understood within broader historical, cultural, and social contexts. I conceptualize both discourse and its material, social, historical, and cultural contexts as translanguaging spaces, where interlocutors employ multilingual and multimodal resources to create new language practices and transform into new selves, and I use methodologies in descriptive discourse analysis (Sacks, 1995; Goodwin, 2000) and critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1995, 2003; Pennycook, 2001) to explore interactions in these spaces of transformative socialization and answer the questions that guide the study. Social identities emerge in interaction. They can be located in languaging practices, because interlocutors enact them by assuming roles and orientations and by positioning themselves within recognizable micro- and macro-level social categories, which are meaningful only inasmuch as they relate to one another. Among the discursive features and linguistic resources that Bucholtz and Hall (2005) suggest can be examined to show this interactional co-construction and negotiation of identities, I explore the use of identity labels, interlocutor roles, orientations, alignments, stance-taking, stylization, implicatures, and ideologies, which all serve as indexical phenomena that display social identities in interaction through their associations with larger social meanings embedded in context. Let us take the example of stance and stylization. Stance (Ochs, 1993; Jaffe, 2009) in a speech act is when one takes a position or claims a certain affect, status, or knowledge in an utterance, such as making a request authoritatively and aggressively to show a superior position that requires response. Stylization (Rampton, 1999, 2003; Coupland, 2007; Snell, 2010) is a form of stance-taking that speakers do when they knowingly appropriate or reproduce familiar linguistic practices that deviate from the interactional context and are not typically associated with their group identities. An excellent example of stylization is described in Goodwin and Alim’s (2010) study of conflict talk and social aggression among preadolescent white and black working-class girls. To mock and isolate disfavored peers during playground interactions, the girls combined verbal and embodied stance-taking and stylization, such as “Valley girl” talk (which typically indexes wealthy white teenage girls) and neck-roll, eye-roll, and teeth-suck gestures (which typically index “ghetto” black girl social identities). They performed microsocial identities of in-group clique membership that drew from broader, readable categories and familiar understandings of macrosocial groupings of race, class, and gender. In the analyses of group interactions within multilingual communities that I present in the following case study chapters, I highlight stance-taking and stylization, as well as other types of interlocutor alignments and resulting interactional roles, to illustrate the co-construction and negotiation of racialized gender, sexual, and social class identities.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

54

Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research

Additionally, the research is informed by perspectives of critical race theory to promote goals of antiracism in the field of language education and utilizes methodologies of critical discourse analysis (van Dijk, 1993; Fairclough, 1995; Pennycook, 2001; Bloor & Bloor, 2007; Wodak & Meyer, 2009) to illustrate how language practices in multilingual communities shape social realities that reflect and perpetuate problems such as racism, sexism, homophobia, and elitism. I demonstrate how social meanings are created in context and ideologies of power, dominance, and inequality are produced, reproduced, and resisted in translanguaging spaces. I utilize a three-pronged approach that 1) describes the oral, written, or embodied speech; 2) interprets the relationship between speech and discursive processes; and 3) explains the relationship between discursive and social processes. The goal of critical discourse analysis is to examine rigorously the discursive exercise of or resistance to dominance; therefore, it does not assume a neutral stand. In order to explicitly evidence the presence of inequity, analysis from a critical perspective, by design, takes a position. As discussed in the previous section, I gathered information about the study participants’ experiences from various data sources—including audio/video recordings of classes, activities, and participant interviews, field notes, participant writings, tests, and program-related documents. In triangulating and bringing together data from these different sources, I sought to “add to the texture and multidimensionality of the study” (Duff, 2014) and examine language learning experiences from different angles. I generated topics and themes such as the co-construction and negotiation of learner subjectivities, the intersections of race, gender, sexual, and social class identities, dynamics of (non) participation in multilingual communities, and individual participants’ choices and efforts indicating agency and investment in learning a new language. I selected specific interactions to look at more closely based on the preponderance of these topics and themes, plus the salience of the role of the study participants in each exchange. I then analyzed the interactions, written passages, participant statements, and interactions from this first pass, carefully examining them through a combination of thematic, descriptive, and critical discourse analyses, while constantly scouring throughout for evidence that challenged and complicated my ideas. I argue that language learning experiences of the African American participants of a Portuguese study abroad program located in an Afro-Brazilian city are powerfully mediated by race. I show how these emerging and experienced multilinguals construct and negotiate multiple racialized identities and learn to speak blackness in Brazil as they make choices and efforts to participate or not in different communities of practice. I show that their investments (Norton, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2010, 2013) in transformative socialization, their desires to develop new language practices, the varied resources and capital they seek to gain from fluency, the social conditions and systemic patterns of control that influence the feasibility of fluency, and,

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research

55

most importantly, the participants’ multiple, shifting identities all contribute to their participation in different communities and lead to how successful they become or are perceived to be in learning Portuguese. I examine the study participants’ investments in learning this new language in terms of (a) their choices and efforts in advancing goals of multilingualism, (b) their access to different social networks, (c) how aspects of their identities were engaged/enacted in translanguaging spaces, and (d) the conditions under which the participants were made to feel valued and encouraged to use Portuguese in different communities of practice. I utilize a combination of thematic, descriptive, and critical discourse analysis methodologies to examine social identities in interaction and investments (see Table 3.1) in transformative socialization. I show excerpts of the study participants’ oral and written language and illustrate significant thematic content and meaning as relevant to an emerging or experienced multilingual’s sense of place within material, ideological, and symbolic groups. Through descriptive discourse analysis, I highlight key linguistic phenomena that index social identities and illustrate their collaborative construction and negotiation in interaction. For example, to show how the study participants speak blackness, I focus on when individuals explicitly label themselves and others black or imply, assume, or presuppose this racialized identity and affiliation with it. I look at interlocutors’ displays of interactional roles and orientations that recall common notions of blackness or are readably black within relevant cultural contexts, along with their use of lexis, structures, and embodied language (including dance and rhythmical movement) ideologically associated with Afro-diasporic subjectivities to illustrate racialized and intersectional identities emerging in interaction. Additionally, I utilize the critical discourse analysis of participants’ writings, interview statements, and interactions to show intersectional racialization through languaging practices that exercise and resist dominance. I look at how all of the aforementioned impact African American students’ investments in transformative socialization into new communicative selves and their participation within multilingual communities. I present the study participants’ writings, interview statements, and interactions through deliberate and critical examination of interactional access and settings, discursive genres, communicative acts and their social meanings, participant and interlocutor roles or social identities, speech acts and rhetoric, macrosemantics or the sociopolitical/ sociocultural implications, ideologies of discourse, frames, local meanings and coherence, stance, and stylization. In the four chapters that follow, I present the individual experiences of the principal project participants, Nina, Didier, Leti, and Rose, on the Geisel College study abroad program in Salvador. The case studies illustrate how these participants shaped new communicative selves while studying Portuguese in an Afro-Brazilian city and how they learned to think, understand, do, and speak blackness in Brazil through their investments and participation in various multilingual communities.

Table 3.1 Thematic, Descriptive, and Critical Discourse Analyses in This Study

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Linguistic Phenomena Thematic Discourse Analysis Thematic content and meaning in discourse relevant to personal sense of place within material, ideological, and symbolic groups Descriptive Discourse Analysis Overt references to identity categories and labels Discussion or pragmatic implication and supposition of identities Stereotypical stances and interactional roles Use of lexis or structures associated with specific groups or identities Critical Discourse Analysis Interactional access and discourse domain Discursive genre Communicative acts and their social meanings

Interlocutor role performance

Speech acts and rhetoric Macrosemantics—ideology, sociopolitical, and sociocultural implications of discourse Frames, local meanings, and coherence

Stylization, stance

Examples

Theme of sensitivity to intragroup colorism: “Most of my family is light and this made me perceive myself as the odd one out.”

Black, Afro-Brazilian, woman, rich. “You and me, coming from where we do, we see things different than them.” “Aggressive” or “sassy” black female back talker; boisterous American; flirtatious, seductive Capoeira performer. Afro-Brazilian slang or working-class “favela” talk. Incorporation of Portuguese words, structures, translation or reproduction of common AAE phrases. When/where learners are allowed to speak or expected to remain silent. Settings and contexts. Debates and classroom presentations. Culturally mandated expectations, significance of language practices of politeness and deference in a student-teacher interaction. The (lack of) weight social position lends speech, stances. Social identities such as student, teacher, woman, director, black, adolescent and influences on speech structures and strategies. Accusations, directives, and rhetorical questions. Popular, discursively enforced understanding in Brazil that it is “un-Brazilian,” racist, and divisive to assert racial group membership or make reference to one’s or another’s race. Culturally specific cognitive models of categories, relationships, meanings. What is implied, indirectly communicated, diverse perspectives that can be assumed, implicitly understood within different levels of discourse/interaction in a classroom, a guided tour of a historical site, a workshop. Ethno-racially significant and indexical body movement such as Afro-Brazilian dance. “Slang,” “educated talk,” mimicry, sarcasm, choices, and strategies in translanguaging Portuguese/English, self-positioning in support or against another’s utterance.

Telling Black Stories in Language Learning Research

57

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Transcription Some interactions that I discuss in this book were transcribed from audio/ video recordings, which, when necessary, I translated into English. Original Portuguese and translated English versions of the utterances appear sideby-side. To allow for the inclusion of long statements featuring complex ideas that I examine thematically, I present transcribed audio recordings in block-quoted paragraph form, and their analysis was mostly thematic, limited to words and sentences, and did not bring to focus paralinguistic considerations, gesturing, and other embodied language that could not be illustrated with still frame pictures. Video-recorded excerpts were transcribed as shorter segments according to conversation analysis conventions, taking into consideration the significance of a wide range of verbal and embodied discourse. I adapted the discourse notation symbols from those by Jefferson in Wetherell, Taylor, and Yates (2001, p. 62) for use in transcribed excerpts. In their final presentation, I include parenthetical descriptions, pictures, and video stills to illustrate communicative action and embodied discourse.

Notation

Purpose

? [ :

Rising inflection (may or may not indicate a question) Overlap Vowel or sound lengthening (the more colons the greater the stretching) Underlining indicates stress Upper case indicates especially loud talk (with exception of proper nouns) Onset of rising or falling intonation shift In-breath (the more ‘h’ the longer the in-breath) Out-breath (the more ‘h’ the longer the out-breath) Silence in tenths of seconds Noticeable pause or silence less than two tenths of a second Description of nonverbal activity Sharp cut off the prior word or sound Inaudible or unclear talk Degree signs indicate noticeably quieter talk Inward arrows indicate faster speech than surrounding talk Outward arrows indicate slower speech than surrounding talk

word WORD ↑↓ .hh hh (0.2) (.) ((laughing)) wor(~~) °word° >word<

4

Nina’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Race and Ethnicity in Classrooms and Outside

Part I—African American and Afro-Brazilian Connections Nina was a nineteen-year-old Geisel College government and sociology major from the suburbs of a large metropolis in Missouri. I chose Nina’s pseudonym because her appearance and firebrand personality reminded me of the jazz artist and U.S. civil rights activist Nina Simone. Nina has a similarly striking face and a muscular, curvaceous figure sheathed in velvety sepia skin. She was always impeccably, often provocatively, dressed and covered her head in stylish hats rather than let anyone see a hair out of place in her meticulously flat-ironed ear-length bob. During class, Nina often made witty, insightful commentary and engaged in heated debates with classmates and instructors. When friends coaxed her into stepping out, she was an elegant social butterfly who attracted attention and loved to party. Nina’s parents divorced early in her childhood, and she and her two younger stepbrothers were raised in a middle-class, majority-white suburb by their mother and stepfather. Nina’s parents were upwardly mobile African Americans, born into financially precarious circumstances they escaped through education and considerable struggle. At the time of the study, Nina’s mother was a director-level city government executive. Her father, previously the owner and manager of a financial services company, worked as a consultant. Although they lived apart, both parents remained close with Nina. She had an especially bonded relationship with her father and considered him one of her best friends. They spoke on the phone every day, and Nina gained from him very high regard for herself in interpersonal relations and a no-half-stepping worldliness in dealing with the opposite sex. Nina’s mother’s contribution to her personality was an indefatigable drive and ambition. The mother was a formidably self-determined woman convinced of the benefits of early foreign language education. She founded a public charter K–8 language immersion school in an urban school district and enrolled Nina and her siblings to be educated entirely in French. Nina’s mother did this primarily to benefit the African American community as a side project unrelated to her career in city government. She located the

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Nina’s Story

59

school so that black children from underprivileged neighborhoods with few opportunities for rigorous academics and early access to foreign language study could be easily bused to it. She also valued positive role models and cultural diversity, so she staffed the school with as many black teachers as she could find, often from Francophone African and Caribbean countries. As a result of her mother’s presence, Nina grew up with a remarkable model of a high-achieving and sociopolitically engaged black woman, and—a fact of particular relevance to this study—she also enjoyed an early and successful start in multilingualism. Desires, Choices, and Efforts for Connections I first met Nina on the Geisel College campus when I walked into the last few minutes of an oral skills drill session led by the undergraduate Portuguese Language teaching assistant (TA). After class, Nina and two other study participants, Didier and Rose, insisted the TA stay a few more minutes while Nina found and played YouTube music videos on the classroom computer projector. She typed search terms and located the videos with a speed that attested to her familiarity with the material. The videos Nina chose all featured Afro-Brazilian music and artists, and she seemed excited to show the TA how she was spending free time outside class listening to music in Portuguese. She demonstrated dances she and her friends were trying to learn from the videos, remarked on their similarity to hip-hop, and declared her joy in traveling to Salvador to experience the people and music in person. Nina (from Pre-Study Language Learning Autobiography)1 I love Afro-Brazilian music, creu. It gives me a feel of hip-hop with the beat but in a different language. I listen to it on my own time. These Afro-Brazilian musical styles were not part of the curriculum in her beginner Portuguese course at Geisel College, yet Nina took the initiative to make them a part of her educational experience, dedicating time and effort to familiarizing herself with aspects of Brazilian culture that most appealed to her before going to Salvador. Clearly, she desired Portuguese learning success and planned actively to participate in her imagined and desired communities in Brazil. Listening to Afro-Brazilian music would further expose Nina to different voices in Portuguese and help her fulfill the program’s high expectations of oral comprehension. It would contribute to the construction of Nina’s desired identity as a fluent Portuguese speaker, and it was a conduit to an idealized Afro-Brazilian experience through the deployment of learning strategies (Chamot & O’Malley, 1994; Oxford, 1996, 2001) that engaged complementary aspects of her African American identity. In addition to eagerly desiring and preparing to engage culturally

60

Nina’s Story

with Afro-Brazilians, Nina also happily anticipated living in a city with a demographic composition she had never experienced:

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Nina (from Pre-Study Interview) The program is in Salvador so over that I had no choice, but personally I am, I was literally ecstatic when I found out it was 90% black or, I don’t know what type of terminology to use, Afro-Brazilian. I’ve never been to a place where it’s just been all my color. Growing up, school, neighborhood, whatever, well, I guess for a neighborhood for a while when I was younger, but I couldn’t really go outside. But anyway (laughs), so I’ve never been to a place where it’s been like, and then the same color as me, so I am really excited in addition to that, like, the fact that they’re the same color as me, but they’re a different culture. I think is going to be very interesting to see like how that works. So I’m really, I’m really excited. Nina’s excitement to discover the people and culture of the African Diaspora in Brazil while learning Portuguese at Geisel College greatly contributed to her eagerness to study abroad in Salvador. This program was the reason she chose Portuguese as an additional language in the first place, and it promised what she imagined would be a welcomed respite from her majority-white experiences in her Missouri neighborhood, high school, and East Coast liberal arts college. Her efforts toward and participation in Portuguese language learning were facilitated by her sense of ethno-racial affinity with Afro-Brazilians, and when she arrived in Salvador, she delighted in meeting and interacting with them: Nina (from Week 1 Journal) We’ve been going to this place called Pelourinho. Its pretty cool. I was in amazement when I first went cuz their was soooo many ppl in addition so many black people speaking another language! I feel so un-cultured saying that lol2 but its weird! Nina and her classmates made frequent outings to Pelourinho—a revitalized colonial neighborhood, which is both Salvador’s largest Afro-Brazilian cultural center and its kitschiest, most popular tourist trap of shops, bars, nightclubs, restaurants, museums, art centers, and open-air musical performance venues. Since I knew the city and was eager to observe the participants interacting with Brazilians, I accompanied them, as well as all the other Geisel College study abroad students, on a few of their social outings to Pelourinho, other Salvador nightspots, and some concert performances. Although the participants were subjects of my academic research and more than a decade younger than me, we had a lot in common. I enjoyed their company and even took them along with my own Brazilian friends to some parties I thought they would enjoy. Thus I contributed to their access to varying social networks that I thought might facilitate their fluency-building interactions and

Nina’s Story

61

speaking opportunities with Brazilians, especially black Brazilians. Since my presence and Nina’s relationship with me featured prominently in her experience of the Portuguese study abroad program, I was featured in her journal:

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Nina (from Week 1 Journal) I would also like to get to know Uju (this is weird cuz ur gonna be reading this! Lol). She seems really intriguing and I feel like I can learn a lot from her. One thing I like is that she listens, and I need help with that lol I can tell she is really listening to what you are saying yet still formulating her point in her mind which is usually something that I need to hear. (From Week 2 Journal) Thursday were gonna go to this spot called Africa 900 that Uju told us about. This band was bomb, but we got there literally like 20 minutes before it was over. It was outside, but like under a tent and it is where the band practices so its free! Then we went to pelorinho and fond this bomb ass reggae club that im definitely gonna frequent. I did the most3 at that club too. (From Cumulative Journal Submitted Week 10) I went to this black charme party with [Didier], [Rose], Uju and her two friends. It was supposed to be the business4 but it wasn’t, yet we still had a good time. Not surprisingly, the study participants were young, attractive, socially active, and personable; therefore, their choices and efforts to build their emerging expertise in Portuguese interacting within local communities revolved around romantic encounters. Nina became adept at flirting and courtship with young Afro-Brazilian men, and she labored to overcome her fear of making mistakes and her frustration with not being understood: Nina (From Week 1 Journal) I am such an outgoing person so it is extremely frustrating for me not to be able to talk with others. I am trying more now then I was before. The problem was that I don’t like forcing conversations but now I do anyway and do not care if I make mistakes. I want to be able to have a conversation with Brazilian guys that approach me. I haven’t found one that is patient enough. (From Week 2 Journal) I met this fine ass dude name M___. He is dark skinned, tall, beautiful teeth, a curly pretty fro5 and has amazing lips. Just a kiss on the check gave me chills! And the best part was when he called I stopped being a pussy and got on the phone, and I ended up having a FULL BLOWN COHERENT conversation in Portuguese with this man. It was fabulous!

62

Nina’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Such choices and efforts to participate meaningfully in interactions with Portuguese speakers—interactions that offered her appealing benefits in dating and romance—indicated Nina’s investments in the practices of local communities, along with her desire to advance her social and linguistic pursuits within them. Her efforts to participate in the classroom communities, so as to facilitate languaging success and fulfill the academic expectations of the program, signaled similar investments in their practices: Nina (from Week 2 Journal) So [Afro-Brazilian Culture and History teacher] and [Brazilian Literature teacher]’s class switch for me every week. Now I think [Afro-Brazilian Culture and History teacher]’s class is the hardest. I mean like I said, I do the readings so I can make a connection in class but it is still difficult to understand what he is talking about but maybe it will get tons better cuz6 im really interested now in what we are talking about especially when we start talking about identity. Last week I definitely participated in class and for like ten minutes I COMPLETELY understood everything he was saying. It was amazing! And I think I understood cuz it was something that I was very interested in and had an opinion. I expressed and added to the learning. I even answered one of his endless questions that he posed to the class! It was great. He was also a little more animated this week, like laughing more which was good, cuz his monotone voice makes me want to hurl. I still have to ask [Leti] (who I love, she’s hilarious!) like a gazillion questions in both classes but she usually answers them nicely and I get it. While at first Nina struggled to keep up with the complex languaging practices and ideas in which she was immersed during her Afro-Brazilian Culture and History class, she hoped and worked to ensure that the situation would improve. Her later reports to me, my observations of how she fared in the course, as well as the excellent marks she received on her essays and final exam showed that indeed it did. Positive changes in the instructor’s teaching style, Nina’s great interest in ethnic studies, and the mostly sociopolitical and sociological course material—her college major—all facilitated her active participation and investment in this classroom community. However, as Nina interacted with people and practices within different classroom and outside communities, her investments demonstrably shifted. A notable difference in Nina’s level of interest, effort, and participation appeared in the same journal entry that described how engaged she was in the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History classroom. In her Brazilian Literature class, where she was neither interested in the material nor the instructor, Nina was bored and tuned out everything unrelated to what she needed to know to produce the four essays on which her course grade would be based:

Nina’s Story

63

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Nina (from Week 2 Journal) Last week in [Brazilian Literature teacher]’s class I thought I was gonna shoot myself right then and there. I mean what is he talking about To be very honest, I have acquired a great technique of tuning out. I don’t know how, but I can literally stare at the teacher and act like I am paying attention but I am thinking about my life, boys or whatever for over an hour . . .that is what I do sometimes in his class. I mean cuz why try to pay attention and I don’t know what is going on!!! It is harder for me to make this amazing effort because for our grade is 4 essays that we write ourselves, and choose a topic so when I find an interesting topic I pay attention, ask questions, write the essay and get the grade. Im sorry, all the extraneous stuff that I am not gonna write my essay on is not worthy of me listening cuz I don’t give a fuck. What he talks about I am not interested in. The Geisel College program’s Brazilian Literature instructor did not consent to my observing and video recording his class, so I did not see firsthand how the study participants interacted within that classroom community. However, the participants discussed the course with me and their feelings and observations while there and gave me copies of their literature essays. As she reported in her journals and interviews, Nina’s lack of interest, identification, and personal engagement with its topics and activities contributed to her choice to participate very little within the literature classroom community during the first few weeks of the program. Eventually, however, she grew to like the course as its format changed from exclusively instructor lectures to more group discussion. In contrast to how easy and enjoyable it was for Nina to complete her assignments in the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History course, listening to lectures and doing homework for her Brazilian Literature course was an arduous experience made no easier by insecurities about expressing herself adequately in Portuguese as well as her lack of interest and personal engagement with the course material. Nina (from Week 10 Interview) [Afro-Brazilian Culture and History teacher]’s papers I wrote, tops, 30, 45 minutes. [Brazilian Literature teacher], it takes me four hours, you know, because we’re writing about the sertão7 in Brazil. But for [AfroBrazilian Culture and History teacher]’s class, I’m writing about stuff I already know, stuff I care about, stuff I really like. And that shit just flows. (From Week 2 Journal) Oh yeah, as far as the essay goes for the literature class, I have found that I am actually scared to start writing. It seems so hard to express

64

Nina’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

myself in another language on a topic that is so heavy. I mean I could easily write it in English but in port just seems to hard. Idk,8 Ill see when Im done. Even more so its like how is he going to grade it. I will prolly9 sound like a third grader. Another sign of Nina’s shifting investments across different Portuguese learning and speaking communities and the choices and efforts she made within was the fact that throughout much of the program, she did not adhere to the program requirement that participants speak exclusively in Portuguese during all classes, activities, and even among one another. She was often reminded by instructors, the director, and even her classmates (in increasingly strong terms as time passed) to stop speaking English—a practice that was seen as disruptive and contrary to the program’s goal of fostering total language immersion. After being so frequently reminded that she was breaking the “Portuguese-only” rule, Nina felt regretful that she was not fulfilling program expectations, and she knew that it did not endear her to the instructors and coordinators. Nevertheless, she was heartened that the reticence, difficulties, and fears impeding her communicating only in Portuguese were overcome when she was interacting with Brazilians, and she could at least speak when necessary. This interest and resulting efforts signaled a shift and lack of investment in the monolingual immersion practices mandated within her classroom communities. Classroom Connections in Race and Ethnicity The BACI classrooms also served as important translanguaging spaces in which the shaping and positioning of multiple identities featured prominently. The Geisel College Portuguese language study abroad program, which is located in an Afro-Brazilian city and purposefully highlights ethnoracial topics in its core curriculum, is unusual. Subjects and materials in most commonly taught classroom languages (e.g., Spanish, ESL/EFL) seldom overtly address race. Nevertheless, many still present a racist discourse in the curriculum through stereotypical imagery (limiting blacks to ethnicized folkloric music, or to “traditions” sections) and scant representation of black populations as principal cultural agents in the language of study (Pinar, 1993; Taylor-Mendes, 2009). On a number of occasions when some aspect of blackness, black identity, or black life was being explored in the classroom, Nina demonstrated a sense of positive racialized identification and self-affirmation. A representative example of this phenomenon took place in the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History class when the instructor made a presentation on black family life during slavery and showed the picture of a painting (Figure 4.1) depicting a wedding ceremony between Africans enslaved by wealthy masters.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Nina’s Story

65

Figure 4.1 “Casamento de negros escravos de família rica” Jean Baptiste Debret (1834)

In colonial Brazil, some members of the moneyed elite showed off their riches by giving opulent clothing and fine jewelry to enslaved servants whom they still beat, raped, and tortured with the same cruelty as other captors. Such finery served to demonstrate that they were so wealthy, they could afford dazzling luxuries even for their human chattel (Ozanan, 2003). Seeing this painting of lavishly dressed enslaved Africans, Nina, who had been leaning back in her chair, moves her upper body forward, places her right elbow on top of the notebook on her desk, and rests her head on her right hand in a clear attending response to the image. While the instructor describes the painting, Nina looks and motions toward him with her open right hand, signaling a desire to speak.

1) notices

2) attends

3) signals to speak

66

Nina’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

The instructor continues to talk. Nina interrupts by initiating the following sequence:10 01 Nina: uh.hh eu I 02 ((touches chest with right hand)) 03 tenho que falar inglês I have to speak English 04 I have never seen in my li:fe 05 pi:ctures .hh of .hh bla:ck people 06 of this time? DREss [like this 07 Ss: [((chuckle)) 08 Nina: [so you guys 09 Ss: ((laugh)) 4) touches chest 10 Nina: I’m like .hh (.30) taken aback 11 ((touches chest with right hand)) 12 Ss: ((chuckle)) 13 Nina: I know I’m seeming really dramatic? 14 [((touches chest with right hand)) 15 [but I’m se:rious 16 I’ve jus ne:ver .hh have see↑n this 17 T: mm hmm? 18 Nina: I di:n know this even exi↑sted 19 where they .hh y’know [portra::yed them 20 [((turns right palm and fingers toward chest without touching)) 21 as actually .hh not [ah:nimals 22 T: [ mm hmm? 23 Nina: [ an (.50) y’know 24 degra::ded an they actul loo:kt like 25 peeh↑ple 26 T: i::sso11 exa::ctly 27 Nina: an I’m jus y’know 28 Nina: I’m jus gonna write down his name 29 T: I::SSO EXA::CTLY 30 Ss: ((loudly laugh)) The first striking aspect of this episode is that Nina is so overcome with emotion upon seeing the painting that she interrupts the instructor’s explanations and discontinues the program-mandated exclusive use of Portuguese, because she is unable to contain herself, nor adequately express her feelings without additional linguistic resources (line 3). As will also be seen in other classroom episodes, translanguaging strategies

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Nina’s Story

67

are a form of stylization and stance-taking. Nina’s recourse to English when rules obligate only Portuguese illustrates not just her emerging stage of expertise in employing new language practices during her third week in Brazil but also a move to regain the discursive power that this inexperience deprives her of when she is forced to limit the recourses she can marshal to make meaning and confine complex thoughts and ideas to a few broken and awkward sentences. Perhaps in acknowledgment of the illicitness of speaking English in class and perhaps also in encouragement of the instructor’s positive alignment and sympathetic response to her violation of the languaging norms of the classroom community, Nina preambles her speech with an expression of her need for English in this emotional circumstance and seeks permission to draw support from more communicative resources. With no resistance from the instructor or her classmates, she proceeds. Taking deliberate breaths, Nina first explains why she is so moved by the painting: Never before had she seen images of blacks from the era of slavery in which they were dressed in elaborate finery (lines 4–6). This declaration elicits mild chuckles from some classmates. Nina attempts to secure their positive alignment and the support of her peers, who, perhaps taking a stance of incredulousness or confusion, continue to laugh at her strong response to the painting. She reassures them that, while her response to the painting may seem overly “dramatic,” it is sincere (lines 13–15). She then goes on to explain that she had never seen enslaved blacks depicted as anything other than degraded and animal-like figures (16–21) and is obviously elated at the sight of such a beautiful image. Permeated throughout culture, media, and ideology in the United States is the belief that the fundamental basis of black American identity is the legacy of descending from enslaved Africans. So much so, that a lack of such ancestry, not his biracial provenance, is why many people do not consider President Barack Obama black (Walters, 2007). The psychological abuse of racism (West, 1994; Franklin et al., 2011), perpetuated through public imagery and ideology, meant that Nina had only seen naturalized slaveryera depictions of dejected, enchained blacks reduced to a status more akin to beasts than human beings. In lines 19–21, she gestures the internalization of that “degraded” image as her very person, not merely as a descendant of those who had been enslaved. While saying “portrayed them” (the enslaved), she motions toward her chest with her right hand, a gesture she had only previously made during the sequence when she referred to herself using the words “eu” and “I’m” (lines 1–2, 10–11, 13–15). Nina demonstrates much excitement at seeing enslaved Afro-Brazilians, with whom she strongly identifies through the common American history of human bondage, depicted as “people” (lines 23–24), almost as if her own image as an African American and direct heir to this legacy were somehow also rehabilitated. The positive alignment that Nina had earlier sought from the instructor comes soon after, as he assents to an

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

68

Nina’s Story

understanding (and in a way, also a validation) of her reaction to the image, exclaiming “isso” or “exactly!” in line 26, and also in line 29, after she declares that she never even knew such an image existed and would make note of the artist’s name. The instructor’s positive alignment with Nina also allows classmates to rally around her more strongly and openly, as they loudly laugh and smile in her direction at the end of the episode. Nina’s decision to write down the name of the artist of such an inspiring and self-affirming painting—perhaps so she could research his work, learn more, and find other similar images—illustrated both the enactment of her ethnic and racialized identities and her investment in the practices of this classroom community. Instructional materials in this classroom positively engaged and affirmed certain ethno-racialized aspects of her multiplicities, compelling her to want to draw closer to Brazilians by learning more about the parts of their culture and history with which she so intimately identified. When she solicited translanguaging space to articulate and process her thoughts in reaction to being so moved by powerful and socially significant imagery, the instructor and her peers granted it, not only by allowing her to do so utilizing languaging resources and strategies of her choice but also by supporting and not ridiculing or distancing themselves from her expressed sentiments. Intersections of Race, Ethnicity, and Social Class Outside the Classroom As she navigated in contexts outside the classroom and within different local communities, Nina’s writings and interviews also showed how intersectional identity positions and relations were engaged and negotiated. They demonstrated the complexity of her multiple and shifting identities by showing that, although she strongly identified racially with Afro-Brazilians, class and socioeconomic identification was a different matter for her. Nina was a middle-class African American woman participating in study abroad sponsored by an elite U.S. college, and she was hosted at one of Brazil’s top educational institutions and in the home of a middle-class Brazilian family. Such accommodations were inaccessible to the majority of people in Salvador, who were not part of the small, mostly white elite. That she lived with a black Brazilian family in a gated condominium in an exclusive neighborhood was uncommon. Yet Nina, assessing the living conditions associated with different socioeconomic levels in Brazil, felt that Salvador did not measure up to her life at home. However, São Paulo—the wealthiest metropolis in the country—fit the bill: Nina (from Week 1 Journal) I learned some new things this week. One I remembered is how you can tell someone’s status. The favelas12 are horizontal, middle class is

Nina’s Story

69

vertical and the rich you generally cant see. I think it is so surprising how the small apartment I live in is middle class. Back home this would be lower class. Its not dirty or trifling just small.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

(From Cumulative Journal Submitted Week 10) OMG! I AM OBSSESSED WITH SAO PAULO. We are in the wrong city, Its amazing and I love it there! That place is like Chicago. It was so nice to go to a place that was clean, no piss on the streets and trash picked up. Their were not that many poor ppl on the streets like in Salvador although I did not go to the favelas or a poorer area. It was just overall a better experience. When I was there I just felt good. [. . .] Additionally, black people HAD STUFF. I mean their hair was done, nails, had nice clothes, were in business suits!!! It was fabulous to see all these blacks who had things going for themselves. I am not trying to say that just because they are more successful they are better, its just nice to see my people making moves and progressing. I invited study participants to rest, travel, and see more of Brazil with me for a few of the ten days of vacation included in the Geisel College program. The break period fell during the week of my birthday, which I wanted to spend in São Paulo where I previously had lived for three years and made many friends. Three participants, Nina, Didier, and Rose, accepted and stayed for a few days in the large middle-class home where my AfroBrazilian best friend’s family hosted us. Leti was short of travel funds and remained in Salvador, where she had developed close ties in the community volunteering at an Afro-Brazilian nonprofit. She was also dating a man from her Capoeira martial arts academy. Although Salvador is an idyllic paradise for the hundreds of thousands of domestic and international tourists it hosts annually, it is located in the poorest region of Brazil, the northeast, which has the lowest Human Development Index (HDI) in the country, as determined by the United Nations Development Programme.13 Seventy-eight percent of the municipalities in this region list average earnings at between US$58 and US$105 a month, less than half the country’s legal minimum wage of US$220. In the Brazilian northeast, the wealthiest city is Salvador, and the neighborhood where Nina lived and attended school is one of the oldest and most elite. But conditions there fell short of what Nina experienced in Brazil’s richest city, São Paulo, and in the United States, one of the richest nations in the world. Accustomed to greater wealth and urban development than she saw in Salvador, Nina felt more comfortable in São Paulo, where, socioeconomically, its black residents looked and lived more like she did. She found their

70

Nina’s Story

cultural expressions and preferences not merely similar to hers, as in Salvador; Nina perceived them as exactly the same as hers:

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Nina (from Cumulative Journal Submitted Week 10) We went to this amazing hip hop club! It was so fun. It was really “chiky” [chic]. It was so nice and the DJ was ON POINT like the best dj ever. Everyone was dancing, drinks were flowing ME AND [ROSE] DANCED TO BEYONCE DIVA ON THE BAR TOP! It was fabulous. Furthermore all the guys were dressed!!! I mean polos, nice jeans, clean shoes, bomb haircuts it was great. We kicked it.14 [. . .] While I sat in the club, I just looked around and was like wow, look at all these black people, but they are speaking another language yet still kicking it to black American music. It was the craziest and the coolest thing that I have experienced in Brazil Just realizing that all blacks are still black no matter where in the world and no matter what language. Our features are similar, our dress, our demeanor, its just amazing. Im not saying we are a monolithic race, cuz that’s not true it was just that although I was black from America and I went to a black club in BRAZIL, I still belonged. Nina was happiest interacting and speaking Portuguese with blacks in more cosmopolitan São Paulo, which also was the place in Brazil that reminded her most of the United States. She saw São Paulo blacks as looking and behaving most like Americans, and the similarities were not coincidental. The urban black population in São Paulo—especially the youth who listen to the hip-hop and R&B music played at the nightclubs Nina visited—voraciously consume urban black American culture. With considerable purchasing power and access to social networks and international media, São Paulo Afro-Brazilians meticulously style themselves according to what they see as black American fashions, hair, and mannerisms packaged and sold to the entire planet through the U.S. music video, film, television, magazine, and Internet pop culture media machine. Salvador’s Afro-Brazilians, on the other hand, have a more local appearance and cultural identity with traditional forms of expression that, while attractive to Nina, were still alien: Nina (from Cumulative Journal Submitted Week 10) Now, the thing I keep thinking about is the fact that Im so obsessed with Sao Paulo and why? Is it because it is like Chicago or New York and more developed? Its less cultured and everything so Can I not appreciate the culture of Bahia? Can I not appreciate everything that Salvador has to offer? I don’t know but ill figure that out for my final entry. Nina’s reference to São Paulo as “less cultured” meant that the city was less traditionally Brazilian, and thus, more familiar to her. The very specific

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Nina’s Story

71

and identifiable culture of the visible trappings of American-style wealth and consumerism was invisible to Nina as the default state of normal, much like how whiteness is portrayed as a raceless human standard in the United States, while other categories are racialized, or white Anglo-Saxon protestants are considered a cultural generic, while other groups, such as Polish and Italian Catholics, are positioned as “ethnic” (Persons, 1987; Doane, 2003). For Nina, “culture” meant poor and “ethnified” (García, 2010) because of more explicit differences in wealth, fashion, music, and other cultural expressions, and she ignored that her own normal, albeit recognizable in São Paulo, was also a very distinct culture. Tensions like these demonstrated the limits of racial identification and the need to examine how the study participants’ racial identities intersected with their American ethnic, cultural, and social class identities. Despite the excitement of Salvador and experiencing familiar Afro-Brazilian cultural expressions (e.g., music), Nina was not always comfortable with how these expressions, along with material and socioeconomic conditions of everyday life in the city, still remained very different. Nevertheless, Nina’s phenotypic resemblance to the majority of Salvador’s population of the Salvador remained a powerful source of connection and reassurance: Nina (from Week 10 Interview) And then racially [Salvador] exceeded my expectations. I never realized how out of place I felt in the States, you know? And I’m glad I don’t feel that when I’m there, because that would be an, that’d be an unbearable feeling. For the first time in her life, Nina was a part of the racial majority. Blending in with everybody provided her with a sense of greater safety as she walked the city streets. She did not stand out as an outsider the way white foreigners did, calling attention to themselves and becoming targets of crime and the harassment of street vendors and catcallers. Nina’s blackness made her feel more connected, more relaxed, secure, and self-assured in Salvador.

Part II—Negra or Morena? Despite her difficulties observing the program’s “Portuguese-only” rule, Nina still learned to speak blackness and voice her ideas, desires, and multiple identities according to new understandings and practices in Portuguese. She conducted and theorized her discursive acts of self-reference and representation in prominently observable ways, and, given its highly salient and indexical nature in this uniquely black study abroad context, the presence of discourse relating to race and ethnicity during self-reference and representation in Portuguese was most apparent. In the same way that Nina’s ethno-racialized identities facilitated her identification with Afro-Brazilian music, she also recognized and responded to familiar terms used in Brazil to speak blackness.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

72

Nina’s Story

To shape this racialized self in Portuguese, Nina did not need to learn from scratch how it was and what it meant to be a black member of the African Diaspora in a society fundamentally shaped by a history of human enslavement and racial hierarchy. She could draw from social meanings and cultural resources from her background to decipher the sociocultural codes and cultural significance to develop practices of speaking blackness specifically in the Brazilian context—a process akin to perfecting pronunciation and pragmatic competence in a language one already speaks fluently. Nina and the other participants chose to describe their blackness in Portuguese in ways that testified to their shaping new identities in a new language. They were discovering how to give voice to their experiences in ways that were meaningful within the local context, but which also felt authentic to their ideologies and perceptions of truth. In an essay from her Afro-Brazilian Culture and History class, Nina challenged the myth of Brazil as a “racial democracy.” In her writing, she observed that many people do indeed believe that Brazil’s high incidence of miscegenation and its permeable color lines create a lack of race-based prejudice and discrimination; however, she suspected this was not the case. The following excerpt from her writing exemplifies Nina’s attempt to speak blackness in Brazil and to shape a racial identity and understanding in the Portuguese language within the bounds of Brazilian social practices. In it she presents evidence contradicting the notion of Brazilian racial harmony and discusses her efforts to find adequate terms of self-description: Nina (from Afro-Brazilian Culture and History Class Essay)15

Instructor Comments That research must be very old, because for a long time now “negro” no longer references poverty and lack of education and is used as an affirmation of identity.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Nina’s Story

73

Some, I think that Brazil does not have a problem of racism. But I think that maybe, some people have a racism sub-conscious against the word “negro/a” which is the identity of many Brazilian people. I know, that the ideas of Brazil about color of body hairs16 are very different from the ideas of United States. But many people want to to believe that Brazil is a racial paradise, but it is not. In the United States, the word Negro and17 a derogatory word and is to use of to hurt people. Here, in Brazil, “negro/a” is a word for to explain a race of people or is to use as a word of identity. But, I we believe firmly that this word does not always have a positive connotation. One example is before coming here, I am talking to my friend [Didier], and I said that “I am being ‘negra’” and he said “no, you are being ‘morena’ because when I did research, I discovered that the people who are ‘negro/a’ do not have education or money so you are being ‘morena’.” Although I still called me “negra”, I was surprised when [Didier] said that. What I do not understand and18 because19 when I (s)he/it arrived here many Brazilians said that the word “negro/a” is a completely positive word but many scholars said the opposite. But, what I know is the word “negro/a” began to have a negative connotation pretty conscious or unconscious during Brazilian slavery. We learn through the example that even before arriving in Brazil, Nina and fellow study participant, Didier, had been actively structuring their racialized identities by debating the most appropriate lexical choices for self-identification. An Afro-Brazilian member of her classroom community, their culture and history class instructor, joined the discussion and offered Nina an insider’s perspective, which justified her initial feelings that, indeed, negra (meaning “black”) was a valid and racially positive choice for selfidentification, regardless of how fraught and negatively viewed (Guimarães, 1999; Caldwell, 2004) the term has been in Brazil. Armed with this assurance and her personal convictions, Nina resisted being referred to as morena, a racially nebulous and all-encompassing term meaning “dark,” which can be used to describe any black woman or a white woman with dark hair. However, she discovered that not all Afro-Brazilians believed that the term negra carried no stigma: Nina (from Week 10 Interview) Just the fact that I’m black, I think it’s great, you know, and I just have so much pride in my race. So when I get here and I got people trying to make me be morena, I ain’t morena, I’m negra. I got dark skin. So, and what’s your point? Why can’t I be negra? I want to be mais escura, escura [darker]. UJU:

Well you know why you can’t be negra or they’re not trying to call you negra is because negra isn’t associated with what you are, which is fly. You’re fly, you’re excellent. You’re smart,

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

74

Nina’s Story you’re pretty, all those things, and that’s not typically associated with negra. NINA: You know? I just can’t, I think that is preposterous. [. . .] You can just walk around here and they will literally like, no one will ever call me negra. They’ll always call me morena. And even I was talking to J__[Afro-Brazilian romantic friend] about it. He’s like, you’re not negra. I’m like, just because you associate that with that does not mean that I have to. And like, I think its preposterous how, you know, they have such a negative connotation for that word. UJU: So you guys had conversations where he tried to convince you that you’re not negra, that you’re morena? NINA: Well, no. I asked him. I was like what’s up with this? UJU: You asked him about it. NINA: Yeah. I asked him. I was like, you know, what’s, what’s going on? He was just like, I mean, you know, negra has a negative connotation. So no one’s ever going to call you negra, you know? And he was like especially, you know, when you, you have intelligence and, you know, you can hold a conversation and you’re not always drinking Skol.20 You know? You just won’t ever be called that. UJU: What did he call you? NINA: He said, you would be a morena. He’s never particularly called me morena on his own. But like, he would just like, you know, you’d be a morena and that was kind of like the end of it. He was like, what do you not get? It’s self-explanatory.

For Nina, constructing and negotiating her new Portuguese language identity and learning to speak blackness according to local practices and understandings were transformative socialization processes in which she engaged within her classroom communities and outside. I, the researcher, at the more experienced end of the continuum of expertise in Portuguese with considerable academic and social familiarity with issues of race in Brazil, also collaborated in Nina’s socialization by sharing my thoughts on negra versus morena. Nina’s sense of racial affinity in Salvador derived from her understanding of the similarities between African Americans and AfroBrazilians in the struggle against racism. However, she discovered that not all Brazilian blacks agreed with her, with me, or even with one another in the evaluation and assessment of realities of racism in the country: Nina (from Week 10 Interview) They know the racial dichotomy that they’re going through. They know the whole concept morena, you know, negro, negra. They know about, you know, this, all this affirmative action, you know, everything that’s going on here as it relates to blackness. You know, they all are having

Nina’s Story

75

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

identity, you know, they all are having an identity crisis. You know, what they should call themselves, what the government calls them. Like, you know, they, they, they’re going through it. And, you know, a lot of black people from the States go through the same thing as well. So once again it just like another relatability factor. [. . .] And it took me more time arguing with my Brazilian [host] mom about why she doesn’t agree than me actually writing the paper. UJU:

So you would have her look at it and then she would argue about your ideas? NINA: Yeah, she’s so smart and UJU: And she’s negra, right? NINA: Yeah. And she’s really smart and she really is very opinionated as, as I am as well. UJU: What were some of the arguments? NINA: She, well, she, she’s a typical Brazilian. She doesn’t think that there’s any racism. She thinks it’s classism. And you know that argument. So we went back and forth about that. And I was just basically like, you know, I’m not going to sit here and continue this conversation and, you know, so then she tried to involve my whole family and all this and that. But, yeah, she basically was just like, you know, no, we, we don’t have any racism. It’s classism. And then my next paper, when I wrote about the black person with the white soul, I wrote, I wrote about strictly a dark person. But I also wrote about a lightskinned person with a white soul. Because a light-skinned person is negro too. So I need to add both. And she was like, no, light-skinned people don’t feel that way and yada yada and I’ve never seen that and all this. And so when I was going to do my presentation for [language class teacher], it was getting late. And I was like, mom, like I don’t want you to tell me your opinion when I say this, just please help me correct it. And then eventually I came to the conclusion I’m not even going to present it to her. Because I do not have the time to hear her and then add my sisters and brothers so they can tell me why I’m wrong as well. So thought I’d better tell them that and stop now. Nina’s navigations within different multilingual communities exposed her to different perspectives on race in Brazil, which contributed to her understanding of how to speak blackness. For example, the Afro-descendant instructor of the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History course taught Nina about the dismal realities of racial inequality, violence, and institutional and socioeconomic disenfranchisement of blacks in Brazil.21 This teacher actively promoted the idea that the country was fundamentally and irreparably racist.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

76

Nina’s Story

Nina frequently discussed these issues with me, especially when she suffered overt discrimination, differentiated treatment, or less sexual attention than the white and lighter-skinned black female participants of the program. For example, on many occasions, Nina’s concepts of racial and gender-based self-worth were injured when she was made to feel less physically attractive than her white female classmates. She saw white women openly given preferential attention because they represent the highest standard of feminine beauty in Brazil, whereas, black women are viewed as the lowest (see Caldwell, 2004, 2007; Nascimento, 2006 and Chapters 6 and 7 in this book for further discussion on this hierarchy): Nina (from Cumulative Journal Submitted Week 10) So we went to this gay club last nite (august 15th 2009) and for the first time I felt out of place. So we were all dancing and the man came over to take pictures of us from the club which was really cool. So then he asked [white classmate] to take a picture by herself. And so she came up to me and said if he ask you, take it with [Didier] so u don’t look like a lesbian and I told her that he wasn’t going to ask for a picture of me by myself and she said why and I said look around honey Im black. And she said that doesn’t matter and I said okay watch. Do u think he asked me for one. Just the 2 white girls and not even [another female classmate] who is asian. I guess I felt kind of sad cuz one half of an ounce of me wanted, I mean really wanted him to ask ME the black girl of the club for a picture. Like if I was at a black club I would have been asked and I would have been pretty to his standards but at this white club no matter how fly I was dressed and no matter how cute I was, this white guy did not think so. Nina knew that, unlike her host mother who believed Brazil was a racially harmonious society, I agreed with the instructor’s view of Brazil as a country as profoundly marked by racism as the United States because I had previously researched race and gender in Brazilian literature and culture, and I had worked with an Afro-Brazilian women’s nonprofit organization promoting civil rights and black political activism. This instructor provided media images, news reports, statistics, articles, and other research to support his view. They were in blatant opposition to the powerful and enduring myth of Brazil as a racial democracy in which blacks and whites live and mix harmoniously, and the problems blacks face result only from class-based inequality. A view of Brazil as a racist society was comprehensible for Nina (and most African Americans); however, it was not a view shared by many Brazilians, who believe that their society is a racial democracy and cite class, not race, as the primary cause of social stratification and inequity. So when Nina asked her Afro-Brazilian host mother to help her proofread the essays she wrote in different courses—for which Nina always chose race-related

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Nina’s Story

77

topics—she encountered resistance to her ideas from everyone in the family who felt they could evaluate racial discrimination and understand dynamics of racial categorization in their country better than a recently arrived foreigner who barely spoke the language. Nina, on her part, did not have the dress, mannerisms, or appearance that would signal her as a lower-class Brazilian yet still experienced discrimination, therefore, she felt that she had some knowledge to speak. Based upon her reading of these interactions, she did not take the family’s objections seriously, as evidenced by her dismissive characterization of her host mother as “a typical Brazilian” who, perhaps naively, believed the country had no racism. Unlike Nina’s positive and accepting response to the orientation that her Afro-Brazilian Culture and History instructor and I provided, she did not accept her host mother’s attempts to socialize her into different practices and understandings of racial categorization and the prevalence of racism. In her account of how she deliberated and negotiated ideologies relating to racial identities within Brazilian social practices, Nina rejected her Afro-Brazilian host family’s efforts to convince her that Brazil and the United States did not share the same rigid and polar definitions of race and that opinions and realities in the two countries differed more on the pervasiveness of racial inequality than she had described in her essay. This was illustrated by how she did not choose to delve into the specificities of her host family’s counterarguments, replacing those instead with the derisive “all this and that” and “yada yada.” To save time with what she believed were fruitless and time-consuming debates, Nina insisted that her host mother stop offering her opinions on the content of the essays and just help her correct grammar. Eventually, she gave up asking for help entirely. Nina had already made up her mind about what she believed about the topics of conversation and decided not to continue in the debate. Describing the episode to me, she also maneuvered to align me with her assessment of the tediousness of having to debate a moot point by saying, “And you know that argument,” seeking my assent that it was fallacious. Once again, we see the boundaries of Nina’s affinity and identification with Afro-Brazilians and are reminded of the ways her personal background, perspectives, experiences, and various positionings influenced the shifts in her investments across multiple communities. We also see her learning to speak blackness in Brazil by drawing from her background, history, ideologies, and views, thus displaying the enactment of new Portuguese language identities that were uniquely hers as she reconciles these shifts in investments with her developing understanding of Brazilian culture and social practices.

Part III—Shade and Sass in Portuguese In my work as an instructor of foreign languages and a researcher of blacks in second language learning, non-African American teaching colleagues and even strangers I meet in conferences often ask me to help them better

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

78

Nina’s Story

understand and communicate with their black students, especially with regard to issues of conflict. Some of the people I have spoken with expressed frustration with their inability to recruit or retain blacks in language courses, with unsubtle implications that it might be because these types of students often have “bad attitudes,” problems with authority, feel as if they are owed something, and are generally less motivated than other students. During the three months I spent following my African American study participants on their sojourn to Brazil to learn Portuguese, I was often consulted regarding Nina, who had difficulties with the program director even before arriving in Salvador, and who at the school site was branded as having “an attitude problem,” being insolent and disrespectful, “ungrateful,” and prone to “sassing” instructors. To me, Nina had definitely revealed an aspect of her personality that seemed short-tempered, impatient, and unwilling to get along with others and feign conviviality when she did not genuinely feel it. However, I also observed that her persona of the stereotypical “difficult woman” or “angry black woman” had in many ways been collaboratively constructed during interactions of conflict. An exemplary episode of this joint positioning of a group member as troublesome took place in a classroom community when Nina challenged her Portuguese language instructor about his earlier assertion that a particularly difficult grammatical item would not appear on the exam and questioned the usefulness of spending time reviewing a word that was rarely used. Identities emerge in interaction through explicit mention, assignations, and suppositions of categories. They are also revealed through interlocutor roles and languaging practices that are recognizably associated with specific groups. In the episode transcribed below, we see how Nina’s persona as an insolent, rebellious “troublemaker,” always principally responsible

Figure 4.2 Scene of exam review in Portuguese Language class

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Nina’s Story

79

for the frequent conflicts she had with instructors, was interactionally coconstructed. Furthermore, the way she was regarded and treated in the classroom by the instructor and her peers cannot be divorced from underlying racist and sexist ideologies of language and behavior. Participational roles in argumentation, stance-taking, stylization, alignment, and performance all contributed to place an uncomfortable spotlight on Nina’s “sass” and “attitude” during this interaction in the translanguaging spaces of discourse and classroom context, and the ethno-racial indexicality of this positioning cannot go without mention. Of particular interest and worthy of close attention are the actions, gestures, body positioning, and gazes that accompany or replace interlocutor utterances, especially Nina’s close friends Didier and Leti’s embodied language, which serves to distance them from her. 01 T: 02 03 Ss: 04 T: 05 Nina:

06 07 08 09

T: Leti: Nina: Leti:

10 Nina: 11 T:

12 Nina:

13 Nina: 14 T:

revê-la la to see her again her levou consigo as jóias ou levou comigo as jóias? he took with him the jewels or he took with me the jewels? consigo with him consigo (.) levou com ele mesmo with him he took with him [mas nós não vamos ter consigo na na prova (~~) entende? [but we won’t have consigo on the test (~~) understand? [((turns head, upper body from front to back of classroom to face teacher outside frame)) hm hm ((looking downward and scratching her upper left arm)) ((still turned around, looks quizzically at Leti sitting behind her)) ((turns head backwards toward teacher, then turns back toward Nina, rolls eyes upward, slightly shrugs shoulders)) ((upper body still turned backwards, looks toward teacher)) ((moving on with the review)) vamos lá, falou la ou falou-lhes que sim? let’s go, he told her or told them yes? ((using considerably higher pitch))↑eu acho que você falei que nós não vamos ter consigo↑ I think that you I22 said that we’re not going to have consigo porque nós não usamos because we don’t use ((enters video frame walking toward Nina, turns away from her to face the group)) eu disse que não usamos I said we don’t use

80

Nina’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

15

[o::::::::lha ((raises right hand and points index finger upward)) lo::::::::ok at this 16 Nina: [não usamos isso ((raises torso and turns around toward teacher’s direction)) we don’t use that 17 T: que raposa política what a political fox 18 Nina: ((“cuts eye” sharply at teacher)) 19 Didier: ((gazes downward)) 20 Leti: ((gazes downward, rubs left arm with right hand)) 21 Sara: ((smiling and looking toward Nina))

(line 18) Close-up of Nina’s “cut-eye” at the teacher

22 T: 23 24 25 26

Wider frame of scene pictured left

não disse isso I didn’t say that não coloque palavras na minha boca don’t put words in my mouth eu disse que no português brasileiro não é muito usado I said that in Brazilian Portuguese it is not used much não disse que não teria na prova I didn’t say that it wouldn’t be on the test [((faces Nina, points right index finger at her)) [muito esperta boa tentativa [Very smart, nice try

(line 26) Teacher points at Nina

Nina’s Story

81

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

27 Ss: 28 29 T:

((looking toward teacher and laughing)) Didier: ((turns gaze to Nina while laughing, gazes down)) ((walks away)) boa tentativa muito esperta nice try very smart 30 Leti: ((turns gaze to Nina while laughing)) muito esperta boa tentativa very smart nice try 31 Nina: ((gazes down, looks up again sharply rolling her eyes and neck)) mas NÃO prec::I::so na prova se nós NÃO usamos but I DON’T nE::Ed it on the test if we DON’T use it 32 Leti: ((looks at Nina, “sucks teeth,” rolls eyes (line 31) Sharp while shaking head)) neck/eye-roll 33 T: mas lá na Europa eles usam but over in Europe they use it 34 quando você for à terra de Sílvia o que eles dirão[se você when you go to Silvia’s homeland what will they say [if you 35 Nina: ↑[eu não vai na Portuga::l↑ ↑ I won’t he goes to Portuga::l↑ 36 ((turns gaze downward, toward Didier)) I ain’t never seen this on test (~~) stU::pid 37 Didier: ((gaze turned downward, away from Nina)) 38 T: ((singing loudly, clapping)) vem vem vem dançar (~~) carimbó português come come come dance (~~) Portuguese carimbó 39 Didier: ((raises head and turns to the back of classroom toward teacher, looks down again)) 40 T: ((moving on with review)) vamos lá let’s go Goodwin’s (2006) examination of how a racially mixed group of preadolescent girls establishes and enforces a particular social order on the school playground illustrates how a group can isolate and construct a marginalized identity for someone interacting within it. Similarly, Nina’s previously described reputation as a girl with an offensive and disruptive attitude problem was not exclusively of her own making, and the close examination of a scene that might typically reinforce a negative image of this student revealed how talk and action that underscored her troublemaker identity were collaboratively achieved. When Nina initially reminds the instructor that she believed consigo would not be on the final exam, he paused, made the sound “hmmm” (line 6), and continued the review. This refusal to either confirm or deny her assertion, followed by Leti’s eye-roll and shrug of confusion at the response, led to Nina’s reiteration of her question, this time with a higher-pitched, more

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

82

Nina’s Story

insistent tone, in addition to a usage-based justification of why she believed the instructor had previously not considered consigo relevant to the exam (lines 12–13). The instructor at this point moves toward Nina and responds to her statement; however, he does not face her when speaking and directs his response to the entire group. This includes others in his rebuke of Nina and provided the opportunity for them to align with his position. While responding that he only said consigo was infrequently used, but not that it wouldn’t appear on the exam, the instructor raises his arm, points his right index finger upward and exclaims to the class how Nina was a “political fox” (line 17) and should not try to “put words into his mouth” (line 23). To this affront, Nina responds by throwing shade (Johnson, 1995; Johnson & Henderson, 2005) at the instructor, making a stone face that signaled her angrily ignoring him. Then she glared at him, giving a sharp “cut-eye” (Rickford & Rickford, 1976) or “side-eye.” The instructor then turns to directly face and point his right index finger at Nina while teasingly remarking that she was smart by half for making what he considered an attempt to eliminate a difficult item from the exam. The instructor then turns his back and walks away from Nina. Hilarity at her expense ensues throughout the classroom, and her best friend, Didier, seated to her left, is laughing while looking away from her. Another friend, Leti, who is seated directly behind Nina, not only laughs but also repeats the instructor’s mockery saying, “Very smart, nice try” (lines 27–30). Through ridicule and jest, Nina’s Portuguese Language instructor and peers aligned with one another against her and collaboratively orchestrated a most effective face-threatening act (Brown & Levinson, 1978). To this she responds by first lowering her gaze, then raising her head, rolling her eyes, and sharply retorting an opposition turn using exaggerated volume and intonation changes to convey her mockery of the instructor and his idea that an item should be included on the exam when it is not commonly used (line 31). Flouting common perceptions of female talk as inherently indirect and conciliatory (Lakoff, 1973; Tannen, 1990; Talbot, 2010), Nina actively resists appearing cowed and assumes a clear oppositional stance against the instructor and all others aligned with him. In her Portuguese utterance, “mas NÃO prec::I::so na prova se nós NÃO usamos” or “But I DON’T nE::Ed it on the test if we DON’T use it,” she performs her version of both his lower-pitched masculine voice and his Portuguese, demonstrating Rampton’s (2006) and Snell’s (2010) observation of the co-occurring language features, such as abrupt shifts in volume, pitch, and voice quality, that typically accompany stylized utterances. She also repeats the instructor’s earlier words in the second half of this utterance—an action defined by Goodwin (1990, p. 147) as a tactic of “aggravated opposition,” which, along with the intonation contours of the entire statement, allows her to mock the instructor’s position as “ridiculous or inappropriate.” Nina’s stance-taking and stylization, especially since they included gestures (such as the cut-eye/side-eye, neck and eye rolls) stereotypically indexical of

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Nina’s Story

83

her race and gender identities as a black woman (Rickford & Rickford, 1976; Pough, 2004), illustrate Goodwin and Alim’s (2010, p. 181) assertion that “speakers can manipulate the voice and body, transmodally, to create local and broader social meaning,” and such performances not only inform and contribute to the immediate interaction but also work toward the wider societal production and co-construction of racialized gender and social class stock characters. In response to Nina’s argumentation, her friend and classmate, Leti, another black woman who had previously aligned against her by laughing and repeating the white instructor’s taunt, also rolls her eyes at Nina with a suck-teeth (Rickford & Rickford, 1976) while shaking her head (line 32). Here we see two black women languaging in similar ways; however, it is Nina, the one who is known for usually speaking and acting in opposition to white male authority figures, who concretizes a reputation as the “black girl with an attitude.” Leti’s open and oppositional stance does not deter Nina from continuing to argue against the instructor’s hypothetical question of what she would do if she went to Portugal where consigo is more commonly used (line 34), and she once again raises the pitch of her voice and resists his argument, forcefully declaring that she has no intention of ever going there (line 35), thus reiterating her assertion of the uselessness of having the word appear on an exam. Nina then turns her gaze toward her best friend, Didier, beside her, but he distances himself and maintains his gaze downward and away from her as she grumbles in English about having never seen consigo before on a test and the stupidity of it all (line 36). Leti, Didier, and Nina’s other peers’ vocal, silent, and gestural actions in this episode highlight their co-participation as active hearers (Goodwin & Goodwin, 2004) in the interaction as well as their roles as co-constructors of Nina’s classroom identity, underlining the fundamental import of listeners in indexical processes (Moore, 2012). She is ultimately unsuccessful in rallying them to align with her, and as in the previously described Afro-Brazilian History and Culture classroom episode where she felt compelled to level the linguistic playing field and use resources from English to express sentiments made inaccessible by her emerging expertise in Portuguese, Nina once again resists her lack of discursive power in the classroom community and breaks its rules. The instructor, who asserts his authority as the one who ultimately decides when conversations in the classroom begin and end, loudly and abruptly interrupts her muttering in English. He sings and claps to a tune about a Portuguese dance, perhaps to censure Nina’s interruption, or simply as a “strategy in working towards closure” of the conflict (Goodwin, 1990, p. 163), which he definitively ends by saying “Let’s go” and moving on with the exam review (line 40). The close examination of two different episodes of classroom interaction illustrated how aspects of Nina’s ethno-racial and gender identities were co-constructed and negotiated in translanguaging spaces. Considering her investments in the practices of different communities, we saw how Nina was

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

84

Nina’s Story

inspired and engaged when she positively identified with and felt invested in the practices of her immediate classroom community, as well as the wider community of Brazilians. Nina’s positive ethno-racial identification with Afro-Brazilian people and culture strongly contributed to her making investments in learning Portuguese by adding music and the visual arts to the resources from which she would draw new understandings and linguistic practices. On the other hand, the interactional difficulties she experienced while being singled out and collaboratively positioned as “the black girl with an attitude problem” presented considerable challenges to her investments within another classroom community where she had little interest in the course material and felt beleaguered, distanced, ridiculed, and disengaged.

Part IV—Identity, Investments, and Outcomes A final consideration to make in Nina’s case is how her investments, participation, and nonparticipation in different communities of practice contributed to successful and unsuccessful outcomes. When examining patterns in her active and passive participation, her indifference, or total disengagement from different classrooms, situations, and activities, one sees how these signaled her level of investment in the practices of different communities, how they influenced the amount and nature of opportunities in which she could use Portuguese, and how they contributed to perceptions of her success in this new language. Recall that Nina did not always adhere to the program requirement that participants speak exclusively in Portuguese during all classes, activities, and even among themselves. She disregarded the rule most often when she felt her limited resources for languaging in Portuguese could not accommodate the complexity of the ideas that she wanted to express. Then, too, while she was outside among friends, she felt strange and inauthentic talking to Americans in Portuguese. Nina was often admonished when speaking English and held responsible for disrupting the monolingual experience in class and curtailing her classmates’ opportunities to practice being surrounded by Portuguese. Having been socialized into the program’s bias of monolingual immersion as the ideal learning environment, Nina herself even complained of linguistic disruption when the Geisel group had joint excursions and cultural activities with groups from other American universities studying at the BACI, and the tour guides paused to translate their descriptions into English for students with lower levels of comprehension. She took a certain haughty pride in knowing more Portuguese than the participants from other programs and being from a “better” monolingual immersion program, and she felt that standards were lowered and the educational experience diluted by conducting official activities in mixed groups with programs that accommodated translation. When I remarked to her about the irony of this opinion, since she frequently violated her program’s Portuguese-only rules, she responded that she spoke English as a necessity, and it was different when the program officially sanctioned it by providing bilingual translation.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Nina’s Story

85

After the first few weeks of being constantly reprimanded or ignored by her instructors, Nina began to speak to them only in Portuguese, unless she needed their help with vocabulary, some clarification, or the formulation of a statement. However, she still whispered to her peers in English during class and seldom spoke Portuguese with them outside. Nina’s abstention from full participation in this practice signaled that she was not consistently invested in it, and while she may have admired the policy as an ideal, she was not always willing to follow it. This ambivalence contributed to her being perceived by others as unsuccessful in learning and speaking as much Portuguese as would have been possible had she fulfilled the expectations of the program. Nina’s differing levels of participation within her three classroom communities were also related to her investments in their various practices and, ultimately, her success within them. Her efforts and choices in participation and nonparticipation in the communities were determined in by a combination of how feasible she believed it was to fulfill their requirements and expectations, her interest in their activities, and how various aspects of her identities were engaged within them. For example, during the eighth week of the program (ten days before the conflict episode discussed in the previous section), Nina felt so discouraged and overwhelmed by her Portuguese Language course that she broke down in tears in class. She later wrote an explanation for the scene in her language learning journal. Nina (from Week 9 Journal) I was so overwhelmed last week (and still am). I even cried in class. This program really needs to understand progression. Lets start of with [language teacher]’s class. First off the test was really hard and I knew I was going to do badly. I studied a lot but I have problems when I cant look at something and concretely study. For example, all the other test were from the information laid out explicitly in the book. I could see examples, and information about the subject and could study exactly that. This test had a comprehension portion which I cant study for, had a listening portion which im horrible at and could barely hear anything and had a section that he did not say was going to be on the test. Although he says he said it, I know he didn’t. I also hate the fact that when im in grammar class which is the class ihate the most I can barely express myself. Its like I can’t get the correct tense or the correct words, I don’t know. Some days I feel so stupid because im the only one who cant correctly speak in Portuguese after 20 weeks. Early on, Nina had been very excited about her Portuguese Language course and felt that she would excel there. She felt different over time and after many troubles. Nina did not like the assessment practices of the course, nor did she feel confident in her ability to meet their requirements. She thought the pace of the course was too fast and its expectations of

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

86

Nina’s Story

fluency unrealistic. She also had little interest in the course material, perhaps because of how it was presented, or she felt crippling insecurities and selfconsciousness about not being able to speak Portuguese at the same level as most of her classmates. Nina also clashed with the instructor throughout the term. He was jovial, very personable, and kind to all, but not fond of what he perceived as her disrespectful manner. In this classroom community, Nina participated the least and felt the least invested. She did not view herself nor was she viewed by others as being successful in learning and speaking Portuguese. Nina fared much better in her two other classroom communities, and even though during the first few weeks of the program she despised her literature course, she eventually grew to love it. This turnaround was a result of the instructor’s change of his initial lecture-based teaching format to include much more discussion—a practice at which Nina excelled. The instructor allowed her free rein of topics, and in his class, as well as in her Afro-Brazilian Culture and History course, the emphasis was on her ideas, not on linguistic mastery. She had more voice in this classroom, because she did not feel as pressured by the instructor and her classmates’ assessment of her language skills, and she spoke more often and much more freely. Nina believed she was more capable at managing the homework assigned by these two instructors, because it was mostly essays for which she could chose her own topic, unlike the workbook exercises and weekly mixed- and discrete-skill language tests assigned by the language class instructor. Nina took advantage of this freedom to focus on the topics of greatest interest to her, which were usually related to race, gender, and representations of AfroBrazilians in the particular text or film being analyzed. She did the same in her Portuguese Language course assignments on the few occasions when she could choose her own topic, such as the short news item reports and the final oral presentation. By the end of the ten weeks she spent in Salvador, out of all three courses, Nina participated the most, scored the highest, and showed the most investment in the practices of her Afro-Brazilian culture classroom. Thus, Nina, her instructor, and her classmates all perceived her as very successful in this community. Nina’s participation, investments, and resulting success within different communities outside the classroom varied similarly. She was notoriously picky about food and did not like Brazilian cuisine. Her friends and classmates wanted to eat out a few times each week, but Nina often talked them into going to McDonald’s or Subway. In this way, Nina’s participation in the local community was limited, since many group social activities involved food, and there were few places where she could be happily fed. Although she had fun and her company was enjoyed by all, Nina’s friends found it increasingly difficult to convince her to go to bars and nightclubs. During her first few weeks in Salvador, Nina went out whenever she was invited— sometimes every night. But as she settled into a routine, and the city lost its novelty, she frequently opted to stay home and watch movies. This choice

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Nina’s Story

87

limited Nina’s interaction with Brazilians a bit, although she was not entirely isolated from them. Despite their disagreements about race and racism, Nina adored her Afro-Brazilian host mother and spent many evenings at home chatting in Portuguese with her. She dated an Afro-Brazilian young man and college student, who, like Nina, was a sociology major. While she was being socialized into dating rituals and practices of intimacy in Brazil, Nina spent many hours speaking in Portuguese with her romantic friend to compare social issues and realities in Brazil and the United States. Nina’s efforts to participate intimately, at length, and one-on-one in relaxed, low-pressure interactions with members of the local community helped alleviate her anxieties about successfully expressing herself in Portuguese, and she reported to me that she felt she understood everything said to her and spoke well in such situations. Nina also happily discovered that the new Portuguese-speaking identity she had constructed was very strong, and she was perceived by others as using the language most successfully when her fiery temperament—a fundamental aspect of her multiple selves—was actively engaged: Nina (from Cumulative Journal Submitted Week 10) The funiest thing is that my Portuguese is at its ABSOLUTE BEST when I have to get with someone when they are trying to take advantage of me or a friend or if there is a problem. Everyone in my program just stares at me cuz they are like how is it do u go from stuttering and forgetting words and using the wrong tense in class but I literally sound FLUENT when im going off or have to get a slight attitude so they know they can’t pull one over, and I really do. Its like when someone is acting stupid I just don’t think and the words flow from my mouth. It’s the weirdest thing. I mean I have a feisty personality so naturally the attitude comes and that’s just a part of who I am but its just so weird that [Portuguese] comes out so nicely and correctly and they can completely understand me but only when im getting an attitude! Nina experienced the most success in her emerging expertise in the Portuguese language during experiences in Salvador when aspects of her multiple subjectivities were positively engaged. During the discourse and contexts of translanguaging spaces in which she participated in Portuguese language and Brazilian cultural learning, Nina’s racialized gender and social class identities were jointly shaped and negotiated as she transformed in her new understandings and abilities. Her investments in the practices of different communities influenced her participation and sense of identification within them. Nina’s positive ethno-racialized identification with Afro-Brazilian people and culture strongly contributed to making those investments in learning Portuguese in the classroom and outside. In contrast, whenever she felt misunderstood, undervalued, and disconnected when participating in negative interactions that she attributed to racism in her communities, she

88

Nina’s Story

became uninvested in the practices of those communities, and her ability to achieve success within them was clearly challenged.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Notes 1 All cited excerpts from the study participants’ texts were reproduced exactly as they were originally written and edited only for length, comprehensibility, or to eliminate identifying information. Text editing is signaled by square brackets “[ ]” ellipsis “. . .” or blanks “B___”. 2 laugh out loud 3 I had a good time; I showed my skills. 4 It was supposed to be a lot of fun, the best. 5 “Afro” hairstyle 6 because 7 hinterlands; arid desert-like backlands 8 I don’t know 9 probably 10 Ss = students; T = teacher 11 A note about the Portuguese word isso: Its closest literal meaning in English is the noun “that” or “that thing.” However, isso can also serve as an exclamation isso! meaning “that’s it!” or “exactly!” or “that right there!” Isso appears in many transcriptions and writings throughout this study. Since the meanings of the expressions that are equivalent to isso are not always interchangeable in English, the word will be glossed differently depending on the context or how I believed the expression was meant. 12 Poor and working-class neighborhoods commonly regarded as slums. 13 Website “2013 Atlas do desenvolvimento humano no Brasil” http://atlasbrasil. org.br/2013/pt/. 14 We hung out and enjoyed ourselves. 15 Participants’ writings in Portuguese were translated as they were written with the inclusion of what I believe would be the English equivalent of their morphological, syntactical, and lexical errors. Some changes were made only to accommodate differences between Portuguese and English in, for example, article use and noun-modifier placement. 16 She meant “skin,” which is pele in Portuguese, but wrote instead pelos, which in Brazil is understood as “body hair” or “fur.” The instructor corrects this error above the misused word. 17 She meant “is,” which is é in Portuguese, but wrote e, which is “and.” The instructor corrects this very important error in accentuation. 18 Same error as previous footnote. 19 She meant “why,” which is por que in Portuguese, but wrote porque or “because.” 20 Cheap brand of Brazilian beer. 21 See, for example, the 2005 UNDP report on Brazil entitled “Racism, Poverty and Violence,” http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/brazil_2005_po.pdf. 22 The presence of both subject pronouns “you” and “I” is Nina’s morphological error. She meant only “você” (you), but the verb tense marker “ei” in “falei” (said) corresponds with the subject “I.”

5

Didier’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Translanguaging Black Manhood in Multicultural Contexts

Part I—The Fluidity of Race in Speaking Blackness One needs only a few moments in Didier’s company to hear his booming musical laughter, which flowed freely, constantly, and was all the more infectious coupled with his broad alabaster-toothed smile and luminous honey-colored eyes. Didier’s laugh, his smile, height, girth, personality, and his passion for dancing were all jumbo size. He was hard to miss and impossible to dislike. This nineteen-year-old postcolonial English literature and pre-med biology major had wavy, close-cropped, dark-brown hair, which was always neatly lined, and he dressed for comfort and simplicity in bright pastel colors that accentuated his café au lait skin. In class, Didier was quiet, but answered questions and contributed thoughts every session, especially when the topics interested him. Occasionally, he spoke out in strong words during heated discussion, but he was mostly calm and convivial. His zeal for Salvador nightlife was unrivaled in the Geisel program. Anywhere two people were dancing, Didier would become an enthusiastic third. There was never a samba circle he would not enter; he had no reticence being the center of attention, and he dominated a dance floor effortlessly. Didier was born in a small rural town twenty miles outside a major Louisiana metropolis. His mother was an Afro-Peruvian schoolteacher, and his father, a registered nurse, was Creole with roots in Mauritius. After their parents’ divorce when he was seven, Didier and two younger siblings were raised by his father in a predominantly white, middle-class neighborhood. Didier identified deeply with his Louisiana Creole ethnicity and mentioned it first when describing himself, but his family comprised diverse ethnoracial backgrounds. He was raised in a multilingual home where English, French Creole, and, occasionally, Spanish were spoken, and this facilitated learning French in school. Religious faith featured prominently in Didier’s background. His grandmother, a member of the Louisiana Creole elite, was an ardent Catholic with pre-Vatican II convictions, and she took him to Latin Mass every morning, obliging the boy to study the language to recite his prayers properly. Didier’s grandmother was also a practitioner of Vodou. She regularly took him along for special ceremonies until his father decided

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

90

Didier’s Story

that he should no longer be included in these family traditions. Throughout his young life, Didier thrived in multilingual environments at home and in formal classrooms, and his positive experiences with multilingualism inspired feelings of community, personal connection, and appreciation for the cultural aspects of language learning. His family and friends say he had a “knack for languages” and could easily blend in with any group and imitate their sounds. I too observed and was intrigued by Didier’s facility with languaging and his ability to move fluidly and translanguage between cultures, especially as it allowed him to assume and sometimes play with new identities in Portuguese and explore the complexities of race in Brazil. Toward Afro-Brazilian Cultural Understanding Didier explicitly credited his affinity with Afro-Brazilian culture with stimulating the desire to study Portuguese. He also thought Portuguese was a “pretty” language and believed it had special relevance for Afro-descendants, even though Spanish was more “important” or “marketable” worldwide: (From pre-study interview) UJU: So why did you choose to learn Portuguese? DIDIER: Mm, well, I’m kinda interested in the whole Afro-Brazilian culture and it just sounds pretty. [LAUGH] Didier (from Pre-Study Language Learning Autobiography) I also feel as if Portuguese has affected more people of African descent, as opposed to Spanish. I am interested in enhancing my marketability to future employers, but solidarity among black people is a concern of mine as well. I am very interested in Afro-Brazilian culture, including religious aspects and identity of the “Afro-Brazilian.” [. . .] Also, my interest in postcolonial literature will allow me to gain first-hand exposure to the stories and experiences of these once oppressed people of African descent. What interested Didier most about Afro-Brazilian culture was the animist religion Candomblé, which brought back memories of the Vodou he had been exposed to as a child with his grandmother. Didier’s fascination with Candomblé was a passion. Musings about different aspects of the religion appeared throughout his journal writings, in which he constantly describes his thoughts, observations, and experiences learning about Candomblé: Didier (from Week 1 Journal) Initially I thought it was not possible for orixás1 to exist outside of Candômblé ceremonies, but one can be mounted by an orixá without be among other worshippers. I’m still not too sure about this clarification,

Didier’s Story

91

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

so I will do more research to make sure I understand how everything works. There are some really interesting books on the religion, but they’re all in Portuguese. I’m still going to see if I can figure a few things out, because I guess it’s all about the learning process. Didier’s family background in Vodou and the social and cultural resources therein contributed to his fascination with Candomblé, and he dedicated time and energy to learning about the Afro-Brazilian religion. He often conducted research using Portuguese language sources, which he recognized as a part of the overall learning process in which he was engaged during his time in Salvador. Didier actively participated in the module of his Afro-Brazilian Culture and History course that featured Candomblé. He made prolific contributions to class discussion on the religion and also delivered a fifteenminute class presentation in Portuguese entitled “Candomblé, a comunidade negra e desenvolvimento social” (Candomblé, the Black Community and Social Development). He wrote one of his three-page essays for the course on the significance of Candomblé as resistance against religious and racial oppression in Brazil. Didier’s choices and efforts in fueling his passion for Candomblé clearly signaled his investments in the practices of the learning communities where this interest was nurtured and in his desire for success on the study abroad program. These choices and efforts to engage in cultural discovery to develop new understandings and practices in Portuguese were facilitated by his blackness and affinity with Afro-Brazilian adherents of Candomblé, with whom he shared a similar religious background. Didier also sought to discover and learn more about languaging in Portuguese and Afro-Brazilian culture by wandering around Salvador. He wanted to meet more locals than he had access to while cloistered among other Americans in the classrooms and program activities, and he was always open to initiating or engaging in conversation with whomever he met. His multicultural and multilingual background, along with his friendly disposition, facilitated these encounters. Didier was a very good-looking, highly social, and personable man, who easily attracted and maintained the attention of others. Like Nina, he was drawn to and felt comfortable in the Afro-Brazilian neighborhood and cultural epicenter, Pelourinho, because according to Didier, “That’s where most black people are; it’s where most of the good music is, and that’s where the cheap drinks are” (from interview). His favorite nightspot was a samba club named Beco de Gal (Gal’s Alley) in a lower-middle-class area overlooking the Tororó pond—a circular formation of massive (130-foot high) illuminated statues of the most popularly venerated Yoruba deities. Didier became a regular at the Beco. He went there every Wednesday and Sunday, making many friends among the mostly black crowd. During these outings, Didier actively lived and transformed his blackness by gaining resources and references from all that he learned from Afro-Brazilians who welcomed and taught him about their culture. For Didier, Beco was truly a translanguaging space of transformative

92

Didier’s Story

socialization to learn to speak blackness in Brazil by shaping new selves and understandings:

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Didier (from Interview) That was my spot, Beco de Gal. I didn’t even know that was [Gal’s] spot until like the third time that I went there, because the first time I went oh my mom and [Nina]’s mom and like all them people, [Leti], and like, so I was just like oh, okay, this is nice. But look at those people. [The house band] Viola de Doze, chic. And the band was playing and stuff and things were really nice and I was like, that was whenever we didn’t know how to samba, I was kind of just like doing anything. That’s what I, that’s what, I actually learned how to samba from like these two girls, two, one girl was like 20 something, and another one was like 17, 18 and just like teaching us how to samba. And she actually, they actually did the umbigo2 thing, too, and I didn’t even know it. I was like why is she putting her crotch on me? That’s what I was thinking. Okay, it’s about the dance, okay. And I didn’t realize until like, you know, we had the samba class [at BACI] and she was like oh, belly button to belly button, that’s like fertility, we wish you life, and all this other stuff. [LAUGH]. And I was like okay. Didier’s meaningful participation in the different local communities into which he integrated himself indicated his investments in the practices of those communities and his desire to learn and be transformed within them. His background, identities, interests, and identification with blackness and Afro-Brazilians inspired his choices and efforts, granting him access to new social resources and networks that facilitated his language learning through pleasurable and exciting experiences. Like Nina, Didier’s investments shifted as he interacted with individuals and practices in other communities. Similarly as well, Didier liked the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History course best among the three offered by the program and was most invested in the practices within that classroom community: (From Week 10 interview) UJU: DIDIER: UJU: DIDIER:

What was your favorite course? Culture. Why? Because he talked a lot about the stuff that I was really interested in and like some of the main reasons why I came down here. So like, literature was nice and that’s kind of what I’m looking into as far as studying when I get back to [Geisel College], but [the Brazilian Literature instructor] is like, he’s a really, really intelligent person, but his methodologies of teaching, well, I ain’t accustomed to it. [. . .]

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Didier’s Story

93

But yeah, I really liked the culture class despite the readings and despite he says that we don’t do them. I try to do the ones in Portuguese, I really do try and the stuff that I get sometimes it’s a little different than what he’s saying, but I got the gist, so that’s important. And then but when like something’s in English and I try to explain my thoughts and my opinions in Portuguese, it didn’t always come out right. Things get lost in translation so But I really liked his class, learned a lot, PowerPoints helped. I’m a visual person because [the Portuguese Language instructor] finally understands that after I don’t know how many weeks he realized he can’t just talk, sometimes he better write stuff down. But yeah, that was my favorite class. While I did not observe the Brazilian Literature classroom and relied solely on the participants’ reports, I had access to the culture and language classrooms and could confirm, through my observations of Didier’s efforts and choices to participate in different activities there, that he was markedly more invested in the practices of the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History classroom. Not only was Didier greatly interested in the course topics, but he also felt that the instructor’s daily use of PowerPoint presentations, film, and other visual materials better suited his learning style. Didier worked hard at deciphering the course’s dense and difficult readings in Portuguese, and he also conducted more outside research than was required when he prepared an essay or made a presentation. Often he sought opportunities to discuss the topics with others and with me. Didier’s literature class, however, did not inspire such enthusiasm and participation. He was not particularly invested in the instructor’s chosen texts and themes, nor in his teaching practices. Didier’s lack of interest in the material was ironic, given that literature was one of his principal areas of study at Geisel College. This disengagement resulted from his greater interest in the postcolonial writings of members of the African Diaspora. Furthermore, Didier was disappointed in the literature instructor’s exclusion of Afro-Brazilian authors and themes and his traditional focus on, for example, writings from the sertão—the arid and desolate Brazilian hinterlands that inspired frontier cowboy-style patriarchal epics portraying the region’s isolated and downtrodden masses as coarse, violent, and backward. As a former graduate student of Brazilian literature, who had taken courses in both Brazil and the United States, I was not surprised that black literature was excluded from his class. The paucity of scholars who study it, together with its racist and elitist marginalization from canonical surveys, are major causes of its neglect (Gouveia Damasceno, 1988; Bernd, 1988; Lorenso, 2010). Sadly, many in the field of Brazilian letters defend this exclusion, or “silencing,” as literary scholar Silvia Lorenso (2010) describes it, claiming that Afro-Brazilian literature is merely a “sub-genre” of minor and

94

Didier’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

stridently militant expression lacking in quality, intellect, and without the requisite grounding of a long-established literary tradition (Bernd, 1988). Didier’s disappointment in his literature course mirrored mine, as we were both accustomed to the cultural heft of black letters in the United States, where African Americans are only 12% of the population, and puzzled to witness the near irrelevance of Afro-Brazilian writers in a country where black residents register at 53%. Nuance in Languaging Race in Brazil As occurred in Nina’s case, the highly salient and indexical nature of blackness in this uniquely Afro-Brazilian study abroad context contributed to the heightened presence of discourse relating to race and ethnicity. Like Nina, Didier actively engaged in defining, structuring, and negotiating blackness according to new practices and understandings, and due to his multiethnic and multicultural background, he readily adjusted to how fluid Brazilian conceptions of race appeared to be in comparison to the stark and polarized black and whiteness of the United States. In the previous chapter, Nina made efforts to construct and name her racialized self in Portuguese. She tried to speak blackness in Brazil and give voice to her experiences in accordance with practices that were meaningful within the local context, but that also felt authentic to her background and U.S.-based understanding of racial hierarchy and categorization. Similarly, but with some slightly embarrassing results, Didier drew upon his background, language, and cultural resources that had familiarized him with being an Afro-descendant, which bore many similarities to practices he was learning in this new place. To speak blackness in Brazil, he had only to decipher specific codes and local meanings; however, Didier’s task was not as simple as Nina’s, because in addition to being racially black, and ethnically African American, he identified with an additional ethnicity, which was actually most prominent in his self-concept and thus very important to highlight during his attempts at discursive selfrepresentation in the Portuguese language. Although Nina had insisted he simply tell everyone he was “just black,” Didier took great pride in being Louisiana and Mauritian French Creole—a source of familial, cultural, and linguistic identity. He was not “just” any garden-variety black man. To make the best lexical choice in giving voice to this fundamental aspect of his ethno-racial identity, Didier looked up in a bilingual dictionary the Portuguese equivalent for the English word “Creole.” Sadly, he was humiliated when he asked me why whenever he introduced himself to Brazilians as a crioulo from Louisiana, they looked at him strangely before realizing what he meant and repeating it with an emphasis: “Oh, crioulo.” My explanation embarrassed Didier and delighted Nina, who openly disapproved of what she claimed was Didier’s insistence upon differentiating himself from black people, which she also insisted was due in no small part to him being light skinned:

Didier’s Story

95

Nina (from Week 1 Journal)

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

[Didier] was goin around callin himself a nigger!!! Lmao!!!!3 Omg!4 So funny. He was saying he was creole but he said [crioulo] which is what it is in Portuguese but it means nigger! I keep telling him just to say black but he always tryna tell ppl about his Louisiana culture! Nina (from Week 10 Interview) I don’t understand why people always need to, you know, break, you know, race down, down to the, the most minute thing and why you need to extract these different type of things. Like I get so annoyed with [Didier] because he’s always like I’m Creole. Are you black? I think you black. Now Creole, yeah, you’re black, got your whole French. But you’re black. You’re not Creole. You are, but you’re black. And I don’t know why that’s such an annoying thing to me. And that’s why I thought it was funny. I even told him. I was like, I think it’s funny because you’re calling yourself nigger. But I also think it’s really funny because I’m always saying to you that you’re just black and you, you always insist upon being different. You always insist upon always having to like make yourself different from black people. Why do you have to do that? Like what is it about you? And me and [Didier] have tons of conversations like that because, you know, he even, you know, didn’t even put that he was black on his college applications because he didn’t want to go into that situation. I thought that was preposterous as well. Didier’s dictionary definition was technically accurate. Historically, Creoles in Brazil were defined as multiracial and multiethnic people born on the American continent who were typically the children or descendants of enslaved Africans and European captors. In Brazil, the term expanded to distinguish the blacks who were born in Brazil from their African-born counterparts, independent of any mixed or European ancestry. Today, crioulo is commonly understood as a racist slur, and Nina, offended by what she perceived as Didier’s desire to distance himself from “ordinary” blackness, took pleasure in her friend’s disgrace. Her comment in the journal writings was made almost in passing as she was describing other events of that week. However, she put considerable thought and passion into statements she made during our final interview, which arose from her musings on why she rejected Brazil’s innumerable classifications of racial phenotypes (see anthropologist Lília Schwarcz’s, 1996 volume Negras imagens for a list of 135 different terms) and preferred that whoever had “black blood” would just be called black. Didier’s choices of ethno-racial self-representation were rightfully his alone to make based upon how he understood himself and how he could most authentically speak this aspect of his identity in Portuguese. But

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

96

Didier’s Story

he was not spared others’ input—especially that of his opinionated best friend. Nina felt not only that she had a right to contribute her opinion but also that she had an important stake in the choice Didier would make. Her identification as black was a central aspect of Nina’s self-concept, and Didier’s refusal to call himself “just black” was a rejection of being just black—like she was. In the statements quoted earlier, Nina repeats the assertion “you’re black” five times, as if to will it true. When she asked Didier, “What is it about you?” that made him so special or different, she was also asking what it was about her and others like her that made him want to be different. In contrast to Nina’s rigid and essentialist understanding of ethno-racial identity and her refusal to accept intermediate categories when speaking blackness, Didier could more readily adapt to how more fluidly these things were done in Brazil because of the differences Nina decried and his own intermediate ethno-racial positioning within his Louisiana community of origin. Didier also discovered that it was near impossible for someone with skin as light as his, light eyes, and wavy hair to call himself black in Salvador. Working within the discourse and interactions of translanguaging space, he requested support and counted on the socialization of his Afro-Brazilian Culture and History instructor, who, like him, was fair skinned, had straight hair, and described himself as pardo or the intermediate black/white Afrodescendant category. Didier drew from local understandings and language practices in speaking his blackness in Brazil, and he made choices in selfdescription and representation that he believed best fit both his background and the relevant societal context: Didier (from Week 10 Interview) I feel like people here have a bit of a problem with pure blackness. I don’t know how to coin this term, but like as far as referencing your African roots, like, they’ll express it freely like within, you know, the culture, like Olodum,5 blah, blah, blah, let’s go beat some drums and do all this other stuff, let’s dress up like baianas,6 and all this other stuff. But as far as like, claiming like oh, I’m black, people have a problem with it. I personally, like when I first came here I was like oh yeah, I’m black, and they’re like, what? And I was like, you know, crioulo fran, you know like French Creole, and they were like, oh crioulo. And I was like, yeah. They’re like oh, okay. And then I was like, okay, I kind of became comfortable with that until it was just like, you know, why do I have to keep going into these little subsets of being black? Like can’t I just say that I’m black? I mean it wasn’t until, you know, [the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History instructor] made that argument about the pardos and the negros and you know, brancos7 and all this other stuff. And I was like, oh these people really don’t think they’re black, they’re brown.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Didier’s Story

97

Didier gave this explanation of the crioulo contretemps near the end of the program—ten weeks, many experiences, and innumerable discussions after the initial misunderstanding. In it, he explains how, originally, he had attempted to describe himself in Brazil as negro or “just black” the way Nina wanted him to do. It did not work within the Brazilian understandings and Portuguese language descriptions of who was black, and he was compelled to introduce his ethnicity to provide both literal and symbolic clarification. I cannot know whether Didier made this explanation as a result of ideological pressure or in order not to seem colorist, as Nina had accused him of being, or perhaps in deference to me, a dark-skinned, selfidentified “just black” older woman he respected and admired. What was made clear was that Didier’s collaborative transformative socialization into fluency in the local language practices associated with blackness and ethnoracial characterization while shaping a new communicative self occurred in a fluid, translanguaging space, drawing resources from his multiple identities, which allowed him to accept and adapt to the fact that race is done differently in Brazil. This fluidity of categorization when speaking blackness in Brazil was also made clear by how Didier was racially identified by Brazilians in local communities, which depended on how he presented himself, the immediate context, and his companions. These all influenced assumptions Brazilians made about his identity and even contributed to the opportunities he was granted to speak Portuguese and how he was treated while doing so. When I asked Didier through subject prompts in his journal writing guide sheet to name situations where he thought he stood out or blended in, he responded by describing how, in Portuguese, his old and new identities—and, most importantly, the ways he gave voice to them—were collaboratively constructed in different contexts and company: Didier (from Week 1 Journal) For the most part, I feel as if I blend in nearly every place I go with people of darker skin tones. However, when I’m traveling in a group of mostly white people, I feel as if I get treated a bit differently, because the Brazilians automatically seek me out as a spokesperson for the group but then retract after discovering that I can’t fully understand or speak as well. Pelourinho was where I thought I stood out the most. I stood out because of my dancing style. Most people didn’t believe I was American or Bahian, but figured I was a carioca.8 I went to a samba club called Viola de Doze [Beco de Gal] in Tororo this week and this was where I blended in the most. I was able to communicate effectively and dance as I wished. I felt most comfortable with myself in this environment. Many people, including members of the band, approached after songs and expressed how much they enjoyed watching me dance or how much they enjoyed dancing with me.

98

Didier’s Story (From Week 3 Journal) Every time I go to McDonalds I feel that people automatically assume I’m American, and they don’t ever “understand” me, even if I’m speaking perfect (or close to) Portuguese.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

(From Week 10 interview) DIDIER: Well, the main thing I lied, like, about me being Brazilian [LAUGH] because I, like, changed my whole identity when I got here. I became [Didier] [Portuguese pronunciation of his French surname], carioca. My mom is a carioca, my dad is from France. [LAUGH] UJU: That’s what you told people? That’s awesome! DIDIER: Yeah, I was like, you know I lived in Marseilles for about twelve years, I came here and right now oh yeah, I’m studying at [Geisel College] in the States. So that was one way. Like it worked, just to assume like a whole ‘nother person and, like, just to see how far you can get on with that before like, people start noticing oh, wait a minute. And then they doubt you. But then the only reason why they never really questioned it was because of the French aspect, too. So if I started speaking to them in French and they were like, oh okay well maybe he just doesn’t know Portuguese that well because he spent so much time in France and he’s living in the US now. So yeah, and I met a lot of people like that. Things Brazilians chose to believe about Didier’s identities—be it as a result of their own assumptions or his outright lies—were all based in some way upon assessments of his difference. In an environment such as the McDonald’s close to the school where Didier and many other foreigners attended classes and program activities, Brazilians immediately identified him as one of the many non- or bad-Portuguese-speaking Americans who typically frequented the restaurant. A well-documented phenomenon of how assumptions about the group identities (and resulting linguistic stereotypes) of speakers determine hearers’ perceptions of their intelligibility (Lindemann, 2002, 2010) was at play when it seemed impossible for the counter staff to understand Didier when he spoke Portuguese. This frustrated and discouraged his attempts to give voice to himself in the language. In contexts where he was among more typically “foreign-looking” whites, Didier probably passed for their Brazilian pardo friend, but that ended as soon as he spoke and linguistically signaled difference. In other contexts among mostly Afro-Brazilians, he blended in and may have also passed for a native pardo; however, his American way of dancing indexed him as different—perhaps not entirely foreign, but certainly not from that region. Therefore, Didier created and played with a false identity as an expatriate

Didier’s Story

99

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

carioca with an international family background to have free rein to speak Portuguese within his emerging expertise, while still enjoying the thrilling insider status granted by his multiracial and stereotypically “Brazilian” phenotype. In this way, he constructed and enacted an entirely new (and Brazilian!) identity speaking Portuguese, through which he gleefully and mischievously negotiated his interactions and participation within various local communities.

Part II—Signs and Signifiers of Black Manhood in Brazil Agar (1994) devised the term “languaculture” to express the mutual construction and contextualization of language and culture. The languaging practices the study participants had to learn in Brazil were firmly rooted in cultural practices that were wildly different from, and in some cases, antithetical to those in the United States. The participants’ efforts to learn new languacultural practices related to racialized and gendered identities were quite apparent, and none more so than Didier’s struggle to understand AfroBrazilian men’s performances of gender. At his first dance club outing in Salvador, Didier became aware of and felt compelled to make sense of what he called “a fluidity in sexuality” among black Brazilian men, to which he was unaccustomed. He observed this phenomenon in many parts of Brazilian culture. It permeated all areas of life, including religion. I became aware of Didier’s musings on Brazilian sexuality and gender appearance and performance during the second week of the program when during one particularly lively class session, Leti and Nina asked the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History instructor how it was possible for Candomblé practitioners to consider themselves also Roman Catholic and for the Church to allow syncretism and the worship of orixás in the images of its saints. The instructor explained that Brazilian culture, in religion and other aspects, nourishes a high tolerance for ambiguity. Being one thing, he said, did not preclude being another as well. Some ordained Catholic clergymen in Brazil were also initiated in Candomblé, as were nuns who also served as the animist faith’s priestesses. The instructor explained that, as in any other religion, different Brazilian Catholics held different views about orthodoxy. To illustrate such diversion, he gave examples of those who considered themselves authentically Catholic, yet they practiced the liberation theology rejected by conservative believers. The Afro-Brazilian Culture and History instructor discussed the Italian philosopher Gramsci’s idea of cognitive dissonance and suggested for all the Geisel College students to use that mindset when thinking of religion, race, and even sexuality in Brazil. Brazilians, unlike Americans, did not imagine their world in either/or terms, and, in addition to whatever was patently black and white, there was always also a vast gray area, which could never be ignored. The instructor then turned to me and asked me to verify whether this was true or not. Recalling my experiences with race and sexuality, I

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

100

Didier’s Story

briefly described and made connections to the Brazilian notion of the “third bank of the river”9 (which can be likened to Homi Bhabha’s, 1994 “third space” of in-betweens, intersections, and overlaps) and agreed with the instructor. Didier then contributed to the conversation with the observation that perhaps this Brazilian comfort with ambiguity was why nobody was concerned that certain orixás were not permanently masculine or feminine, existing in one form for six months and in another for the rest of the year, or why it was common for male and female worshippers to act and dress as the other gender while entranced and hosting the spirit of an orixá. Didier’s journal entry for the following week showed that much had been weighing on his mind regarding his place as one of the only two male students in his communities of learners. He did not feel very close to José, the other man. Didier missed a certain kind of hypermasculine, heterosexual, and overtly macho camaraderie and was actively trying to befriend and socialize with more men: Didier (from Week 3 Journal) I don’t think it’s that difficult to meet girls here in Brazil, but I feel as if I need to start befriending more guys in order to gain some familiarity, because quite frankly I feel like “that guy who always goes out with the girls, but never hooks up with them.” In a sense, I am the epitome of that description, but I’m kind of tired of it all. I want to be able to joke in a manner that wouldn’t be appropriate if in the presence of women. Didier seemed to me the sort of man for whom platonic friendships with women were easy. His best friend in Salvador was his classmate Nina, and when he wasn’t out with her, he was socializing with (but not overtly courting or dating) other women in the group. Further writings in the week’s journal suggested that Didier was concerned about what this image communicated about him, and, more specifically, his sexual orientation. He wanted to know why, from the time he arrived in Brazil, he had been receiving sexual advances from men who refused to believe that he wasn’t gay. He pondered whether whatever seemed gay about him was the cause of his difficulty making friends with straight men: Didier (from Week 3 Journal) The last thing I’d like to comment on is the excessive questioning of my sexuality. I don’t know what changed since I’ve arrived, but I can recall one day last week where 3 people questioned me about my sexual preference. My grandmother always told me, “When the number 3, clarity is key,” meaning if something occurs 3 times, you are obliged to clarify your true intentions so that a miscommunication no longer exists between you and the people you talk to. I had to actually convince this Brazilian dude I met during São João10 that I wasn’t gay. He swore up

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Didier’s Story

101

and down that I was, which was why he felt the need to introduce himself at that time way back when. But, now that I think about it, I should have known the signs, but my naive self simply thought it was Brazilian culture that compelled him to compliment my eyes, smile, dancing abilities . . . yeah, now that I actually analyze the situation, it was pretty obvious. My only problem with making male companions here is that they assume I’m gay, which isn’t a bad thing, but it’s incorrect. The only good that came out of our interactions was that I was able to practice my Portuguese with him and we exchanged slang terms, but I didn’t want to exchange saliva, LOL! Throughout his time in Salvador, Didier tried to understand local codified practices, embodied language, and boundaries regarding sexuality. He drew from his own U.S.-based understandings to make comparisons. For example, he was fascinated by how black men in Brazil could wear certain “thuggish” clothing associated with butch-identified and presenting men but dance with one another to macho and heterosexist music such as hip-hop in ways that, according to the languaculture he was familiar with, would be construed as effeminate, homosexual, and in his view, unmanly. Didier encountered a scene like this at a “Black Charm” party I invited the study participants and other friends to. When he was puzzled by what he perceived as the black men’s mixed signals and vague boundaries, he recalled what the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History instructor and I had said about ambiguity: Didier (from Week 3 Journal) Much like in the States, I thought everyone held firm stances in their sexual preferences. However, [the Afro-Brazilian Culture & History instructor] and Uju disconfirmed that belief, and this guy, X__, further explained it to me. It surprising to me that this concept even applied to “thuggish-type” people here in Salvador. Of course there are DL11 cases in the US, but never have I seen such people comfortable in expressing their preferences in public. Didier (from Week 3 Journal) A quick survey of the room showed me that clearly hip-hop gear from the 1990s was quite popular among the “ghetto/hood” people here in Salvador. The funny thing was their portrayal of masculinity in this dress. As opposed to a lot of guys I know back home to embody similar personas, they were quite touchy and very personal with one another. I was really confused at first, until I talked to this guy, X__, who I met while waiting for [Nina] and [Rose]. We talked about the meaning of “masculinity” and their differences in Brazil and in the States. He reminded me of the comment [the Afro-Brazilian Culture

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

102

Didier’s Story and History instructor] brought up in the culture, regarding sexual orientation in Brazil. People here are less particular with labels, and just base their relations on their physical attraction to others, according to X__. When I asked him what he identified with just to see how “open” these labels were, he told me that his preference was women until he started living on his own, then his preferences shifted to include men, with his last few relationships involving men. I felt shocked and indifferent simultaneously, but the reason for those emotions have yet to come to light.

I do not assume that Didier had never spoken to a gay or bisexual man in the United States regarding sexual orientation and performances of masculinity. However, it is clear from his reports that the experiences and interactions described earlier challenged some of his heteronormative beliefs and ideologies about gendered and sexualized aspects of identity. Shi (2006) observes that those learning new languages within a desired speech community receive cues to possibly “modify their gender ideologies and practices to ensure compatibility and acceptance in the new society,” and through this “ever-ongoing socializing process, learners may critically adjust themselves linguistically and socioculturally” (p. 7). Similar transformational phenomena in gendered identity performance were also reported by participants in Pavlenko’s (1998, 2001) studies of learner testimonials and autobiographies. Knowing that Didier was interested in these issues of signing and signifying black manhood in Brazil, I actively sought to influence his experience and understanding of the language and cultural practices associated with this aspect of his identities while in Salvador. I invited him to my home for lunch and to talk with a black Brazilian gay male friend. This man, an instructor for the advanced-level group of Geisel College program participants, was an anthropologist and the author of an article on Afro-Brazilian popular music performers, which Didier would later cite in a course essay. I imagined that he would provide Didier with both a personal and an academic perspective to supplement discussions he was already having with his Afro-Brazilian friends. I also invited other friends to my home that day, so conversation was general and touched only briefly on issues of gendered performances of sexual identity in Brazil. However, since it was raining when Didier was ready to go home, I asked the anthropologist to give him a lift. The next day my friend told me, without going into any specifics, that Didier had asked many questions, which he tried his best to answer. As Didier was being socialized into his new Portuguese-speaking subjectivity, he was learning new understandings and languacultural practices of performing and speaking black manhood that required the negotiation of his gendered identity and challenged the rigidness of his previous ideas. He thought about these differences between the United States and Brazil so much that he decided to research and write about them in one of his course essays:

Didier’s Story

103

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Didier (from Afro-Brazilian Culture and History Class Essay)

Excerpt from p. 1 of 3

[TITLE] Hidden Messages: The Schematics of Gender and the Performative Identity of Bahians In the United States, in relation to sexuality and gender, there are various groups with which people identify. These groups include heterosexuals, homosexuals, bisexuals, and transsexuals. Normally, people freely identify with one group and the limits inferred (as were being dictated by society) and it is not “accepted” to explore the other “spaces.” One place where someone can see the phenomenon is the club. When heterosexual men dance to the music of the popular forms (i.e. rap, hip hop, or R&B), there is minimal movement in comparison with women, who dance with all parts of their bodies. Contrary to the United States, [here in Brazil] there is a fluidity in sexuality and gender where heterosexual people can express these thing through their dancing.

Excerpt from p. 3 of 3

Furthermore, the expression of gender and sexuality today can be found in Bahian music. The types of music (for example, pagode,12 axé13 and funk14) now have more movements of the hips and more movements that formerly used to be considered “feminine.” Therefore, a new fluidity emerges because men now can navigate more spaces. The types of music

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

104

Didier’s Story demand men to dance in a way that is more sexual and more feminine. In Ari Lima’s article, he says that there is “the sexual ambiguity of the heterosexual pagode dancer authorizes him ‘to have a little bit of fagginess.’” The last part of the sentence refers to men who show feminine ways but identify as a heterosexual. In English, the people are called “metrosexual.” Basically, Bahians use dance to express themselves, but some people use dance to send “hidden messages” that can allude to the desire to participate in relations that contradict the cultural norm (i.e. homosexual relations).

Didier danced spectacularly well—and with his entire body. I observed him dancing to many styles of music, including hip-hop, R&B, samba, reggae, and local Afro-Brazilian rhythms, and he moved in ways that defied my (apparently conservative) notions of the limitations of human energy and dexterity. The four study participants were all glorious and tireless dancers; however, Didier always stood out in any club or party because of his height, his corpulence, and the way he vigorously and enthusiastically owned every song playing while he was on his feet. He also drew my attention because, like him, I was used to American dancing styles that were popular in those days and involved heterosexual men moving minimally or simply backing up against a wall as heterosexual women gyrated and moved their entire bodies on them. Inherent in these gendered expectations and performances is the idea that, when seen in men, femininity—behaviors that index ways women and girls are heteronormatively socialized to present themselves—strongly signals homosexuality. At least, to Americans. However, Didier learned from his personal research and interactions with black Brazilian men that the embodied language within the full-bodied, hip-swiveling movements common in popular dance were playful displays of sensuality that could be seen as both feminine and masculine and appealed to whoever liked men. Thus a new and firm understanding, which Didier developed and began to draw from when learning to speak blackness and black manhood in Brazil, was that something considered unquestionably “gay” in the United States was not always interpreted the same way in Brazil.

Part III—Policing Heteronormativity in the Language Classroom While Didier struggled to learn how to speak his black manhood in Brazil and understand Afro-Brazilian men’s apparent sexual ambiguities through his interactions in local communities, he witnessed ridicule and resistance against them within his classroom communities. For example, in the following episode that took place in the Culture and History classroom during a documentary on carnival in Salvador, the students burst into laughter at scenes showing black men suggestively dancing to samba dressed in short white vest tops trimmed with red tassels, red neckerchiefs, white cowboy hats, white miniskirts with red trim, white socks with lace frills, and white

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Didier’s Story

105

Figure 5.1 Still frame of paused video all are looking at during the episode

sneakers. The laughter exploded when the narrator said these men flamboyantly imitating women during the carnival parade were heterosexual. The laughter grew even louder as these words appeared on the screen: “Muquiranas is a traditional bloco of cross dressed straight men.” Finally, the instructor paused the video to calm down the hilarity and explain: 01 02 03 04

Ss: T: Leti: T:

[((laughing loudly)) [((pauses the video)) ((laughing)) straight a propósito esses homens não são travestis by the way these men are not transvestites 05 não são gays they are not gays 06 S: ((scoffs)) 07 Ss: ((chuckle, then laugh uproariously)) 08 T: vocês lembram da frase? do you all remember the sentence? 09 qual foi a frase? what was the sentence? 10 carnaval é o que? carnival is what? 11 Nina: the time 12 José: [the time when the 13 S1: [seriousness 14 S2: [joking 15 S3: [experience other identities

106

Didier’s Story

16 T: 17

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

18 19 Ss: 20 Nina: 21 T: 22 23 T: 24 Nina: 25 26 S: 27 Leti: 28 Leti: 29 Nina: 30 Nina: 31 Ss: 32 T: 33 34 S: 35 S: 36 T: 37 T: 38 39 40 41

exAtamente (.30) esse é um exemplo disso exActly (.30) this is an example of that esses homens têm namoradas these men have girlfriends são casados they are married ((laugh loudly))(~~) hah, oh my god e carnaval é o exemp (.) a maior oportunidade de and carnival is the examp (.)the greatest opportunity to passar pro outro lado temporariamente move to another side temporarily por três ou quatro dias for three or four days mas se você não é gay but if you are not gay por que você querem fez fazer isso? why do you they want did to do that? ((chuckle)) se você não tem ganas15 de fazer if you do not have desire to do how do you say (.) desejo desire SIM desejos YES desires sim você querer fazer isso yes you to want to do that ((laughing and indecipherably talking)) sss:::ss>shh shh shh shh< vocês se lembram o que o you all remember what the [(~~) [SHH o sociólogo falou nisso né? the sociologist said in this don’t you? essa coisa do corpo é muito mais a performance (.) this thing about the body is a lot more the performance (.) do que a coisa pragmática than the pragmatic thing então carnaval é uma grande brincadeira (.30) so then carnival is a big game é onde voce não leva a sério as coisas it is where you don’t take things seriously esse é um exemplo disso this is an example of that

Didier’s Story 42 Leti:

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

43 Ss: 44 T:

107

ainda é difícil entender it is still difficult to understand ((laugh loudly)) eu entendo (.) é difícil I understand (.) it is difficult

This excerpt illustrates how the language classroom does not exist outside societal ideologies and practices. Regardless of whether sexuality is overtly mentioned in this community or not, it is still a space where sexual identities are present and culturally readable. Nelson (1999, 2006) and Liddicoat (2009) observe that when there is overt reference to sexual identities in language classrooms, it is usually made plain how powerfully heteronormativity, or the cultural mandate to represent what are considered acceptable (and always heterosexual) identities, is enforced. When the students first saw the image of men dancing while dressed in women’s clothing, they laughed, because it was indeed a comical scene, and some of the men on the screen were playing at a clownish sort of drag with garish and badly applied makeup, plastic blonde wigs, etc., while making over-the-top and exaggeratedly feminine movements. This reaction can be attributed to the “incongruity theory” of laughter as a response to the perception of the uncommon combination of contrasting and contrary things, or the clash of “inconsistent or unsuitable [elements] united into one complex assemblage” (Keith-Spiegel, 1972, p. 7). However, the class did not erupt into loud, explosive laughter until the students heard the film’s narrator say (as well as read on the video screen) that the men were straight. They later burst into incredulous laughter at the teacher’s statement in lines 4–5 that the men dressed and dancing like that were neither transvestites nor homosexuals and in lines 17 and 18 when he said that they had girlfriends and wives. This explanation was not satisfactory to me, because I was familiar enough with Brazilian culture to know that, although the “official story” of the Muquiranas was that they were straight men in drag, among them were people of a diverse array of sexual orientations and gender identities, including heterosexuals, bisexuals, homosexuals, transsexuals, “try”-sexuals, and all else in between. Like almost everything in Brazil, where nothing was as simple as saying it was either one way or another, the Muquiranas were neither a group exclusively composed of straight men nor only gays. However, the students did not know this, and had no reason not to accept the instructor’s declarations at face value. From what I knew of his personal background, opinions, and academic work, the instructor was well aware of the complexity of the Muquiranas population and most likely made a calculation to spare time and hassle adhering to the simplified counter stereotype, which perhaps he believed would be more palatable or easily digested. However, despite this effort, because heteronormativity in the United States defines masculinity as the absence of overt femininity and masculinity as the marker of male heterosexuality, the American students scoffed at the

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

108

Didier’s Story

Brazilian instructor’s assertions as not merely incongruous, but downright impossible. Nevertheless, the teacher goes on in lines 21–23 to explain and reiterate to the students Brazilian ideas about carnival being an opportunity for participants temporarily to “move to another side” or assume another identity in mass public play. Yet Nina and Leti in lines 24–30 still demand to know why, if the men were not gay, they desired to look and act so feminine. More laughter erupts at this question. The American students saw the men’s dress and demeanor as incompatible with their concepts of the behavior heterosexual men would typically adopt, and their boundaries of gender and sexuality had been crossed. Their protestations, along with all the laughter and ridicule, served as “discursive mechanisms” of “gendered borderwork,” which Godley (2006) describes as social practices that mandate a strict, dichotomous, and heteronormative separation of what it means to be a man or woman and what is perceived as masculine or feminine. Quieting down the class again, the instructor reminds the students of the sociologist’s commentary in the documentary describing Brazilian cultural notions of carnival as play and fantasy, and the use of one’s body to perform all of the aforementioned (lines 36–41). However, Leti declares, “It is still difficult to understand.” Her classmates laugh loudly in agreement, and the teacher acknowledges that it is indeed difficult for those not familiar with these displays to understand them. Do note that I am not arguing that the students were necessarily laughing at the men on the screen for being gay. What provoked their hilarity and mockery was the perceived ridiculousness of the idea that, given the men’s overt display of feminine behavior, anyone would imagine that they weren’t. Godley’s (2006) study of gendered borderwork in a high school senior English class found that “laughter was a primary discursive mechanism through which students marked gendered border crossings, particularly when boys’ behavior was interpreted as feminine” (p. 4). Similarly, within Didier’s community of learners, laughter, scoffing, sarcasm, and derision sharply demarcated boundaries of heterosexual male behavior, making it clear that it was unmasculine and unacceptable for a straight black man to traverse them openly. Such was the climate of hostility toward and disdain of the idea that heterosexual men could behave in feminine ways. Members of Didier’s classroom communities made it patently clear that straight men could not use embodied language to signal sexual ambiguity or, as Didier called it, “fluidity in sexuality,” without relinquishing their masculinity and being seen as gay. Nevertheless, Didier remained curious about the languaculture governing these boundaries and about differences in the embodied language and performance of black manhood in Brazil and the United States. Two weeks later, these differences became even more explicit than during the Muquiranas episode. Didier participated in a lively discussion during the break period between the first and second hours of his Afro-Brazilian Culture and History class. The five-minute exchange is broken into sections

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Didier’s Story

109

Figure 5.2 Didier talking about the essay while twisting

for discussion in Figure 5.2. It began when Didier was looking at the graded essay just returned to him and told Leti and Rose about his writings: 01 Rose: I took my essay to office hours 02 Didier: [((holding paper upright just beneath his chin, twisting the top left corner with both hands)) 03 [I did my essay on 04 Leti: [on what 05 Rose: [the reason is like we have 06 Didier: ((looking at Leti and smiling broadly)) dance 07 ((laughs again turns gaze to paper)) 08 Leti: what kinda dance 09 Didier: men and dance and gender expressions 10 Leti: [((slaps chest with right palm)) that’s just I was saying 11 yes feminine dancing? 12 Rose: [what? 13 Didier: what we talked about ((touches nose with left hand)) 14 that’s so gay↑ 15 Leti: it’s gay for like the States ((looks down toward her feet and looks back up at Didier)) 16 Didier: know what they do? 17 do you [know what they do? 18 Leti: [know 19 Didier: cuz I have done some research on this shit 20 do you know 21 >no ↑no↑ no↑< ((pointing left index finger upward shaking it))

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

110

Didier’s Story

22 Ima tell yuh 23 Didier: [the um .h o.hhkay so 24 [((puts down the paper moves upper body forward and turns to face Leti)) 25 the whole Afro-performative identity thing 26 in Brazil in like group performance is like the (2.0) 27 [the introduction of pagode axé e funk where there’s more 28 [((turns left palm upward and touches three fingers one by one in counting motion)) 29 Didier: hip movement and stuff and-((moving upper body neck and waist fluidly back forth and sideways)) 30 Nina: ((enters frame walks and stops facing Didier and Leti)) At the moment Nina walks up to face Didier and Leti and listen to their conversation, Didier had just told Leti the topic of his essay “men and dance and gender expressions” (line 9). He elaborated on how there was more to it than merely a matter of “feminine dancing” (line 10) and how he and his classmates had previously misunderstood it as just something “gay.” Interrupting Leti’s attempts to say more of what she knows, Didier declares his greater authority on the subject and insists he will be the one to tell Leti about it because he had “done some research on this shit” (lines 13–22). This eagerness, assuredness, and excitement to describe to classmates what he learned about speaking black manhood in Brazil through the embodied signifying of sexual identities is notably different from Didier’s demeanor when he was smiling sheepishly and twisting the corner of the paper in his hands as he first mentions that he did his essay on dance. Leti’s interest and questions signaling that she would like to discuss the subject lead to Didier excitedly recounting that the dance movements were related to “Afro-performative identity,” “group performance” (lines 25–26), and specific musical styles. He even gives Leti a quick demonstration of the fluid hip and upper body gyrating movements as Nina stops in front of the two and, after overhearing the mention of music and seeing Didier dance, asks if that would happen that night. 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39

Nina: is that tonight? Didier: ah nuh [just um no [((touches nose with left palm, then waves hand up and down toward Nina)) Didier: and uh basically whenever they do that they’re signaling in some dance they’re expressing like the feminine side of them Nina: o:::h okay ((walks past Didier and takes an adjacent seat to his right)) Didier: but they’re also giving out certain sig signal signals to the other ((sweeps both arms forward and then back))

Didier’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73

74 75 76 77 78

111

Didier: people who ((with arms up and stationary, flaps both hands quickly back and forth)) Leti: I get those signals Nina: no, to other men Didier: nuh ((touches Leti with left hand)) it could be to women it could be to men as well [so (.) like (.) basically↑ [((leans upper body back in chair, touches nose with left hand)) Rose: where’re you reading this from? Didier: ((leans back and turns head toward Rose seated behind)) article on homosexual gender identity Nina: ((looking at Rose)) he got that↑ like and going to Pelourinho uh (.) clearly men in Brazil Didier: {name redacted} she’s a teacher at {Geisel College} she’s uh (.) gender and triple-a-s teacher (~~) Leti: yeah↑ but not everyone you see who’s doing this is [gay Didier: [((touches Leti with left hand)) [>no↑ no↑ no↑< listen↓ listen listen↓ Leti: (~~) >I know ↑I know ↑I know↑ I know↑ I know↑ I know< Rose: let him continue Didier: I know (.) I know (.) I know (.) but listen ((touches Leti with left hand)) okay so (.) there’s this thing where dudes would like go off and have their homosexual relations BUT ((points left index finger at Leti while facing forward)) Leti: yeah ((turns to her left side and reaches inside a bag)) Didier: will not attest Nina: that’s explained in Ari uhLama Ari Lima’s reading too and also readings Leti: ((turns head right to look at Nina while both hands still in bag to her left)) Didier: ((looks at Nina)) yeah ((turns back to Leti)) especially like during the ((holds both hands up at chest level palms outward, thumbs and index fingers in a curved formation)) Leti: ((takes out a piece of bread from her bag and takes a bite from it)) Didier: during the pagode part↑ Leti: ((takes out a piece of bread from her bag and takes a bite from it)) Didier: that’s what he was saying and like his final thoughts

112

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87

Didier’s Story ((touches nose with right index finger)) but like (.) uhm (1.0) they have homosexual relations with like other people [but there could be like Nina: [as long as you’re not the submissive one Didier: yeah as long as you not the submissive one you can be [((raises both arms up, sharply jerks them forward and back again)) [straight quote [unquote ((makes air quotation marks with right hand)) Nina: [as long as you ain’t takin it then it’s okay

(line 86) jerks arms sharply for “straight”

88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105

Leti:

(line 86) “quote-unquote”

((nodding toward Didier)) mm hmm yeah in the U.S. it’s called down low José: ((walks into the frame and stands behind Leti looking at Nina)) Nina: no that’s not Didier: [((waves hand up and down toward Leti)) [no that’s not the same thing Nina: [when you’re down low means you’re gay (.) period >you’re fucking you’re giving you’re receiving< you just ain’t tellin nobody that’s down low Didier: yeah you just ain’t tellin nobody but um (~~) José: ((sits behind Leti, left of Rose looking toward her)) Didier: [((speaking to Leti)) there’s a {Geisel College} alum [remember {name redacted} and that one? Rose: [and here it’s just like as long as you’re fucking and you’re not receiving ((looks and points right index finger toward Nina)) 106 then you’re not gay right? 107 Nina: as long as (.) right 108 so long as you get

Didier’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

109 110 111 112 113 114 115 Rose:

113

if you’re giving it to somebody’s ass and you’re not receiving it you’re not gay as long as you’re gettin head and not givin it to somebody you’re not gay [então well then

When Nina realizes that the conversation is not about a dance outing, she still remains interested, walks past the group, sits down next to Didier, and joins the chat. Both Nina and Leti continuously interrupt Didier to add their knowledge and opinions, and as he corrects the points that they misstate, Rose also interrupts to ask where he read all this information (line 48). Didier starts to explain that he read it in an article on Afro-Brazilian music and culture, but Nina interjected her idea that this knowledge came from Didier’s wanderings around Pelourinho and, “clearly,” his dealings with men in Brazil (lines 51–52). At this point, the story seems no longer Didier’s to tell because of interruptions and Leti’s assertion that “not everyone you see who’s doing this is gay” (lines 55–56). As he touches her shoulder to get her attention, repeatedly and more urgently seeking to regain control over the narrative, Rose positively aligns with Didier and asks the others to “let him continue” (lines 57–62). He continues to speak; however, Nina jostles to the fore, volunteering more information on another reading where these ideas were mentioned (68–69). She also adds to Didier’s description a difference in how homosexual relations are viewed in Brazil—the fact that, depending upon the sexual position he assumes, a man who sleeps with other men can still be considered straight. Didier signals his opinion of the fallacy of such an idea by lifting both arms and jerking them forward when he says the word “straight” and then, while making air quotation marks with his right hand, adds the qualifier “quote-unquote” (lines 85–86). Leti nods her understanding and offers the comparison of this to African American men in the United States who are “down low” (line 89), who do not openly reveal that, in addition to their heterosexual relations with women, they also have sex with men. Both Nina and Didier disagree with Leti’s comparison, and Nina explains that when a man is down low, he is “gay (.) period,” and he “just ain’t tellin nobody” (lines 94–98). Didier affirms this statement repeating, “yeah you just ain’t tellin nobody” (line 99). In the previous Muquiranas video episode where the class watched Afro-Brazilian men engage in gender performance and public play that challenged their heteronormative expectations, Didier’s classmates expressed loud and firm rejection of the idea that, in Brazil, a man who performed certain actions homosexual men might also perform was not necessarily considered gay. Through Didier’s air quotations when calling such men

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

114

Didier’s Story

straight, and Nina’s insistence that down low men are just gay, period, it is firmly established once again in this classroom community that heterosexual men cannot cross certain boundaries without being automatically assigned a sexual identity to which they may not ascribe. The other male classmate, José, who had been standing and listening to the conversation, at this time sits down to hear more as Rose and Nina list and confirm the sorts of sex acts a man in Brazil can perform with other men and still not be considered gay (lines 103–114). 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124

Didier: [nah nah but um Leti: but there’s just homosexual and a lot of people have plenty just not everyone’s gay Didier: I’m not sayin that Leti: [((waving right hand back and forth toward Didier)) [>just because you dance with someone that you want< then black people are like I don’t know why Didier: [((takes loose end of cloth bracelet on left hand with right, starts twisting it with both hands while looking downward))

(line 124) looking down while twisting left bracelet string

125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132

Didier: [I understand that .hh I understand that .hh I understand that (.20) I understand that Leti: I don’t know why weNina: I know (.) why we talking about this? Didier: ((looks at Nina and laughs while still twisting end of his bracelet)) Nina: it’s just an extra thing it’s just a small ass part of Brazil Didier: ((laughs loudly turns to Leti and grabs her right shoulder with left hand)) 133 that some men are like that 134 Didier: yeah

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Didier’s Story 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176

115

Nina: and that here in Brazil when it comes to men the lines of sexuality can be crossed Didier: it’s very few women in here Nina: and then crossed back and then ((right arm up, swaying torso side to side)) choo choo choo Leti: I think I would think that uh and when we first talked about this in carnival too I feel like a lot of things are more sexualized here than they need to be too yeah like I understand that there is like a line that’s crossed I think here much more readily than is generally crossed in the United States Didier: ((laughs, looking downward, still twisting, playing with the loose end of his bracelet)) Leti: but I think it’s also like I don’t know like I just think to like accuse like everybody of like this sort of Didier: [I’m not ACCU::sing [((looking upward but not at anyone)) [I’m just saying that there’s a parT okay (.) that does it there’s a PART Leti: well I’m sure there’s people who do (.) you know I’m sure it’s the same thing Leti: in most of the United States but it’s just not as studied because we’re much more Nina: >the same thing goes in the United States?< Didier: ((looks up and to the right at Nina)) Nina: honey no you can’t walk down the street and see two men dancing together Didier: °yeah° ((looks down again at hands while twisting and playing with bracelet)) Nina: and not call them gay and them not be gay [period [((moves right hand left to right across chest in an abrupt slashing motion)) Didier: that’s true Nina: you know that yeah Leti: ((smiling, turns to the left and reaches into bag again))

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

116 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214

Didier’s Story Didier: ((gazes downward at hands)) it’s just a cultural difference Rose: [((looking downward at nails on left hand)) [that’s what I was saying like when we first got here Leti: ((takes out a piece of bread from her bag and takes a bite form it)) Rose: and we would see like men dancing with each other >you’d be like °gay°< and then I’m like no↑ they’re not↑ Nina: I mean no ((slight head shake side to side)) Rose: I mean here they’re [not [((slaps both hands on desk)) in the [ U.S. [((slaps both hands on desk)) they [would be [((slaps both hands on desk)) Nina: they would be and no there would be no exception Didier: ((turns to look at Nina, takes a deep in-breath, turns gaze back to front and lowers eyes)) Rose: you would not (.) you cannot forro16 with another man Didier: ((laughs turns head lightly back toward Rose)) forro Rose: I don’t give a damn you just can’t do that Didier: ((gazes downward, laughs slightly)) José: ((laughs, looks at Rose)) wait have you seen two guys dancing like that? José: I haven’t seen that Rose: YES ((raises arms up in a holding motion, sways back and forth with lips pursed as in a kiss and humming a tune)) Leti: I’m sorry I still can’t take that if I see two guys forroing I’m just like ((shakes head forward with disparaging look)) have fun Didier: [but it’s not insinuating anything (~~) [((turns sharply toward Leti, reaches over and almost touches her with left hand)) Leti: ((reaches into her bag, brings out half a sandwich and eats)) I’m from the United States that shit means more Didier: ((laughing uproariously)) ah ha ha ha Leti: I don’t care what cultural

In this segment of the conversation, Didier’s demeanor gradually changes from his initial excitement and enthusiasm to share what he had learned about speaking blackness in Brazil through embodied languaging, and he

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Didier’s Story

117

becomes much quieter. With his right hand, he takes the loose end of the cloth bracelet on his left wrist and begins to twist it around using both hands (line 124). At times, his gaze turns downward, and Didier remains quiet except for an occasional laugh. Jefferson’s (1979, 1984) ideas on the interactional functions of laughter suggest that it arises in conversation as an interlocutor mechanism for securing, maintaining, affirming, and reestablishing affiliation. Glenn (2003) and Rees and Monrouxe (2010) also propose that, inasmuch as laughter works to align interlocutors during conversation, it can isolate and disaffiliate them as well. Didier first looks up at Nina and laughs in alignment with her when she asks why they were having the conversation in the first place (lines 128– 129). He then laughs even louder and says “yeah” when Nina dismisses the men they were talking about as “just an extra thing” and “only a small ass part of Brazil.” But Didier turns away from her and instead to Leti, grabbing her shoulder (lines 130–134). As Nina continues to talk and Leti chimes in, Didier no longer looks at either woman, starts twisting his bracelet again, and casts his gaze downward even when he laughs quietly at Leti’s comment that a “line” is crossed in Brazil “much more readily than is generally crossed in the United States” (lines 147–150). Any alignment Didier may have sought with that laugh is quickly broken when, visibly irritated, he counters Leti’s statement that one should not “accuse” everybody of this sort of thing, loudly retorting that he was not “ACCU::sing,” but merely talking about “a PART” of the population (152–158). Leti’s use of the word “accuse” to characterize Didier’s description of some black Brazilian men’s sexual practices alludes to common homophobic ideologies and public discourses (Baker, 2005) that frame being gay or doing gay things as infractions or wrongdoing that the perpetrator must account for or hide. Later in the segment, Rose also takes this accusatory stance to describe gay male behavior as she reminds the others about when they first arrived in Salvador and saw men dancing with each other and said to one another “°gay°” in hushed tones and whispers (lines 178–184). Rose and Nina make louder and more vehement assertions of differences between Brazil and the United States by demonstrating the rigidity of their own boundaries between heterosexual and homosexual male behaviors, with Nina slashing her right hand sharply across her chest (line 173) and Rose slapping both hands on top of her desk (lines 188–192) for emphasis. In line 194 when Nina declares that these rules apply with no exception, Didier turns to look at her, takes a deep breath, turns his gaze back to the front, and lowers his eyes. Rose then affirms once again that, regardless of culture, a man simply can’t, nor would a man, dance with another man without being gay. “I don’t give a damn // you just can’t do that,” she says, at which Didier gazes downward and laughs slightly (lines 199–201). Leti nods in agreement, volunteering that she still couldn’t get used to seeing it. Didier turns reaching toward her and countering, “It’s not insinuating anything.” However, she adamantly maintains the homophobic position, retorting “I’m from the United

118

Didier’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

States // that shit means more.” Didier bursts into uproarious laughter (lines 206–213), which, Keith-Spiegel’s (1972) description of the “relief theory” of laughter indicates may be his way to release the tension signaled by his downward gazes and continuous hands twisting. The episode’s final segment follows: 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234

José:

((turned toward Rose)) I don’t know I went out and I saw two guys forroing and the four guys I was with were like oh it’s just that they were gay so that is what kind of confused me when you said that Rose: what? Nina: oh because he’s saying that his experiences when you went out that you basic you saw two guys forroing together you heard a comment that they might be gay José: yeah Nina: but like when we↑ go out we never hear that comment and there’s always [tons of guys dancing together [((lifts head upward rolling eyes)) whether it be forro or any other dance for that matter Didier: ((holding paper upright just beneath his chin, twisting the top left corner with both hands while looking downward))

(line 234) looking down while twisting paper corner

235 Rose: 236 Rose: 237 238 Rose: 239

I’d just say like .hhh (2.0) where I’m from what my views on what a man is and should be is very rigid

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Didier’s Story

119

240 so like if you you’re [questioning 241 [((slaps both hands on desk)) 242 Didier: [>cuz you’re from a MILITARY family< 243 [((still twisting the top left corner of paper with both hands while looking downward)) 244 Rose: if you’re question245 no it’s cuz I’m American 246 it’s not because of anything 247 Nina: right 248 Didier: huh↑ huh 249 Rose: [((holding pen in right hand, pointing it forward, hitting desk with closed fist)) 250 [if you’re questioning a man’s masculinity 251 that’s a problem 252 Nina: then you have a problem 253 Rose: you can a woman 254 she has more freedom in moves 255 if I look at you ((turns toward José)) 256 and I have to think 257 whether you are or you’re not 258 that’s just not something and 259 that’s according to American standards 260 Leti: ((moves torso to face Didier and Nina, waving right hand and holding bread in left)) 261 and I feel like 262 I don’t have to question 263 if you have to think 264 if there is a question 265 Didier: ((looking at Leti and laughing then looks at Nina)) 266 Leti: I’m like 267 if there’s a question in my mind? 268 Nina: [I speak from experience 269 [((pointing to herself with pen in right hand)) 270 if you’re questioning 271 you DON’T (.) go into that 272 Didier: ((looks away from Nina and downward, smiling)) 273 Nina: no matter how much 274 that person swear on their mother’s life 275 you question one little [bit? 276 [((raises right fist, index finger and thumb out, almost touch)) 277 Leti: [((points right index finger toward Nina and nods her head up and down)) 278 Didier: [((looks upward and tilts head back laughing while holding and twisting paper corner))

120

Didier’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

279 Nina: [((points right index finger forward jerking it twice)) 280 [you don’t fuck with that (.) aiight? 281 Didier: ((looks at Nina and then forward again laughing))

(lines 277–280) Didier in the middle as Nina and Leti point toward each other while Nina says, “You don’t fuck with that aiight?”

As this final sequence of the episode begins, José, Nina, and Rose discuss what they were learning from interactions within various communities in Brazil and how embodied languaging differed between what they knew from the United States and what was happening locally. Whether men dancing with one another was perceived as either gay or not, depended on who was around to interpret the scene, and that interpretation was not predicated merely upon languagcultural understanding, because certain Brazilian companions called it gay while others did not. As they say this, Didier gazes downward while holding and twisting the corner of his paper (215–234). At the end of the musings, Rose declares that her “views // on what a man is and should be // is very rigid.” Didier counters with “cuz you’re from a MILITARY family” while still looking downward and twisting the paper (lines 235–243). When Didier challenges her rigidity as a product of being raised in a military home, Rose rejects that reason, claiming that she held these views as an American (line 245). Rose does not qualify the word “man” with straight or gay; however, the context of the exchange shows that she is referring to heterosexuals. Thus she reproduces the heteronormative public discourse that equates heterosexuality not just with masculinity, but with manhood itself, while contrastively framing other male sexual identities as unmanly. All three women then affirm that there is a “problem” when one feels the need to question a man’s masculinity (lines 250–267), which, in the context of the conversation, is plainly understood as questioning a man’s heterosexuality. This is independent of how embodied language indexed gender

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Didier’s Story

121

and sexual identities in Brazil, and they were primarily drawing from their American background and understanding to interpret Brazilian experiences. Nina more strongly affirms that it is problematic when one needs to question a man’s masculinity (heterosexuality) by saying that it is something one just does not do: “if you’re questioning // you DON’T (.) go into that // no matter how much // that person swear on their mother’s life // you question one little bit? // you don’t fuck with that (.) aiight?” (lines 270–280). As Nina makes that final utterance, Leti points her right index finger toward her, and Nina mirrors the gesture pointing and jerking her right index finger toward Leti. Caught in the crosshairs of both points, Didier tilts his head back and gazes upward, laughing, while still holding and twisting his paper. When Nina stops speaking, Didier tilts his head down, briefly looks at Nina, and then looks forward again, laughing. Nelson’s (1999, 2006, 2009) observations of talk related to queerness in a language classroom showed that even while interlocutors discuss gay men and lesbians, they jockey to position themselves and one another in terms of sexual orientation. At the same time they language to present and deliberate norms that regulate same-sex affection behavior, their languaging and behavior are governed by those very same norms. This phenomenon of the discussion of same-sex social norms being regulated by the very rules in question is apparent throughout the entire episode that took place in the Portuguese language classroom, especially in the final sequence. African American students discussing Afro-Brazilian languacultural understandings frame homosexuality as an errant practice that warrants sworn denial and which one would take great care not to accuse someone else of doing. The participants in the conversation move from merely describing and contrasting sexual practices and male sexual boundary crossing in Brazil and the United States to making judgments about their acceptability. Also, given the allusions the interlocutors made to previous conversations they had had on the subject, it is a fair assumption that those discussions went along similar lines. When comparing the attitudes expressed in the previous Muquiranas episode with those displayed here, Liddicoat’s (2009) description of the language classroom as a community that sometimes polices sexual identities through how they are regarded and how certain norms are upheld, rings true. I would like, though, to highlight Liddicoat’s further observation that, just like one does not have to be racist or have racist intentions to perpetuate racism, heteronormative policing that result in homophobic practices and hostile environments is not always done with conscious intention to discriminate and alienate, but can be an automatic and unthinking reproduction of dominant discourses of normality. Nevertheless, regardless of this absence of malicious intent, the troublesome climate remains, and, furthermore, it contributes to what Dalley and Campbell (2006) call the “silencing effects” of heteronormative discourse, which sometimes forces gay students to devise strategies to hide and sublimate their expression or exploration of sexual orientation and sexual

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

122

Didier’s Story

identities and push them away to other safer places outside the classroom. During my personal conversations with Didier, I wanted to clarify his positionality and asked him if he was gay, bisexual, bicurious, or questioning. His response was a firm no, that he is exclusively heterosexual. The discussions I observed between him and his classmates showed that, regardless of any declaration of personal identification with a maligned or nondominant sexual identity, he still recognized and challenged the impositions of heteronormativity within his classroom communities. By sharing and defending an interest in the apparent fluidity (or at least different markers) of the boundaries delineating masculinity, black manhood, and male sexual identities in Brazil, Didier showed that he desired to learn how to accurately comprehend and language these aspects of his blackness in ways that were authentic to him and the local understandings. Didier questioned the rigid boundaries of male heterosexuality held firmly in place within his classroom communities and defied the notion that a straight man is less than a man if he behaves in ways that appear to cross them. In the earlier episodes and his self-reported accounts, Didier ran up against a massive wall of intense enforcement of heteronormativity when he raised these questions, which sharply contrasted with how the matter was treated among his Afro-Brazilian friends within the local communities. And all of this contributed to the resources he was able to draw from when shaping his gendered and sexual identities, incorporating an awareness of different conceptions of the performance of black manhood into the construction of his new Portuguese-speaking subjectivity.

Part IV—Identities, Investments, and Outcomes Unlike Nina, who was perceived as doing better and also earned superior scores in the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History course that she liked best, Didier fared similarly well and made equally good grades in all three. This was in spite of the fact that he participated and showed the most investment in the practices of the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History community of learners. In contrast, the high dividends in success he earned through his investments in the local communities were more readily apparent. Didier enthusiastically embraced the ideal of language immersion and also wanted to learn as much as he could about Afro-Brazilian culture. For these reasons, he actively sought to interact with as many Brazilians as possible. Didier was always out about town, engaging with people he met, and he would often make friends and meet future outing companions this way: Didier (from Week 10 Interview) But for me I just like would talk to anybody who wanted to talk to me. I had a conversation about any and everything. Even though, you remember the black charm party17 or whatever, you remember, I was like what

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Didier’s Story

123

the fuck are these people wearing? Why do they look this way? Why do they think this is cool? I ended up talking to them people after the party. And so I don’t know, that’s how you meet people, that’s how you know about different places to go. I went with FSPers18 one night where it was just like me and them and I went to Rio Vermelho and Mercado do Peixe, sat there, chilled with [name redacted], some guy, and he had his little band and I met like all his friends and stuff and then we just kinda just hung out and he was like oh we going to this on Sunday, and I was like we’re going to be somewhere else so can’t go. But go I hang out with like different people. One time I just like went out exploring other parts of Pelourinho and just talked to the people. I went into this place where they were speaking a whole bunch of languages and things like, some kind of touristy place you go into and saw the guy who I met from well, one of the guys I met from the black charm party, and he was like yeah see I told you I worked here, blah blah blah, I told you I could speak English and all this other stuff and I was like oh okay, that’s really nice. Like I don’t care. But yeah, it’s just like when I go to different places and I see people that I recognize or recognize me, you know, I just kind of keep some kind of contact with them. His classmates and other participants in this study admired Didier’s eagerness and ease within local communities, his ability to make fast friends, and the amount of time he spent with them. Both he and they acknowledge that this gave him many opportunities to develop and use new practices in Portuguese and contributed to his tremendous success in learning the language. Along with the linguistic benefits that accompanied his participation and active engagement in local communities, Didier also believed he gained additional cultural capital from this contact and as a result of his ethnoracial affinity and identification with Afro-Brazilians. He clearly articulated learning to speak blackness in Brazil. Dider (from Week 10 Interview) I feel like I found more of my blackness while here because, at [Geisel College] I found a little bit of it, but I could always go off and be with white people whenever I felt I was blacking it up too much. And UJU:

Talk more about that. How did you find your blackness when you were here? I mean, you know I want to know. Why you gon say some shit like that and I’m not asking you about it. [LAUGH] DIDIER: Like, well, I think I found more of my African, like the whole African-descent side as opposed to black American because that’s something totally different, especially like in the city that I’m in because like that, like right outside of

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

124

Didier’s Story Baton Rouge and this is the whole other little culture. So that’s different from like other, you know, black American cultures, but I feel like I became more in tune with the African identity. Like I associated myself with people like not just black people in America, but also black Brazilians and black Italians, whatever. And I don’t know, it just, it was all the arguments and discussion about race, about, you know, relations among people in Brazil, like how race affects your socioeconomic class and like all of that. I don’t know, I just felt like I identified with it more while I was here because it was all around me. Like back in [my hometown], like, it’s about 50% black or mixed and like 50% white and I don’t know, people there associate more with their Creole roots rather than their like African side, or even black American side, so it was just all about Creole culture, like Creole cuisine, Creole music, Creole, you know, clothing, like all this, whatever. So I feel like I was definitely in tune with that side of me, but I wasn’t really in tune with the African decent and like the whole history. Like I’ve never really taken an African American history course or anything so I know, you know, the basics, and I know the general knowledge behind African American history, and I know the general knowledge of African history. I even know like a lot less than that because the only exposure I ever got was in sixth grade world history when we did like a little thing on Mali. [LAUGH]. But I really didn’t know anything and I felt like I got to know a lot more, especially just like being around all these people and just UJU: Being around all who? DIDIER: All of the “pardos.” [LAUGH] UJU: So you feel that you became blacker here somehow through the exposure to blacks here. DIDIER: Yeah, through the experiences like, with them. Culturally, socially, you know.

It is especially interesting to me that Didier strengthened his knowledge and connection with African-identified cultures through his experiences and investments in shaping a new Portuguese-speaking self in participation within Afro-Brazilian communities. This is due to the uniquely Africaninfluenced nature of the social, linguistic, and cultural identities of Salvador. I bonded with Didier based on our mutual delight with the “African-ness” of the place and the authenticity of the city’s expression of this profound connection:

Didier’s Story

125

Didier (from Interview)

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

But I, had I been in São Paulo, honestly, I wouldn’t be able to be as well versed in it as I am here. I felt like UJU: Because São Paulo is? DIDIER: A big city. [LAUGH]. No, it’s not as, it doesn’t have as many black people, clearly. I mean yeah, you can go to the black spots, like find black people, but two things I feel like is gonna happen once you get there, one, they’ll find out you speak English and then they’ll try to practice their English on you, because a lot of people there speak English, or are learning, and then two, you don’t get the same kind of culture because it’s like, I don’t know, Bahians, well baianos19 and paulistas, 20 black baianos and black paulistas, totally different people. Like black paulistas, I know some of them, some of them don’t like to samba, like all they know is hip hop, and like the old school hip hop, so, can’t mess with that. So Salvador is definitely like a great stepping stone for Afro-descendent students who want to learn Portuguese. Salvador’s cultural otherness, the type of “ethnified” blackness that did not appeal to Nina as strongly as the “American” black feel of São Paulo, caused Didier to like it more. So much so that he believed his interest in the unique culture of Salvador, the city’s relatively small size as well as its more provincial nature, contributed greatly to the success of his learning a new language. Consequently, in his view, had the study abroad program been located in São Paulo, he would not have had the opportunity to communicate as much in Portuguese. Such sentiments underscore Didier’s sense of independence and curiosity and deep regard for uniqueness and authenticity. They also reveal the impact of Didier’s race and ethnic background on his transformative socialization as he negotiated and challenged significant aspects of his multiple selves to shape a new Portuguese-speaking identity.

Notes 1 Yoruba deities who are believed to possess the bodies of their worshipers during religious trance. 2 Umbigo means navel in Portuguese. “The umbigo thing” Didier refers to a practice called dar umbigada, when a dancer inside a samba circle uses his or her belly to tap another dancer’s front midsection (thus touching navels) as an invitation for this person to come into the circle. 3 laughing my ass off 4 oh my god 5 Afro-Brazilian music group of mostly percussionists.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

126

Didier’s Story

6 The term baiana literally means “Bahian woman.” However, it also connotes an iconic image of an Afro-Brazilian woman in traditional dress who works in sales, tourism, and entertainment. 7 whites 8 Brazilian term used to describe people from Rio de Janeiro. 9 Title of a short story by Brazilian author João Guimarães Rosa about a man who abandons family and society to spend his life wandering around in a small boat on the river. He is fed and called to by people from the two banks on either side, but chooses to remain floating atop the third bank. 10 Weeklong period of holidays and celebrations during the month of June in honor of Catholic saints John, Anthony, and Peter. 11 “Down low”—a term used to describe men in the United States who do not openly reveal that, in addition to their heterosexual relations with women, they also have sex with men 12 Samba-derived music and dance style. 13 Afro-Brazilian music and dance style originated in and most typical of Salvador. 14 Rio de Janeiro urban “favela” drum and base-heavy music and dance style. 15 Word in Spanish meaning “desire.” 16 Traditional northeastern Brazil partner dance. 17 Hip-hop and R&B “black music” party in Salvador I attended with friends and to which I invited the study participants. 18 Members of the advanced-level group of the Geisel College Portuguese study abroad program. 19 People from Bahia. 20 People from São Paulo.

6

Leti’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

The Racialized, Gendered, and Social Classed Body

Part I—Dominican Bonus, Burdens, and Blowouts I first met Leti in Salvador during the introductory group orientation of the study abroad program. She was a 22-year-old Geisel College graduate preparing to return to campus and complete the school’s MA program in comparative literature. She had petitioned for special permission to join the Salvador group because she would be incorporating writers from Portugal and Brazil into her academic work and needed to gain more expertise in Portuguese. The period she spent in Salvador was the third time Leti participated in a Geisel College language study abroad program. As an undergraduate, she completed the beginner-level program in Italian language and, two years later, she returned to Rome for advanced-level studies and to serve as a TA for the beginner cohort. Leti was born in a major metropolis located on the northern U.S. Atlantic coast. She identified as Afro-Caribbean American due to her familial origins in the Dominican Republic. Like Didier, she had an easy, big-toothed smile and tawny skin. She wore her dark brown hair in a side-parted and pressed bob like Nina’s, except that the front was cut into large bangs and the rest fell almost to her shoulders. Leti had enormous sepia eyes, a tall, solid frame accented with firm and abundant curves. However, my admiration of this impressive beauty did not compare to my astonishment at her rapier wit, effortlessly communicated through the acerbic running commentary she made on everything. Leti’s family history was defined by the quintessentially American tale of immigrants who abandoned their homeland in search of a better life. Her parents were both transplants from the Dominican Republic who met, married, and raised their children in the United States. Unlike the parents of the other three study participants, Leti’s never divorced. However, she described their marriage as “tumultuous at best,” rife with the economic strain that sometimes bled into relations between members of a large, single-income, working-class family living in a city with notoriously high costs. The marriage was also challenged by the dissatisfaction and stress suffered by Leti’s mother, who prematurely ended her college education to stay home, raise children,

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

128

Leti’s Story

and care for her family while her husband struggled to make ends meet with low wages as a building superintendent and records office filing clerk. In spite of these difficulties, Leti’s parents provided their four children with the highest quality education available through public gifted and magnet programs, as well as scholarships to private institutions. Her mother was a brilliant and avid learner. She encouraged Leti and her siblings toward high academic achievement and good study habits, insisted they read newspapers and literature in any language, and it was very important for her children to draw from a rich vocabulary. At home, both parents spoke to Leti, her two brothers, and sister in Spanish, and the children replied in English. Leti’s mother also insisted that they study other languages in school—especially those she felt would benefit them academically such as Latin. With the exception of one brother who struggled with reading and dyslexia problems that frustrated his studies, Leti and her siblings excelled and found their individual strengths in formal schooling all the way through graduate and professional levels. Leti’s strength was the academic study of languages and culture. Although Spanish was spoken in her home, she reported that she was able to master it primarily at school. Along with Spanish, Leti also studied German, Latin, and Italian. Italian eventually became her language of passion, and she did so well in the Italian program at her high school that she informally became the Italian language instructor’s TA and spent most of her free time volunteering as an aide in the foreign language department office, which offered her a job immediately after college graduation. Had she not been entertaining other possibilities in graduate study and medicine, Leti would have surely accepted that offer, because she loved to teach. During every summer that she was not attending school, Leti volunteered as a tutor for youth camps and other programs to work with children. Naturally, while in Salvador, one of the ways Leti participated in local communities was volunteering as an English teacher to youngsters at an Afro-Brazilian neighborhood organization. Welcome Surprises and Similarities Unlike the other three participants of this study, Leti was not particularly aware of the Afro-Brazilian identity of Salvador, and her initial choice and efforts to learn Portuguese were not directly related to any sense of ethnoracial affinity with blacks in Brazil. This evidence disconfirmed an assumption I held prior to initiating the study in which I imagined that, as a result of being black, the participants would be interested in studying Portuguese and going to Brazil at least partly out of curiosity or in outright search of an Afro-Brazilian experience. Leti cited her reason for wanting to learn Portuguese as directly related to her summer volunteer work helping to organize cultural events in a large outdoor venue in her home city. Through this work, she participated in a Brazilian film festival and local Brazilian independence day celebrations, and, as a fluent speaker of Spanish, she also managed to improvise some communication in Portuguese with people she met during these activities.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti’s Story

129

Before arriving in Salvador, Leti imagined that it would be little more than a beach paradise—replete with piña coladas she never once saw after she got there. When she pictured what the people there would look like, Leti assumed they would be ethno-racially similar to the mostly white or (light-skinned) “mixed” people with whom she had interacted in person and through exported Brazilian media. She looked forward to feeling as comfortable in Brazil as she did in her parents’ homeland of the Dominican Republic, which was a country she viewed as primarily “mixed race” but not black identified. Her interactions with Brazilians and these imaginings convinced Leti to learn Portuguese, which she felt would be a “pretty” sounding addition to her repertoire of Romance languages. After arriving in Brazil, however, any ignorance or ambivalence she held with regard to the country’s blackness vanished. Although her initial choice to learn Portuguese was not inspired by an affinity with Afro-Brazilians, Salvador’s uniquely black identity and Leti’s resulting feelings of ethno-racial affirmation and identification prominently featured in her personal transformation into a new Portuguese-speaking self. When she arrived in Salvador, Leti was thrilled at her ability to phenotypically “blend in” with people all around the city. She described this (along with the linguistic advantages of speaking Spanish) as part of the “bonus of being Dominican” and a huge relief: Leti (from Week 1 Journal) Furthermore the perception of blending in has really been an amazing and refreshing change from what I am accustomed to in [rural town where Geisel College is located] and to some extent even in my hometown of [redacted]. Not only does most of the population have my hair and skin tone but my body type is also completely normal. The clothes that are sold in stores cater to body types with generous proportions and being overweight is truly relative here. When I walk into a hair salon I don’t have to anxiously pray that there is one individual that is familiar with my hair type, everyone seems to be familiar with all hair types. It seems like a minute cultural observation but I think these realizations are augmented in importance for individuals like myself that have to constantly feel like it is abnormal to have rollers and a portable drying hood in your dorm room in [Geisel College town]. In Salvador there is a very natural focus on beauty, women get their hair and nails done frequently and apparently so much so that it is not expensive making it accessible to everyone. Like we saw with Nina in Chapter 4, Leti’s physical similarity with the black population of the Salvador and her heightened sense of security and belonging as a member of the racial majority provoked powerful feelings of identification, which contributed to her greater relaxation and selfassuredness. These feelings were especially positive as they related to Leti’s confidence in being someplace where she perceived her hair texture and her

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

130

Leti’s Story

body type as completely “normal.” Such affinity, identification, and overall comfort that Leti experienced in Salvador was quite different from her previous anxiety as one of a few black students at her elementary and high schools in the United States and the physical unattractiveness she felt when compared with her mostly white and Asian girlfriends. This sense of alienation did not abate when she moved to the majority-white populated town and region where Geisel College was located or when she traveled abroad to Italy. Finally, in Salvador, Leti had an opportunity to live in a place where it was not uncommon to see and be able to care for hair like hers, where clothes (and public admiration) for women with curvaceous figures like hers were readily available, and her skin color was downright ordinary. However, Leti’s thrill to be surrounded by black people who looked like her was initially limited to the physical aspect of this type of immersion and not necessarily the topical dominance of blackness in her academic study. When she initially began the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History course, Leti was not particularly looking forward to the prospect of discussing “black issues” every single day. Her family background from the Dominican Republic provided a major cultural and ideological frame of reference among Leti’s identities, and Dominicans’ relationship with their own and next-door neighbor Haiti’s blackness is profoundly hostile (see Howard, 2007; Mayes, 2014 for a full discussion). In the same way that the racial alienation she felt in her previous environments, peer groups and other experiences contributed to anxieties related to her physical attractiveness, racism in Leti’s family background, fraught interpersonal relations, conflicting and competing ideologies between her mother and father—a black woman and white man from the Dominican Republic—and other aspects of her multiple identities made it difficult for her to unreservedly assume and value blackness. Yet it would be the main focus of the course: Leti (from Week 10 Interview) Ahm, I felt that, I’ve always had like a very difficult time with my identity, because I went to private schools, and I spent a great deal of time, even when I was in public schools, it was all either Asians or whites. And I had very few Hispanic friends and even fewer actual African-American friends. And so it was very, it’s complicated, because if you meet my mom, she’s like militant, militant like black power. But it’s so out of place, because as a Dominican, you’re not supposed to say you’re black, because people are messed up like that. But like, you don’t say you’re black. You just say you’re Dominican or color of trigo1 UJU: LETI:

Trigueño2 [LAUGH] or taíno3 [LAUGH] I know, which there was like six of those Indians on the island by the time the Spaniards got out [. . .] But you know I learned so much about culture, the Afro-Brazilian class, I was like so

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti’s Story

131

turned off when I first got here. I was like, ugh, it’s going to be like my mom again, always talking about black people, black relations, god! Like my dad, my dad just sits down, tuning out all that, because he comes from a super racist family. So it’s like, don’t talk about it. But here, it’s just, I learned that talking about the black issues, doesn’t always have to be like, polemic, it doesn’t always have to be like I’m fighting for something. It could just be like I’m having a conversation about black people, damn it. Leti’s initial aversion to talking about “black issues” was due to her family experience with blackness. Her father was from a white and very light-skinned Dominican family, whose members she called “super racist,” because they denied any African ancestry and derided it in others. Those on her mother’s side were more phenotypically “mixed” and had no choice but to assume a certain blackness. However, they openly favored lighter-skinned relatives and neglected, mistreated, or simply rejected the darker ones like Leti’s mother. This rejection was profound in Leti’s mother’s experience back home in the Dominican Republic, and she was acutely maligned for being black. So much so that she was not allowed to live in her own father’s home along with her light-skinned sister. To resist the ravages of this racism in her family and country of origin, Leti’s mother heartily embraced political movements of black pride and self-love when she moved to the United States and actively promoted and discussed pro-black sentiments at home with her husband and children. Unfortunately, these efforts were greatly undermined by the fact that such feelings were not commonly shared among Leti’s Dominican-American friends and family members, who did not hide their uneasiness with blackness and preferred to identify as “mixed,” “Latino,” or just “Dominican.” As a result, Leti’s mother’s attitudes were dismissed as stridently militant; her attempts to talk about black issues were greeted with groans of “here she goes again,” or she was simply tuned out. In light of these circumstances, Leti initially approached the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History classroom community with a reticence, even trepidation, about the study and discussion of blackness-related subject matter. She had never been in schools or peer groups that strongly represented or prioritized a black identity, and at home, she had been socialized to view blackness as a constant struggle, something to either defend, deride, or deny—in short, a divisive polemic, the mention of which typically provoked tension, irritation, or ambivalence. Through the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History course, Leti learned that being or talking about being black did not necessarily always have to be “a problem.” Over time, as her blackness was more increasingly affirmed, her participation within the local communities became greater as well. Furthermore, Leti reported that her positive experiences and the knowledge she gained from the course material became apparent to her mother, who

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

132

Leti’s Story

joyously noticed during their phone conversations that Leti seemed more aware of and eager to discuss black issues, which previously had just been her mother’s “thing.” Leti’s account highlighted the singular influence of race in the lives of Afro-descendants throughout the Americas, which contributes to the full spectrum of our humanity that we bring to a language and culture classroom and from which we draw insights, resources, and references when we shape new communicative selves within. Leti was working through racialized aspects of her history and experience as she deliberated how to invest and participate in the practices of a classroom community. Her blackness contributed to her initial approach and evaluation of what she would gain from the course, the work she did in the classroom, and, also, what she did outside. Affirmation Through Afro-Brazilian Culture Leti’s feelings of belonging and activities she pursued within the local community were not exclusively inspired by ethno-racial similarity with them. She was from a working-class family and identified with some of the experiences and precarious circumstances of poor and working-class children she met while in Salvador, so she dedicated a lot of time to sharing her time and resources with them. After one of the advanced-level study abroad group members introduced Leti to her friends among the coordinators of the AfroBrazilian cultural, political, and service organization, Ilê Ayê, she became enamored with the child and adolescent participants of their social and educational outreach program. Consequently, she volunteered to teach weekly English classes at the Ilê Ayê headquarters located in the black and workingclass neighborhood of Liberdade, which was nearly an hour-long bus ride away from the mostly white and upper-class neighborhood where Leti lived and attended school at the Geisel College host organization, the BACI. In addition to teaching at Ilê, Leti became very involved in other activities through which she was able to intimately and extensively participate within local communities and spend lots of time with Brazilians. During the second week of the study abroad program in Salvador, BACI staff organized a workshop at a nearby sports academy for the Geisel College students to learn about Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art, which originated from practices in battle training among enslaved Africans who hid their preparations for armed resistance against their European captors in the open guise of what appeared to be dance and musical performance. Immediately following the demonstration, all were invited into the Capoeira roda, a circle of mostly black men and boys, who sang and clapped along with the traditional Afro-Brazilian chants, drumming, and instrumentation while waiting for a turn to fight in the middle. The students were encouraged to enter the roda and spar with the capoeristas modeling the rhythmic stances and movements, kicks, and blocks. As Leti took her turn inside the roda, one of the advanced-level program participants informed the workshop leaders that it was her birthday. A roar

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti’s Story

133

Figure 6.1 Leti’s “Birthday Capoeira”

of excitement rose from the academy members upon hearing this, because, as was the custom, each one would be able to join and “fight” Leti inside the roda while the rest clapped and sang the Portuguese version of “Happy Birthday to You.” Despite her shock and eventual exhaustion, Leti stayed inside the roda and tried to imitate whatever basic movements she could manage against her considerably more experienced sparring partners until the last one had entered and the singing and clapping ended. After the workshop, she registered for Capoeira classes and spent three hours every evening at the academy learning the sport and making new friends. Leti reported that she initially joined the Capoeira academy for the opportunity to have fun exercising and socializing with fit, good-looking men. As she became more familiar with Capoeira and the specific practices through which the more expert members of the academy socialized others into the art, she found additional reasons to actively participate, and her experiences within this community gained new meaning and cultural complexity: Leti (from Week 10 Interview) Capoeira, I have a lot of pride in Capoeira, because I feel that it is a black sport. I feel like it is the martial art that represents, it’s martial arts and dance. UJU:

It’s African genius. You asked why are there no geniuses in Africa? You’re participating in African genius.

134

Leti’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

LETI:

UJU: LETI:

And that’s, I feel it’s, I’m proud because, I didn’t do Taekwondo. I didn’t do Jujitsu, and god bless the Asian population for creating it. But it’s like we have something too, and it represents our spirit, the roda, the, you know, like that closeness, you know, know the singing, I love singing. And you can just ad lib, like if I just wanna go ow-ow-ow and do my thing, no one’s gonna start being like, what’s going on with her, is she on drugs? Is she smoking that maconha4? [LAUGH] No one’s gonna be like that, you know, it’s just encouraged, it’s like, louder, I can’t hear you. And I’m always participating, if I’m not like clapping, I’m singing, well, I should be clapping and singing, if I’m not doing that, I’m in the roda. You know like, it’s just so close and then they dance with you samba, and it’s just this like family feeling. And it’s, and I feel like it’s a tradition. When you hear the songs, [Dora, a member of the Geisel advanced-level group] is actually doing a project on the Capoeira songs, and it’s such an interesting thing. I mean they have songs about quilombos, 5 maculelê6 is about the batalha de escravos.7 And it’s so interesting, cuz if you actually listen to the songs, they have one song like, I wanted to go to school, but I couldn’t, you know like the actual words, like you chant the words, I asked my mom, she said no, I asked my dad, they have songs that, you know, actually reflect poverty and the struggle of the slaves. And you’re singing it and you don’t even think about it. When you stop and you listen to the lyrics, you’re like, that’s the story of my people, that’s the story of my history in terms of like, escravidão, slavery, slaves, the African Diaspora in general. That’s speaking to all Africans, you know, and African descendants. And it’s just like something that fills me with pride because I’m part of this, this sport, you know, it’s the sport of like, my people. It’s mine.

Leti was born in the United States and ethno-racially identified as black American. However, she was not “black” in the same way as Nina, Didier, and Rose because her family originated from the Dominican Republic. Nevertheless, Leti believed she had as much in common with Afro-Brazilians as did the other study participants, because her parents had emigrated from a country, which, like the United States and Brazil, bore the indelible mark of a history of the forcible transplant and enslavement of Africans by Europeans, and she was an Afro-descendant—a member of this Diaspora in the Americas. Her sense of kinship and identification with other members of the African Diaspora with whom she shared a similar history gave Leti pride and ownership in the Afro-Brazilian cultural practices in which she took

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti’s Story

135

part. While engaged in these practices, she was translanguaging her identities and languaging blackness in multiple modalities. She learned to speak the embodied language of hand-to-hand combat stylized in Afro-Brazilian dance. She learned the accompanying songs and chants expressed in Africanized Portuguese language structures, lexis, phonology, and prosody, while recounting the history of Afro-Brazilians and the overall contribution of the African Diaspora in the Americas. The more involved Leti became in Capoeira, and the better she understood its origins and the significance of its rituals, the more investment Leti made to participate within the academy community. This greater investment was also influenced by Leti’s experiences and the knowledge she gained in the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History classroom. There, she was given a historical and academic perspective on Capoeira that complimentarily informed her practice of the martial art. This added dimension provided Leti with a greater opportunity to appreciate her participation in Afro-Brazilian culture as she discovered exactly what it meant to her and her life experience. When she became more heavily involved and began to spend a lot of time at the academy, Leti’s classmates perceived these differences and made choices about inviting her to events based upon what they imagined her availability and disposition to go out would be after first taking into consideration her Capoeira class schedule. Eventually, her commitment to the academy appeared so serious that no one assumed she would, nor did they ask her to, place any social activity before it. Disappointments in New Discoveries Leti’s investments in her Capoeira academy local community and the AfroBrazilian Culture and History classroom community continually increased. As did her understanding of other facets of her experience in Salvador. This deepening of knowledge and additional experience contributed to diminished investments when her initial assumptions about Brazil were challenged and she began to less strongly identify with what she previously adored. For example, over time, the initial thrill she felt arriving in a city where, finally, she was surrounded by people who looked like her was replaced with more critical observations of the interrelatedness of race and class-based oppression, along with her feelings of confusion over the level of discomfort with blackness she witnessed in such a black place: Leti (from Week 1 Journal) I noticed that the majority of character representation in the media is racially white or of some European descent, which I am not sure if that represents the rest of Brazil well but it most certainly does not reflect the demographic in Salvador. [. . .]

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

136

Leti’s Story The interesting thing about family placement is that we are placed with well off family that are mostly white, while the rest of the city is mostly mixed raced and black. I was immediately aware, after the lunch at Hotel Tropical, of a disparity of race and social ranking. It is different for me in the sense that I have always grown up with the association of a white majority, which also had a majority of the wealth. Here the majority of the population is black but the true wealth of the city (which our tour guide F__ said when they are very wealthy they are “invisible”) lies in that elite few population of whites in Salvador. Leti (from Week 2 Journal) I previously thought Brasilians would have developed advanced systems of haircare because of the high percentage of Blacks. . .disconfirmed.

Leti’s observations of different manifestations of racism in Brazil disconcerted her and challenged her assumptions about the appearance and reality of life in a majority-black city. Her joy to arrive in Salvador and observe so many blacks and other people who looked like her was immediately dampened when she noticed that the demographics on the street were not the same as represented on film and television, billboard advertisements, magazines, and other media. As could be imagined by their exclusion from media, Leti discovered that blacks were also socioeconomically and geographically marginalized in that, even though they composed the overwhelming majority of Salvador’s population, they were nearly absent among elite social classes and neighborhoods (when not in roles of service). The rank racism and hostility against the city’s racial and cultural majority population was also made apparent in Leti’s adventures in hair care, or, more specifically, her quest to find hairstyling genius akin to the Dominican blowout, a blow-dry-based hair straightening technique perfected and made famous by Dominican-owned salons across the eastern United States. Her observation that her tightly curled hair texture was common in Salvador led Leti to rightfully assume that she could easily find places and people who could care for it. However, she also imagined that the hair care products and practices in Salvador would be similar to or even better than in the United States and was sorely disappointed when that was not the case. The scholarship on black women and hair is extensive, and I recommend Rooks (1996), Banks (2000), Caldwell (2004), and Jacobs-Huey (2006) as excellent primers to learn about what can be summarized in stating that black women have been othered, dehumanized, and defeminized through our hair—a reliable source of gendered racism. Consequently, how black women feel about and negotiate social practices surrounding hair significantly influence our well-being, our racialized and gender self-image, and, in general, our experience of the world. The three female study participants demonstrated the critical importance of hair and hair care practices by, immediately upon arriving in Brazil,

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti’s Story

137

learning local terms for products, styles, procedures, and seeking them out. Nina found her solution in that her middle-class, Afro-Brazilian host mother had an independent stylist who visited her home to provide chemical and heat-based hair straightening and nail care for the woman and her daughters. Rose felt uncomfortable with the multitextured state of her hair, which she had stopped chemically straightening right before arriving in Salvador. As I will describe in Chapter 7, she angered the program leadership and her host mother when she disappeared for an all-day (and night) sojourn into a working-class black neighborhood to get braided extensions. Leti, on the other hand, struggled throughout the period she was in Salvador to find the perfect solution for her hair care needs. At first, she excitedly visited different salons and beauty supply stores, eager to discover miraculous and cutting-edge techniques that would nurture and straighten her curls. She found that, although Brazilians were as averse to kinky-curly hair as Americans and Dominicans, no major technological investments were made to create straightening and styling products exclusively for Afro-Brazilian women, who outnumbered all others, but did not hold the symbolic nor economic power to warrant dedicated market attention. The chemical relaxers and styling products Leti found were expensive and not as effective as those in the United States, and few salons took the time to roller-set hair and sit clients under hooded dryers, which Leti preferred for a less damaging and longer-lasting style. And nobody could do a decent Dominican blowout, which was a combination of a roller-set and blow-drying with moisturerepelling, silicone-based potions. The most common approach Brazilians employed to straighten Afrotextured hair as Leti desired was to scorch and drag it into limp and broken-ended submission with handheld dryers and a hard circular brush, while the hair was still fragile and dripping wet from washing. To add insult to frustratingly expensive injury, all the straightening efforts typically began to be undermined as soon as she walked out of the salon into the ubiquitous rain and humid sea breeze. These differences greatly frustrated Leti, whose initial fantasies about a Brazilian hair care paradise mirrored those held by black women in the United States where we see media images of darkskinned mulata beauties with wavy waist-length tresses and imagine they must use some magical hair conk. The disappointment with not being able to find a solution that perfectly satisfied her styling needs contributed to a certain deflation in Leti’s initial imaginings of Salvador as a black paradise and diminished her investment in this particular aspect of the practices of the local community.

Part II—The Beauty of Preta and Bunda In the two previous case studies, we saw how the salience and indexicality of race in this Afro-Brazilian study abroad program environment highlighted blackness in Nina and Didier’s participation in transformative socialization.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

138

Leti’s Story

Figure 6.2 Slide image all were viewing during episode on the page that follows (Title: 1974 —The Carnival Performance Group Ilê Ayê is founded in the Liberdade neighborhood)

Such was also the case with Leti as she negotiated self-reference and representation when shaping her new Portuguese-speaking identity. She gained new and more positive understandings of blackness through active participation within local communities in Salvador, and she eagerly demonstrated them to others in her classroom communities. Leti showed how she drew from resources in both her background and new understandings as she learned to speak blackness in Brazil navigating within their unique study abroad context and multiple translanguaging spaces. In the episode that will be subsequently described, which took place in the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History classroom, the instructor lectures on samba music traditions in Salvador and pauses to show the image in Figure 6.2. He describes the ideas and contributions of the cultural, social, and political organization Ilê Ayê, where Leti volunteers, teaching English to children. The episode begins as the instructor explains that a primary goal of Ilê Ayê is to promote the positive affirmation of blackness and the valorization of black aesthetics. To this end, the organization founders and participants base artistic creations and endeavors upon Afro-Brazilian religious

Leti’s Story

139

traditions, ancestral mythology, and cultural resistance. Leti then interjects her personal knowledge of other Ilê Ayê Afro-centric activities: 01

Leti:

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

02 03 04

T:

05 06 07

Leti:

08

Uju:

09

Leti:

10

T:

11

Leti:

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Leti: T:

20 21 22

Ss: Leti:

eles ensinam as uhm os niños8 they teach the uhm the children de comunidade iorubá of the community Yoruba a língua de iorubá the Yoruba language também também also also eles têm uma they have a um programa forte de educação they have a strong education program sim yes (3.0) você trabalha no Ilê Ayê não trabalha? you work at Ilê Ayê don’t you? ((smiles, pointing to image on screen)) sim isso eles sãoyes that they are((smiling)) ah cê trabalha lá é? ah you work there eh? ((smiling)) sim ensinamos inglês lá yes we teach English there eles sempre estão refethey are always referuhm eles sempre dizem uhm they always say isto es9 professores ah pretas this is teachers ah black vocês são you all are é sempre querem dizer que vocêit is always they say that you ((LOUD NOISE heard from computer display speaker in front of room)) ((jerks torso back in surprise, laughs)) perdão sorry ((laughing)) ((giggling)) eles querem enfatizar que they want to emphasize that

140 23 24

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

25

26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46

Leti’s Story Leti:

todos os niños uh os meninos all the children uh the children ainda quando (.) ah sejam even when (.) ah they be ((rubbing right index finger back and forth on back of left hand)) uh muitos claros? uh very light? que são negros that they are black Leti: e que são eh and that they are eh eu acho isso é muito diferente I think this is very different porque nos Estados Unidos because in the United States você sempre disse you always said eu tenho sixteenth white I have sixteenth white e sempre você quer dizer and always you want to say que você tem de branco what you have of white T: mmm hmm Leti: ou de estrangeiro or of foreigner mas não você não quer dizer but no you do not want to say I have one sixteenth black T: mmm hmm Leti: então aqui é diferente dizer com orgulho so here it is different to say with pride que você tem negro (.) africano that you have black (.) African eu acho muito bonito I think very beautiful T: isso porque os umm this is because the umm os diretores do Ilê Ayê (.) os coordenadores the directors of Ilê Ayê (.) the coordinators todos fazem parte do movimento negro all are part of the black movement T: então eles tentam so they try passar também essa questão política to communicate also that political issue

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti’s Story 47

Leti:

48

T:

49

Leti:

50

T:

51

T:

52 53

Leti:

141

sim yes em que eles se orgulham in that they take pride sim yes certo? right? da cor que têm in the color that they have e da origem deles and in their origin SIM YES

Leti interrupts the instructor’s description of Ilê Ayê to add what she also knows about how they promote blackness, specifically that they teach Yoruba language to children they serve in the black working-class Liberdade neighborhood where the organization’s headquarters are located. The teacher assents this fact, adding that the group’s educational program is quite strong (lines 1–7). After a long pause, I enter the conversation by asking Leti to confirm my knowledge that, indeed, she worked at Ilê (line 8). She does, and the instructor, who was not aware of her personal contact with the group, smiles and asks her if that was really the case (line 10). Leti smiles in response to the teacher’s positive receipt of the news of her connection with Ilê and accepts this invitation for her to explain in greater detail what she does and what more she knows. She goes on to describe her duties teaching English at Ilê, and she specifically calls attention to the fact that the organization’s leadership always emphasizes to the children that their teachers are pretas, a Portuguese word meaning “black females/women,” and always insists that the children in their program see themselves as black, no matter how light skinned they are (lines 11–26). Leti observes how this view differs from the United States where one would typically go out of the way to emphasize the smallest drop of white or “foreign” (white) blood while uneager to do the same about an equally negligible black lineage. She notes that she finds it very beautiful that within the Ilê community, one acknowledges black and African heritage with pride (lines 28–41). From what I noted and discussed with Leti about her family background and attitudes on race, her observation that in the United States, most blacks would bend over backward to acknowledge their white heritage, while at the same time denying black blood, seems more typical of a specifically Dominican-influenced experience. Such a view contradicts the “one-drop” rule of blackness commonly adhered to by African Americans (which itself comes from a racist legacy promoting white supremacy through the societal, legal, and institutional exclusion of as many people as possible who may use

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

142

Leti’s Story

blood kinship to make claims to sovereign personhood and natural rights). Thus, with regard to experiences and attitudes on blackness, Leti contrasts a negative assessment of her Dominican family/ethnic background against a more favorable view of the ethno-racial languaging and cultural practices at Ilê Ayê. The instructor agrees with Leti’s analysis of these differences through his verbal assents of “mmm hmm” (lines 34, 38) and reiterates to Leti and the rest of the class the fact that Ilê’s practices are born of a political commitment to the black movement and pride in their cultural and ethno-racial heritage, to which she responds a loud and hearty “YES.” The episode described earlier demonstrates how, when learning to speak blackness in Brazil through participation within multiple classroom and local communities, Leti drew from her experiences in different cultures from which she gained different understandings of blackness, especially with regard to the acceptability of words like preta or negro. Like the other study participants, Leti was already familiar with the terms used to describe blackness in the English language and the U.S. cultural context. However, her ethnic background availed her to additional linguistic and sociocultural filters through which these Brazilian race categorization practices had to pass. When she learned that black in Portuguese meant negro, she already knew the same word from Spanish—charged with all its (arguably racist) Dominican sociocultural significance and associations. Therefore, her task of learning the practices in speaking blackness in Brazil also involved negotiating how these practices compared with her prior notions of very similar or identical words. Take, for example, the word preta (black female). Based on how her experiences within local communities contributed to new understandings and black pride, Leti heartily embraced and even took pleasure in being called pretinha, an endearingly diminutive form of preta, meaning “little black girl.” However, she did not particularly favor negrita,10 its Spanish language equivalent: (From Week 10 group interview) LETI:

ROSE: LETI: DIDIER: LETI: DIDIER: ROSE: DIDIER:

I can, I think, I think the highest compliment I received was last week in Lençóis11 when an attractive black man called me pretinha. And I was super excited because like the, it was like, top Pretinha? Like little black girl. Isn’t it, in Spanish isn’t it like negrita? Yeah, negrita. But it just didn’t have, for some reason here it didn’t have the same, you know Yeah. Ah, New York. Did you see I love New York12? She went off on that man, he said, he called her Because he said my little black girl.

Leti’s Story

143

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

ROSE:

He said my little negrita and she said OH HELL NO, YOU THIS THIS THIS AND THIS LETI: I feel like even in Spanish, like I know Dominicans don’t NINA: But she doesn’t count because she’s DIDIER: Ridiculous NINA: Fu::::cking ridiculous. LETI, DIDIER, ROSE: [LAUGH] NINA: She brings down the black race all the way ROSE: Well yeah, but it, but she took a lot of emotions, she just took emotions that like, most black women have and amplified it, that’s all. Because most women would, negrita? What the? What? And she just, you know, because she’s New York, decided to take it there. Like the previous classroom episode, the study participant group interview excerpt shows the influence of different linguistic and sociocultural filters through which Leti’s discursive practices of racial self-reference and representation pass and the different resources from which she draws to speak blackness in Brazil. She recounts to her friends how delighted she was to have been called pretinha, especially as the word was a flirtatious term of endearment from an attractive Afro-Brazilian man (the sort with whom she had been having very positive experiences of ethno-racial, cultural, and sexual affirmation that I will discuss later in this chapter). Didier, who knows a little bit of Spanish, hones in on one of these filters by reminding her of the synonym negrita, which Leti acknowledges, but believes is “somehow different” from pretinha. Rose introduces another sociocultural and linguistic filter through the idea of how negatively a black American woman would react to being called negrita, which in English is both ugly in its phonetic proximity to “nigger” and connotes insulting dismissiveness when said to an adult. The fact that Leti does not embrace being called “little black girl” in Spanish and English in the same way that she has done in Portuguese signals serious work being done in translanguaging space and how learning new practices in an additional language is inextricably linked with one’s history, background, experiences, and all the social and linguistic resources available to our individual repertoires. As I discussed earlier in the chapter, despite her mother’s efforts to the contrary, Leti had been previously socialized through her experiences with Dominican and U.S. racism to view blackness negatively or with ambivalence. Eventually, through her ethno-racially affirming participation in the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History classroom, as well as the Capoeira academy and Ilê Ayê cultural organization communities, she had begun to view blackness much more favorably and also to take pride in her representation of it. We construct our sense of self through language while

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

144

Leti’s Story

defining and positioning these subjectivities in relation to other people. Thus, Leti was paying very close attention to—and really enjoying—how her blackness was named in Portuguese by black people with whom she positively identified. She engaged in transformative socialization within the contexts and discourses of translanguaging spaces, reimagining herself and her blackness and shaping a new communicative identity in Portuguese. In this process, she incorporated new languaging practices from people and experiences she favored into new understandings and expressions of self-acceptance. Leti’s enjoyment in assuming terms such as pretinha had a lot to do with how well she was received and how positively she was made to feel within local communities like Ilê Ayê. It also had more than a little to do with the sort of people who typically called her pretinha, especially the very desirable men who used the term in flirtatious endearment while showering her with unabashed physical admiration and sexual attention: (From Week 10 interview) UJU:

So your two big conduits to blackness in Salvador was Capoeira and [Afro-Brazilian Culture and History course instructor]’s class, is that right? LETI: Yeah, and I would also say Ilê Ayê, because they are militant about liking black people. They even call me preta, which is so great. I know like, it’s really offensive, I know like if you look at it from like an academic perspective to call people by their color, hey whitey, blackie, little blackie, little black girlie, you know like, it’s offensive, sort of UJU: But not here [in Brazil], I mean LETI: And then doing your volunteering, and somebody says like, pretinha, you’re sort of flattered like, I know, I’m like, your little preta. [GIGGLE] It’s sort of like flattering. And even like, within the Capoeira circle, it’s kind of nice to see like the blackest guys are the ones who are like, the ones you should be like, sort of after, and then like, it sort of peters out as you get sort of lighter colored. UJU: [LAUGH] LETI: You know, it’s like, finally! Even though she found a similar reference in English and Spanish to be problematic, Leti’s recognition and embrace of the word pretinha within the context of endearment and sexual flirtation that it was undoubtedly used is no coincidence, given the history of such terms and their use in the Portuguese language and Brazilian society. Embedded within the country’s legacy of human enslavement was also the accompanying sexual abuse and concubinage to which white male captors subjected their black female chattel. The terms, minha (my) negra/nega/neguinha/preta/pretinha in Brazil originated (see dos Santos & Ribeiro, 2010 for etymology) from the history of black women being owned and maintained in sexual servitude or casually

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti’s Story

145

assumed as freely available in plantation households or fields for white captors, patrons, staff, and all these men’s sons to rape. Today, such connotations of abuse and violation are no longer associated with words like pretinha or neguinha, but they are still often invoked in racist derision (Caldwell, 2004). Additionally, they are very commonly used as terms of endearment and tenderness toward a friend, a cherished girl, or woman, and, within the context of sexual flirtations and relations, a pet name one would call a girlfriend, lover, or wife.13 Leti’s expressed flattery in being called pretinha by good-looking black men was related to her feelings of belonging and positive identification within Afro-Brazilian communities. She accepted this discursive reference because of her excitement in being singled out as attractive and valued for racialized aspects of her identities that had previously been a source of anxiety and insecurity. She also delighted in witnessing others, whose blackness would not be viewed as favorably in different contexts, get the same attention. I observed with particular interest throughout her time in Salvador Leti’s racialized experiences related to sexual attention, body image, and how she gained new understandings about gendered identities and blackness in Brazil. Prior to the beginning of the following episode, which took place in the AfroBrazilian Culture and History classroom, the instructor explains the artistic inspirations of a black Brazilian band with a picture image of the front cover of the group’s first album projected on the board. This image is of a woman’s painted naked breasts, and when some students begin to giggle, the instructor notices that his hand is placed right on top of the left nipple as if caressing it. To the sound of increased laughter, he moves his hand very quickly to the side of the picture, bows, and shakes his head side to side in a quick laugh. He then raises his head, looks back toward the students, and says that, since they were Americans, he imagined that the students were shocked by the image

Figure 6.3 Instructor discussing a music group with image of its first album cover

146

Leti’s Story

and would probably never see something like that on a music album cover in the United States. The instructor then continued with his lecture: 01

T:

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09

T:

10 11

T:

12 13 14 15 16 17

Ss: T:

18 19 20

Ss: T: T:

21

Leti:

22 23

então (.) a Timbalada14 também seguindo so then (.) Timbalada also following né? sob a direção de Carlinhos Brown right? under the direction of Carlinhos Brown também seguindo (1.0) essa tendência mercadológica also following (1.0) this market tendency e de globalização da música and of globalization of the music que começou com Olodum15 that began with Olodum essa globalização this globalization essa internacionalização da música baiana this internationalization of Bahian music vindo atrás do Olodum coming after Olodum veio a Timbalada came Timbalada seguindo essa tendência following this tendency vamos (.) na mentalidade do Carlinhos Brown let’s (.) in the mentality of Carlinhos Brown vamos ah internacionalizar a nossa música let’s ah internationalize our music a começar pelo sobrenome de Carlinhos starting with Carlinhos’ last name que é? which is? Brown Brown que é inspirado em? which is inspired by? James Brown James Brown que ele adora (.) ele adora whom he adores (.) he adores (1.0) mas também ahm but also ahm como ahm Professor Ari Lima estava falando no seu artigo like ahm Professor Ari Lima was saying in his article é como a sensualização das pessoas também it is like the sensualization of people too

Leti’s Story 24

T:

25

Leti:

26

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

27

28 29

30 31 32 33 34 35 36

Leti:

147

também as well ele está procura propagando he is seeks propagating uma imagem de as pessoas negras como peitos an image of black people as breasts ((motions twice to own chest with right hand in cupping formation)) uma mulher nu a nude woman é a música samba is samba music então ((raises and moves both hands side to side)) tem dos uh dois lados? so there are two uh two sides? porque uma parte because one side você pode escutar música you can listen to music e o imagem chocante chocante shocking? and the shocking shocking mas também é a mesma eh assunto de but also it is the same issue of propagar o imagem de as mulheres propagating the image of women [((touching chest with both hands in cupping formation)) a mulher como objeto (.) [sexual the woman as sexual (.) object

(lines 35–36) Leti touching her chest in cupping formation as she says “sexual”

148 37

Leti’s Story T:

38 39

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

40 41 42 43 44

Leti:

tem esse lado também there is that side as well e isso está claro aqui na primeira né? and this is clear here in the first right? capa de CD CD cover mas observem também que ele incorpora But observe as well that he incoroprates essas pinturas que lembram muito as pinturas tribais these paintings that recall a lot tribal paintings a Timbalada tem referência forte com com Timbalada has a strong reference with with a questão da arte tribal the issue of tribal art ((sighs heavily, rolls eyes, looks down toward her notebook))

After the disruption caused by the image and his unfortunate hand placement, the instructor continued describing the group Timbalada (whose album cover was the projected image), their leader Carlinhos Brown’s local and international artistic inspirations, and his project to make their music known throughout the world (lines 1–20). During a pause between ideas, Leti interjects an observation. In her view, along with the group’s artistic ambitions, they were also promoting the “sensualization” (line 23) of blacks through the appropriation of a black woman’s naked breasts for titillating and sensationalist purposes. She goes on to say that, on one hand, one may listen to the music and view the shocking album cover; however, on the other hand, there was an underlying propagation of the ubiquitous image of women as sexual objects (lines 28–36). For this final utterance of “sexual (.) object” on line 36, Leti provides gestural emphasis and punctuation by touching her breasts with both hands in a cupped formation, referring to both herself and her body as a woman with potential quarrel against being objectified. Through her marked intonational rise in during two key utterances “there are two uh two sides?” and “shocking?” (lines 29, 32), Leti signals a certain questioning and, possibly, the desire for more discussion, refutation, debate, or continuation of the topic. Timbalada’s music and art certainly represented their value and promotion of Afro-Brazilian culture; however, Leti indicates the need to address more satisfactorily what she perceives as the group’s sexual objectification of women. Nevertheless, the instructor simply agrees with her that “there is that side as well” and it is clear on the cover art (lines 37–39), but does not engage the subject much further and goes on immediately to mention that there is also a strong influence of tribal art in the group’s influences. Leti responds to this abrupt change of topic by sighing heavily, rolling her eyes, and looking down toward her notebook (line 44), signaling her dissatisfaction with how incompletely the matter that she raised was addressed.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti’s Story

149

Further evidence of the interconnecting complexities of the enactment of multiple aspects of Leti’s identities can be seen through the examination of other intersectional ways race and gender were negotiated through her participation in local communities wherein exceptional feelings of affirmation and identification contributed to a more positive self-concept. Leti learned significant new practices in speaking beauty to her black womanhood in Brazil, and one notable example involved the term bunda. As I discussed previously, Leti was the only study participant who knew little about AfroBrazilian culture and nothing of the racial demographics of Salvador, and, unlike the other three participants, she did not travel there expressly desiring any sort of Afro-Brazilian experience. Nevertheless, such an experience still occurred, and Leti’s ability to “blend in” phenotypically with the local population pleased her tremendously. The affinity, identification, and sense of belonging she experienced in Salvador was quite different from her previous anxiety as one of a few black students at the public and private schools she attended in the United States and the physical unattractiveness she felt when compared with her mostly white and Asian girlfriends. Leti (from Week 10 Interview) It’s interesting because there’s so many people who like claim like, you’ll see somebody black as midnight be like I have a German uncle or something. You know like, just keep that under wraps, because it’s not showing up. But you’ll never be like my great-great-grandfather was from, you know, Nigeria, you know like, nobody wants to claim like I’m black. You always wanna claim that one tiny drop, that little squeeze of whiteness. And it’s just, here [in Salvador] I just don’t feel that way. Like, you know it’s like so obvious that I’m black, and like I don’t have to explain myself, it’s just who I am. It’s really refreshing. [. . .] you know, like I don’t have to feel like I have to justify. Along with not having to justify her racial identity while in Salvador, Leti happily learned that, in Brazil, a stereotypically and identifiably African aspect of her figure—her ample backside—was considered the most desirable physical endowment a woman could have. Brazilians place a high premium on a curvy bunda (the Bantu-derived term describing one’s rear end), and Leti received a lot of playfully flirtatious male attention for hers. During the previously described classroom episode, the album cover image of a woman’s naked breasts elicited her terse observation of the sexual objectification of black women. However, Leti did not display such discomfort when she reported feeling affirmed through the male gaze and sexual attention she received for the beauty of features she had previously been ashamed of. On the contrary, she attributed the attention to one of the reasons why she learned in Salvador to feel more at ease with her body and, by extension, her blackness.

150

Leti’s Story Leti (from Week 10 Interview)

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

I’ve never felt comfortable ever, ever showing my bunda ever! I always tucked it in. When I took ballet class, I took ballet class for like 15 minutes, and they always told me tuck it in, tuck it in, even to a point where they get frustrated at me, because I had such a big butt. Here [in Salvador] it’s just, you know, I was comfortable with just, my hair, my butt, my skin color, you know, me as a person. Such expressions of positive ethno-racial affirmation are a stark contrast to the experience of Misheila, the only black participant of the Segovia study abroad program investigated by Talburt and Stewart (1999). In a majority Afro-Brazilian city, Leti felt “comfortable” with herself, partly because she looked like many people around her, and she experienced racialized validation she had hitherto not known. In a majority-white Spanish city, Misheila also received considerable attention from men in the local community for her distinctly “black” features of dark skin and (what they considered) exotic looks. However, this attention was racially abusive and harassing— unlike the advances her white female counterparts received—and Misheila felt threatened by men who aggressively approached and walked closely beside her on the streets, whispering obscenities and asking for sex. Leti’s positive identification with members of the local community led her to seek out opportunities to interact with them. At the Capoeira academy where she spent three hours daily, she met and romanced an Afro-Brazilian, who was the first black man she had ever dated. She also volunteered weekly, teaching English to black children and adolescents at Ilê Ayê, and tremendously enjoyed and constantly sought similarly intensive and intimate contact with these communities. By contrast, the aversion provoked by Misheila’s racist experiences with members of her study abroad program’s local community led her to limit contact with Spaniards. It also adversely affected her relationship with others in her program cohort who accused her of being “overly sensitive” and “not understanding local culture” when she made them uncomfortable by discussing racism and racialized sexual harassment during class. Thus, through the very different experiences of these two study abroad participants, we see how the enactment of racialized identities—especially in situations where these are either affirmed or overtly degraded—can considerably influence black students’ investments in the practices of different communities, thus critically contributing to circumstances that may or may not lead to success in learning a new language.

Part III—Dating and Domestic Service Leti learned and grew a lot in new understandings and practices of speaking blackness in Brazil, and she adored the connections she made between her Afro-Brazilian Culture and History course and her experiences navigating

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti’s Story

151

within multiple communities in Salvador. Nevertheless, she was most invested and enjoyed best her participation in the Brazilian Literature classroom community. Both her undergraduate major and the focus of her MA program were comparative studies in Romance language literatures; therefore, the course’s subject matter was of tremendous interest to Leti. Additionally, the instructor gave the students much freedom in the ideas they could explore during classroom discussions and in their writing. This allowed Leti to choose topics of analysis that were most relevant to her personal experience through which I observed the intimate engagement of her background and the negotiation of multiple aspects of her identities. For example, Leti wrote one of her essays in this course about a documentary film, Edifício Master, which featured the stories of the mostly lower middle and working-class residents of an enormous, once elegant, but now dilapidated and crime-ridden, apartment building in the Copacabana neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. Of the thirty-seven individuals interviewed in the film, Leti most identified with the doorman and the building superintendent. Their stories recalled the thirty years her father spent doing similar work serving as the invisible hand few residents included in their daily thoughts, yet from whose presence they all directly benefited. Excerpted below is Leti’s explanation for why she devoted so much thought, class discussion, and three pages of writing in Portuguese to these two individuals. This explanation is followed by a key passage from her essay: Leti (from Week 10 Interview) I talked about the doorman. And so, I, in the discussion I had, I talked about how the doorman was, it’s interesting that he was included, because he’s sort of kind of the maintenance guy, and you never think about the person who opens the door for you, someone you see every single day. The síndico,16 who is the person who like, just keeps the building happening. And so it was an interesting juxtaposition between people who actually lived in the building and the person who actually saw everyone who came in and came out. Leti (from Brazilian Literature Class Essay)

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

152

Leti’s Story

17

[The] story of the doorman Luis was interesting because he was one of two [building] employees that were interviewed, the other was the superintendent Sergio. Sergio brought an important perspective in order to understand the environment of the residence during different periods. He spoke of the difficulties that he faced when the building was still a place for prostitutes and dangerous people. In order to change the social climate Sergio physically was responsible in order to expel people. The residents of the building recognized the hard and difficult job that Sergio had to suffer in order to better the situation in the building. Again represents the background level with regard to the maintenance of the building. Luis exemplifies above all that sense of the character in the background [Spanish] that calmly exists with an omnipresence. Apart from being doorman the director reveals a side of humanity to this ambiguous person. Certainly everyone knows their doorman as a person who looks at the gate to open in the exact moment and it can be that a resident of the building speaks superficially with their doorman offring always a “good morning” or “good night”. But the residents do not

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti’s Story

153

occupy themselves with what our that doorman returns home during the nights or what situation the doorman has to face in order to care for the home. The testimony of Luis of18 dimension not only to him, but also to all workers without a story who are the infrastructure of a place, but are not ever given the attention they deserve for their tasks. The director of the film begins with the story of Luis he admits that he is adopted, his father died and now he visits his mother every week. After speaking a little about the situation that he has with his family Luis said that he thinks that his adopted father the same as his biological father, that is, that his father did not adopt him because he was so similar to him that Luis hoped that his mother would tell him before dying that he was not from another father. The hope is interesting especially for a person of a certain age. Luis is not a young man so in order to have fear of asking his mother seemed strange. In addition Luis’s father did not have a motive to not admit his biological concession to his son. On the level of the paternal situation of Luis, it is interesting to perceive his desires to find a blood connection with his father as a way to validate his existence. Even so, Luis tells of a mother [Spanish] that he found with a baby just born and when she lefft, she was without child. The doorman climbed the strrs and looked for the baby and he said that it affected him a lot to see the baby abandoned in the corridor. The story of the abandoned baby that fit perfectly, almost of too much coincidence, with the reality of the doorman. The theme about which the doorman speaks seems to have a text of film and cultivates a poetic parallelism between the abandoned baby and the doorman who exists almost as a ghost in the corridors of the building. In other words the conversation that the doorman proposes [Spanish] of the baby is a manifestation of his preoccupations about being an adopted child. His work of doorman (reflect) [English] too the aspect of being invisible of the doorman. Leti’s interest in and personal identification with the film’s depiction of the lives of the building superintendent and doorman identities yielded penetrating, imaginative analysis, for which her literature course instructor gave her an extremely positive response filled with effusive praise. The most important aspect of class identities and positioning within socioeconomic and cultural hierarchies are our practices and expressions of those positions, or how we relate to and are viewed by others in social roles and action (Connell, 1982, 1987; Bottero, 2004). Leti’s intimate familiarity with her working-man father’s life facilitated her ability to astutely highlight the seemingly contradictory states of “omnipresence” and “invisibility,” which characterize the wide-ranging critical services provided by apartment

154

Leti’s Story

building supervision, security, and maintenance workers, juxtaposed with how little attention and regard these individuals typically receive from the beneficiaries of their labor:

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti (from Week 10 Interview) So, that one, I really, that doorman was very, it was, it had a huge impact on me, just because my father worked as a superintendent for so long. And you just, all you ever see is like, the happiness and the joy, but there’s just like this one time that you get to be filmed, and it’s like this 15 minutes of fame for everybody in the building. Like, how many people are gonna watch this movie? Eh, who knows! And the people who are gonna, like, nobody in that film is gonna get famous. It’s the director who’s gonna be like such a genius for being so nuanced in his approach. But, you know, for these like 15 minutes, these people were able to share who they were. And even if they lied about some things, like we all do sometimes in conversation, to make something funnier, to make yourself look more interesting, it was this one time where you were able to like, express who you were and I found that fascinating. In both the essay and Leti’s interview description of what moved her to write it, she draws from her background and social class identity to comment on the human desire to be seen and have one’s existence validated by others. Leti notes that it is most common for us to recognize the presence, work, and participation of those in positions of power and social privilege, as in the case of the film’s director, who undoubtedly would receive all accolades and notoriety from work detailing the achievements and experiences of almost forty other individuals relegated to the anonymity and disregard typically reserved for those whom we rank among the lowly bred and insignificant. The conditions of social class periphery that Leti discussed in her essay were highly relevant to her background, and her arguments about the film conveyed analytic clarity and assuredness born of such personal significance. Within the translanguaging space of written discourse, Leti’s knowledge and lived realities are key parts of her experiential and linguistic repertoires from which she pulls insight and resources that contribute to the work she does making meaning and giving voice to her ideas in Portuguese. Among the nearly forty different characters presented in the film, she chose the two most like her father, who labored for thirty years as a

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti’s Story

155

building supervision and maintenance worker providing necessary services for residents who scarcely noticed or pondered his existence beyond the moments when they required some task be completed. In the essay, she discusses how the doorman’s experience “gives dimension,” or, in other words, lends life and meaning, to both this individual and other unseen and unsung workers like her father. Leti’s identification with these workers’ circumstances can be seen in how she linguistically confers to them the significance denied by others who merely pass them by. She uses the word “infrastructure” to describe the workers themselves without distinguishing between their persons and their invisible labor that maintains the edifices and material conditions of living. She likens the doorman’s musings about being an adopted child to his quest for personal validation, attention, and acknowledgment beyond the ubiquitous “good morning” and “good night” that “a resident of the building speaks superficially” without bothering much more about the details or significance of the service person’s life. Leti is keenly aware of circumstances and attitudes related to social class identities, social hierarchies, and the symbolic and material separation of different groups of people in Salvador. It is clear from her writings that this interest and careful attention to such aspects of the local community arose from her personal background and familiarity with working-class individuals and those in positions of service. When she arrived in Salvador, Leti discovered that the mostly white, middle- and upper-class Brazilian families that hosted the study abroad program participants all employed at least one black female domestic servant or empregada, who either came daily or lived in residence to clean, cook, launder clothes, and care for young children. Sometimes the families employed various maids, each dedicated exclusively to one of those duties, and in the case of the wealthier families with multiple cars and extensive grounds, male domestic workers also served as drivers and groundskeepers. In her attempts to understand this system, Leti compared it to similar situations she had also observed in her personal background and in places where she previously lived. She particularly struggled to comprehend why all the apartment buildings, along with the individual residences within them, had a separate entrance specifically for service staff. Furthermore, the service entrance into a home led directly into the back kitchen and laundry area, where the maid primarily stayed and performed her duties out of the sight of residents and their guests. Leti wondered what messages this separation and other common manifestations of the low status of the empregadas

156

Leti’s Story

communicated regarding how one was expected to treat them, speak and interact with them:

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti (from Week 2 Journal)

The Portuguese word empregada literally means “employed,” and in its singular and plural masculine forms, empregado/empregados, it can also mean “employee” in any type of work. However, when used as a noun

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti’s Story

157

in the feminine, empregada unequivocally translates as “housemaid” and typically one who cleans, cooks, and or washes clothes. An empregada who primarily cares for children is called babá, meaning “nanny” or “babysitter,” and she enjoys a moderately higher status than other servants who do dirtier and more strenuous work. Additionally, in Salvador, empregadas are usually darker-skinned black women. In Leti’s experience while in the city, all those she met were black. The title of Leti’s journal entry “Empregadas or Step-Away-from-Escravizadas19?” signals her discomfort with racialized social class stratification in her host residence and Brazilian family. She relates the empregadas’ low status to something more like being enslaved than employed and later explicitly draws this parallel by directly comparing the situation to life in a plantation house. Leti recalls from her background and previous experience other familiar forms of the architectural representation and facilitation of social hierarchies, such as the older residence halls at Geisel College bearing the history of a not very distant past when dormitories were segregated by income level, and the valets of very wealthy students served them on campus while occupying small rooms adjacent to their moneyed charges’ spacious suites. While describing the nature of her Brazilian household’s interactions with the empregada—and by extension, how she too was expected to engage with the maid—Leti once again highlights the invisibility of the service worker. She describes how chores are left overnight to be taken care of in the morning by the maid’s unseen and rarely contemplated hands and how one would “have a chat,” or in other words, dress down, this maid when tasks are not performed satisfactorily. Leti also notes and is uncomfortable that the empregada, who “doesn’t eat with you and she sort of exists quietly in the background,” does not freely interact with her and the rest of the family. Leti concludes, “A job is a job,” perhaps to ease her discomfort, powerlessness, and sense of complicity as a critical but privileged outsider who benefits from this unjust social system. Her rationalization implies relief in that, however inequitable these conditions and relations may be, at least the empregada is monetarily compensated for her position. The existence and use of a separate entrance, nevertheless, still confounds Leti—defying her ability to place it in a facile or positive frame. The enactment and negotiation of Leti’s social classed identities was also apparent in her flirtations and other romantic interactions with the many men who showed interest in her, and she demonstrated her awareness of the dynamics of differentiated positionings within hierarchies, income disparities, social, and cultural capital that separated her from these men. The city of Salvador is primarily a tourist destination, which annually hosts hundreds of thousands of domestic and international visitors. Along with touring the cultural attractions, these vacationers engage in varied kinds of sexual tourism, ranging from casual dalliances and sundry romance, to prostitution, trafficking, and abuse. Locals who become romantically and sexually involved with visitors vary in motive, desire, circumstance, choice,

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

158

Leti’s Story

and personal agency. Some are stereotyped as “professional” papa-gringo/a, which literally means “eater20 or consumer of foreigners,” as they seem to specialize in romance with European or American tourists to make international connections, date and have sex with different types of people, participate in the hedonism and escapism of a tourist’s adventures and exoticized fantasies, share resources and social cache, fall in lust/love, vary the routine of everyday life, escape poverty, obtain money, gain a contact for travel outside the country, or convince a foreigner to move to Brazil. Among the most renowned papa-gringas are Capoeira performers, who are typically black and represent the strapping Mandingo stereotype of impressive charm, physical beauty, athleticism, and sexual prowess. With infrequent mention of the ones who also or exclusively date men, the typical image of a Salvador Capoeira performer is one who serves as a warm welcome wagon for supposedly sex- and passion-starved women from cold places. Leti was very aware of and often joked about this popular image of “those Capoeira guys.” At the martial arts academy, she flirted with, dated, and befriended many, thus contributing to the following insight: Leti (from Week 4 Journal)

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti’s Story

159

Brazil, like the United States, is a patriarchal society where a man’s social prominence is related to his power and dominance of others, which is most commonly displayed through wealth, physical strength, and/or sexual conquest. In Leti’s heterosexual courtship interactions within local communities, she perceived a difference in how the Brazilian men she met seemed very eager to pair up with (foreign) women, in contrast to how men in another market of affection with which she was familiar, Geisel College, preferred to remain unattached. Definitions of success in both contexts still meant that the men had sex with many women—be they girlfriends, wives, hookups, or flings—thus the perception of male prowess remained a function of attractiveness to and sexual relations with women. Leti imagined that the Salvador men’s apparent eagerness to date foreign women primarily resulted from their poverty and economic powerlessness and desire to utilize their more dominant cultural and sexual resources for economic advancement in a quid pro quo exchange. Her awareness of the decidedly unromantic “trade-offs” implicit within lighthearted and pleasurable sexual relations was typical of the practicality with which Leti approached her many romances with the Afro-Brazilian men who eagerly pursued her, even while she remained awash in the deliria of newfound admiration and attention. In the following episode from a conversation between Leti, Nina, and me, which took place during a short break in a session of the Portuguese Language class, Leti demonstrates her romantic practicality and sensitivity to socioeconomic disparities in dating. The episode begins as the instructor leaves the classroom to make photocopies, and Leti and Nina ask me to help clarify the exercise they were supposed to be doing while he was away. As Leti and I are going over the work, Nina appears bored and decides to talk about something else— namely, the fact that they arranged dates with two men, although they had

Figure 6.4 Leti and Nina conversing with me (Uju), seated off camera

160

Leti’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

also previously made plans for the same day with the brother and cousin of my toddler son’s babysitter, to whom I had introduced them the prior weekend during a children’s theater performance at the local library. The reason they were telling me about this was that, until the day I arranged for the two couples to meet face-to-face at the library event, I had served on the phone as the primary intermediary between the women and their dates, and Nina was hoping that I would continue running this sort of interference: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Nina: we have two other dates on Thursday ((turns and looks at Leti then giggles, adjusting her hair)) Leti: ((looks up at Nina and then me, appearing confused)) what? Uju: ((off-camera during entire episode)) olha (.) você liga e cancela (.) estou fora look (.) you call and cancel (.) I am out Nina: ((looking at Uju, laughing)) Uju eu gastei onze reais21 em crédito de celular I spent eleven reais on cellphone credits Leti: ((looking at Uju, shocked expression)) onze reais? eleven reais? do you not have você não tem Vivo22? do you not have Vivo? Uju: não (.) eu tenho Oi23 no (.) I have Oi Leti: ((nods head down left toward Uju)) ah vê? precisamente ((smiles)) ah you see? precisely você tem queyou have toNina: you spent eleven reais talking to him? Uju: que foi? what was that? eu gastei onze reais conversando sobre isso I spent eleven reais conversing about this então vocês querem cancelar so if you all want to cancel vocês ligam e tratam vocês mesmas do assunto you all call and deal with the issue yourselves Nina: what was y’all talkin about for onze reais? Uju: não é mais meu problema it is no longer my problem vocês ligam e tratam disso you all call and deal with this Leti: ((looks at Nina and then at Uju))

Leti’s Story 25 26 27

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

28

161

tá bom (.) tá bom (.) tá bom (.) tá bom (.) obrigada okay (.) okay (.) okay (.) okay (.) thank you Nina: ((turns away from Leti toward Uju, giggles)) obrigada Uju thank you Uju Uju: de nada you’re welcome

In conversation, implicatures do the pragmatic work of providing evident and mutually understood—but not explicitly stated—meanings. I was the one who had thus far served as a go-between for Nina, Leti, and the two young black men whom I was aware they had arranged to see on Thursday. Furthermore, I was also aware of Nina’s reticence and intimidation when holding phone conversations with Brazilians. Therefore, Nina’s statement that she and Leti had two other dates on that same day communicated an implicit request for me to once again intercede on their behalf and cancel the previously arranged plans. I refused to follow the directive and insisted that both women do the calling themselves, citing the fact that I had already spent enough on costly interprovider cellular phone conversations with the men on their behalf (lines 1–23). However, my involvement did not end there, because I later remembered that a third young man, who was originally supposed to be one of the two to meet Leti and Nina at the library but sent a cousin in his stead, called as well wanting to know if he could be given a raincheck. 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42

Uju

ah (.) o outro ligou também ah (.) the other one called too Leti: ((looking at Uju)) excuse me? Uju: o outro ligou (.) o quethe other one called (.) the oneLeti: the one with two kids? ((rolling eyes)) Uju: ((laughing)) o que não tithe one who didn’t haLeti: ((rolling eyes)) obrigada (.) mas uhm (.) desCULpe thank you (.) but uhm (.) sOHrry Nina: ((looks at Uju, then at Leti, raises right palm up toward Let’s face)) >hol on hol on hol on< the kids are another part but que não tem dinheiro para ele? but who does not have money for him? Uju: ele recebeu o salário dele he received his salary

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

162

Leti’s Story

43

Leti:

44 45

Nina: Leti:

46 47

Nina: Leti:

48 49

Uju:

50

Uju:

51 52 53

Uju:

54

Nina:

55

Leti:

56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64

Nina:

Leti:

oh paraBÉNS (.) menino (.) paraBÉNS oh conGRATS (.) fella (.) conGRATS actually (.) that’s okay cuz sometimes dê comer a seus filhos give to eat to your children ((looking at Leti, laughs)) dê de comer a eles give them something to eat em vez de ((laughs)) encontrar mulheres instead of meeting women eu não tenho nada a ver com isso I have nothing to do with that ele me ligou he called me pediu desculpas por não poder sair apologized for not being able to go out e queria saber and wanted to know se tinha outra oportunidade para sair com vocês if there would be another opportunity to go out with you all ((looks and points at Leti)) você you ((smiles coquettishly, sarcastically pretending to preen and fix her hair)) how many kids again does he have? ((laughs)) I’m just kidding why do you care? you not gonna marry him him having kids did not make a difference it was a money issue now that he got his paycheck he can roll tá bom (.) tá bom okay (.) okay

Typically, when the study participants whispered or made verbal asides to one another, they did so in English. In her initiation of an informal topic of lighthearted gossip, Nina speaks to me in English, and Leti follows suit. However, since I was very sensitive about my already intrusive presence videorecording classroom and program activities, I tried always to speak to the program participants in Portuguese so as not to have my perceived laxity with the language rule be yet another way in which I could be seen as a disruption. When Leti notes that I am speaking in Portuguese, she abandons English with Nina, follows my lead, and maintains Portuguese throughout the conversation. Leti speaks in Portuguese until I mention that the other young man had called,

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti’s Story

163

and she immediately translanguages to register sarcastic surprise at the notion of his interest and takes a stance in mockery of it, asking if this indeed was the one with two children (lines 29–33). After I laugh in positive alignment with her humorous reaction (line 35), Leti returns to speaking Portuguese, but still displays mockery by rolling her eyes, styling an exaggerated English intonation of sarcastic thanks for the interest, but sorry, no go (lines 36–37). At this point, Nina once again interjects with English, asking Leti to hold on, that “the kids are another part,” then she clarifies with me in Portuguese that he was the same who did not have money to attend the previous group outing (lines 38–41). I explain that indeed he was, but he had since received his wages, to which Leti responds, once again with sarcasm and mockery, “oh conGRATS (.) fella (.) conGRATS” (line 43) ignoring Nina’s assertions that it was okay and insisting that the suitor use his salary to feed his children, not to fete women (lines 45–48). As she did previously while saying “thank you (.) but uhm (.) sOHrry” in line 37, Leti uses deliberate pauses and loudly enunciated word fragments to style an acutely sarcastic tone and humorously communicate her disdain. To distance myself from the controversy, I tell Leti and Nina that I had nothing to do with the man’s children and was only passing along his regrets that he was previously unable to go out with them and his continued desire to meet (lines 49–53). Nina then points at Leti, saying “you” in reference to her prior insistence in another conversation after the outing with the other two men that she was the one they seemed to prefer and considered more attractive. Leti responds to this somewhat uncomfortable flattery by feigning a preening, coquettish vanity as she pretended to fix her hair, jokingly asking again how many children the man had (lines 54–57). Nina then impatiently demanded to know why she cared, since she was not going to marry him, and declared that since the money problem had been solved, all was well (lines 58–63). Leti accepts this logic, saying “okay (.) okay” As I have discussed throughout this chapter, Leti received considerable amounts of male sexual attention as well as a sense of cultural validation and positive affirmation during her stay in Salvador. While delighting in the novelty and intensity of it all, she did not lose sight of practical considerations of inequity, disparate resources, and differentiated views and priorities within these interactions. Such concerns were apparent in the critical assessments she made of even the most innocuous-seeming circumstances and were indicative of the engagement of multiple aspects of Leti’s background and the negotiation of her identities and varied social positionings during these processes of transformative socialization.

Part IV—Identities, Investments, and Outcomes By traditional metrics of success, borne out by academic scores, writing, and classroom performance, or even the casual perception and assessment of her conversational abilities, Leti emerged—by far—the most fluent and prolific

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

164

Leti’s Story

speaker of Portuguese among the four study participants. She was also the one whose demonstrated abilities in the language had progressed farthest along the continuum of expertise among the entire group of all those who participated in the Geisel College Salvador study abroad program at the emerging level. This was in no small part due to the fact that she fluently spoke two other Romance languages very closely related to Portuguese, and she was older and more experienced in the formal study of language and culture than her classmates. She had participated in two other such sojourns abroad in Italy and excelled in the discrete grammatical skills testing, group discussion, writing, and literary/cultural analysis that comprised the program’s core activities. Furthermore, although Didier ran a close second, Leti spent the most time and had the most diverse participation experiences within multiple local communities. There was no question that she was successful in learning Portuguese and was also perceived as such by others. Hence what I was most interested in discovering was how her investments in the practices of certain communities contributed to this overwhelming success. The amount of time Leti spent interacting with Brazilians in different communities and contexts meant that, unlike some of her classmates who mostly remained in groups of Americans, the majority of her experience in Salvador took place in active development and exercise of new abilities in Portuguese. Additionally, while interacting with different members of local communities, Leti paid careful attention to implicit aspects of her new language, focusing on specific practices of different social groups: Leti (from Week 10 Interview) I think what makes it difficult is because like, my homestay mom, for example, is like of a certain class. I think the class difference is huge, because the way an upper class family speaks is a little different from the like Portuguese I’m learning in Capoeira. So I constantly have to like self sort of correct. Like I learned certain words in Capoeira, should I be using them when I’m having a conversation with my homestay mom? No. But you do that when you’re a kid at home, like when you’re learning words, somebody’s helping you with cusswords, you know, you have to keep them to yourself. And so it’s sort of you’re learning the difference between what is Portuguese that I’m learning with certain groups. Leti’s focus on learning which languaging practices were appropriate for each individual context was principally due to her sensitivity to race and social class differences among the Brazilians with whom she interacted and her concern with gaining communicative and pragmatic expertise in Portuguese, along with the more easily obtained syntactic and semantic fluency. She was convinced of the value of the more youth-oriented, Afro-Brazilian,

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti’s Story

165

and working-class languaging in her Capoeira community enough that she took the time to learn them. However, Leti was also invested in fitting in and learning the practices within the white middle-class homestay family. So much so that she took care not to speak among them in ways that signaled her lack of awareness and discernment relating to the appropriate languaging and performance of social class identities and belonging. These sensitivities were ultimately related to Leti’s investments and delight in “blending in” as much as possible into these local communities. Her physical resemblance to the population of Salvador meant that most people mistook her for Brazilian and assumed she spoke fluent Portuguese. Leti worked hard to fulfill the expectations of those she imagined were evaluating her: Leti (from Week 10 Interview) I think it ruined my, like, street cred, cuz I look like I’m from Bahia, a lot of people are actually like why are you doing that funny sotaque [accent]? I’m like, thanks, I’m American. But you know what I mean, I think it was good in one way, because I think a lot of people had, like, confiança [confidence]. You know like they thought, oh, she’s from Bahia. So lot of times when I was in the studio and I was with [Dora, a very light-skinned Chicana member of the advanced-level study abroad group] they’ll like talk to me, and they’ll not talk to [Dora] cuz they’ll think like, oh, [I’m] the one who speaks Portuguese. And we’ll like talk and then everyone realizes that, oh, [Dora]’s the one who can talk. So it was cool cuz like everyone started like these cool, really deep conversations with me. And then when I started like stumbling along, they’re like oh, where are you from? Even taxi drivers UJU:

So when people had all these high expectations from you, did you feel like it made you shy? Like you couldn’t talk? LETI: No it’s like completely opposite. It like makes me wanna live up to their expectations. So as people are talking, I’m like, what one sentence can I say that I have like a really good sotaque24 in, and like I could like nasalize and like do really well? Leti’s investments in the practices of the local communities also contributed to a certain evolution and greater success in her understanding of religious practices in Brazil. In the previous chapter, I discussed an episode in the AfroBrazilian Culture and History classroom when Leti and Nina demanded that the instructor explain how it was possible for Candomblé practitioners to also consider themselves Catholic and for the Church to allow syncretism and the worship of orixás in the image of its saints. The instructor attempted to explain the Brazilian society’s high tolerance for ambiguity and the fact that in matters of race, religion, and even sexuality, living one identity did

166

Leti’s Story

not necessarily preclude also living another. At first, Leti vehemently resisted such notions, but eventually, she gained considerable insight through her participation in both classroom and local communities, and she came to express a greater appreciation for Afro-Brazilian religious traditions and accommodation of what had previously caused her much discomfort:

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Leti (from Week 10 Interview) Orixás have been like an amazing experience to me, Uju. Like, when I first came in and I saw that like water source with like several women, this is pre-[Afro-Brazilian culture and history course instructor]’s class, it was like several women, black women in the water, and then I later learned that they were orixás, and this like interesting concept of like, that they’re your ancestors, but they’re still sort of these archetypes of people, that you know. And just like in psychology where you have archetypes and then you have different things that separate above them. It’s sort of the poor man’s version of psychology, I feel like Candomblé is like the poor man’s psychology. UJU: LETI: UJU:

But it’s psychology, and it’s also magic. Yeah. Like it’s the supernatural existing right next to the seen and the unseen together, totally normal. LETI: And if you are kind of raised in a society where you see Candomblé everywhere, you develop as a different person, because like I was raised with Catholicism, so there’s certain things that are okay, that are like outrageous, but okay because they’re in the norm. And then there are like certain things that are not okay. Orixá is not okay because, like, they’re not god. But like, how’s that different from santos, like having saints and all those things? So definitely helped me grow in terms of religion, because I constantly have this battle with religion. A source of Leti’s initial resistance to accommodating certain cultural practices she encountered in Brazil were the differences she perceived between these and how things were done back home. When she began to ponder how what she was experiencing in Brazil did not differ so starkly from what she knew from her background, things that were at first uncomfortable became more comprehensible and even a source of marvel. At the same time, Leti also found happy relief from certain discomforts she brought from home through her experience of the way in which these realities differed from her past experiences. A most important personal success to which Leti’s participation and investments within classroom communities and outside greatly contributed was her newfound embrace of her blackness, which was previously troubled by feelings of discomfort, tension, and anxiety.

Leti’s Story

167

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

I conclude this chapter with her personal testimony of the steps Leti made toward learning how to speak blackness in Brazil, which led to greater selfacceptance as she engaged her multiple subjectivities and shaped a new communicative self in the unique context of an Afro-Brazilian city. Especially rewarding for me to observe were the benefits her experience in transformative socialization yielded in her relationship with her mother, for whom Leti’s ability to take advantage of this study abroad experience was also very valuable: (From Week 10 interview) UJU: LETI: UJU: LETI:

UJU: LETI:

How will Salvador affect your future? I mean, I am like completely changed, because I hope to continue Capoeira, obviously. How are you completely changed? Because I’m just so much more comfortable with just like talking about myself, and like, my experiences as a black women, you know. And not to harp on the idea, well I guess it’s even better to harp. Yeah, go ahead and harp. [LAUGH] And well, that’s exactly like a hallmark of my mentality. Like, when you talk about being black, you’re harping on it, you’re constantly complaining about it instead of just being. And here I just feel like it’s just another thing, I don’t have to like, when somebody calls me, like black, I don’t have to be offended or feel like I’ve to do defend myself in some way. I’m just like, yes! And, you know like, I feel, I just feel so much more comfortable about it. I feel like I can have a conversation with my mom about it. [. . .]

And for me, I’ve always had no problem with anybody. I love Asian guys, Hispanic guys, but I had never been with a black guy. My mom was so thrilled. I thought she’s gonna be really upset, because I said I had an old namorado [boyfriend]. I just thought she was gonna be like flaming pissed, but she was like practically crying. She was like, oh I know you were the only one of my kids who understood the racial identity. And, you know like, I know that seems like really absurd, cause I’m not marrying the guy, by no means, but it’s just sort of like, I feel like for my mom, in some way, this trip also meant something for her. Because it’s like you’re actually interested in your own culture. [. . .] UJU:

Do you know your mother’s joy? She might feel that now you see her.

168

Leti’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

LETI: I know. I understand that, because, because of her experiences with her father, in terms of she was the dark one and she was neglected. My parents have, you know a tumultuous relationship at best. And so, when my brother married somebody who has straight hair, denied her blackness, I think to some extent that meant that he was, like, denying her in terms of her being black. [. . .] LETI:

So it was tough. But coming to Brazil is like another side of like the study abroad experience. In Italy, I was respected, because I was very academic, and I was very politically involved, and you know, like I would read the newspapers, and I had lots of friends in the university. But here it’s just sort of like I’m more a part of the people, you know, and I got a huge sampling. I think it’s exciting. My mom, I’m gonna have such a sit-down with her, and I think she’s gonna feel really good, you know. I wanna bring her one of those paintings, you know. There’s so many paintings of black people here. It’s like you just wanna take it all back. Like, I’m never gonna find, like, my mom always wanted the nativity scene with just black people, and it was really hard to find. Here, I could just take a bunch of black figurines, call ‘em Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, whatever, and you’ll be fine. But you can find a black figurine here. My mom painted angels one year. She was so desperate to find little black angels, so we could put on the Christmas tree, she just painted these little white angels. And ‘til this day, the paint is like running on the cheeks, it looks all messed up, like leprosy, it’s really messed up. But, you know UJU: So Salvador was a gift to you mother in many ways, all these discoveries that you’re making. LETI: Oh yeah. UJU: So your relationship with your mom is gonna change? LETI: I think so, I mean, I hope so. The important changes Leti experienced while learning to speak blackness in Brazil demonstrate how important and influential race was in this study abroad experience and within the overall transformation that black students undergo as they shape new language and culture speaking selves. Leti was personally impacted by gendered racism and racialized elitism in her background and in Salvador. Her experience—and also her transcendence— of these abuses profoundly contributed to her new Portuguese-speaking identity.

Leti’s Story

169

Notes

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13

14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24

wheat Spanish term used to describe a person of “wheatish” skin color. Member of the Taíno indigenous group of the Antilles. marijuana Maroon communities founded by Africans and Afro-Brazilians who escaped enslavement. Style of traditional Afro-Brazilian music and dance. slave battle Spanish Spanish The exact equivalent, prietita, exists; however, it is less commonly used. City in the state of Bahia to where the program made an organized excursion. This was a reality show on VH1 cable network featuring an African American woman named “New York.” This black female lead is courted by a racially diverse group of men, among whom she chooses the last one remaining for a love match after weekly dating competitions and eliminations. Note: minha nega/neguinha has not entirely lost its history of reference to an illicit black concubine maintained outside a white man’s societally sanctioned marriage to a white woman since it is still a common term for one’s mistress, love interest, or casual companion outside a formal relationship. The significance of the term in this way was highlighted in 2014 during a social media uproar with calls for protests and a boycott against a Brazilian TV series entitled Sexo e as nega created by a white actor turned producer and director, Miguel Falabella. The series was conceived as a version of the popular HBO series Sex and the City and featured four main black female characters. However, it was bitterly criticized for reproducing stereotypical images of underemployed and oversexed black women. The outrage was primarily directed at the title, which prompted responses such as the Twitter hashtag #naosoutuasnega alluding to a common Brazilian retort against disrespect or unwanted sexual attention, and a popular Internet meme, that can be translated as “I am not one of your negas” (negas meaning whores or somebody you can control and boss around). Internationally renowned Afro-Brazilian popular music group that originated in Salvador. Another internationally renowned Afro-Brazilian popular music group that originated in Salvador. superintendent Passage translated exactly as it was originally written with English equivalents of Leti’s phrasing, word choice, and errors (including spelling). The instructor’s corrections were not incorporated. Leti meant to write dá, or “gives” dimension, but did not include accentuation that would have distinguished the verb dar, “give,” with da, the contraction of the preposition de, “of,” and article a, or “the.” The instructor corrects this mistake by writing in the accent for her. slaves/the enslaved Papar meant as “eat” is mostly used with children. Adults use comer to mean “eat,” which also means to “have sex” or “fuck,” usually referring to a man in the active position. Brazilian currency Brazilian cell phone service provider. Brazilian cell phone service provider. spoken accent

7

Rose’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Redefining Participation and Success

Part I—Finding Opportunities for Meaningful Interaction Rose was a nineteen-year-old Geisel College undergraduate born and raised in a majority-black neighborhood in a large metropolis in the United States Midwest. When we met, she had not yet identified an academic major; however, she reported interest in Romance languages and linguistics, comparative literature, and sociological studies. In the same way that I chose Nina’s pseudonym due to her resemblance to the fiery jazz diva, Rose recalled to me a richly colored, serene, and resilient flower. Like her namesake, Rose remained quiet and closed in a tight and protectively wound bud, which for a long time did not reveal the layers of depth and complexity within her bloom. She often went to the beach where the sun turned her caramel-colored complexion into a rich pecan. Rose also practiced martial arts and dance, and her strong, shapely body, which she mostly preferred to dress in comfortable and athletic clothing, evinced years of training and discipline. When feeling relaxed and at ease, Rose seemed especially beautiful, as her smile showed great warmth and a surprisingly effervescent, cheeky personality. Rose’s family consisted of two older brothers, an older stepsister with whom she had no contact, and a younger sister, who was a cousin formally adopted by Rose’s mother. The marriage between Rose’s parents was very troublesome because of her father being prone to unpredictable and ragefilled outbursts. Early in her childhood, Rose and her brothers witnessed countless arguments between her parents, punctuated by the loud crashes of her father throwing household items and punching walls. Her mother finally took the children and left home when he one day set the garage on fire. The couple divorced soon after when Rose was seven years old, and her mother remarried five years later. Rose was raised in a military family. Her biological father made his career in the marine corps, her stepfather retired from the army, and one of her brothers joined the air force. Her mother worked as a home-based childcare provider, and Rose spent every summer and much of her spare time during the school year helping with the daycare business. She described her family’s socioeconomic status as lower middle class, because, according to Rose, they

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Rose’s Story

171

always worried too much about money to belong firmly in the middle class. To her, being middle class meant that one had financial stability and assurance that bills would be paid monthly and on time. Stressful money concerns loomed throughout her stay in Salvador. Her mother missed a mortgage payment to buy her plane ticket to Brazil, a careless mistake forced Rose to apply for an expensive same-day passport at the last minute, and she incurred extra fees to change the flight she missed waiting for the new passport. She took out an academic loan to cover the costs of the study abroad program, but it was not remitted to her in cash. Therefore, Rose was unable to repay her mother for the ticket and other expenses. When she needed money in Brazil to travel during the program break period, her efforts to swallow her pride and ask her estranged father to help with the funds came to naught when, in the end, he let her down, and once again, she had to borrow. Regardless of all these difficulties, Rose believed that participating in the Geisel College Portuguese study abroad program was an opportunity of a lifetime and made the absolute best of her time in Salvador. She had attended inner city public schools her entire life and excelled in multiple gifted and talented, advanced placement, and honors programs, so she was accustomed to battling and overcoming tremendous odds. Rose also had the encouragement of a dedicated and hardworking mother who believed in her daughter’s tremendous potential to succeed and did everything she could to support the journey. “I Want the Air That’s Around These People” I met Rose on the same day I first met Nina and Didier when I stopped by their TA-led drill session during my initial study participant recruitment visit to the Geisel College campus. She was among the trio of freshman-year friends who were so eager to show how they were spending free time outside class listening to music in Portuguese that they insisted the TA stay a few minutes after class to watch YouTube videos of Afro-Brazilian artists on the computer projector. Rose excitedly looked on as Nina found the songs they liked most and joined her and Didier to demonstrate the hip-hop–like dances they were trying to learn from the videos. Neither Rose nor her friends were introduced to these Afro-Brazilian musical styles as part of the language learning curriculum in their Geisel College level 1 Portuguese course, yet they included it in their educational experience. Even after she arrived in Salvador, Rose continued to utilize this online resource to complement her learning and, in addition to music, she also tapped into it for information on other subjects of interest: Rose (from Week 10 Interview) Yeah it was mostly yeah I went out and I watched a lot of YouTube videos um, I tried watching TV, it didn’t work.

172

Rose’s Story UJU:

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

ROSE:

UJU: ROSE:

UJU: ROSE: UJU: ROSE:

What did you watch on the YouTube videos, what did you look for when you did your search for the videos? One time I just put in like Brazil to see what came up. I would look up modeling, like model shoots, because I really like this Brazilian model she’s like really cool and listening to her during interviews um, see if I could catch like what she was saying and then I’d watch What’s her name? Emanuela de Paula.1 I would look at cultural clips, like they have little snippets from this special about the quotas2 that’s on YouTube, I watched that and see if I could understand what they’re saying. Music a lot of times, it was popular music, things like Exaltasamba.3 You like Exaltasamba? I like Thiaguinho. Okay, you like one dude in Exaltasamba. [LAUGH] Okay, I like Exaltasamba the music is really nice. Yeah cultural, if we were doing something in class I’d probably enter that and see if something came up and watch that video and have some background when I came to class. Not that I said anything, but I would know what was going on.

Rose’s efforts to independently research the things that most interested and appealed to her about Brazilian culture had a great deal to do with her identification and affinity with Afro-Brazilians, and they also entailed much work learning new languaging practices from all the material that was presented. These efforts signaled her desire to achieve success and become fluent in Portuguese so as to have greater access to the Afro-Brazilian artists, music, and social issues that fascinated her. Furthermore, they supported and enriched the learning that took place in Rose’s classroom communities, where, as I discuss throughout this chapter, she did not enthusiastically participate, yet still remained actively aware. Rose sought and created contexts and opportunities to learn Portuguese on her own terms, and she did it in ways that suited her abilities and resources for understanding. For example, she did not find success sitting back and watching Brazilian television, with no control over the topic, length, desirability, and cultural and linguistic accessibility of the programming. Instead, she curated her own video entertainment from online sources to delve deeper into topics that were relevant to her background, interests, and learning goals. Rose engaged in contextualized language learning knowing that she excelled when activities were meaningful. Rose initially chose to study Portuguese because, in her words, she was “a language glutton,” who wanted to learn as many as she could. So far, she had tried her hand at French and Spanish. However, Portuguese was more meaningful to her personal experience and held a very special appeal

Rose’s Story

173

for Rose in that it was the conduit through which she would grow closer to Afro-Brazilians and have access to an African-identified culture she believed was lacking among blacks in the United States:

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Rose (from Week 10 Interview) And then and some African American History courses they talked about the slave trade going there. And then we would talk about culture and I had a problem with African Americans not having as much of an African culture, and I saw that Brazilians did. I said I want to go to Brazil because I just want to feel a connection there again because I don’t have one. [. . .] I grew up with a, with an issue with my skin color being too dark. And I tried to figure out where it came from. I wasn’t, I didn’t want to blame anybody. I didn’t want to like get mad just because I’m, I just wanted to know WHY do I feel this way? And so I started thinking, okay well people used say I’m black and I’m proud. Where did that come from? Where did it go? Where is the confidence that used to come with being of African descent? And why isn’t it in America anymore? Are there any other people that are my color and darker because I’m not that dark, I’m not dark at all, that are, they feel good about it. And so I would just look around, and Brazil came up and I saw they still practice very you know very they’re very influenced by African tradition and all that. And I, and I just oh, and it was also slight envy of seeing Asian Americans or Hispanic Americans or you know wherever people come from Americans, practice the, the traditions and culture of their ancestors and then African Americans not having it. And so I, I wanted that. I was like I want to on a special day dress up in you know an ensemble that is specific to where my blood comes from. And so I wanted to look for a place that had that and Brazil had that. And I was like, because I don’t know from I don’t know where in Africa I come from. And a lot of people in Brazil don’t know where in Africa they come from but, they still practice it. They one that you know applies to everybody. So, I mean that’s a rough draft. UJU: ROSE: UJU: ROSE: UJU:

So then in this search for like, an African-identified culture, you didn’t necessarily think of Africa itself? Because I don’t consider myself African. So you see yourself as American? Yes. Like, Brazilians are American, they happen to be South American and you would be North American?

174

Rose’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

ROSE: UJU: ROSE:

UJU:

ROSE: UJU: ROSE:

Right. So both of you guys are equally American. Right, and I feel that we have been, they, they are detached, well they were detached. Their ancestors were taken away just the same as mine were. But, something different I mean it lasted longer in Brazil. The slave trade lasted longer so that could be why it’s probably a big reason why they have stronger ties. But, I, it’s, I don’t understand why they were able to retain and we weren’t. And I, I identify more with Afro-Brazilians than I would Africans because they’ve been there the whole time. They weren’t separated. They’re not American. They don’t have the Atlantic Ocean in between them. They don’t have this history of slavery that I do. So it’s just all, you know a familiar situation but a different outcome. So how does this factor into Portuguese? How does Portuguese relate to this? I’m asking you a self-evident question, and I’d like to see how you express it. It’s a way, well I’m not, I’m not an eloquent person. I think you are. [LAUGH] Thank you. It’s a vessel to get there. It’s a language of the place that I want to go to learn this culture to, I feel that some things will be lost in translation if I were to go down there and ask them to speak in English. Portuguese is part of the culture that they have evolved into. It’s kind of like how English is part of the culture that I have evolved into. So, if I want to learn as much as I can, I learn the language.

Rose wanted to learn Portuguese, because she positively identified with Afro-Brazilians and their common history of enslavement in the Americas. She believed that their culture more closely approximated its African roots and greatly desired the experience of contact and interchange with AfroBrazilian communities. Nina and Didier also expressed this desire to learn Portuguese because of their affinity and identification with Afro-Brazilians; however, Rose was the one who articulated this yearning in the most acute and comprehensive way. In her words, she wanted “the air that’s around these people and the spirit that they have” (from Week 10 interview). The ethno-racial bonds she shared with Afro-Brazilians lent tremendous significance to learning the Portuguese language, through which she could nurture and grow the connection. As we saw in the previous chapter with Leti, racism in Rose’s background and family had also contributed to her sense of insecurity regarding her skin color. In Rose’s case, she was nicknamed the “chocolate chip” in her mostly light-skinned family, did not physically resemble her mother with whom she was very close, and she felt that her physical type was not considered

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Rose’s Story

175

beautiful by her father, brothers, and the young men in her majority-black high school, who openly demonstrated their preference for dating much fairer-complexioned women with long straight hair. Rose was not comfortable with these feelings of race and gender insecurity and imagined they resulted from how distanced black Americans were from an African cultural identity and the self-confidence and pride one would experience from having a deeper, more immediate connection with ancestral heritage. The choices and efforts Rose made in learning Portuguese in Brazil revealed the enactment and negotiation of her ethno-racial background as she envisioned the self-affirming benefits she expected from transformative socialization and the realization of a new language-speaking subjectivity, immersed within an African-identified cultural context she so admiringly idealized. The notion of learning to speak blackness in Brazil was especially profound in Rose’s case, because she explicitly sought Portuguese for the blackness of its speakers and anticipated the impact that knowing and interacting with them would have on hers. Drawn and Pushed to Produce In Salvador, Rose had many opportunities to speak Portuguese within local and classroom communities. These were mitigated by the desires and expectations of those with whom she interacted and, consequently, their ability to accommodate the difficulties she had expressing herself in this new language. For example, within local communities, most of Rose’s interactions in Portuguese were with the many young men who desired her, and thus were highly incentivized to take the time to communicate and share ideas with her: Rose (from Week 1 Journal) Most of my language practice so far has come from meeting younger Brazilian men. The first one I met was J__’s [Brazilian host family] “cousin,” don’t remember his name. He was really nice and taught me how to dance forro. I’m now realizing how patient he was, because I don’t speak that well now but I can get my point across. That night I know I sounded ridiculous. He’s someone I wish would come around more often, hopefully he wasn’t just in town for Sao Joao [holidays]. (from Week 10 interview): ROSE: UJU: ROSE:

UJU:

I tried to go out as much as I could. Go out where? It was usually like place, places that had men, because they’re just easy to talk to and then they’ll speak fast enough, and then they have patience because they want to talk to you. Incentive, motivation.

176

Rose’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

ROSE:

So yeah I, you know, I could get somebody to speak who had a reason to stay and speak to me. Can’t just go up to a woman like hey, hold a conversation with me. She’s just like, no, they’ll walk away. But you know you look cute enough, you can get a guy to talk to you for a little bit.

As a heterosexual woman, Rose’s opportunities to speak Portuguese were facilitated not only by young men’s willingness to invest in conversing with her in hopes of a romantic return but also by her willingness to initiate conversation with them by banking and egging on their romantic interest. She did not, however, feel as comfortable seeking the same opportunities with women. They might have chosen to speak with her out of curiosity to engage with and learn about a foreigner, or they might have also wanted to flirt, but Rose assumed she could only rely upon the possibility of mutual sexual interest and tension to facilitate and maintain an exchange. This was because flirtation itself lubricated and prolonged the conversation, and not only that, but the very possibility of flirtation made it happen in the first place. Through her slow paced and effort-filled interactions with her host brother, who spoke a halting and labored English, Rose imagined what those who spoke with her in Portuguese experienced, and she decided that few people would dedicate such time and patience to chatting without a romantic incentive. Rose also expressed a need for some sort of personal connection with the instructional practices and other members of her classroom communities to feel comfortable and actively participate within them. This resulted from her educational background and past positive language learning experiences in which she was highly invested in the practices of the classrooms that stimulated and actively engaged her interests: (Rose from Pre-Study Language Learning Autobiography) In high school my French teacher was AMAZING. She taught language and culture in one for the people that stayed in her class past the required [level]. We seldom just sat and studied. Our lessons were usually paired with some type of activity or interesting info. When we learned the colors she told us a story about chartreuse. When we learned about past times we went outside and learned the games that were in the lesson. Over time I’ve grown accustomed to this way of learning, by being part of the lessons instead of just observing it. Now, I find that I have difficulty learning in a more traditional way. I have to make some type of personal connection with what I’m learning to really get it. So in turn, I learn languages that I can find a connection (to something) with. Right from her Portuguese 1 course at Geisel College, Rose had trouble adjusting to the more formal and teacher-fronted instructional style of the

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Rose’s Story

177

program. At Geisel, Rose was expected to master grammatical ideas and constructions presented in abstract, rule-based forms and then reproduce them in structured oral and writing exercises. This was a bitter contrast to her previous experience of an active, learner-centered approach to French language instruction described earlier. Although she felt mostly bored and uninvested in the Geisel College language classroom practices, her main difficulty did not lie in understanding the concepts covered in class. What gave Rose trouble at the U.S. campus and continued to do so throughout her time in Salvador was demonstrating her understanding of those concepts in accordance with the expectations of the study abroad instructors and leadership. For example, it was not easy for her to respond quickly to coldcall questions and idea prompts. This limited her ability to participate in classroom discussions, because teachers and classmates would often grow impatient with how long it took her to formulate utterances and interrupted to complete sentences for her. Furthermore, Rose felt nervous and pressured enough in class as it was and did not like for others to prod her into speaking when she preferred to remain quiet and observe. Rose (from Week 3 Journal) I don’t like it when other people volunteer me for stuff . . . eerks my nerves. I know they have good intentions but I’ll go when I’m good and ready. Sometimes (most of the time) I just like observing. Rose’s learning style of quiet observation did not conform to the study abroad program’s expectation that she always actively participate in classroom discussion to demonstrate knowledge and to practice skills while being evaluated by instructors. Often, her silence was interpreted as a lack of comprehension. Program instructors and leadership erroneously assumed that she did not speak because she did not understand, or even worse, she was not working hard enough to learn Portuguese. They justified these assumptions through Rose’s poor performance on written language tests, which she also had difficulty completing satisfactorily, as well as the essays she wrote for the cultural content courses, which were made difficult to understand by her many grammatical errors. Rose, on the other hand, reported and showed me that she did indeed understand and was working very hard to develop her expertise in Portuguese. She simply could not demonstrate her knowledge and efforts in accordance with how language learning success was evaluated by the program. Over time, she became very discouraged by both personal and other individuals’ perceptions of her failures. She fell increasingly behind in her academic work and grew more withdrawn from her classroom communities, feeling stifled, frustrated, and infuriated by the constant pressure to “do better,” “work harder.” Her very promising beginning in the study abroad program did not portend Rose’s eventual anger, discouragement, and disengagement from its

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

178

Rose’s Story

academic component. Although she had difficulties with the level 1 Portuguese Language course at Geisel College that continued as soon as she initiated the follow-up sequence in Salvador, Rose was very invested in the practices of Afro-Brazilian Culture and History and Brazilian Literature classrooms. In those communities, she felt that her identities were more meaningfully engaged and her preference for listening over speaking was well met by both the instructors’ preference for lecturing. Those classes also took off the pressure she felt to produce: Rose (from Week 10 Interview) [In the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History class] it didn’t take as much logic for me to like get involved, and I could just take what he was saying and apply it to something I knew and then come up with an idea. Whereas in like grammar it’s grammar and then in literature, literature’s actually good too, I actually liked literature. I prefer how [Brazilian Literature instructor] lectures better than [Afro-Brazilian Culture and History instructor], but just I don’t know, it was easier to just sit and listen to. UJU: ROSE:

Which one culture or literature? Literature. When [Brazilian Literature instructor] starts talking it’s easier to listen to but, cuz he just gets on there and he just goes. I’m like oh just keep going, just talk.

(From post-study reflections 2) [Afro-Brazilian Culture and History instructor]: I like how laid back he was, the places where he chose to pause made him easy to understand and the material was so intriguing. I loved learning new things about the slave and immigration history of Brazil. Little things like keeping families together made all the difference in the Afro sentiment in this country. The history is similar enough where I can relate to this people and their experiences, but different enough where I can see what things possibly effected the different outcomes of our cultures. Simultaneously amplifying the similarities and the differences. Through the material in this class and making friends I’ve come to be a Brazilian at heart. The hard part about this class is that since there are a lot of time shifts, free writing gets difficult with the tenses. I see being successful in a language made up largely of knowing verbs and how to use them, the nouns come with time. I like to just listen in this class. [Brazilian Literature instructor]: Okay, so this man’s shoes distract me all the time. He always has on the coolest sneakers! Doesn’t help that he speaks a little faster either. This is the class I get the most opinionated about, but I never speak. I’m too embarrassed. First,

Rose’s Story

179

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

it’s some inadequate thing that I feel because the people that speak the most not surprisingly speak the best. How am I supposed to follow that? Then somewhere deep down, I feel like I don’t want to add to the fact that the black ladies here don’t speak all that well. I’d rather just stay quiet. I like the material, though. I love reading, and the movie aspect is nice. It helps bring together what I read, clears up scenes and helps me learn the vocab. It is important to note that Rose’s preference for learning through quiet observation in many ways related to personal insecurities about her Portuguese languaging skills, which she believed did not measure up to other classmates’ speaking abilities. Those insecurities, in addition to the pressure of being put on the spot to speak while scrutinized by classmates and instructors, frustrated and obstructed her opportunities to develop and demonstrate expertise in the language. However, regardless of her reticence and sometimes feeling that she was not good enough to speak, Rose was still invested in those practices of her classroom communities that engaged her interests and identities. For example, in the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History classroom, she enjoyed the feelings of positive affirmation and identification with the people and topics featured in the course material and was fascinated by both the similarities and differences between black America and black Brazil. Other stress and pressure for Rose to produce resulted from the organizational structure of the Salvador study abroad program, which included what she and many others believed was too heavy an academic workload for all the organized group activities and excursions the program participants also had to attend: Rose (from Week 10 Interview) It was very exhausting, like I felt that, that like the director, I don’t know who put everything together, wanted us to enjoy and experience as much as we could and they like crammed it all in and put out and then they put homework on top of that and they put studying on top. I was like, don’t, don’t get us back home at 10:30 at night on Sunday and expect us to get all of this work done on Monday and then have this due and this, and it was repeatedly, it wasn’t just one time. It’s just like over and over and over where you’re like, when you’re on an excursion you’re so worried about how am I going to get this work done? UJU: ROSE:

Mm-hmm. You can’t enjoy where you are. So everybody was tripping about the essays and that’s like, everybody. You’re like, I want to go out dancing but I’m really sleepy but I have the paper and maybe I should write it on the bus. Everybody’s reading

180

Rose’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

on the bus, writing on the bus. Yeah and all of the other trips were like that. And the ferias [vacations] in Rio people were like, let’s just do this. It was never the time was like, oh look where I am, I really enjoy this. It was, okay I have two hours and then I have to get back to work, you know, type thing. Rose was not invested in the organizational practices of the study abroad program in terms of the leadership’s and her instructors’ expectations that she deftly manage large amounts of formal academic reading and writing in Portuguese while fully participating in the organized group activities and excursions. As she was already experiencing problems and pressure when asked to demonstrate monolingual Portuguese abilities, Rose needed a lot of time to complete her homework and simply could not find enough to do so while still participating in all the learning and socializing opportunities of the program’s extracurricular component. She believed these time constraints especially hurt her when completing writing assignments, because she felt rushed to compose them without much opportunity to read a lot of background information. Additionally, she was often forced to submit the essays without having had a chance to revise them thoroughly with the program TA. Seeking Comfort and Connection in Local Communities Despite these difficulties within her classroom communities, Rose flourished and actively participated in the local communities. She accompanied her friends and classmates on many social outings and also frequently ventured out on her own. Like Leti, she signed up for Capoeira classes at the nearby sports academy; however, she did not remain enrolled for very long because of time and money constraints. One of the greatest benefits Rose experienced from her interactions with Brazilians was the same sense of comfort and positive identification reported by all the other participants of this study. As with Nina, Didier, and Leti, Rose’s ethno-racialized identity was strongly engaged and affirmed by the experience of being surrounded by people who looked like her. In her final interview, she described this phenomenon as enjoying the helpful benefits of “race as a genetic shield” from discomfort and harm. Rose (from Week 10 Interview) I think the shield [LAUGH] helped. I noticed that I need to be comfortable to learn, I need to. It’s absolutely necessary, which I didn’t know before for me to be completely at ease in order for me to speak, for me to listen, for me anything, participate and just being around feeling, feeling a part of the city. Feeling a part, feeling a connection to Afro-Brazilian things, I’m not Brazilian but I have, you know, African blood so, I want

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Rose’s Story

181

to say like during activities that we’d do it was kind of like they, they expected us to catch on and having that expectation was fine with me, just you know you’re supposed to catch on to this dance, you’re supposed to understand what I’m saying, you know? You’re black and you’re like, yeah okay I’m supposed to, I can do it you know, I can move like this, this is how you know, being pride, it was pride showing like I can’t not get this. but it wasn’t a pressure, it was like a motivation more so. And just knowing that danger wasn’t an issue if I’m speaking to somebody, they’re not going to look at me and immediately think I’m a foreigner. So when they come to me they’re open, when they’re speaking to me they’re open at first until they find out, oh, you’re American, then maybe they’ll draw back a little bit, but not as much as if I didn’t look the way I did. So I think it really helped. In addition to being a shield from harm or the feelings of being out of place those who did not have her racial appearance might feel in Salvador, Rose also believed that her blackness broadened her social network and access to opportunities to speak Portuguese by rendering Afro-Brazilians more “open” to approaching and interacting with her. Even if they were made reticent by the discovery that she was American, it was still important to Rose that being black made the initial contact, igniting the interaction and potential for personal connection and continued engagement. Among Brazilians in the local communities, the difficulties and insecurities speaking Portuguese that frustrated her ability to participate freely and easily in class were not so pronounced. She felt more comfortable and less pressured to speak in local communities, unlike within classroom communities while others who were also learning or teaching the language watched and judged: Rose (from Week 3 Journal) [. . .] went to the Claudia Leitte concert to jump up and down for four hours. Met up with the “namorado”4 M__ there and we had our awkward but fun portuglish exchanges as usual. Then I went to Todo Mundo Vai and jumped around some more. At both of the concerts I didn’t talk portuguese to many people, but when I did it flowed and I loved it. It was just a stress free environment. I could mess up, recognize that I did and fix it without someone jumping down my throat. It was so much easier to just say the first thing that came to mind and have a real conversation knowing that I’m not being evaluated. It was important for Rose to feel absolutely comfortable to understand and develop new practices in Portuguese, and she also needed to be at ease to speak—a phenomenon supported by language learning theory (see MacIntyre et al., 2001; Woodrow, 2006). Much of Rose’s comfort was derived from believing that her speaking skills were not being constantly

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

182

Rose’s Story

evaluated by others, who in certain circumstances seemed too eager to interrupt and correct her. In what she perceived as the relatively stress- and judgment-free context of socializing within local communities, Rose relaxed enough to actively participate and engage in many interesting conversations with diverse individuals ranging from taxi drivers to eager suitors, all with whom she found countless topics and interests in common. Rose’s participation, however, was not the same among all local communities. It noticeably shifted as she interacted with communities where she felt disengaged and uninvested. This was the case of her interactions inside her white middle-class Brazilian host home, which were mostly characterized by tense relations and miscommunication. At their first meeting, Rose’s host mother exclaimed that she did not look as pretty as the picture she had sent with her letter of introduction because she had cut her hair. This comment hit a nerve with Rose, since she had engaged in the “big chop” to cut most of the chemically straightened hair and transition into wearing natural styles. This change was a big deal and big transformation for Rose in learning to accept and value her blackness, and she was still working through her comfort with it. Her host mother unknowingly poked harder at the sore spot when she brought out pictures and showered praises over previous American daughters she had housed. Rose felt quite insecure and diminished by the woman and for a long time suspected that she did not like her. These suspicions were made worse by the family members’ routine of taking meals privately in their rooms or in front of the television, or otherwise sitting at their individual laptop computers without talking to her. Rose became embittered by these practices when she visited the homes of some of her classmates and noticed that their Brazilian family members warmly conversed with and doted over them, while hers seemed to disregard and ignore her. Rose also noted that even when her Brazilian host family invited her along to socialize together with their friends, those individuals behaved differently toward her and showed more interest in speaking with and finding out things about her than her hosts: Rose (from Week 1 Journal) The first thing she said to me was “you cut your hair, it was so pretty before.” Not the greatest start. My exchanges with my family since then have been asking if I’m hungry (and what I want to eat), telling them I’m taking a shower or saying tchau on my way out the door. Everyone in my house kinda does their own thing all day. Hopefully its just the adjustment time. (From Week 3 Journal) Minha mãe told me stories of her past homestay students, and showed me pictures. I must admit, I have a slight issue with seeing the faces of people that were once in my same place. I don’t mind knowing the

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Rose’s Story

183

stories, but once I see the face I start to make comparisons and sometimes jealousy sets in. She showed me a picture of her favorite student. She was gorgeous and glowing, and according to minha mãe very wealthy. I had to call my mom immediately after to avoid eating myself from the inside out. I recognize that I have major self-security issues, that seem to be impacting me only recently. I have to constantly remind myself that I’m what I’m working with, so work it. When I don’t have something from telling me I’m intelligent, attractive, fun to be around, etc., I assume the opposite. Its not a confidence issue, or maybe it is, but its not being unhappy with myself. Its more unsatisfied. I know I can do/be/feel better but I haven’t figured out how to tap into that “little bit extra” that I know I have. I’m learning how to be self-motivated which for some reason, I feel I have never been in my life. (From Post-Study Reflections 2) I went to visit my host mom’s boyfriend’s family in a favela. There were two little boys that I passed the time with. We watched concert DVDs and danced along. There was bbq and cake and lots of family and friends. I forget the occasion. My family didn’t talk to me much, but the other people did. Especially the kids. The experience of just being there was really nice. The family went to one of the non-tourist beaches. We piled in the van and drove for like an hour it seemed, North. Our neighbors came with us and they had a son around [Brazilian little sister]’s age. The Dad of their family was really funny, he told jokes and asked about America the entire time. My mom told me she was pregnant as a joke, poking our her belly and I fell for it. Omgsh that was not a good moment. I saw it as a good thing at her age! Spent the rest of the time following [Brazilian little sister] and their son up and down the beach, not much talking. A pattern emerged in my observations and Rose’s self-reports of life in Salvador—namely, the complications introduced into her experiences by personal insecurities, which sometimes led her to interpret situations in unfavorable ways and to react to them by withdrawing from participation and interaction. The negative attributions Rose made about the intensions of others and the fact that she often assumed that people felt as poorly about her as she sometimes felt about herself contributed to the tension and lack of communication in her Brazilian home. Rose believed that her host family members did not speak much nor share many meals with her simply because they did not like her. In reaction to this feeling of rejection, she withdrew from them as well and spent most of her time at home in her room, limiting further any opportunities for interaction. However, she later learned that the situation was more complex than she had initial imagined and was forced to examine her role in these dynamics:

184

Rose’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Rose (from Week 10 Interview) I was also challenged a little with my family just because they, they’re very well it wasn’t a challenge but it, it wasn’t easy. Everyone would talk about oh my, my mom did this, my mom did this and we went this and I never had anything like that. And I thought it was me at first, and then I started going to like [Nina]’s house and [Didier]’s house or seeing the other people’s parents. [Nina]’s house and it’s just a different personality like I go and [Nina], oh my mom just called me minha filha for like the first time three weeks ago. So I’m like, oh I didn’t, this is just not that close type of personality. We don’t eat meals together very often, where there’s like one person watching TV one person’s in the room, she’s usually in the kitchen. So I could like sit down and talk to her, but it wasn’t always for a long time. It just made me think they don’t like me. UJU:

But then later you talk to her and you realized she’s under a lot of stress, right, she’s unhappy and the divorce, depression ROSE: Yeah she’s, she’s in a transitioning place that she doesn’t, she’s not very comfortable, and I don’t know what to do so on top of me not knowing what to do, I can’t communicate as efficiently and effectively as I’d like to. So she’ll come up and tell me, you know, when something is wrong and on top of being stumped, I’m like, I can’t even tell you that I’m stumped. Like I, oh I can, you know, make a gesture [to] show that I sympathize. Yeah, so she’s under a lot of stress, yeah. Rose’s host family interacted very little with her, and she saw examples of other homes where her counterparts were treated very differently. Therefore, it was not entirely unreasonable for Rose to assume that the family did not particularly care for her. However, she had not imagined that the tension she felt within the home was also related to what was going on in its occupants’ lives. During the period Rose spent with them, the family was reeling from a recent and very painful divorce, financial strain, and the unpleasant circumstances under which the host mother’s ex-husband had been expelled from the house. Rose’s host brother never paid her much mind, as he was perhaps preoccupied with these problems and uneager to engage in lengthy and laborious pleasantries with a foreign guest who was still learning the language. The little sister also began to ignore the guest when she grew tired of the game she had initially made of correcting every word Rose uttered incorrectly before the next one could even be said. Rose admitted that when she did learn of the family’s troubles, which at least partly accounted for why they all seemed so sullen, distracted, and distant toward her, she felt powerless to give the mother the comfort she might have desired and would have perhaps brought the two closer. Once again, she believed her Portuguese was not good enough to communicate such depth of sentiment.

Rose’s Story

185

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Part II—Translanguaging Body Consistently observed in the experience of all the study participants was how the highly salient and indexical nature of race in their uniquely black language learning context spotlighted race and ethnicity during the African American students’ discursive construction and negotiation of how they referred to and represented themselves. Recalling ideas from Chapter 2, translanguaging is the phenomenon wherein multilinguals access and join resources from their background, knowledge identities, histories, communities, linguistic abilities, and beliefs to collaboratively language and make meaning with others. In this act, they simultaneously create and work within translanguaging spaces. As also discussed in Chapter 2, translanguaging space can be conceptualized as meaning-making processes in communication as well as the material places and encounters of multilingual discourse and interaction. While we translanguage to co-create and negotiate identities, those subjectivities are themselves translanguaging spaces where we reference, join, and juxtapose resources and understandings from our own and others’ multiplicities to co-create and negotiate different selves in varied modalities of symbolic, oral, written, and embodied discourse. In the three previous chapters, Nina, Didier, and Leti learned to name themselves when speaking blackness in Brazil by marshaling meaningmaking resources from their background and multiple identities along with understandings from old and new languaging practices. Similarly, Rose also collaboratively theorized and translanguaged her identities with members of both her classroom and local communities, drawing from diverse notions and practices of racial characterization to create expressions that felt most authentic to her background and perceptions of her own blackness. When deciding the racial moniker she preferred to be called in Brazil, Rose chose the descriptively nebulous morena, or “dark,” instead of the more exact negra, or “black.” Rose (from Week 10 Group Interview) It’s, it’s a solution. The, the whole morena thing, I find that, that makes me feel comfortable because that’s acknowledging that you look black, but that you have something else. So then like, oh, morena, and oh NINA: ROSE: LETI:

ROSE:

But then what is, who is the something else? Like it has, it’sIt’s that validation. It’s that you’re actually beautiful in some way because you’re not black. Right, because you’re NOT black. Yes. So it’s your, so you’re reinforcing, and I think we talked about this too, that like black peo-, black’s considered like ugly and stupid, and then white’s considered amazing and smart. Right.

186

Rose’s Story LETI:

And so if you have, if people say like you’re acting white, it’s a compliment. It’s like, oh, you’re doing something right with yourself. You’re acting black, you’re acting a fool [. . .]

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

ROSE:

It’s, it’s a problem. It, it’s, I know it’s a problem. It’s, I feel that I’m informed enough about all of this discourse to know that it is wrong for me to think the way that I do. But it’s more of like an emotional thing that I need to fix than like an actual whole mentality. It has to do with emotion. NINA: Emotional first. ROSE: Right. Because like I was walking with M___ from like the, the other thing. And this vendor, you know how they, they, they say stuff to you like in the Baha-, Bahamas. Like hey there pretty girl. They say something, some type of compliment to you to get you to come over. And he said, hey, you, you beautiful black girl! And I could not decide whether I liked that or not. LETI: Oh my god, not ROSE: I could not decide whether, I was like I don’t know if I should be offended or take it as a compliment. Because I know he was saying it, you know, as a compliment because they compliment you because they want you to buy something from them. DIDIER: But why did he have to acknowledge your color as a description? ROSE: As hey black. Well, yeah, I know. But the thing was I noticed that I immediately was, kind of, stepped back. Through her choice to name herself morena, Rose found “a solution” to having other aspects of her ethno-racial heritage obscured by the blanket term negra. This choice was a possibility that would not have been available to her in English, because, in the United States, African Americans whose parents both identify as black are not typically regarded as anything but black. However, according to Brazilian social understandings and languaging practices, Rose was able to construct and assume a new racialized identity that better represented how she wanted to be seen. For her, learning to speak blackness in Brazil gave her the opportunity to assume and represent a more accurate and authentic racialized self. Of course, this discursive act of self-reference and representation was not without complication. Rose was compelled to negotiate this new racialized identity she was constructing in Portuguese and even defend it among the other study participants, who were also deciding how to speak

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Rose’s Story

187

their blackness in Brazil and who questioned her reasons for wanting to be called morena. In Chapter 4, we saw how Nina had adamantly refused to be called morena because she strongly identified with being negra and wished to defy the racist notion that her attractiveness and favorable social status meant she could not be called black. We also saw in Chapter 5 how Nina criticized Didier’s choice to highlight his Creole ethnicity when identifying himself to Brazilians, because she believed that he was doing this to appear somehow less black. In Chapter 6, Leti embraced being called black, or pretinha, by Brazilians in a way that she would not have done if Dominicans called her negrita. Bolstered by their convictions, experiences, and resulting choices to reject the term morena, Nina and Leti challenged Rose’s preference for it. Her explanation for this preference recalled aspects of Rose’s background and experience discussed earlier in this chapter that had contributed to some sense of racialized insecurity and feelings of not being considered beautiful by all the black men around her who she saw more aggressively pursuing lighter-skinned and straighter-haired women. When she was confronted with her friends’ unfavorable judgment of her racialized nominative identity in Portuguese, Rose admitted that, on a logical and intellectual plane, she agreed that her rejection of being called negra was problematic; however, her negative reaction against it originated from a much deeper, visceral source. Language is a profoundly local, highly contextualized practice (see Pennycook, 2010 for a complete discussion). Thus we learn to conceive of and give voice to ourselves within the ideologies and other meaning-making practices of the local contexts and communities in which we participate. As Rose shaped the way she imagined and spoke her blackness in Brazil, her friends’ and her own negative views of her rejection of the term negra factored into her transformation into morena. Experiences and understandings from her past also contributed to Rose’s choices of the particular Brazilian understandings and new languaging practices of self-representation and description in Portuguese that—for better or worse—felt most comfortable and authentic. Another factor that perhaps contributed to Rose’s unwillingness to be swayed by her friends’ insistence that she speak blackness in a way that mirrored their Brazil-inspired stronger political alignment with black identity was her disappointing discovery that Brazil was not the bastion of black pride that she had previously idealized. Rose arrived in Salvador initially enamored with her assumptions of harmonious race relations and the exaltation of blackness promoted by the media, commercialized tourism, and other city image makers. These illusions disappeared and gave way to frustration and disillusionment as she encountered practices within the local communities that for her recalled the gendered racism and colorism she knew all too well from home. While Rose appreciated the latitude that Brazilian intermediary terms such as morena gave her in conceptualizing and

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

188

Rose’s Story

speaking her most authentic blackness, she, however, recognized that such languaging practices displayed an unexpected and disappointingly familiar hostility to blackness. In the previous case studies, I discussed how issues of sexual attractiveness and gendered relations permeated throughout the study participants’ experiences in Salvador and showed how they negotiated the intersectionalities of race and gender identities. For these African American students, learning to speak blackness in Brazil had everything to do with understanding how to language black womanhood and black manhood. Given that the departure point for racialization is the hierarchical categorization of physical differences, it was critical for them to work through the understandings and practices related to how Brazilians view and language black bodies. In this process, Rose constructed and negotiated multiple aspects of her identities while engaged in transformative socialization within the translanguaging space of discourse. Her writings, for example, displayed the convergences of her various worlds and illustrated how she drew from her new understandings of Brazilian society and compared these to her own to make meaning from the available resources: Rose (from Afro-Brazilian Culture and History Class Essay)

Instructor Comment Carnival in Bahia, Rio, or both? One thing, can be good or bad, that Brazil is famous for. . . pretty women. Millions of tourists visit Brazil every year, the greatest

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Rose’s Story

189

quantity during carnival, to see the women (men and women). What is the problematic about this first is the sexualization of the Brazilian woman, but also the absence of black women on the carnival float. The image of beauty portrayed is of skin the color of honey, long hair and characteristics more or less European; a woman who is neither black nor white. White Brazilian women have the first position in class (including education, work, and salary), and “morenas” [mixed race black or dark-haired white women] have first position in beauty, leaving nothing desirable for the black woman; work. The European standard normally does not accept the characteristics of a black woman. However, there is another norm, the black standard. Before carnival there are contests to be the queen of the Bahian carnival. She should represent beauty, movement, spirit, soul, ancestrality, and the life of the black population of Brazil but she should be unquestionably black. Beauty is a thing that should be consistent, what is really pretty for one person usually is pretty for more than one. One comment common in the U.S. for pretty black women is “you are pretty for a black girl.” The exception is necessary to justify a black woman being pretty and it creates a divide between the races. Complete harmony cannot exist until perspectives about subjects like beauty are shared. The topics the participants chose to write about in their language, literature, and culture classes were not predetermined by the instructors, so the students were free to explore issues of personal interest, as long as they had some relevance to the general course material. In the essay excerpt, Rose problematizes the highly sexualized image of the Brazilian woman, epitomized both in the country and internationally by the ubiquitous bikini-clad, samba-dancing Rio de Janeiro carnival muse. This figure is an iconic representation of the mulata, an Afro-Brazilian woman of mixed race, whose physical and cultural persona is unique in that it is also “a card-carrying profession” (Nascimento, 2006) since mulata is the official look and title for percussion band-fronting samba dancers and showgirls. The ones considered most beautiful have honey or café au lait-colored skin and loosely curled long hair framing faces with more Europeanized features (e.g., thinner nose and lips than typical Africans). The iconic sensuality and highly erotic appeal of mulata bodies rests in their more African long legs, curvy thighs, and plump, shapely bundas (buttocks), all of which they expertly shake and shimmy in West African–originated dance movements. These mulatas of the highest caliber famously represent “the best of both worlds”—African body and European skin, hair, face—and are described as mulata tipo exportação, which means, “export quality multata.” Their moniker is not by chance, as it codifies the Brazilian mulata’s status (and, many times, her actual domestic and international sexual trafficking) as a product of mass consumption.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

190

Rose’s Story

In her paper, Rose notes that, as in the United States, standards of beauty for Brazilian women favor a more typically European appearance, and the Afro-Brazilian women considered most desirable are the light-skinned and wavy-haired mulatas. However, she also lauds the fact that Salvador has its own local carnival traditions, and some performance groups insist on promoting aesthetics of beauty that more accurately represent its mostly dark-skinned black populace. Rose’s analysis of the types of status afforded Brazilian women based on their racialized identities remarkably mirrored a popular phrase5 used by the country’s most famous sociologist and anthropologist Gilberto Freyre (1933) in his seminal work Casa grande e senzala (English version The Masters and the Slaves) to describe the gendered social stratification of women during the colonial era and how race determined and continues to reflect their utility in this patriarchal society (see Nascimento, 2006; Caldwell, 2007 for full discussion on race and gender in Brazil). These themes and ideas Rose wrote about demonstrated that, although she went to Brazil primarily to study Portuguese, the new understandings and languaging practices she was learning were not exclusively related to linguistic forms and structures. Moreover, it was just as necessary for her to draw upon these new resources—along with her own background and racialized identities—while working in translanguaging spaces to conceptualize and speak blackness in Brazil. The following excerpt from her language learning autobiography describing experiences from home illustrates this. It is also shown in interview statements where Rose discussed how she drew from, interpreted, and reconciled prior knowledge with new (but somehow still familiar and old) information she was discovering in Salvador: Rose (from Language Learning Autobiography) As with a lot of black communities, light skin and silky straight hair was idolized. Black was not beautiful. Most of my family is light and this made me perceive myself as the odd one out. The nickname that my mother gave me, chocolate chip, was now an insult. No matter how many times she told me how she prayed for a chocolate girl and how beautiful my color was, I didn’t see it. I blamed the people of my [99% black] school for making me see myself in this light. Rose (from Week 10 Interview) Well, I’ve actually thought about this, I think, on Saturday how I’m amazed how the entire world, entire world idolizes whiteness. Amazed, like I didn’t, I thought I would come here and just be like, oh we’re proud to be black and like black is beautiful and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then we’re walking down the street and they keep calling [Amy] and [Leslie].6 Linda! Oh, que linda, linda!7 I’m like okay I understand,

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Rose’s Story

191

they’re different, but what, it’s something underneath that. Where these people are like and I’m like, wherever, how did you brainwash an entire planet, an entire planet? I just thought about that Saturday. And I was kind of frustrated, because I’m like I’m trying to get play, okay? In the U.S. I’m at [Geisel College] where I already have slim pickings, and I come here expecting to, you know, have these beautiful chocolate reddish colored men [then they] just all up and jumping on the loira,8 I’m like, okay. While there was much novelty for Rose to discover and work with while translanguaging identities and body to learn how to speak blackness in Brazil, the juxtaposition of her academic and personal statements showed that some negative practices within the local communities were all too familiar. Through her observations of Brazilian racism and sexism, she was forced to confront old demons of intraracial colorism in her family, social, and schooling experiences that had negatively shaped her background and perceptions of beauty and self-concept. These observations influenced how she viewed herself, her place, and her choices and efforts in participation in local Brazilian communities where she encountered racism, thus signaling a shift in her investments therein. The observations also reveal the complexity of Rose’s decision to name herself morena—a choice she described as a “problem” because of the aversion to blackness implied in how the term is commonly used and her continued embrace of it despite having suffered from the negative impact of the harmful ideologies of gendered racism that it implies. Fortunately, Rose did not always encounter and have to grapple with racism while gaining new understandings and developing new practices in the embodied languaging of blackness in Brazil. In the area of dance and physical movement, she delighted and excelled in the enactment and expressions of her many selves. While still at Geisel College, she, Nina, and Didier frequently watched Afro-Brazilian music videos and tried to learn the songs and dances, which they loved because they were so similar to the rhythms and moves of popular African American forms. Their efforts at this learning continued after they arrived in Salvador, and along with the outings they made to nightclubs and concerts, they also enthusiastically participated in an Afro-Brazilian dance workshop offered at BACI. Rose (pictured wearing a tank top and black jogging pants in the three pictures that follow) was especially adept at almost exactly reproducing the movements taught by the instructor. First, she watches intently as the dances are demonstrated. Then, while the instructor is still showing the moves, she slowly and quietly dances along. Finally, when her turn comes to showcase what she has learned, Rose bursts into a near perfect samba, pagode, or axé, as the Afro-Brazilian dance instructor and her drummer son shriek in surprise and delight.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

192

Rose’s Story

1) observes

2) dances along while watching

3) performs

Emerging and experienced multilinguals draw multiple meaning-making modalities and resources from their individual backgrounds, identities, different languages—in short, all of their linguistic repertoire—to create new practices and accomplish an interaction. Discourse entails languaging practices in oral, written, symbolic, and embodied forms. Jointly with other interlocutors, participants in an interaction use their own, each other’s, and new understandings and contributions to make meaning and do language. In the modality of physical movement, Rose spoke fluently. Popular AfroBrazilian music and dance appealed greatly to her because of its similarity with her favorite African American forms. She spent a lot of time watching music and performance videos that introduced her to different rhythms and movements. Before interacting with the black Brazilians leading the dance workshop, Rose had already engaged in and excelled in the embodied translanguaging of her ethno-racial identities through dance and rhythmical movement. During the workshop, she draws from her background and understandings of African American culture as she successfully participates in and is socialized into black practices of movement and embodied discourse. Rose’s dance partners and other interlocutors marvel at her confident and seemingly instantaneous mastery of these new ways of speaking blackness in Brazil. Returning again to the interrelatedness of language, culture, and social identity discussed in Chapter 2, languaging in ways that are ideologically associated with or index specific groups of types of people may just as easily mark a speaker of African American English (AAE) as black American as it can highlight the Afro-Brazilian identity of a Capoeira player or a pagode dancer. Ibrahim’s (2014) “ethnography of performance” among adolescent African immigrants in Canada showed that when these youngsters were learning AAE, they explicitly recognized, invested, and sought to gain valuable capital in what he called the “the signifying economy of race” (p. 31). Availing themselves to the fullest, most expansive discourse of

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Rose’s Story

193

race, the African immigrants considered the mastery and constant display of R&B and hip-hop African American culture-influenced postures, gesturing, and dance as equally essential to the expression of their desired identity as were their voices through spoken language. Embodied languaging practices thus served as both a mirror and their model (Dyck & Archetti, 2003) of this new language subjectivity. Much in the same way as Ibrahim’s African youngsters, Nina, Didier, and Rose incorporated new understandings and practices in embodied discourse from Afro-Brazilian popular music and dance into shaping new Portuguese language identities, while Leti drew her knowledge from Capoeira. All four students’ engagement, translanguaging, and success in performing Afro-Brazilian rhythmical movement exemplify how they learned to speak blackness in Brazil.

Part III—Choices and Efforts in (Non)Participation To understand fully the choices and efforts Rose made to participate or not in different classroom and local communities where she was expected to speak and contribute to different types of interactions, it is important to examine how she approached the very act of opening her mouth to give rise to her voice. Rose experienced many difficulties, anxieties, and insecurities while speaking Portuguese, especially within her classroom communities, where she believed she was being evaluated and compared to other classmates. The psycholinguistic tradition of second language acquisition research has developed an entire body of work on learners’ willingness to communicate (WTC), primarily inspired by MacIntyre et al.’s (1998) original model describing it as a function of the multitiered interactions between communicative/linguistic competence and communication anxiety. However, as in the case of psycholinguistic motivation, WTC has promoted a psychological view of individuals as endowed with static and essentialist personalities, which are treated as enduring features to be acted upon or triggered into some kind of reaction by situational contexts and variables (Léger & Storch, 2009). A broader understanding of Rose’s struggles to give voice to herself in Portuguese, beyond a mere willingness or not to speak, should also consider Tsui’s (1996) suggestion that a new language learner’s reticence to speak in the classroom results primarily from high levels of anxiety. This is caused by factors such as the perception of his or her low proficiency; fear of error and embarrassment in a high-pressure environment; and most, importantly, the instructor and or classroom’s intolerance of long periods of silence, which leads to more attention and opportunities to speak given to those who can do so more promptly, consequently creating a hierarchy of legitimate and illegitimate speakers. Per Liu (2002), other factors that contribute to such silence and reticence to speak include an individual’s background and the nature of his or her previous learning experiences; the impact of classroom instructional styles and pressure from expectations of

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

194

Rose’s Story

participation as a requirement for achievement and success; self-confidence and pre-disposition to risk-taking; sociocultural factors such as facework and deference to others through silence; and, very importantly, the contextual dynamics of power and dominance within a classroom community that determine one’s perceived right to speak. Before Rose arrived in Salvador, she had already been struggling in the level 1 Geisel College Portuguese course taught by the Geisel College professor who would go on to direct the study abroad program. Although she had earned the prerequisite B+ needed to travel with the group, the director told Rose that her performance in class, tests, and written assignments had been only minimally satisfactory and that she would be granted provisional entry into the program with the expectation that she would score higher marks, participate more actively in the classroom, and demonstrate more proficiency in the language. During her pre-observational period interview, I asked Rose how she believed she fared learning Portuguese when compared to others in her group. She told me that, in her view, she was the “second worst in the class.” Furthermore, it occurred in Portuguese language study and was also common in Rose’s previous formal language learning experiences that she was the one who initially spoke better than most others, but then somehow stalled and never again caught up when other group members reached and moved on past her emerging expertise. As Rose attempted to speak during her first week in Salvador, the pressures and insecurities associated with feeling like she was being labeled and being treated by others as the one with the most problems learning Portuguese choked her into silence: Rose (from Week 1 Journal) I feel like my throat is cocked shut with cotton when I’m walking down the street or get in a taxt [taxi] knowing that someone asking a simple question could be a challenge, maybe even impossible. In addition to feeling silenced and unable to allow her voice to surge, Rose was also saddened by the fact that, because she found it difficult to speak under pressure and often remained quiet, most people simply assumed she did not understand anything at all and was not learning Portuguese. The following excerpt from her post-study observational period reflections quotes her jottings from a private journal she maintained while in Salvador, which showed her grateful, almost tearful reaction to the fact that a Brazilian within the local community had recognized that she was indeed making progress in Portuguese: Rose (from Post-Study Reflections 1) He noticed that no matter how fast he spoke, I understood. He told me “oh, you understand you just have trouble speaking.” I almost teared up at that. No one ever recognizes that I’m learning. I get the vocab, I

Rose’s Story

195

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

hear the tenses, I even dream in Portuguese. Progress is measured in a way that I just can’t keep up with (at least right now). To escape the pressures of speaking Portuguese or having to remain quiet when she wanted to speak, Rose sometimes relied on the ability to “default back” or translanguage in Portuguese and English. Although this recourse was criticized by her instructors (as we will see later in this chapter), translanguaging served Rose well, even during moments, such as an intimate encounter with her Afro-Brazilian romantic interest, when she did it, not necessarily because of pressure and anxiety, but instead, to use her vocabulary resources more appropriately, see the following: Rose (from Post-Study Reflections 2) [. . .] language comes in in the fact that he was saying ish9 and I was like “what?! oh, que?!” You default back to the path of least resistance in a situation like that, so English it was. He was saying all types of stuff that I’m sure would make it rain, but it fell on might-as-well-be-deaf ears. Sounded hella nasty, though. Eventually we had to start using medical terms which was HILARIOUS. I wish I remembered the slang terms for all the naughty bits and actions, cuz he went through quite a few trying to communicate with me. He could’ve just SHUT UP and enjoyed it. In the more relaxed and pleasurable context of a sexual interlude, Rose demonstrated her relative ease with not necessarily being able to understand and say everything that she would have wanted to in Portuguese. She also showed the ability to laugh and take these difficulties in stride while translanguaging to draw from the resources she and her interlocutor had available to make meaning. Such examples and the contexts in which they occur are very important to note in light of all the other situations described in this chapter, where Rose’s difficulties giving voice to herself in Portuguese were fraught with pressure and stress, she froze and withdrew from the interaction, or was not afforded the opportunity to work her own way out of communicative hiccups. Rose also sometimes translanguaged in English and Portuguese, knowing that her instructors would be able to understand her when she experienced pressure or difficulty speaking. This recourse was not viewed nor managed in the same way it was with Nina, who spoke English much more frequently than Rose. Instructors treated Nina in a way that demonstrated they believed her translanguaging resulted more from laziness and rebellion than any serious difficulty with Portuguese. I did not observe them responding to Nina in English, and their constant admonition of her not speaking Portuguese signaled that they imagined she actually had the capacity to do so. Messages communicated to Rose regarding her use of English were not as consistent, nor did they display the same assuredness of her ability to meet the program’s monolingual standards.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

196

Rose’s Story

For example, sometimes when she wrote essays for class, Rose would block quote entire reference passages in English instead of using a version in Portuguese translation or translating the quotation herself, in accordance with the conventions of multilingual citations in academic writing. Other times, she would just write an entire paragraph of original text and analysis in English. In response to these practices, the Afro-Brazilian Culture and History course instructor wrote her messages in Portuguese telling her that everything in the essay should be written in Portuguese; however, the Brazilian Literature instructor wrote the same message in English. On one particular essay, he notified Rose that, although her ideas as a whole were adequate enough, her writing in the Portuguese language remained “complicated.” The instructor unequivocally told Rose that he recognized she had considerable difficulties expressing herself in Portuguese; however, he did not signal that he believed she could overcome them. The following episode from Rose’s Portuguese Language classroom community also illustrates the subtle and mixed messages that were communicated to Rose about her translanguaging practices, along with the clear signs that abounded regarding others’ perceptions of the weakness of her ability to speak Portuguese. Before the transcribed episode began, the teacher asked Rose a question regarding some occurrences during a film that the group had watched for class. However, when she did not appear to know the exact scene he was referring to and was taking a long time to formulate questions to ask the instructor and situate herself within the plot, Leti raised her hand, interrupted Rose’s clarification exchange with the teacher, and answered the question. After praising Leti’s response, the teacher returns to Rose to give her a chance at another query: 01 T:

aí sim aí na segunda vez o que é que acontece Rose? so yes there the second time what happens Rose? 02 como ela aparece? ela tá usando o vestido how does she appear? she is wearing the dress 03 Rose: [((smiling and using pencil in right hand to poke and point toward her left side [right under her arm)) 04 [não sei o que chama ((giggles)) tick- tag 05 ((looks toward person sitting off camera at right)) 06 T: eh?—ti?—quEH?—tah 07 Rose: etiqueta? tag? 08 T: etiqueta 09 Rose: [etiqueta tem ela ahm 10 [tag has she ahm 11 [((giggles, motions with pencil away from body)) 12 [remover? remove?

Rose’s Story 13 14 T:

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

15 Rose: 16 T: 17 18 19 20

Rose: T: Rose: T:

21 Rose: 22 T: 23 Rose: 24 25 26 27

((starts to laugh turning head down toward legs)) use outra palavra que você sabe use another word that you know huh? explique com outra palavra explain with another word oh ((turns eyes up and to the right)) if you do not know this word explain it with other words uhhmmm ela? she? tirar take off i:::sso↓ tha:::t’s it↓ e um os ((motions hands forward and around)) and one the câmera camera ((sweeps hands down both pointing together)) ((places right hand over mouth)) I don’t kno::w↑

(line 26) motions camera focus/shot direction

(line 27) places hand over mouth

28 T: show show 29 Rose: ((looks quizzically at teacher))

197

198

Rose’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

30 T: 31 Inga:

how do you say show? ((looking to her right at Rose, whispers)) mostrou showed 32 Rose: ((claps hands once quickly)) 33 mostrou 34 T: i:::sso ah hah↑ tha:::t’s it ah hah↑ 35 Rose: ((looks at Inga rolls eyes and laughs)) I knew that 36 Inga: ((laughs))

(lines 36–38) “I knew that”

37 T: 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

mas qual but which e aí quando ele mostra o que acontece? and then when he shows it what happens? como é que estava? how was it? S: ao outro lado on the other side Didier: ((extends his right hand and flips palm over)) Rose: ((looks down then up)) T: aí eles viraram de cabeça para baixo and then they turned it upside down aí NÃO NÃO NÃO and then NO NO NO aí viram de novo and then they turn it again

Rose’s Story

199

aí mostra Só Lindezas (.) muito bem and then it shows Só Lindezas (.) very good 47 Rose: ((looks back down again))

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

46

The instructor asks Rose to describe a scene from the movie the class had watched about the misadventures of a group of amateur filmmakers. She had to explain how the lead actress of this unfortunate production was clumsily attempting to make sure that the tag featuring the name of a local boutique that donated the ball gown she was wearing was seen on camera in order to fulfill the promise of free advertising the team had made to the store owner. A primary focus of the scene was the tag, and, therefore, Rose had to mention it. However, she is not sure what “tag” is called in Portuguese and makes attempts at saying the word using its English while nervously giggling and gesturing on her body where it was located (lines 3–5). The teacher intervenes and tries sounding out individual syllables of the word in Portuguese, each with a question-like rising intonation, “eh?—ti?—quEH?—tah,” possibly hoping to jog her memory before he said the entire word, but Rose only repeats “etiqueta” after he completes it (lines 6–8). Rose then proceeds to describe how the actress removed the tag from her dress to show the boutique name on camera but seems also at a loss for the word to describe this action. She giggles and gestures again, while saying in Portuguese “remover?” with an intonational signal to verify if that was indeed correct (lines 9–12). Although the word remover in Portuguese does mean “remove,” the teacher rejects it and asks Rose to use another. Rose is confused by this request and says “huh?” (line 15), to which the instructor reiterates in Portuguese that she should explain the removing action with another word. Rose acquiesces with an “oh” and then looks up and to her right in a pensive expression, as if to think of this other word. However, the teacher, after explaining his request to her in Portuguese twice, makes it again in English saying, “If you do not know this word explain it with other words” (line 18). With this sentence, the instructor exercises his authority as the arbiter of linguistic expertise in the classroom and establishes a frame in which Rose’s apparent lack of knowledge of Portuguese is doubly emphasized by both his use of English to repeat a request twice made in Portuguese, as well as his phrasing, “If you do not know this word,” which could have well been said without the “if.” This frame goes unchallenged, even though Rose had provided a correct word in the first place, therefore making it unnecessary to ask her for another. Furthermore, she had signaled that she did understand his request in Portuguese, therefore also rendering moot his reiteration of it in English. Rose eventually finds another word for remove, tirar, which the instructor accepts; however, she gets stuck again, makes other gestures, and then puts her right hand over her mouth and simply says, “I don’t kno::w↑” as she gives up trying to describe how the camera had focused upon the writing on the torn-off tag (lines 21–27). The teacher gives her the verb she needs directly in English “show show//how do you say show?” (lines 28, 30) while

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

200

Rose’s Story

Inga, a classmate seated to her left—and the study abroad program participant recognized as one of the best speakers among the level 1 cohort—leans toward Rose and whispers in Portuguese “mostrou” (line 31). Rose repeats the word to the teacher’s delighted “tha::t’s it ah hah↑” and looks at Inga to jokingly admonish her that she did indeed know it (lines 32–35). However, the description of the scene is not complete, and the teacher asks other questions. Rose at this point is no longer given a chance to respond, as Didier gestures with his right palm the answer to the teacher’s question about which way the tag was facing, the instructor hurriedly accepts it and then fills in the rest of the story himself. Rose briefly looks up and around at what took place and then turns her head and eyes back down again toward her open notebook (lines 37–47). The episode from Rose’s Portuguese Language classroom showed the inconsistent messages communicated to Rose about the validity of translanguaging practices to make meaning. Even though it was the general understanding that the instructor disapproved of her “falling back on English,” he used English to attempt to help her get along in Portuguese, all the while ignoring what she was able to do successfully in Portuguese. The episode also illustrates the pattern of isolation and collaborative correction Rose endured from other members of her classroom communities, who had very low tolerance for the long pauses she would make while attempting to formulate her thoughts and utterances. Ostensibly, to help her get through the difficulties, Rose’s classmates would frequently interrupt her responses, but instead of helping her solve communicative problems, they aggravated them by reinforcing her insecurities about her linguistic expertise and the idea that she could not overcome the obstacles by herself. Returning to the framework of investment orienting this study, the ways in which Rose’s language was managed within her classroom communities illustrate how she was not made to feel valued and encouraged to display her development of new practices in Portuguese, especially in the grammar course. Her unfavorable treatment was a source of great bitterness for Rose and contributed to her lack of investment within this community, where she eventually became withdrawn and almost completely disengaged. It was especially frustrating for Rose to know that others, especially in the local communities, better accommodated her difficulties and helped her learn without making her feel diminished: Rose (from Post-Study Reflections 2) [Portuguese Language instructor]: He’s a ____ (female dog).10 I know that is so disrespectful but, damn, I can’t find a way to not view him that way. I know he gave up on me a long time ago. Every time he calls on me in class I feel like he’s just doing it to act as if he’s fair, knowing I’ll get the answer wrong, throwing salt on a wound. I don’t know . . . maybe I don’t do well in this class because I have nothing to ground it to. Grammar is grammar. Although, I went to visit [Didier] one day and practiced

Rose’s Story

201

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

tenses with a little girl. She couldn’t be more than 4 and just listened to me speak to her. Just simple sentences, but how she responded told me if I got it right. She would just look confused if I said something wrong, trusting that I was the one that knew the language since she was still learning. A few, “que” interjections would get me to the right string of words. I don’t know how you could integrate that into a classroom Rose believed and was shown that she was able to do well speaking Portuguese when approached and treated differently. This related to how negatively she reacted to stress and pressure, her perceptions of others’ expectations of her, and the fact that, not only her language but also whether or not and how often she spoke up to use it were all constantly being evaluated. Although Rose did not actively speak out in the classroom, she feverishly wrote her thoughts and observations in her notebook where she recorded both academic and personal ideas. She would also make asides to Didier, Nina, or other friends sitting close by—sometimes expressing ideas that the instructor would then vocalize shortly after. However, these aspects of her participation were not recognized when instructors demanded that she contribute more to classroom discussions, nor did the knowledge she successfully acquired translate into high marks on written tests and assignments, which formed the evaluative basis of academic success in the Salvador study abroad program. Other students who experienced difficulties frequently visited instructor office hours for additional help to make personal connections with these institutional agents and gatekeepers and, if necessary, give explanations for why things were awry. Rose’s academic background from a large, low-performing urban public high school did not socialize her into the practice of ingratiating herself to and forming relationships with teachers, nor making demands of their time and assistance outside the classroom. Unlike many of her classmates, Rose had never been made to believe that she was entitled to this attention and that it was part of her instructors’ job to give it to her. She had gotten as far as she had in school and had done spectacularly well by simply working as hard as she could by herself to make sense of course material and complete the assignments. No one had ever told Rose what to do when doing her best all by herself no longer worked, yet everyone still expected her to know. During the fifth week of the program, the director and his site coordinator met with Rose to discuss what they felt was her lack of progress in learning Portuguese and fulfilling the academic requirements. The director invited me to the meeting. The following are my notes: Uju (from Field Notes) Rose is quiet (today and most of the time) [Program director] told me that he and [site coordinator] will have a talk with Rose later today about her lack of progress. He wants me to attend.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

202

Rose’s Story The talk went down, and it was horrible. They both talked seriously to her about what she had to do to improve, she was barely keeping herself together, and I tried to ease the whole scene and offered some concrete strategies on how to do the readings and prepare for participation in class instead of the just work harder thing. Then [the director] told her that I gave her o leite11 and she should be grateful and do what I say and “really work harder” Shit, then I became complicit in browbeating her for perceived failure. This sucks balls. I wonder how my status as the colored wonder child and the way I’m constantly being glorified as “the Portuguese program success story” makes this woman feel. And here I was giving her hints on how to be as fabulous as me and probably looking superior and condescending as fuck all the while. It was obvious none of that shit made her feel any better, hell I know it made it worse. I am seriously questioning my usefulness here and why I was invited to the meeting. If it was to help Rose and make her feel better, my sense is that was the absolute last thing that happened, for sure.

The program director and the site coordinator believed she was in grave danger of failing her classes in Salvador, and these counted as Geisel College course credits, thus making her subject to citation and possible suspension for unsatisfactory academic performance. Since it was only the midpoint of the trimester, they said Rose had ample time to improve. However, she had to “work harder,” go to office hours and tutoring every day and volunteer to speak up much more frequently in class to show that she was not only learning the course material but also becoming fluent in Portuguese. Through my invitation and participation in the meeting, I contributed to and validated the institutional sanction of Rose’s performance in the program. What was proposed, and I envisioned as my positive support and example, was instead an exercise in exerting power over and delegitimizing someone in a vulnerable position. By offering help to Rose during the meeting, instead of outside in private, I validated the collective assessment of her failures, providing additional demonstration of just how much she fell short of everyone’s expectations. Rose’s silence and lack of active vocal participation in her classroom communities had become serious liabilities for her success within them and, regardless of any gains she made communicating in outside communities where she felt less pressured, more comfortable, valued, respected, and encouraged, perceptions remained that she was not learning Portuguese. These perceptions of Rose’s failures, her unfavorable classroom treatment, the constant admonitions to “work harder,” plus the stress, pressure, and insecurity of feeling unable to show Portuguese learning success according to program expectations, all culminated in a painful episode in the secondto-last week of the program when Rose was compelled to leave her language class after breaking down in tears: 01 T:

e finalmente (.) Rose and finally (.) Rose

Rose’s Story

203

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

02 Nina: ((turns upper body around toward back to look at Rose)) 03 Rose: ((slaps right palm on desk, opening eyes and mouth wide to look at Nina)) 04 Ss: ((every student in the room turns upper body or head toward Rose))

(lines 3–4) Rose opens eyes wide and slaps desk as all classmates look at her

05 Nina: ((turns again to face teacher, who is off camera in the front of the room)) 06 ontem você disse que [ela não pode yesterday you said that [she can not 07 Rose: [você diz ontem que eu não posso [you say yesterday that I can not 08 ((holding pen in right hand between thumb and bottom of index finger, raises hand and shakes it once in a jerking motion to the right side)) 09 T: sim é yes right 10 você disse que ia apresentar ontem you said that you were going to present yesterday 11 Ss: ((all gazes turn slightly toward teacher)) 12 T: cê não apresentou ontem↑ you did not present yesterday↑ 13 hoje tem notícia? today you have news? 14 Ss: ((all gazes turn slightly back to Rose)) 15 Nina: ((still looking toward the teacher giving him a sharp cut-eye with left elbow on top of desk and chin resting on left hand)) 16 Didier: ((no longer turned back toward Rose, now looking for ward alternately between teacher and the papers he is shuffling))

204

Rose’s Story

17 Ss: 18 Rose:

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

19 20 T: 21 Rose: 22 T: 23 24 Nina: 25 26 Rose: 27

28 Ss:

((the rest of the students except Nina and Didier still all looking at Rose)) [mas você DIZ que eu não PO↑sso [but you SAY that I CA↑nnot [((torso makes slight jerk forward with each utterance of emphasis)) SIM (.) cê tem ou não tem? YES (.) you have it or not? NÃO↑ NO↑ então pronto (.) não vai fazer? tá well alright (.) you’re not gonna do it? fine vamos (~~) do Carlos Drummond de Andrade let’s (~~) by Carlos Drummond de Andrade ((rolls eyes at teacher, turns back toward Rose)) thought it was (~~) ((turns back to front, shrugs shoulder and shakes head and right hand once)) ((turns head to side to look around at the rest of her classmates)) ((turns back to front looking down at her desk and busies her hands picking up papers, with head slightly down, pinches eyes shut as she begins to cry)) ((everyone except Inga now turns away from Rose))

(lines 27–28) Rose begins to cry as all classmates except Inga look away from her

29 Rose: ((as shuffling noises heard all around the classroom, rests left elbow on desk and head on the back of left hand while turning pages with the right)) Near the end of the Portuguese Language course, the instructor introduced a practice where students made short in-class presentations of stories

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Rose’s Story

205

and current events from local and international news. The transcribed episode occurs immediately after Nina concludes her presentation on two news items from the United States about the beating of an African American man in Chicago by white police officers and the black supermodel television talk show host Tyra Banks’ public announcement that she would no longer wear wigs and hair weaves because she believed she was contributing to societal perceptions of the unattractiveness of black women’s natural features. The instructor praises Nina’s report, asks questions to clarify Portuguese vocabulary regarding artificial hair, and then says, “and finally (.) Rose” (line 1) expecting her news report presentation. Rose appears stunned by the instructor’s directive to present and registers the shock by slapping her right palm on top of her desk with eyes and mouth wide open. She looks to Nina for alignment, who, along with all other students in the classroom, has turned expectantly toward her (lines 3–4). Nina turns back toward the front of the room to face the teacher and, speaking on behalf of Rose, reminds him that he had previously said that she did not have to present that day. Rose interrupts her friend, signaling that she was perfectly capable of speaking for herself and says the same thing Nina did her to the instructor while gesturally punctuating the remark with a sharp jerking motion of the pen she held in her right hand (lines 5–8). All gazes move from Rose to the teacher, who acknowledges her statement with a “yes right” (line 9); however, he immediately disregards his assent by countering that, since she had said she was going to present on the previous day but did not, he was expecting that she now make the report (lines 9–13). Everyone in the classroom now looks toward Rose awaiting her response, except for Nina, who staunchly affiliates with her friend against the teacher by glaring and firing a sharp cut-eye toward him, and Didier, who turns away from Rose and alternates his lowered gaze between the teacher and some papers on his desk he is shuffling. Rose does not relent from her assertion that the instructor had permitted her to postpone the presentation and more forcefully declares in Portuguese “but you SAY that I CA↑nnot” as her torso underlines each utterance of emphasis and increased volume making a slight jerk forward (lines 18–19). The instructor matches the volume and urgency of her statement and once again contradicts himself by saying, “YES (.) you have it or not?” (line 20). Rose responds that she does not, to which the teacher counters, “well alright (.) you’re not gonna do it? fine” (line 22) and immediately shifts the conversation to begin the class reading of the day. Still appearing shocked, Rose seeks alignment and support from classmates by looking around her to meet their gaze. Overcome by emotion, she turns back to her desk and moves her head slightly downward, pinching her eyes shut as tears begin to fall. Tension and discomfort abound in the room as everyone, except Inga, who seems concerned while still facing Rose, turns away to look at their books, bags, and other things (lines 26–29). Through his contradictory agreement that he had indeed permitted her to postpone the presentation while still

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

206

Rose’s Story

demanding that she give it and then receiving her refusal with indignation, the instructor asserts his dominance as the authority figure who was always in the right and Rose’s subordinate role as the perpetual ne’er-do-well. Even though she had taken pains to obtain permission not to do the day’s assignment, she was still made to feel like she failed and purposefully ignored the work, with the very words she uttered in Portuguese in defense of her case invalidated and disregarded as if they had no meaning. A few minutes after the episode, Rose tearfully left the classroom, unable to do her work bearing the weight of this stress and humiliation. In contrast to how negatively she felt and was treated in the classroom, Rose’s experiences with how her Portuguese was received and her difficulties with the language managed in local communities were markedly different. I observed and Rose reported that she felt better and was better regarded as a whole person when she interacted with individuals outside class, especially among those with whom she personally connected ethno-racially. An example of this were her experiences during the day Rose spent at a salon getting her hair braided into long honey and walnut-colored two-stranded Senegalese twists in a working-class black neighborhood of Liberdade, home of Ilê Ayê where Leti volunteered. On the day Rose was expected to go with the study abroad group to register their student visas with the federal police, she could not be found. All anyone knew of her whereabouts was that she’d left home in the morning to get her hair done. Rose had no cell phone or other contact and did not return until almost midnight. She was dumbfounded that anyone missed her on the police station trip because it was the first of two planned visits, and she thought she had a choice on which day to go. The next day’s fallout from Rose missing the police appointment was massive. The director threatened to expel her from the program and send her back to the United States, because he planned the trip specifically to make sure her papers were in order. In her last-minute rush to purchase a ticket and visa for the study abroad program (because of a lack of funds), Rose thought she lost her passport and instead forgot that she had left it at the embassy for a visa stamp. She missed her departure flight applying and waiting for new documents and arrived a day late to Brazil with both her old cancelled passport with the visa stamp and the new one for travel. After all that, the program director saw Rose as an irresponsible, absentminded person incapable of the simplest task. On the day of the trip to the police, the BACI site coordinator had also been very worried because she had spoken hourly on the phone with Rose’s host mother, and neither of the white women understood how someone could disappear from 9:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. just to do hair. Furthermore, since Rose had said that she was going to a salon in a working-class black neighborhood, they imagined some ill had befallen her in that reputedly dangerous area. Rose arrived home to face an angry host mother, who demanded to know why she had not advised that she would arrive so late.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Rose’s Story

207

Figure 7.1 Rose’s braids

At school the next day, Rose also faced the furious director and BACI coordinator repeatedly asking, “What was so important?” “Why couldn’t you wait?” “And why did it have to take all day and all night?” “It’s just hair!” However, Rose’s personal accounts of her experiences showed otherwise. When it comes to black women, hair is most certainly NOT just hair. The ways our lives are shaped by it, as well as our thoughts and ideas about hair, are “intricately connected to cultural identity, gendered experiences, and racial consciousness” (Jacobs-Huey, 2006, p. 14).

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

208

Rose’s Story

During the first few weeks Rose spent in Salvador, she could not stop thinking about her hair and how unkempt and unattractive she believed she appeared in a brand-new city where she was eager to make a good impression. Shortly before arriving, she had decided to stop chemically straightening her hair and did not feel familiar enough with caring for natural hair to believe hers appeared beautiful. Rose saw gorgeous braid styles all around Salvador and desperately wanted to do something similar to her hair, not just to look as lovely as the Afro-Brazilian women but also to take a long break from worrying about styling her hair every day while it outgrew the bi-textured “awkward phase.” Gendered practices of patriarchal societies equate the value of women with our physical beauty (Banner, 1983; Bartky, 1988; Wolf, 1991). As black women, whose natural appearance (e.g., dark skin, short tightly curled hair) is deemed less than ideal when compared to European standards of beauty (e.g., fair skin, long straight hair), we are especially sensitive to the intersections of the ideologies of beauty, racism, and human worth (hooks, 1992; Craig, 2002, 2006). For Rose, getting her hair braided was countless times more important than anything else she could have done that day, including the visit to the federal police station. At the Afro-Brazilian beauty salon, she had an invaluable opportunity to interact within a local community where aspects of her ethno-racial identity were positively affirmed: (From Week 10 interview) UJU:

So where, like places in the city were you felt like you were connected the most or you could intimately relate to or moments that you experienced? ROSE: When I went and got my hair done. I was like oh my gosh it, I feel like I live here. Just what the women were talking about me getting my head yanked back and forth just memories of like back home and like UJU: Beauty Shop ROSE: Gossiping and sitting around, do you want something to eat go get her something to eat. That was like hanging there the whole day, and since I was there the entire day and they closed up shop, we ordered a pizza. It was 11 o’clock at night we stayed and talked some more, I don’t know these women, but it was like family. And it was, and it was, I think it, Ilê Ayê is that where I was? UJU: Yeah, Ilê Ayê in Liberdade. ROSE: Yep, in Liberdade, that’s where it was and there was a man blasting pagode from his trunk on the street the whole time. UJU: Boy was that familiar. ROSE: The whole time and then just you know a guy comes in to show off his sneakers, says, nobody has these. I was like, I’m in, this is the [Rose’s neighborhood in her home city]. It’s just the same. And then telling you, oh no girl, this is what you

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Rose’s Story

209

need to do with your hair, you need to do this and it’s nice and strong and then you get the beauty shop experience where you say, oh you’re going to be, do this, okay go, and then they say, well this cost forty dollars after they start. UJU: [LAUGH] ROSE: So I’m like, that whole thing it was just I felt especially when it was just the women there. It was like one gay man which doesn’t count. UJU: [LAUGH] ROSE: Just sisterly, just very, very and she gave me her number and said come back and visit me. Rose’s use of the word “sisterly” to describe how comfortably and intimately she identified with the Afro-Brazilians with whom she interacted during her day at the Liberdade neighborhood hair salon is notable, as it signaled how highly invested she was in the practices this community. As a result, she actively participated in linguistic and cultural exchange with its members, who at first were unsure about how to include her in their conversations, but then quickly understood both her limitations as well as her strengths and easily accommodated them. In contrast to how marginalized, discomfited, pressured, and self-conscious she was made to feel in her Portuguese Language classroom community, Rose relaxed and became selfassured during her interactions at the hair salon, grateful not to be treated as if she neither knew nor was capable of learning Portuguese: Rose (from Week 10 Interview) Yeah, yes, um that was end of, end of July it was right before my birthday the week before my birthday, so my language skills still weren’t great but I understood. I’ve always understood a lot better than I could speak, like a lot better. To the point where people won’t talk to me because they think I don’t know what they’re saying because I can’t talk back to them. I remember when I first got there I was nervous because I had just walked half an hour trying to find it, and I was late because of that and, and I come in and she starts [babbling noise] and I was like ah, ah, and then she was like, [SIGH]. And I can’t stand it when people do that to me. [SIGH], or something [LOUD OUT-BREATH], after, what why do you have to breathe to talk to me, why? Makes me feel so bad, and so she got the gay guy to like talk to me and take me out and get my hair, and after he realized I could speak, because now we’re walking on the street and I think I really appreciated like the breaks that we would have we had to like, go in a single file line, I’d be talking and then say don’t remember a word. He’d be like going in front of me I’d have time to think about it then when I’d catch my breath I could say it. And after we got back from walking he said, she can talk I don’t know why you, she can say things. And so she’s like, why didn’t you tell me you understood what I

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

210

Rose’s Story was saying, you acted like you didn’t speak Portuguese. I’m like well I just, I’m sorry. So for like the first two hours I was there, he was the only one that spoke to me and then one of the other girls started speaking to me and then another one started speaking to me until finally everybody did. And, and since they knew from the get, I don’t speak this, this well and they were just appreciative that I was speaking at all. I could just say, how do you, that’s when I learned apertado,12 I think that’s what it is, ow, ow and say the word. Ah, repeat it and or, I’d be pointing to someone, what do you call this? And they’d just say it and since I was there twelve hours, I could ask as many questions as I wanted. So that, I really liked that day. It caused some problems later, but I really liked that day. Rose (from Post-Study Reflections 1) When I get to the salon I’m greeted with smiles and “oh you made it!” There’s a man that preps my hair. I remember almost yelling at him for putting a flat iron on my wet hair. I spoke perfectly then, lol. He explained to me that it was to make my hair “mais forte.”13 This is after we walked 5 blocks to buy hair in this alleyway hair shop. I remember having a hard time conversing with him on the walk, but he noticed that no matter how fast he spoke, I understood. He told me “oh, you understand you just have trouble speaking.” I almost teared up at that. No one ever recognizes that I’m learning. I get the vocab, I hear the tenses, I even dream in Portuguese. Progress is measured in a way that I just can’t keep up with (at least right now). It’s been like that since I got to college. Whatever, I just have to make it out. Same here in Brazil, I just have to make it through. They start braiding my hair, gossiping about celebrities and talking about the men in their lives. It felt just like home. There were pictures of beautiful chocolate skinned Brazilian women on the wall, clients sporting the hairstyles that they received at this salon. I was excited that I was going to look at little more “Bahiana” but more excited that I wouldn’t have to deal with my hair. There was Pagode playing out of a car the whole day, filled up the streets. Some crack-head like man kept coming by the front of the store to show off his shoes. As time passed, I started chirping in a little. The owner of the shop said, “ah, pode falar!”14 The man that was there then said “Yes, she can. She understands everything.” I like this guy. Now I was part of the conversation. They asked about America, how the black people are there. blah blah. It was great. I’d been there so long they ordered a pizza for me and the other girl that was getting her hair done. We stood around the pizza, ketchup and mayo and all and kept talking. The owner called me a cab and I went home, it was 11 o’clock by then. The cab driver took a picture of me with his phone, said I looked very nice with my new braids. Great ending to a rough start. So I thought. I walk into the apartment and minha mãe15 is half yelling at me about where I’ve been and how

Rose’s Story

211

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

worried she was. I told her I was getting my hair braided the day before, but I don’t think she realized what that meant. It takes a WHOLE DAY woman. I choked on my words, couldn’t explain what had happened. She just stared at me, I said I was sorry and we went to our rooms. She peeped in to tell me food was in the fridge. So much for a good day. A fundamental difference in how Rose’s language was managed within the context of the hair salon, and the primary reason why she felt at ease, valued, and encouraged to speak Portuguese and actively participate in the conversations, was that members of this local community recognized and treated her as if she was capable of interacting with them. Rose’s interlocutors within her classroom communities approached their interactions with her from a deficit perspective of calling attention to and trying to compensate for what she supposedly could not do in Portuguese. On the other hand, at the hair salon, although they wondered at first if indeed she knew how to speak, they readily incorporated her into their talk when they discovered she knew the language, focusing on her strengths in comprehension instead of her weaknesses in production. Another helpful aspect of her interactions within the hair salon community was the enactment of Rose’s ethno-racialized identity as she basked in the intimate cultural familiarity of the black neighborhood beauty shop experience. In that context, there was a common understanding of similar routines, practices, sights, and actions accessible to those who frequented places that do black women’s hair. This facilitated the establishment of comfort and basic communicative foundations, and it also removed the necessity of excessive or intrusive explanations that make conversation unwieldy. The warmth and comfort Rose felt observing how similar this experience was to what she knew from black life in the United States eliminated all social distance and contributed to relaxing and easing her pressure and self-consciousness. She settled down to chat and gossip for hours in the same way she would do during a similar marathon braiding session back home. Much like Rose’s descriptions of languaging in the hair salon, interactions with her Afro-Brazilian romantic interest were similarly relaxed and charged with intimate familiarity. Most importantly, as in the previously described local community, Rose was not treated nor made to feel as if she could not do well in Portuguese: Rose (from Post-Study Reflections 1) M___ walked me home [that day]. It was from a mall, can’t remember which one, but it was a long walk. I learned how to say breasts after he complimented mine haha. We have the most interesting conversation. It’s profound and casual at the same time. We talk about educational systems, culture, food, our personal lives, social issues . . . all of that. Funny thing is we have to find a way to say the things that we don’t

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

212

Rose’s Story understand. He speaks just enough English to help me out on certain words and still not be a crutch so that I’m forced to figure it out. He gives me time, is unbelievably patient and usually rewards me with some type of affectionate gesture. Nice incentive, right? I tell him about the grammar lessons and he breaks them down for me, gives me examples and has me change around sentences. He’s a great teacher actually. I’ve learned a lot from him because he won’t slow down for me at all, he tells me I’m smart enough to keep up and if I absolutely don’t understand he helps me out. It helps that we’re out in the streets. He points to stuff and acts out things sometimes. He even gets poetic on me, but that’s him trying to get in my pants. Don’t they know they don’t get to decide when that happens?

Obviously, the young man had clear motives and undisguised hopes of being romantically rewarded for his attentive tenderness toward Rose. Nevertheless, the benefits of his differentiated treatment were duly noted and wonderfully enjoyed by the object of his affections. During her interactions with him, Rose felt engaged and connected, and she was highly invested in his practices of linguistic guidance through example, patience, positive encouragement, and playful rewards. Rose eagerly spoke Portuguese with him not only because it was enjoyable to do so but also, because he did not make her feel incapable nor diminished throughout. Additionally, she was liberated by the opportunity for translanguaging, as they both met and complemented one another, drawing from the different linguistic resources they had to make meaning collaboratively. Rose believed that both her person and her contributions were of value to interactions with this young man, and thus she frequently and actively participated.

Part IV—Identities, Investments, and Outcomes Earlier in this chapter, I cited a passage from Rose’s journal writings in which she lamented that, in the Geisel College Portuguese study abroad program in Salvador, “progress is measured in a way that I just can’t keep up.” Perceptions of a program participant’s success in learning the Portuguese language were mostly based upon their performance in academic classrooms and on written assignments. This was the context of the student’s participation where those in the position to judge this success had the most access to and contact with him or her. Throughout much of the time Rose spent in the program classrooms, she remained quiet and observed more than participated in their activities. As I previously discussed, this had to do with some aspects of her personality, educational background, and learning style; her insecurities about her expertise in Portuguese in comparison to other classmates; her dislike of being pressured and put on the spot to speak while being evaluated by classmates and instructors; and the negative ways she was treated and not made to feel encouraged and valued

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Rose’s Story

213

enough to speak. Her difficulties writing in Portuguese were also a barrier to her being perceived as successful in learning this new language. Those were exacerbated by the large amount of reading and writing she had to do while participating in the program’s organized extracurricular activities, as well as her reluctance to ask for tutoring and extra help from her instructors because of how she had previously been socialized to manage academic burdens. The fact that Rose often remained silent and withdrawn from active participation within her classroom communities and that she received low marks in written assignments caused many to assume erroneously that, even by the end of the study abroad program, she had not gained much fluency in Portuguese. However, I observed differently. During the second-to-last week of the program, Rose, Nina, my husband, and I went out to visit a few bars in Pelourinho. At one of the places we stopped, Nina saw her romantic interest, who was there with a friend. Rose did not find the friend very attractive, but “she took one for the team” (in Nina’s words) and entertained him while Nina settled the minor lovers’ quarrel she had with her “boo.” After making up with him, Nina ignored both Rose and the friend while dancing and canoodling. My husband and I remained at the bar for an hour more, wondering when it would be the appropriate time to go home and relieve the babysitter. During this time, I watched Rose engage with the unfortunate third leg who had no chance of winning her affections, and I was astounded at how deftly and confidently she managed their interaction. She chatted effortlessly with him, danced a few times, dodged and ducked his attempted kisses, laughed often (but never too encouragingly), and even made jokes and double entendres in Portuguese! This was a completely different Rose whom no study abroad program instructor nor administrator ever had the opportunity to observe. This Rose was far from the quiet, struggling, and self-conscious wallflower she appeared to be in the classroom and, most definitely, seemed to have very successfully learned Portuguese. In a lowstakes context of little pressure and anxiety, Rose actively participated and showed that she was very capable of holding her own in the language. Unfortunately, she was not able to repeat this sort of stellar performance in the classroom. As Rose described it, she did not struggle with the concepts and material of learning Portuguese, her problems were all related to performance: Rose (from Week 10 Interview) Because I never struggle with the concept. I never, I don’t ever feel like I’m not understanding what’s happening in the class. He’s showing something and then he asks the question and then I answer it in my head and then he gives us the answer and it’s right. So, I wouldn’t say it’s difficult. It’s just performance-wise it’s harder than internally, I suppose.

214

Rose’s Story

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Were Rose to have been evaluated for understandings and abilities other than how she performed speaking and writing Portuguese in the classroom, it would have been much easier to perceive how successfully she had learned not only Portuguese but also, important languacultural practices of the local communities where she interacted. When I asked Rose how she believed she performed and succeeded in the study abroad program in comparison to her other classmates, she responded as follows: Rose (from Week 10 Interview) I fall in the middle, just because I’m at the bottom of class, but I feel like I learned a good deal out and about in the city. I know, I know more of the city than a lot of the people in the program just because I like, I walk everywhere. Cultural things like learning dances, meanings of stuff like psiu,16 learning how to make that sound, what is, what are you, psiu, what do you do? And they do that all the time. With regard to other ways of viewing new language learning success, Rose excelled in mastering languacultural practices that engaged aspects of her multiple identities. For example, through the Afro-Brazilian dance episode (and the countless opportunities she did the same in bars and nightclubs), it was possible to see how well she learned to speak blackness in Brazil by quietly observing, following, imitating, and participating and then performing to display new understandings and the development of new practices. I also made note of Rose’s pattern of languaging through observation, quiet imitation, and repetition and performance within the classroom. Although she seldom spoke out during class—for reasons that have been exhaustively discussed in this chapter—she frequently demonstrated that was she carefully observing, listening, and, in her own way, participating: Rose (from Week 10 Interview) So, I actually learned that from [Amy] is go up and tell them, because it’s just not my personality type. Plus, my school was never like that, where you had a relationship with teachers. It’s not, unless I’m really, really moved by something or unless somebody tells me, go. [Didier] did that to me one time, because I was talking to him telling him my ideas because I, I like, I like to vent them somehow, you might see me like take a paper and start writing in class, because I like to get them out. But I don’t like to speak, I don’t know, it’s just you know how I am. UJU: ROSE:

Don’t make me photocopy your notebook. Okay, where’s your notebook?17 [LAUGH] Yeah, one time [Didier] was like go, I was man I wanted to hit him with my notebook when he told, it was in [Afro-Brazilian Culture and History instructor]’s class and I

Rose’s Story

215

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

was like oh so and so and so, and he’s like yeah, then [AfroBrazilian Culture and History instructor] asked the question that I just answered, he was like, [Rose], you just said that. It was not easy for Rose to speak out in class and seek relationships and dialogue with the instructors and program leadership during office hours. However, these things were expected as fundamental parts of the educational experience and performances of understanding during the study abroad program and also during her coursework at Geisel College. Thus Rose’s interview statements excerpted earlier illustrate an important achievement that she made during her time in Salvador. As a result of all she had endured in the study abroad program, she was learning how to seek relationships with instructors outside class and to ask for help when she was finding it difficult to manage. Regardless of her many negative experiences in Salvador, related especially to problems within classroom communities, Rose never once expressed regret that she attended the Portuguese study abroad program and once described the three months she spent in Brazil as both the best and worst thing that ever happened to her. She took another Portuguese course at Geisel College, because she did not want to lose the expertise that she worked so hard to develop, and she maintains contact and continues to converse through Skype and online social networking sites with a few Afro-Brazilian friends she made in Salvador. However, the greatest gain Rose made from her experience abroad came from her reconnection with an old identity as she shaped a new communicative self: In the beginning it was, I wanted to get to know a culture that was more connected to, you know, to African roots, because we’re missing that in the U.S. And what actually happened is I got to know one culture like that, but I think I got to know myself as an American more than, you know, oh Brazil let’s go and look at you guys and see. No, I got it turned back on me. I got to really see who I was. Returning once again to the idea of investments in language learning and the ways they might influence how successful an individual is perceived to be in meeting the expectations of fluency and advancement, we clearly observed in this chapter how Rose’s lack of investment in many practices of her classroom communities contributed to her disengagement and lack of active participation within them. Consequently, she was viewed as an unmotivated and unsuccessful learner of Portuguese, who only had to “just work harder” and she would remedy her problems. This study revealed that Rose was neither unmotivated nor unsuccessful in multilingualism and learning this additional language. She did not fail the Geisel College study abroad program in Portuguese, as some would assume. On the contrary, in many important ways, the program failed her. However, to get a clearer picture

216

Rose’s Story

of how that occurred, it was necessary to look very closely at her identities, interactions, investments, and participation within both classroom and outside communities.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Notes 1 Afro-Brazilian supermodel most famous for her work with Victoria’s Secret. 2 In Brazil at the time, national policies to institute race and socioeconomic statusbased quotas for admission into public universities were being hotly debated. 3 Afro-Brazilian music group specializing in the very popular samba and pagode styles. 4 “boyfriend” 5 Branca para se casar, mulata para fornicar, negra para cozinhar “White woman to marry, mulatto woman to fornicate, black woman to cook.” 6 White classmates from the study abroad program. 7 “Beautiful! Oh how beautiful, beautiful!” 8 Literally means “blonde” in Portuguese, but commonly used to refer to white women in general. 9 AAE slang used to substitute the word “shit.” 10 Rose’s redaction and gloss 11 the milk 12 tight 13 stronger 14 she can speak 15 my mom 16 A hissing sound Brazilians make to beckon someone or simply get the person’s attention. 17 Rose never gave me her notebook to photocopy, nor did I insist upon looking at it. The notebook contained her personal non-study-related journal writing along with the academic and study abroad program ideas; therefore, it would have been an invasion of her privacy for me to access it as a data source. However, Rose told me that some of her writings for the two post-study reflection pieces she submitted to me after the observational period came directly from jottings in that private notebook.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

8

Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language

Part I—Investments and Communities I undertook this project, because I was troubled by the problem of low rates of participation and advancement of African American students in foreign language and cultural study programs and their underrepresentation as principal subjects in applied linguistics and second language learning research. Instead of focusing on the reasons why many black students do not participate in study abroad or advanced academic programs, I endeavored to discover what could be learned from the experiences of those who do pursue such opportunities. I sought to understand better how black students navigate learning a new language in order to find ways to duplicate conditions that engender their success and ameliorate circumstances that impede it. Through focusing on blacks as primary research subjects, I also called attention to their near erasure from second language learning research and the fact that almost the entire body of significant and relevant inquiry in our field has focused on the experience of white middle-class new language learners or those from other ethno-racial groups learning English in mostly white environments. The key lesson learned from this study is that—regardless of its explicit mention within or purposeful inclusion into the planning and elaboration of language programs and curricula—race matters in the lives of African American students and features prominently in their language learning experiences. We who theorize and create language learning opportunities and materials should be mindful that, even when we do not actively incorporate considerations relating to racialized identities into our work, black students still take it upon themselves to include what is personally relevant to them in their academic and social learning experiences. Despite our best intentions and aspirations toward positive values of colorblindness, black students are acutely aware of and impacted by the message communicated through the exclusion of these critical considerations. Furthermore, the influence of emerging and experienced multilinguals’ backgrounds and participation within various communities of practice—in classrooms and outside—is fundamental. Thus we must be aware of how

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

218

Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language

the interactions that take place within these translanguaging spaces and contexts of transformative socialization color African Americans’ desires, choices, and efforts to give voice to their many selves in a new language. We should attend to the varied networks, resources, and capital they already have, those they work to build, and, also, all that they hope to gain from developing expertise in an additional language. We must consider other individuals and the social conditions that actively influence the feasibility of these goals of fluency, access, and participation. Most importantly, we cannot forget the contributions of black students’ multiple and constantly shifting identities. Hence a vital understanding that can be gleaned from this book is the impact of African American students’ investments in both the undertaking and eventual outcomes of the personal transformation entailed in learning a new language. Paying attention to these investments when creating and elaborating programs and materials gives us more control and puts the onus on language learning theorists and classroom practitioners to foster communities in which black learners can be highly invested, instead of pondering why they are uninterested, being difficult, or are unmotivated to participate in language study. For example, when I examined the choices and efforts the participants made to achieve Portuguese learning success, while highlighting how their racialized identities were implicated throughout, I observed the ways in which these choices and efforts were supported or frustrated. Nina, Didier, and Rose were drawn to Portuguese and interested in participating in the study abroad program primarily because of their attraction to the Afro-Brazilian aspects of the experience. In Salvador, as they became more immersed in Afro-Brazilian culture, these ethno-racialized interests deepened and greatly influenced their choices and efforts to participate in different classroom and local communities where they felt deeply connected. Leti, unlike the other three, was not even aware of blackness in Salvador nor was she looking for anything related to it when she chose to study Portuguese. However, she also made choices and efforts to participate actively in communities where her ethno-racialized identities were strongly engaged. Most remarkable were her investments in the cultural practices of Afro-Brazilian martial arts and music groups and the tremendous benefits of language learning, social access, and personal growth she reaped therein. Their racialized identities were of fundamental import and impact in the new language learning experience of all four study participants, but none more clearly than in the case of Nina. Of course, the fact that the study abroad program took place in a very black context had a lot to do with this. However, as we saw with Talburt and Stewart’s (1999) Misheila in Segovia, Spain, a black student does not have to sojourn to a majority-blackpopulated location for race and racism to critically influence her experience there. Nina was most inspired and engaged in Portuguese language learning when she positively identified ethno-racially with and felt most invested in the practices of her classroom and local communities. Her positive race-based

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language

219

identification with Afro-Brazilian people and culture strongly contributed to her making investments in understanding and developing new practices in Portuguese both inside and outside the classroom. Such investments visibly shifted as Nina and the other study participants interacted with the practices of different communities. Nina and Rose’s unfavorable experiences in certain classrooms where they were collaboratively isolated and marginalized contributed to their withdrawal and lack of participation in these communities where they were not made to feel valued and encouraged. All four participants, regardless of how positive or negative their classroom experiences were, thrived and were much invested in the practices of the local communities where they participated and interacted with Brazilians. These contexts allowed them to engage more actively and authentically their racialized identities and to understand and develop new practices in speaking blackness in Brazil. However, the difficulties they experienced and observations they made of racism, sexism, and elitism in those same communities caused their investments in participation to diminish. In Leti’s case, these experiences and observations presented additional complexity contributed by her multicultural, multiracial, multiple social class positionings, and additional Latin American language and family origins. Topics overtly and or critically engaging such aspects of Leti’s race and social class identities were not typically addressed as a part of the Portuguese language and Brazilian literature and comparative cultural studies curricula at Geisel College. Nevertheless, despite the absence of such considerations and subject matter, she was sensitive to issues of racialized and social classed elitism—especially in her interactions within local communities—and constantly took the initiative to incorporate them into her formal learning experiences by writing about and discussing them in class. Leti and all the other study participants demonstrated the impact and influence of their racialized identities in how they shaped their new selves in the Portuguese language and learned to speak blackness in Brazil, giving voice to their lives and experiences in ways that were meaningful within the local context and also felt authentic to their personal truths. With regard to the fundamental enterprise of assuming a racialized descriptive categorization that drew from Brazilian social understandings and language practices, they made different choices in speaking their individual and most authentic blackness. Nina and Leti, for example, embraced being called negra or pretinha as these terms appealed to their positive identification with blackness as the strongest marker of their ethno-racialized identities. Didier and Rose, on the other hand, gravitated more to Brazilian practices of intermediate categorization such as morena or pardo, which, unlike the “one-drop rule” of blackness in the United States, allowed them to acknowledge other identities along with being black. Additionally, in Leti’s case, she positively embraced and shaped a communicative identity as pretinha in Brazil, when she would not have spoken her blackness in the Dominican Republic using the equivalent Spanish term

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

220

Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language

negrita. In light of her experience, it is important to consider the impact of the unique issues related to a large population of those who choose to learn Portuguese as a new language, namely, multilingual speakers of Spanish. Important lessons that can be learned from her case study are how Leti managed and drew from her repertoire of cultural understandings and linguistic resources when translanguaging in Spanish and Portuguese and also how she was informed by and negotiated cultural understandings and Spanish language practices in the Dominican Republic and languaging Portuguese in Brazil. It is commonly believed and, to a great extent, true that Spanish speakers have an advantage developing expertise in Portuguese because of the considerable overlap in language systems, structures, lexis, and broad similarities in cultures among those speech communities. We assume that multilinguals with Spanish in their repertoire have more knowledge and resources available to them to facilitate languaging in Portuguese than those without this background. However, it is seldom asked what exactly the knowledge and resources entail and how they relate to specificities within a Spanish-speaking multilingual’s experience learning Portuguese. This study revealed some aspects of that knowledge and showed that Leti’s ethnic background availed her to additional linguistic and sociocultural resources, which served as filters through which the practices she was developing in Brazil had to pass. Her task of learning how to give voice to herself in Portuguese, therefore, also involved negotiating how new understandings and practices compared with her prior notions of very similar or even identical terms and concepts in Spanish. Leti’s case shows how we who theorize new language learning must prioritize a multilingual approach to the creation and promotion of programs and curricula, considering as well the multicultural backgrounds of African Americans with more than one inherited language. This will lead us to consider as well the diverse nationalities and ethnic backgrounds of black students, which directly inform their social positionings and experience. Such complexities underscore that none of the study participants’ multiple identities were experienced as discrete or isolated factors, but instead their subjectivities interconnected in complex ways as they mediated the shaping of the participants’ new communicative selves when learning how to speak blackness in Brazil. For example, Rose’s sensitivity to the intraracial colorism she observed when Afro-Brazilian men passed her over for lighter-skinned or white women was related to her gendered identity and positioning within a sexist and patriarchal hierarchy that equates female beauty with our human worth. Nina’s joy being in the “all-black” environment of Salvador was deflated by her perception of cultural and socioeconomic differences between African Americans and Afro-Brazilians. In Didier’s case, his interactions inside and outside the classroom involved the negotiation of certain intersections between his ethno-racialized and gendered identities as he sought to understand differences between African American and Afro-Brazilian men’s performative practices of sexuality.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language

221

Didier’s interactions within classroom and local communities showed critical adjustments he had to make both linguistically and socioculturally to accommodate these differences as he learned to speak black manhood in Brazil. The stark contrasts between Didier’s experiences within these communities and, specifically, the sexually policing and silencing effects of homophobia and enforced heteronormativity in his classroom communities are important issues for language learning theorists and practitioners to consider and address. Research shows that his experience with homophobia in language classrooms is not uncommon. Therefore, we should work to foster safe, identity-affirming environments in which black students may pursue their interests and their social, cultural, and academic curiosities free of both the overt and implied impositions of sexual identities others consider normal, legitimate, or worthy. All of the aforementioned elements contributed to the students’ active or passive participation, indifference, or total disengagement from different classrooms, situations, and activities. In this study, participation in varied communities signaled investments within them. It influenced the amount and nature of opportunities the African American students found to develop their expertise in Portuguese, and participation shaped their own and others’ perceptions of their success learning this new language. No case out of the four presented in this study more clearly revealed the impact of an emerging multilingual’s investments in participation in classroom and local communities on perceptions of his or her success than that of Rose. The study abroad program leadership and instructors’ ideas and expectations of her success and fluency in Portuguese were solely based on her academic participation and performance. These expectations ignored the impact of her personality, learning style, previous schooling, and negative interactional dynamics on her classroom performance. The expectations for monolingual immersion and fluency as demonstrated by traditional assessments did not serve Rose well. They neglected that her consistently negative experiences, public humiliation, and other mistreatment, as well as her own personal insecurities and perceptions of inferiority within classroom communities, all directly influenced her choices to disengage from and not participate actively in them as a result of a lack of investment in their unfavorable practices. The monolingual bias of the program was especially problematic in stripping from Rose an important resource for meaning-making and communication, which was her ability to translanguage in English and Portuguese when trying to express her ideas, contribute to classroom interactions, and make authentic displays of understanding. The institutionalization and enforcement of monolingual immersion as a pedagogical tool to develop fluency and expertise in a language has a logical appeal. There is a very real “use it or lose it” nature to language in that you speak language to learn it, work with it, and maintain it. Therefore, practice is necessary to grow and develop expertise in standardized structures or normalized codes, and a monolingual imperative guarantees a sink-or-swim environment in which

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

222

Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language

one has no recourse but to speak a target language or not be heard. After all, out in the “real world” of the local community, we may not be understood if we do not speak the right way and, certainly, if we are being trained to read and produce academic texts in a national language, according to traditional conventions, those texts are monolingual. Furthermore, sad and woebegone (probably soon discontinued as well) is a study abroad program that purports to send American students to a foreign land to learn a foreign tongue if those students are allowed to “waste the experience” by speaking only English in class and outside glued together in their isolated home country social groups. However, the reality of the world and Brazil as Rose experienced it was not entirely monolingual. Although the expectation and actual occurrence was that the majority of interaction happened in Portuguese, the people she encountered in local communities also knew a smattering of English and used it with her when necessary to get communicative work done. Also, the texts that Rose and all the study abroad participants encountered and contributed to interacting with Brazilians on social media, and also in their academic readings where authors multilingually referenced foreign sources, were not always exclusively in Portuguese. And, most importantly, Rose’s brain (and everyone else’s, for that matter) is not compartmentalized into discrete spaces for different languages. She naturally translanguaged, using all her resources from all the languages she knew (English, Spanish, French) to make sense of Portuguese, but then she was expected to produce “uncontaminated” utterances and texts as if none of these other tools from her repertoire influenced the process. This monolingual expectation and imposition added to Rose’s stress and anxiety, which were already high because of other personal experience factors, her preferred learning styles, and classroom environment-generated problems. All of these elements piled on to silence and marginalize Rose in ways that did not need to happen had the program adopted multilingual practices (Kramsch & Huffmaster, 2015) to facilitate learning and expression. Such may have included code meshing or other translingual practices (Canagarajah, 2011, 2013a, b, 2014, 2015) that prioritize semiotic function over normativity in language through the inclusion of varied codes and modalities in multidimensional expression in order to highlight and encourage Rose’s performative competence. The expectations of the study abroad program and the general consensus that Rose never measured up to them also ignored the benefits and tremendous language and culture learning gains she made while interacting within local communities, with whose members she more closely identified and connected, and, most importantly, where she felt more comfortable and relaxed and she was treated with greater kindness and respect. Theorists and practitioners who endeavor to learn from Rose’s experiences and investments in her classrooms and outside must seriously consider how we define and impose our expectations of language learning success and fluency based upon ideals that may not accommodate important needs of individual

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language

223

African Americans. We must also question if black students are somehow being made to view their classroom performance as wholly equivalent with actual learning, or, worse, indicative of their personal worthiness of respect and consideration. If a major goal of language instruction is to remove obstacles that students may have in developing new languaging practices, we should take care to assure that the very classrooms in which this learning occurs are not themselves an obstacle and unfair burden on the investments of black students in learning a new language. We must take care that our classrooms are communities of support and encouragement where everyone is made to feel valued and positively encouraged to give ample voice to their multiple selves.

Part II—Who Is the Successful Black Student Language Learner? For the five years that I have spent (so far) examining, writing about, presenting, and discussing findings from this study, I have been frequently asked some variation of or the exact question, “So, did these kids learn Portuguese or what?” I imagine that the recurring question of whether the study participants learned Portuguese or not stems from the assumption that I undertook this research project exclusively to evaluate the effectiveness of the Geisel College study abroad program in producing fluent speakers of Portuguese, or to show the good and bad practices of the participants who do or do not emerge as fluent speakers. Indeed, examining the study participants’ success in learning Portuguese and the impact of their identities and investments on these outcomes were among my research goals. However, a question like “Did they learn the language or what?” presumes that there was some chance they would not, and I did not conduct the study with any such doubts. I approached the project with confirmed knowledge that these black students were already successful multilinguals and new language learners. They all took on Portuguese as an additional language having previously gained expertise in others (besides English), and they were exposed to the academic study of foreign languages since elementary school. Thus I sought to examine and describe their experiences on the study abroad program, paying special attention to how race and the intersections with other social identities influenced their investments and participation in the communities where they learned Portuguese, which greatly contributed to each participant’s individual degree of success or perceptions of his or her success developing expertise in the language. All this informs my larger goals to address the crisis of underrepresentation of blacks in language programs across the United States by learning from the experiences of those who learn new languages successfully. But still, I will clarify that, indeed, the four African American participants of the study learned Portuguese. Barring the existence of some cognitive

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

224

Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language

impairment—and these learners had none—there was absolutely no way that they could spend five hours a day for three months in an intensive level 1 language program on the Geisel College campus and then another three months living and studying even more intensively participating within local communities of Brazilians and not learn Portuguese. Moreover, all four of them were very highly motivated to learn Portuguese, given that they traveled very far, suffering great effort, expense, and personal sacrifice to do it. They demonstrated qualities that I had previously established as contributing to the profile of successful black student language learners (Anya, 2011). For example, the four study participants decided to study Portuguese having already encountered previous positive formative experiences in language learning where they felt like they belonged, were invested, and were engaged with others in classroom communities. They were exposed starting from a young age to learning experiences in languages other than those to which they were affiliated by birth, and they described these experiences as inspiring passion, feelings of belonging, communion, and connection, especially as related to the direct relevance of the experiences to their ethno-racial, cultural, and linguistic identities. They were also inspired by actual and virtual contact with Brazilians and imagined themselves exploring and interacting with them in their country with an explicit interest to learn more about and know black people, communities, and cultures over there. For black students who engage successfully in multilingualism, this participation is key, because they wish to establish and maintain strong ties within classroom and outside communities where they learn new languages, and they do well when they positively and strongly identify with both. Hence a response I offer when faced with questions like “Did these kids learn Portuguese?” is to return with something like “What do you mean by learn?” and “What do you mean by Portuguese?” Those questions are the central discussions of this book, which describes how, for the African American students of focus, learning a new language is participation in transformative socialization within different communities in Brazil where they shape and speak their blackness in new ways, according to old and new understandings. From this perspective, I show my greater concern with the individualized, sociocultural, and interactive experiences surrounding the black students’ actual participation in Portuguese language learning within the unique contexts and multiple communities where the learning took place and how these experiences related to their becoming Portuguese speakers of varying levels of languacultural knowledge and expertise. To examine thoroughly the intricacies of these experiences, the study was well served by the idea of investment, because investment allowed room for the exploration of the impact of the study participants’ multiple and constantly shifting identities, along with the singular and powerful place of race among them. The focus on these African American students’ investments in learning Portuguese and learning to speak blackness in Brazil also yielded a better understanding of the staggering complexity that is introduced into the

Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language

225

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

language learning experience when we closely examine happenings within multiple communities of practice where multilinguals interact and shape new communicative selves. The study revealed that a lot more goes on in these translanguaging spaces than is typically taken into consideration or is assumed to have an impact on the experience of learning a new language and, consequently, an individual’s choices to actively participate or not in promoting his or her learning within them.

Part III—Proposals for Change and “Where Are They Now?” In her now fifteen-year-old review of the state of our field of applied linguistics and, more specifically, the role of SLA research in challenging tendencies toward stagnation and rigid orthodoxy within our discipline, Diane LarsenFreeman (2000) gave us all a well-deserved tug on the ear and called for applied linguists to “get our house in order” by embracing new ideas and making them relevant both to theory and practice. She reminded us never to lose sight of the fact that “SLA deals with real-world problems and issues,” and, therefore, “we need to learn how to become more politically-savvy advocates for our constituents—language learners and teachers” (p. 174). To do this, Larsen-Freeman joined the others in our field who called for the cultivation of a social justice perspective in applied linguistics, especially with regard to the training and orientation of new scholars. I am one such junior scholar who has tremendously benefited from the direct guidance of activist and service-minded applied linguists such as Plann (2002), who share Larsen-Freeman’s vision of the sociopolitical potential of SLA within applied linguistics. I have gained theoretical inspiration from Kumaravadivelu (2003), who, drawing from Paulo Freire (1970), challenged teachers to facilitate language learning for liberation, along with Norton (2000, 2013) and Pennycook (2001), who champion critical approaches to applied linguistics. Inherent within any proposal for change is an understanding of whom said change would benefit, or in other words, whose interests would be served. In her statement referenced earlier, Larsen-Freeman clearly identified those “constituents” whose interests we applied linguists serve. We who theorize and practice in the field of classroom-based language learning serve students and teachers. Therefore, on behalf of African American emerging and experienced multilinguals and the classroom practitioners who teach them, I propose that serious changes be made in materials, curricula, and in-class presentations to promote greater diversity and inclusivity to reflect and be made more positively relevant to these students. With regard to the elaboration of specific programs and curricula, Pennycook (2001) reminds us, All teaching materials carry cultural and ideological messages. The pictures, the lifestyles, the stories, the dialogues are full of cultural context, and all may potentially be in disaccord with the cultural worlds of the

226

Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

students. Everything we use in class is laden with meanings from outside and interpretations from inside. And these meanings and interpretations occur amid the complex cultural politics of the classroom. (p. 129) This book describing the impact of African American learners’ race and other facets of their social identities and cultures on their experience of multilingualism and learning additional languages illustrates the validity of Pennycook’s argument. Furthermore, Pennycook’s assertion and this book emphasize that just as much attention to what is incorporated into materials and curricula should be dedicated to what is left out or what is left unsaid, because a clear message is also communicated when instructors do not actively challenge dominant and inequitable assumptions to promote inclusivity and fight racism, sexism, elitism, and homophobia in the classroom. Such messaging by omission and assumption might happen, for example, when a language textbook depicts a picture of a family to illustrate the meaning of that word and the image shown is of a heterosexual nuclear unit. Or perhaps in classroom activity, as Liddicoat (2009) observed, a male student who is describing the features of his boyfriend is automatically corrected and prompted to change his response to girlfriend, because the teacher assumes he erred in vocabulary or noun-gender agreement. Pavlenko (2004) calls upon the utilization of understandings from critical feminism to challenge sexism and such heteronormative biases. She argues for greater “inclusivity, engagement, and authenticity” in language teaching curriculum and classroom practice that goes farther than merely creating LGBT-friendly environments, but also purposefully exploring discourses that normalize certain sexual identities and behaviors and problematize others, as in the example of O’Mochain’s (2006) discussions of sexual orientation with Japanese EFL students and Menard-Warwick’s (2009) notes on how gender ideologies of appropriate male and female roles were normalized through discourse and curriculum in a community adult ESL class. To these proposals for addressing problems and biases, I add my voice and the voices of African American students of Romance languages who consistently report a lack of explicit links between their ethno-racial backgrounds and classroom materials, topics, and curricula, along with the desire to see more relevant and personally significant connections made between their experiences and those of the cultures and people that speak the languages of study. There is definitely a lot of ground to cover with such materials given the size and profound influence of Afro-descendant populations in Francophone, Lusophone, and Hispanophone countries in the Americas and worldwide (see Kennedy, 1987; Dahl, 2000; Farfan-Cobb & Lassiter, 2003 for ideas). I have made this suggestion in previous publications and conference presentations and heard responses from those who objected to my “insulting” suggestion that African American students need to have blackthemed materials to learn new languages, as if they were owed something

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language

227

or somehow unable to function without seeing themselves in everything— even in a foreign land where people and experiences are expected to be different. To this assertion, I respond that efforts to spare black students offense by muting and erasing their diasporic stories from the language curriculum “master script” (Swartz, 1992) are unnecessary and misguided. If only because more outrage and indignation should be expended where it is really needed on behalf of generations of white students who continue to be insulted by the ubiquity of images and references to people who share their European ancestry throughout materials, as if these students cannot manage to learn new languages without seeing their faces in everything. Along with a critical vigilance and promotion of inclusivity in language learning curriculum, I also propose that greater attention be paid to that which we seek to test when we evaluate success in developing expertise in a new language. In this book, I described how a student was ill-served by the study abroad program’s insistence upon classroom participation within a rigidly enforced monolingual mandate and graded evaluations of academic performance as the exclusive measures of how well she achieved program goals and expectations of linguistic and cultural fluency, all the while ignoring how teacher and student interactions within those very classrooms directly thwarted her efforts. I also discussed how the monolingual bias governing the program’s expectations, activities, and assessment contributed to a stressful and anxiety-filled environment where inflexible and impatient language policing hindered a student’s demonstration of performative competence and authentic displays of understanding and meaning-making ability. Good teachers promote social justice and equality by helping students remove and overcome the obstacles they might face in achieving their new language learning goals, which ultimately contribute to their personal transformation, greater access to varied social networks, and increased cultural capital. Good research, therefore, should also serve toward the promotion of these goals by showing teachers how to facilitate breaking down barriers. In the case of Rose’s challenges and those of others like her, we have some answers from the “multilingual turn” (May, 2014; Conteh & Meier, 2014) in our field that are not focused exclusively on the unique concerns of English as a lingua franca or immigrant or experienced multilinguals. Canagarajah (2011), García and Kano (2014), and Kramsch and Huffmaster (2015) address the concerns of those who of us who work with foreign and new language pedagogy in informative and guidance-filled ways. They show us how translanguaging is cognitive processing, social action, and effective pedagogy all at once by translating ideas of dynamic multilingualism into language learning and teaching practices, which encourage the exercise and engagement of students’ entire discursive repertoires in developing new language expertise and languaging strategies at the emerging and experienced levels. With regard to proposals and suggestions for change in study abroad programs to attract more African American sojourners and to better

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

228

Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language

accommodate and facilitate their learning and personal transformation, a good place to start would be with the choice of geographic location to house programs in countries and cities that offer the sort of meaningful experiences and relevance to their ethno-racial identities and background that black students consistently report seeking (for descriptions of these ideals and locations, see Day-Vines et al., 1998; Dahl, 2000; Dawson, 2000; Morgan et al., 2002; Murray Brux & Fry, 2009; Penn & Tanner, 2009). Along with the choice of the program location, or in general, even in programs that are not housed around majority or distinctly African or Afro-descendant cultures and populations, the curriculum, materials, and activities that accompany the study abroad experience should also reflect an ethno-racially inclusive orientation. Advertising and outreach regarding the availability and affordability of study abroad programs should be made specifically considering and including outlets that can reach black students, including academic department and student organization mailing lists specifically targeting or featuring this group. Targeted advertising attracts more potential black participants, which heightens the possibility that there will be more than one black student in a given cohort and contributes to decreased feelings of isolation for African American participants (Cole, 1991; Murray Brux & Fry, 2009). To address the occurrence of racism while participating in study abroad programs, accommodations should be made to raise the topic explicitly and go over coping strategies during orientation, while working to create safe and supportive spaces in classrooms for experiences with racism to be discussed. Host family selection is also a key consideration for enriching black student participation in study abroad programs. Many African American students desire and request to live with black families abroad to “see how it is for them in other places” and experience global blackness up close in an intimate home environment. Making it a priority to search for and include black families among the local homestay options may not be something the in-country family placement coordinator considers or even imagines is a worthwhile effort. Some, as I have seen in Brazil, protest and call African American study abroad participants racist for requesting to live with black families. Coordinators may argue that race should not be a consideration in picking the “best” family; however, program leadership would do well to remind them that a race-based choice has already been made if a black family was never considered or included on the list of potential hosts for both black and non-black students in the first place. Especially, if the program claims to have identified the “best families,” the message communicated by having no black options among these cream of the crop is that black families and their homes are not seen as the best to represent a country and to provide a safe, comfortable, and idealized local experience when hosting international guests. Often, this oversight is not due to ill intent, as placement staff very frequently cast the host family search net only as wide as their own social networks and familiar groups. However, if inclusiveness

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language

229

and diversity are goals that the study abroad program takes seriously and seeks to promote, then this priority should be made clear to the placement staff and extend to the selection of host families. As my last proposal for change, I would like to recall Leti’s experience in service within the local communities, as well as the service-learning work completed by the black study abroad participants profiled by Penn and Tanner (2009), and suggest that such activities be formally incorporated into language programs that serve all students—black or otherwise. Leti’s work with the Afro-Brazilian organization Ilê Ayê and the tutoring she did informally for the younger members of her Capoeira academy was not an institutionally organized component of her study abroad program. Nevertheless, the initiative she took to engage in these activities greatly contributed to her success in developing expertise in Portuguese and integrating herself into the local community by providing her with many consistent and regularly scheduled opportunities to socially, culturally, and linguistically interact with Brazilians in very meaningful and mutually beneficial ways. Study abroad programs and language learning programs in general that are situated in multilingual geographic locations can help their participants obtain the many benefits and advantages Leti reaped from her work at Ilê and the Capoeira academy by instituting service-learning components as a part of their regular linguistic course of study. Service-learning is transformative, experiential education where students can collaborate with community partners to address needs together while also benefiting from structured opportunities purposefully created to advance student learning and promote academic and personal development (Jacoby, 1996). A central notion of service-learning is intentional reflection grounded in and informed by experience. Students perform service collaboratively deemed necessary and mutually beneficial by both the community partners and the academic institutions and study programs through formalized planning and accompaniment partnerships. The service experience is related to a specific academic area of study and is actively reflected upon with regard to how it informs and complements the skills, topics, and issues covered in class. Through volunteerism, one merely contributes his or her time in service to others without pay or purposeful academic intentions. Those engaged in community service often do so by choice or court mandate, with no requisite academic association or reflection. Service-learning, however, differs considerably from both community service and mere volunteerism because of its emphasis on key concepts of reflection and reciprocity. These lend to its effectiveness and singularity as a tool for the seamless amalgamation of academic enrichment, civic engagement, and community partnership. Given its name, service-learning focuses equally on service and learning. It enables students to apply academic, social, and personal skills to improve the community, continue individual growth, and develop a lifelong ethic of service (Berger Kaye, 2004). It also provides opportunities for all participants in both the academic and community partner setting to learn

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

230

Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language

about themselves and others in the promotion of personal and institutional transformation. As an effective educational pedagogy, service-learning has a strong basis in Deweyian values of instrumental education toward critical thinking, self-awareness, reflection, and action. And if there were ever a natural marriage of social and academic purposes, it would be the employment of service-learning pedagogy at the service of learning a new language (Plann, 2002). Students, like Leti, who perform and formally reflect on their service experience in an environment where they actively engage and meaningfully interact with community members who speak languages they are learning as an academic subject, can make leaps and bounds in developing new understandings and practices. Furthermore, depending on the population of the school or geographic location of the campus in which the language program is situated, service-learning can work within the local area, such as Duke University’s Community-Based Language Initiative, without necessitating travel or study abroad. Likewise, it does not necessarily even have to leave the actual school campus, and opportunities for mutually beneficial exchanges can be found among diverse groups within one institution. For example, in a school with an English as a Second Language (ESL) program, a service-learning project may be created to provide structured conversational exchanges and tutoring between the ESL program’s students and their classmates learning those students’ inherited languages. Such activities can be organized in service to peer language learning and mutual cultural understanding across national, ethnic, and racial lines. Finally, and most important to the antiracist sociopolitical agenda of this study, service-learning as a formal component of language learning programs helps make important inroads against racism and xenophobia. An important goal of service-learning is fostering interpersonal development through multicultural exchange, an increase in appreciation for diversity, and the reduction of out-group othering and stereotyping. When students work in socially diverse groups for a common cause or to solve problems collaboratively problems, they get to know people with whom they ordinarily may not socialize, and they make personal friendships that challenge biases and prejudice. Such benefits promote equality and justice, and they help bridge social distance through communication and multilingualism. Language and cultural study department leadership and study abroad program organizers who desire to attract and retain a large and steady base of black student participants should note that an orientation toward social justice and service drives many African American students. This was vividly demonstrated by Dahl (2000) and Penn and Tanner (2009) who showed how black students requested service-learning opportunities and actively participated when these were included in their international academic experience. The desire to serve others, explore their world, and embrace global citizenship also features prominently in the lives and experiences of the four successful black multilinguals and new language learners profiled in this book. As I prepared the manuscript, I contacted all for updates on their

Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language

231

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

current whereabouts and activities since graduating from Geisel College. We held a group message chat session on Facebook where we all caught up with latest news and future plans. As illustrated in the following in the participants’ responses to my “Where are they now?” query, they continue to bloom in their insatiable wanderlust, while thriving in transformation, growth, and purpose-filled multilingualism. Nina (from Facebook Group Chat Message) After graduating from [Geisel College] with a BA in sociology and African American studies I lived abroad for two and a half years, utilizing my various languages in South Africa and France working with nonprofits and law firms advocating for human rights and also engaging in corporate work. Like [Leti] I also travelled to as many countries I could get to! I am currently moving to [major mid-Atlantic metropolis] to work for a venture capitalist firm that only invests in businesses that are led by creative entrepreneurs changing the world. I plan to attend law school in the near future to study human/civil rights law. Didier (from Facebook Group Chat Message) I graduated with a BA in African and African-American studies and psychology. I started at [Ivy League University] Divinity School that fall but quickly escaped after an overwhelming feeling of discomfort and mental exhaustion. I returned home and fell in love with teaching at the secondary level. There’s no greater satisfaction than helping others realize and reach their potential. I’m in my third year of teaching now, and I’m currently helping my beloved students in [major city in Louisiana] to appreciate the beauty of the world’s lingua franca—math. I see myself in a PhD program in math/math education in the next 3–5 years (preferably the Chicagoland area or New England). My Portuguese is still intact thanks to Brazilian music, YouTube videos, and minha mãe, [study abroad program host mother]. Leti (from Facebook Group Chat Message) After graduating with my BA (Romance languages) and MA (comparative literature) from [Geisel College], I lived in Rome for a year doing every odd job you can imagine including [audiolingual language teaching method] drill instructor, voice overs for an Italian documentary company and English speaking nanny. I also travelled to as many European countries as I could afford. My ability to speak languages landed me a job doing financial analytics (it turns out they will teach you the finance part because there are so few language speakers around). And since I love economics and health, I decided to concurrently work on my Master of Public Health (part-time) where I’ve learned a new language. . . this time a statistical programming one called SAS.

232

Communities and Investments in Learning a New Language

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Rose (from Facebook Group Chat Message) I graduated [Geisel College] with a BA in cultural anthropology and linguistics. After a year of dread in marketing and brand consulting for black owned hair and beauty companies, I moved to South Korea, where I now work at a private academy as a 2nd and 4th grade language arts instructor and in-house grammar specialist. Seoul gives me plenty of opportunity to still use French and Portuguese with its abundance of travelers and international students, and I have independently taught myself to read and speak conversational Korean, but mostly with the help of caring and patient locals rather than teachers. I will be enrolling in the Korean language program at Seoul National University and am looking to returning to the US for a graduate degree in education in the near future with hopes of starting my own academy . . . after traveling for a bit. And also, I now regularly go by my Korean name, 장미, which means Rose.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Bibliography

Agar, M. (1994). Language shock: Understanding the culture of conversation. New York: William Morrow. Alim, S. (2010). Critical language awareness. In N. Horngerger & S. McKay (eds.), Sociolinguistics and language education (pp. 205–231). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Allwright, R. (1984a). The importance of interaction in classroom language learning. Applied Linguistics, 5, 156–171. Allwright, R. (1984b). Why don’t learners learn what teachers teach? The interaction hypothesis. In D. Singleton & D. Little (eds.), Language learning in formal and informal contexts (pp. 3–18). Dublin: Irish Association of Applied Linguistics. Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origins and spread of nationalism. London: Verso. Anya, U. (2011). Connecting with communities of learners and speakers: Integrative ideals, experiences, and motivations of successful black second language learners. Foreign Language Annals, 44(3), 441–466. Appleby, R. (2013). Desire in translation: White masculinity and TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 47(1), 122–147. Association for the Study of African American Life and History. (1934). Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History held in Washington, DC, from October 29 to November 1, 1933. The Journal of Negro History, 19(1), 1–14. Auerbach, E. (1995). The politics of the ESL classroom: Issues of power in pedagogical choices. In J. Tollefson (ed.), Power and inequality in language education (pp. 9–33). New York: Cambridge University Press. Avritzer, L. & Gomes, L. (2013). Política de reconhecimento, raca e democracia no Brasil. DADOS: Revista de Ciências Sociais, 56(1), 39–68. Bailey, B. (2000). Language and negotiation of ethnic/racial identity among Dominican Americans. Language in Society, 29(4), 555–582. Bailey, K. (1980). An introspective analysis of an individual language learning experience. In R. Scarcella & S. Krashen (eds.), Research in second language acquisition: Selected papers of the Los Angeles second language acquisition forum (pp. 58–65). Rowley, MA: Newbury. Bailey, K. (1991). Diary studies of classroom language learning: The doubting game and the believing game. In E. Sadtono (ed.), Language acquisition and the second/ foreign language classroom (pp. 60–102). RELC Anthology Series, 28. Singapore: RELC.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

234

Bibliography

Bailey, K. et al. (1996). The language learner’s autobiography: Examining the apprenticeship of observation. In D. Freeman & J. Richards (eds.), Teacher learning in language teaching (pp. 11–29). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Baker, P. (2005). Public discourses of gay men. London: Routledge. Bakhtin, M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays by M. M. Bakhtin. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Bakhtin, M. (1984). Problems of Dostoevsky’s poetics. Translated by C. Emerson. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Bakhtin, M. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays. Translated by V. McGee. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Balthazart, J. (2012). The biology of homosexuality. New York: Oxford University Press. Banks, I. (2000). Hair matters: Beauty, power, and black women’s consciousness. New York: New York University Press. Banner, L. (1983). American beauty. New York: Knopf. Bartky, S. (1988). Foucault, femininity, and the modernization of patriarchal power. In I. Diamond & L. Quinby (eds.), Feminism and Foucault (pp. 61–86). Boston: Northeastern University Press. Bashir-Ali, K. (2006). Language learning and the definition of one’s social, cultural, and racial identity. TESOL Quarterly, 40(3), 628–639. Baugh, J. & Hymes, D. (2002). Beyond Ebonics: Linguistic pride and racial prejudice. New York: Oxford University Press. Becker, A. (1995). Beyond translation: Essays towards a modern philology. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Benson, P. (2004). (Auto)biography and learner diversity. In P. Benson & D. Nunan (eds.), Learners’ stories: Difference and diversity in language learning (pp. 4–21). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Benson, P. & Nunan, D. (eds.). (2004). Learners’ stories: Difference and diversity in language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Benson, P. et al. (2012). Study abroad and the development of second language identities. Applied Linguistics Review, 3(1), 173–193. Benson, P. et al. (2013). Second language identity in narratives of study abroad. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Berger Kaye, C. (2004). The complete guide to service-learning CD-ROM. Minneapolis: Free Spirit Publishing. Bergvall, V., Bing, J. & Freed, A. (eds.). (1996). Rethinking language and gender research: Theory and practice. London: Longman. Bernd, Z. (1988). Introdução à literatura negra. São Paulo: Editora Brasiliense. Bereiter, C. & Englemann, S. (1966). Teaching disadvantaged children in the preschool. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Bhabha, H. (1994). The location of culture. London and New York: Routledge. Bigelow, M. (2010). Mogadishu on the Mississippi: Language, racialized identity, and education in a new land. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Block, D. (2003). The social turn in second language acquisition. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. Block, D. (2007). Second language identities. London: Continuum. Block, D. (2012). Class and SLA: Making connections. Language Teaching Research, 16(2), 188–205. Block, D. (2014a). Social class in applied linguistics. New York: Routledge.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Bibliography

235

Block, D. (2014b). Moving beyond “lingualism:” Multilingual embodiment and multimodality. In S. May (ed.), The multilingual turn: Implications for SLA, TESOL, and bilingual education (pp. 54–77). New York and London: Routledge. Block, D. (2015). Becoming multilingual and being multilingual: Some thoughts. In J. Cenoz & D. Gorter (eds.), Multilingual education: Between language learning and translanguaging (pp. 225–237). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Block, D. & Corona, V. (2014). Exploring class-based intersectionality. Language, Culture, and Curriculum, 21(1), 27–42. Bloor, M. & Bloor, T. (2007). The practice of critical discourse analysis: An introduction. London: Hodder Arnold. Bottero, W. (2004). Class identities and the identity of class. Sociology, 38(5), 985–1003. Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Breen, M. (ed.) (2001). Learner contributions to language learning: New directions in research. London: Longman. Brigman, S. & Jacobs, L. (1981). Participation and success of minority students in university foreign language programs. The Modern Language Journal, 65(4), 371–376. Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1978). Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomena. In E. Goody (ed.), Questions and politeness: Strategies in social interaction (pp. 56–310). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Bucholtz, M. (1996). Black feminist theory and African American women’s linguistic practice. In V. Bergvall, J. Bing & A. Freed (eds.), Rethinking language and gender research: Theory and practice (pp. 267–290). London: Longman. Bucholtz, M. (1999). You da man: Narrating the racial other in the linguistic production of white masculinity. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 3(4), 443–460. Bucholtz, M. & Hall, K. (1995). Introduction: Twenty years after “language and a woman’s place”. In K. Hall & M. Bucholtz (eds.), Gender articulated: Language and the socially constructed self (pp. 1–22). New York: Routledge. Bucholtz, M. & Hall, K. (2005). Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 7(4–5), 585–614. Butler, J. (1988). Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory. Theatre Journal, 40(4), 519–531. Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge. Caldwell, K. (2004). “Look at her hair:” The body politics of black womanhood in Brazil. Transforming Anthropology, 11(2), 18–29. Caldwell, K. (2007). Negras in Brazil: Re-envisioning black women, citizenship, and the politics of identity. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Calhoun, A. (2012). Moving from race to identities in second language learning. Second Language Studies, 31(1), 23–44. Campos de Sousa, L. & Nascimento, P. (2008). Brazilian national identity at a crossroads: The myth of racial democracy and the development of black identity. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 19(3–4), 129–143. Canagarajah, A. (1996). From critical research practice to critical research reporting. TESOL Quarterly, 30(2), 321–331.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

236

Bibliography

Canagarajah, S. (2011). Translanguaging in the classroom: Emerging issues for research and pedagogy. Applied Linguistics Review, 2, 1–28. Canagarajah, S. (2013a). Translingual practice: Global Englishes and cosmopolitan relations. London and New York: Routledge. Canagarajah, S. (2013b). Introduction. In S. Canagarajah (ed.), Literacy as translingual practice: Between communities and classrooms. London and New York: Routledge. Canagarajah, S. (2014). Theorizing a competence for translingual practice at the contact zone. In S. May (ed.), The multilingual turn: Implications for SLA, TESOL, and bilingual education (pp. 78–102). New York and London: Routledge. Canagarajah, S. (2015). Clarifying the relationship between translingual practice and L2 writing: Addressing learner identities. Applied Linguistics Review, 6(4), 415–440. Cekaite, A. (2008). Soliciting teacher attention in an L2 classroom: Affect displays, classroom artefacts, and embodied action. Applied Linguistics, 30(1), 26–48. Cenoz, J. & Gorter, D. (2015). Towards a holistic approach in the study of multilingual education. In J. Cenoz & D. Gorter (eds.), Multilingual education: Between language learning and translanguaging (pp. 1–15). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chamot, A. & O’Malley, J. (1994). Language learner and learning strategies. In N. Ellis (ed.), Implicit and explicit learning of languages (pp. 371–394). San Diego: Academic Press. Charle Poza, M. (2013). The beliefs of African American students about foreign language learning. NECTFL Review, 72, 61–77. Chun, E. (2001). The construction of white, black, and Korean American identities through African American Vernacular English. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 11(1), 52–64. Clark, U. (2013). Language and identity in Englishes. New York: Routledge. Cole, J. (1991). Opening address of the 43rd International Conference on Educational Exchange. In Black students and overseas programs: Broadening the base of participation. Papers and speeches presented at the CIEE International Conference on Educational Exchange (pp. 1–8). New York: Council on International Educational Exchange. Coleman, J. (2013). Researching whole people and whole lives. In C. Kinginger (ed.), Social and cultural aspects of language learning in study abroad (pp. 17–44). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Colley, H. et al. (2003). Learning as becoming in vocational education and training: Class, gender and the role of vocational habitus. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 55(4), 471–498. Collins, P. & Solomos, J. (eds.) (2010). The SAGE handbook of race and ethnic studies. London: SAGE. Connell, R.W. (1987). Gender and power. Cambridge: Polity Press. Connell, R.W. et al. (1982). Making the difference: Schools, families, and social division. Sydney: George Allen & Unwin. Conteh, J. & Meier, G. (2014). Introduction. In J. Conteh & G. Meier (eds.), The multilingual turn in languages education: Opportunities and challenges (pp. 1–14). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Coupland, N. (2007). Style: Language variation and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Bibliography

237

Craig, M. (2002). Ain’t I a beauty queen? Black women, beauty, and the politics of race. New York: Oxford University Press. Craig, M. (2006). Race, beauty, and the tangled knot of a guilty pleasure. Feminist Theory, 7(2), 159–177. Creese, A. & Blackledge, A. (2010). Translanguaging in the bilingual classroom: A pedagogy for learning and teaching? The Modern Language Journal, 94(1), 103–115. Creese, A. & Blackledge, A. (2011). Separate and flexible bilingualism in complementary schools: Multiple language practices in interrelationship. Journal of Pragmatics, 43, 1196–1208. Creese, A. & Blackledge, A. (2015). Translanguaging and identity in educational settings. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35, 20–35. Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. The University of Chicago Legal Forum, 140, 139–167. Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299. Crenshaw, K. et al. (eds.). (1995). Critical race theory: The key writings that formed the movement. New York: Free Press. Crump, A. (2014). Introducing LangCrit: Critical language and race theory. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 11(3), 207–224. Curran, G. (2006). Responding to students’ normative questions about gays: Putting queer theory into practice in an Australian ESL class. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 5(1), 85–96. Curtis, A. & Romney, M. (eds.). (2006). Color, race, and English language teaching: Shades of meaning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Dahl, A. (2000). Piquing the interest of African American students in foreign languages: The case of Spelman college. ADFL Bulletin, 31(2), 30–35. Dalley, P. & Campbell, M. (2006). Constructing and contesting discourses of heteronormativity: An ethnographic study of youth in a Francophone high school in Canada. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 5(1), 11–29. Darvin, R. & Norton, B. (2014). Social class, identity, and migrant students. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 13, 111–117. Darvin, R. & Norton, B. (2015). Identity and a model of investment in applied linguistics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35, 36–56. Davis, J. (1992). African American students and foreign language learning. ERIC Digest EDO-FL-91–08. Davis, J. & Markham, P. (1991). Student attitudes toward foreign language study at historically and predominantly black institutions. Foreign Language Annals, 24(3), 227–237. Dawson, N. (2000). Study abroad and African American college students at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. African Issues, 28(1–2), 124–129. Day-Vines, N. et al. (1998). Impact of diasporic travel on ethnic identity development of African American college students. College Student Journal, 32(3), 463–471. Delgado, R. & Stefancic, J. (eds.). (2000). Critical race theory: The cutting edge. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Delpit, L. & Dowdy, J. (eds.). (2002). The skin that we speak: Thoughts on language and culture in the classroom. New York: New Press. Deutsch, M. (1967). The disadvantaged child. New York: Basic Books.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

238

Bibliography

Doane, W. (2003). Rethinking whiteness studies. In W. Doane & E. Bonilla-Silva (eds.), White out: The continuing significance of racism (pp. 3–18). New York and London: Routledge. Dörnyei, Z. (2009). The L2 motivational self system. In Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (eds.), Motivation, language identity and the L2 self (pp. 9–41). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. dos Santos, G. & Ribeiro, M. (2010). Análise semântica e pragmática dos significantes “neguinho(a)” e “nego(a)” no século XIX e no mundo contemporâneo. Cadernos do CNLF, 14(4), 2347–2355. Duff, P. (2007). Second language socialization as sociocultural theory: Insights and issues. Language Teaching, 40(4), 309–319. Duff, P. (2008). Case study research in applied linguistics. New York: Routledge. Duff, P. (2010). Language socialization. In N. Horngerger & S. McKay (eds.), Sociolinguistics and language education (pp. 427–452). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Duff, P. (2014). Case study research on language learning and use. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 34, 233–255. Dummett, L. (1984). The enigma: The persistent failure of black children in learning to read. Reading World, 24, 31–37. Dungy, K. (1991). Students speak for themselves: Experiences in Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. In Black students and overseas programs: Broadening the base of participation. Papers and speeches presented at the CIEE International Conference on Educational Exchange (pp. 59–64). New York: Council on International Educational Exchange. Dyck, N. & Archetti, E. (2003). Embodied identities: Reshaping social life through sport and dance. In N. Dyck & E. Archetti (eds.), Sport, dance, and embodied identities (pp. 1–22). New York: Berg. Ellwood, C. (2006). On coming out and coming undone: Sexualities and reflexivities in language education research. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 5(1), 67–84. Erickson, F. (1998). Qualitative research methods for science education. In B. Fraser & K. Tobin (eds.), International handbook of science education (Vol. 2, pp. 1155–1171). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Erikson, E. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: Norton. Erikson, E. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton. Erikson, E. (1982). The life cycle completed. New York: Norton. Eyler, J. & Giles, D. (1999). Where’s the learning in service-learning? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. New York: Longman. Fairclough, N. (2003). Analyzing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. New York: Routledge. Faraclas, N. (2004). Nigerian pidgin English: Morphology and syntax. In B. Kortmann et al. (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, 2 (pp. 828–853). New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Firth, A. & Wagner, J. (1997). On discourse, communication, and (some) fundamental concepts in SLA research. Modern Language Journal, 81(3), 286–300. Foster, M. (1995). “Are you with me?”: Power and solidarity in the discourse of African American women. In K. Hall & M. Bucholtz (eds.), Gender articulated: Language and the socially constructed self (pp. 321–350). New York: Routledge.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Bibliography

239

Franklin, A. et al. (2011). Racism and invisibility: Race-related stress, emotional abuse, and psychological trauma for people of color. In L. Blitz & M. Greene (eds.), Racism and racial identity: Reflections on urban practice in mental health and social services (pp. 9–30). New York: Routledge. Freed, J. (1995). Second language acquisition in a study abroad context (pp. 271– 291). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder. Freyre, G. (1933, 39th ed. 2000). Casa-grande & senzala. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Record. Frye, D. (1999). Participatory education as a critical framework for an immigrant women’s ESL class. TESOL Quarterly, 33, 501–513. Ganz, M. (1991). The Spelman experience: Encouraging and supporting minority students abroad. In Black students and overseas programs: Broadening the base of participation. Papers and speeches presented at the CIEE International Conference on Educational Exchange (pp. 43–53). New York: Council on International Educational Exchange. García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century. Malden, MA and Oxford: Wiley/Blackwell. García, O. (2010). Languaging and ethnifying. In J. Fishman & O. García (eds.), Handbook of language and ethnic identity: Disciplinary and regional perspectives (Vol. 1, pp. 519–534). New York: Oxford University Press. García, O. (2011a). Educating New York’s bilingual children: Constructing a future from the past. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 14(2), 133–153. García, O. (2011b). Translanguaging of Latino kindergartners. In K. Potowski & J. Rothman (eds.), Bilingual youth: Spanish in English speaking societies (pp. 33–55). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. García, O. & Kano, N. (2014). Translanguaging as process and pedagogy: Developing the English writing of Japanese students in the US. In J. Conteh & G. Meier (eds.), The multilingual turn in languages education: Opportunities and challenges (pp. 258–277). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. García, O. & Li Wei. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism, and education. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Gardner, R. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitudes and motivation. London: Edward Arnold. Gardner, R. (2001). Integrative motivation and second language acquisition. In Z. Dörnyei & R. Schmidt (eds.), Motivation and second language acquisition (pp. 1–20). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Gardner, R. & Lambert, W. (1959). Motivational variables in second language acquisition. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 13, 266–272. Gardner, R. & Lambert, W. (1972). Attitudes and motivation in second language learning. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Gass, S. & Selinker, L. (2001). Second language acquisition: An introductory course. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Gatlin, N. (2013). Don’t forget about us: African-American college students’ newfound perspectives on foreign language motivation, foreign language anxiety, and beliefs about foreign language learning (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Texas, Austin, TX. Glenn, P. (2003). Laughter in interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

240

Bibliography

Glynn, C. (2012). The role of ethnicity in the foreign language classroom: Perspectives on African American students’ enrollment, experiences, and identity (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. Godley, A. (2006). Gendered borderwork in a high school English class. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 5(3), 4–29. Goggin, J. (1983). Countering the white racist scholarship: Carter G. Woodson and the Journal of Negro History. The Journal of Negro History, 68(4), 355–375. Goldstein, T. (2001). Researching women’s language practices in multilingual workplaces. In A. Pavlenko et al. (eds.), Multilingualism, second language learning, and gender (pp. 77–101). New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Goodwin, C. (2000). Action and embodiment within situated human interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 32, 1489–1522. Goodwin, C. & Goodwin, M. (2004). Participation. In A. Duranti (ed.), A companion to linguistic anthropology (pp. 222–244). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Goodwin, M. (1990). He-said-she-said: Talk as social organization among black children. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Goodwin, M. (2006). The hidden life of girls: Games of stance, status, and exclusion. Oxford: Blackwell. Goodwin, M. & Alim, H.S. (2010). “Whatever (neck roll, eye roll, teeth suck)”: The situated coproduction of social categories and identities through stancetaking and transmodal stylization. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 20(1), 179–194. Gordon, D (2004). “I’m tired. You clean and cook.” Shifting gender identities and second language socialization. TESOL Quarterly, 36(3), 437–458. Gouveia Damasceno, B. (1988). Poesia negra no modernismo brasileiro. Campinas, São Paulo: Pontes Editores. Grice, H. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. Morgan (eds.), Syntax and semantics, vol. 3: Speech acts (pp. 41–58). New York: Academic Press. Guimarães, A. (1999). Racismo e anti-racismo no Brasil. São Paulo: Editora 34. Guimarães, A. (2005). Racial democracy. In J. Souza & V. Sinder (eds.), Imagining Brazil (pp. 119–140). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Guimarães, A. (2012). The Brazilian system of racial classification. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 35(7), 1157–1162. Haj-Broussard, M. (2002). Perceptions, interactions and immersion: A crosscomparative case study of African American students’ experiences in a French immersion context and a regular education context. Papers presented at the TexFlec Conference Austin. March 29–30. ERIC Document 476262. Haj-Broussard, M. (2005). Comparison contexts: African American students, immersion, and achievement. ACIE Newsletter, 8(3), 6–10. Hall, S. (1990). Cultural identity and diaspora. In J. Rutherford (ed.), Identity, community, culture, difference (pp. 222–237). London: Lawrence and Wishart. Hall, S. (2006). Old and new identities, old and new ethnicities. In A. King (ed.), Culture, globalization and the world-system: Contemporary conditions for the representation of identity (pp. 41–68). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Heller, M. (1999). Linguistic minorities and modernity: A sociolinguistic ethnography. London and New York: Longman. Henry, S. (2014). Finding ourselves abroad: How African American women successfully navigate the study abroad process. (Unpublished master’s thesis). Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Bibliography

241

Heyd, T. (2014). Doing race and ethnicity in a digital community: Lexical labels and narratives of belonging in a Nigerian web forum. Discourse, Context and Media, 4–5, 38–47. Higgins, D. (2009). Hip-hop world: A groundwork guide. Toronto: Groundwood Books. Hill Collins, P. (1990). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge. Hogg, M. & Abrams, D. (1988). Social identifications: A social psychology of intergroup relations and group processes. London: Routledge. hooks, b. (1992). Black looks: Race and representation. Boston: South End Press. Howard, D. (2007). Development, racism, and discrimination in the Dominican Republic. Development in Practice, 17(6), 725–738. Howard, T. (2010). Why race and culture matter in schools: Closing the achievement gap in America’s classrooms. New York: Teachers College Press. Ianni, O. (1987). Raças e classes sociais no Brasil. São Paulo: Editora Brasiliense. Ianni, O. (2004). Pensamento social no Brasil. Bauru, São Paulo: EDUSC. Ibrahim, A. (1999). Becoming black: Rap and hip-hop, race, gender, identity and the politics of ESL learning. TESOL Quarterly, 33(3), 349–369. Ibrahim, A. (2004). Operating under erasure: Hip-hop and the pedagogy of affect(ive). Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 20(1), 113–133. Ibrahim, A. (2009). Operating under erasure: Race/language/identity. In R. Kubota & A. Lin (eds.), Race, culture, and identities in second language education: Exploring critically engaged practice (pp. 176–194). New York: Routledge. Ibrahim, A. (2014). The rhizome of blackness: A critical ethnography of hip-hop culture, language, identity, and the politics of becoming. New York: Peter Lang. Igboanusi, H. (2008). Empowering Nigerian pidgin: A challenge for status planning? World Englishes, 27, 68–82. Illeris, K. (2014). Transformative learning and identity. New York: Routledge. Jackson, J. (2008). Language, identity and study abroad. London: Equinox. Jacobs-Huey, L. (2006). From the kitchen to the parlor: Language and becoming in African American women’s hair care. New York: Oxford University Press. Jacoby, B. (1996). Service-learning in higher education: Concepts and practices. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Jacoby, B. (2003). Fundamentals of service-learning partnerships. In B. Jacoby (ed.), Building partnerships for service-learning (pp. 1–19). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Jaffe, A. (2009). Introduction: The Sociolinguistics of Stance. In A. Jaffe (ed.), Stance: Sociolinguistic Perspectives (pp. 3–28). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Jefferson, G. (1979). A technique for inviting laughter and its subsequent acceptance declination. In G. Psathas (ed.), Everyday language: Studies in Ethnomethodology (pp. 79–96). New York: Irvington. Jefferson, G. (1984). On the organization of laughter in talk about troubles. In J. Atkinson & J. Heritage (eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis (pp. 346–369). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Johnson, D. (1992). Approaches to research in second language learning. New York: Longman. Johnson, E. (1995). Snap! culture: A different kind of “reading.” Text and Performance Quarterly, 15(2), 122–142. Johnson, E. & Henderson, M. (2005). Queering black studies/”quaring” queer studies. In E.P. Johnson & M. Henderson (eds.), Black queer studies: A critical anthology (pp. 1–17). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

242

Bibliography

Johnstone, B. (1996). The linguistic individual: Self-expression in language and linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press. Johnstone, B. (2000). Qualitative methods in sociolinguistics. New York: Oxford University Press. Kachru, Y. (1994). Sources of bias in SLA research: Monolingual bias in SLA research. TESOL Quarterly, 28(4), 795–800. Kanagy, R. (1999). Interactional routines as a mechanism for L2 acquisition and socialization in an immersion context. Journal of Pragmatics, 31, 1467–1492. Keith-Spiegel, P. (1972). Early conceptions of humor: Varieties and issues. In J. Goldstein & P. McGhee (eds.), The psychology of humor: Theoretical perspectives and empirical issues (pp. 3–39). New York: Academic Press. Kennedy, J. (1987). Strategies for including Afro-Latin American culture in the intermediate Spanish class. Hispania, 70, 679–683. King, B. (2008). “Being gay guy, that is the advantage”: Queer Korean language learning and identity construction. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 7(3), 230–252. Kinginger, C. (2001). Alice doesn’t live here anymore: Foreign language learning and identity construction. In A. Pavlenko & A. Blackledge (eds.), Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts (pp. 219–242). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Kinginger, C. (2009). Language learning and study abroad: A critical reading of research. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Kinginger, C. (2011). Enhancing language learning in study abroad. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 31, 58–73. Kinginger, C. (ed.). (2013a). Social and cultural aspects of language learning in study abroad. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Kinginger, C. (2013b). Identity and language learning in study abroad. Foreign Language Annals, 46(3), 339–358. Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Kramsch, C. (1987). Socialization and literacy in a foreign language: Learning through interaction. Theory into Practice, 26(4), 243–250. Kramsch, C. (2009). The multilingual subject. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kramsch, C. & Huffmaster, M. (2015). Multilingual practices in foreign language study. In J. Cenoz & D. Gorter (eds.), Multilingual education: Between language learning and translanguaging (pp. 114–136). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kress, G. (1991). Critical discourse analysis. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 11, 84–99. Kress, G. (2001). From Saussure to critical sociolinguistics: The turn towards a social view of language. In M. Wetherall et al. (eds.), Discourse theory and practice (pp. 29–38). London: SAGE. Kubota, R. (2003). New approaches to gender, class, and race in second language writing. Journal of Second Language Writing, 12, 31–47. Kubota, R. & Lin, A. (eds.). (2009). Race, culture, and identities in second language education: Exploring critically engaged practice. New York: Routledge. Kumaravadivelu, B. (1999). Critical classroom discourse analysis. TESOL Quarterly, 33(3), 453–484. Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003). Beyond methods: Macrostrategies for language teaching. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Bibliography

243

Ladson-Billings, G. (1998). Just what is critical race theory and what’s it doing in a nice field like education? International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 11(1), 7–24. Ladson-Billings, G. & Tate, W. (1995). Toward a critical race theory of education. Teachers College Record, 97(1), 47–68. Lakoff, R. (1973). Language and a woman’s place. Language in Society, 2, 45–80. Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Second language acquisition and applied linguistics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 20, 165–181. Lassiter, L. (2003). Parlez-vous HBCU?: Attitudes and beliefs of students of color towards the study of French. Proceedings of the Hawaii International Conference on Education. Honolulu, HI. Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lazar, M. (ed.). (2008). Feminist critical discourse analysis: Studies in gender, power, and ideology. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave MacMillan. Lee, E. (2015). Doing culture, doing race: Everyday discourses of ‘culture’ and ‘cultural difference’ in the English as a second language classroom. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 36(1), 80–93. Léger, D. & Storch, N. (2009). Learners’ perceptions and attitudes: Implications for willingness to communicate in an L2 classroom. System, 37(2), 269–285. Lesser, J. (1999). Negotiating national identity: Immigrants, minorities, and the struggle for ethnicity in Brazil. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Leung, C. (2014). Communication and participatory involvement in linguistically diverse classrooms. In S. May (ed.), The multilingual turn: Implications for SLA, TESOL, and bilingual education (pp. 123–146). New York and London: Routledge. Leung, C. et al. (2004). Living with inelegance in qualitative research on task-based learning. In B. Norton & K. Toohey (eds.), Critical pedagogies and language learning (pp. 242–267). New York: Cambridge University Press. Levine, G. (2015). A nexus analysis of code choice during study abroad and implications for language pedagogy. In J. Cenoz & D. Gorter (eds.), Multilingual education: Between language learning and translanguaging (pp. 84–113). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Liddicoat, A. (2009). Sexual identity as linguistic failure: Trajectories of interaction in the heteronormative language classroom. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 8, 191–202. Lindemann, S. (2002). Listening with an attitude: A model of native-speaker comprehension of non-native speakers in the United States. Language in Society 31(3), 419–441. Lindemann, S. (2010). Who’s “unintelligible”? The perceiver’s role. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 18(2), 223–232. Liu, J. (2002). Negotiating silence in American classrooms: Three Chinese cases. Language and Intercultural Communication, 2(1), 37–54. Li Wei. (2011). Moment analysis and translanguaging space: Discursive construction of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain. Journal of Pragmatics, 43, 1222–1235. Lorenso, S. (2010). Entre silêncios e ditos: Estilos de enunciação negra na perspectiva semiótica. In E. Almeida Pereira (ed.), Um tigre na floresta de signos: Estudos sobre poesia e demandas sociais no Brasil (pp. 523–538). Belo Horizonte: Mazza Edições.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

244

Bibliography

MacIntyre, P. et al. (1998). Conceptualising willingness to communicate in a L2: A situational model of L2 confidence and affiliation. Modern Language Journal, 82, 545–562. MacIntyre, P. et al. (2001). Willingness to communicate, social, support, and language learning orientations of immersion students. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 23, 369–388. Mackey, A. & Gass, S. (2005). Second language research: Methodology and design. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Markus, H. (2010). Who am I: Race, ethnicity, and identity. In P. Moya & H. Markus (eds.), Doing race: 21 essays for the 21st century (pp. 359–389). New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Markus, H. & Nurius, P. (1986). Possible selves: The interface between motivation and the self-concept. In K. Yardley & T. Honess (eds.), Self and identity: Psychological perspectives (pp. 157–172). Chichester, UK: Wiley and Sons. May, S. (2014). The multilingual turn: Implications for SLA, TESOL, and bilingual education. New York and London: Routledge. Mayes, A. (2014). The mulatto republic: Class, race, and Dominican national identity. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida. McWhorter, J. (2001). Word on the street: Debunking the myth of “pure” standard English. New York: Perseus. Menard-Warwick, J. (2009). Gendered identities and immigrant language learning. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Meyerhoff, M. (1996). Dealing with gender identity as a sociolinguistic variable. In V. Bergvall, J. Bing & A. Freed (eds.), Rethinking language and gender research: Theory and practice (pp. 203–227). London: Longman. Mezirow, J. (1978). Education for perspective transformation: Women’s re-entry programs in community college. New York: Center for Adult Education, Teachers College, Columbia University. Miles, R. (1989). Racism. London: Routledge. Miles, R. (1993). Racism after “race relations”. London: Routledge. Miller, K. (1954). Modern foreign languages in Negro colleges. The Journal of Negro Education, 23(1), 40–50. Moita-Lopes, L. (2006). Queering literacy teaching: Analyzing gay-themed discourses in a fifth-grade class in Brazil. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 5(1), 85–96. Moore, E. (2012). The social life of style. Language and literature, 21(1), 66–83. Moore, Z. (2005). African American students’ opinions about foreign language study: An exploratory study of low enrollments at the college level. Foreign Language Annals, 38(2), 191–200. Moore, Z. & English, M. (1998). Successful teaching strategies: Findings from a case study of middle school African Americans learning Arabic. Foreign Language Annals, 31(3), 347–357. Morgan, M. (1991). Indirectness and interpretation in African American women’s discourse. Pragmatics, 1(4), 421–451. Morgan, M. (1994). The African American speech community: Reality and sociolinguists. In Marcyliena Morgan (ed.), Language and the social construction of identity in Creole situations (pp. 121–148). Los Angeles: Center for Afro-American Studies, UCLA.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Bibliography

245

Morgan, M. (2009). Foreword: Just take me as I am. In S. Lanehart (ed.), African American women’s language: Discourse, education, and identity (pp. xiv–xxiii). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Morgan, R. et al. (2002). Black women in the African Diaspora seeking their cultural heritage through studying abroad. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 39(4), 297–317. Morita, N. (2004). Negotiating identity and participation in second language academic communities. TESOL Quarterly, 34(4), 573–603. Morrell, E. (2004). Becoming critical researchers: Literacy and empowerment for urban youth. New York: Peter Lang Publishing. Moya, P. & Markus, H. (2010). Doing race: An introduction. In P. Moya & H. Markus (eds.), Doing race: 21 essays for the 21st century (pp. 1–102). New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Muehlenhard, C. & Peterson, Z. (2011). Distinguishing between sex and gender: History, current conceptualizations, and implications. Sex Roles, 64, 791–803. Murji, K. & Solomos, J. (2005). Introduction: Racialization in theory and practice. In K. Murji & J. Solomos (eds.), Racialization: Studies in theory and practice (pp. 1–27). New York: Oxford University Press. Murphey, T. et al. (2004). Learners’ constructions of identities and imagined communities. In P. Benson & D. Nunan (eds.), Learners’ stories: Difference and diversity in language learning (pp. 83–100). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Murray Brux, J. & Fry, B. (2009). Multicultural students in study abroad: Their interests, their issues, and their concerns. Journal of Studies in International Education, 14(5), 508–527. Nascimento, A. (1980). Quilombismo: An Afro-Brazilian political alternative. Journal of Black Studies, 11(2), 141–178. Nascimento, E. (2006). The sorcery of color: Identity, race, and gender in Brazil. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Nelson, C. (1999). Sexual identities in ESL: Queer theory and classroom inquiry. TESOL Quarterly, 33, 371–391. Nelson, C. (2006). Queer inquiry in language education. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 5(1), 1–9. Nelson, C. (2009). Sexual identities in English language education: Classroom conversations. New York: Routledge. Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity and educational change. Harlow, UK: Longman/Pearson Education. Norton, B. (2001). Non-participation, imagined communities and the language classroom. In Breen, M. (ed.), Learner contributions to language learning: New directions in research (pp. 159–171). London: Pearson Education. Norton, B. (2010). Language and identity. In N. Horngerger & S. McKay (eds.), Sociolinguistics and language education (pp. 349–369). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Norton, B. (2013). Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation (2nd edition). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Norton, B. (2014). Identity, literacy, and the multilingual classroom. In S. May (ed.), The multilingual turn: Implications for SLA, TESOL, and bilingual education (pp. 103–122). New York and London: Routledge. Norton, B. & Toohey, K. (2011). Identity, language learning, and social change. Language Teaching, 44(4), 412–446.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

246

Bibliography

Norton (Peirce), B. (1995). Social identity, investment, and language learning. TESOL Quarterly, 29(1), 9–31. Nyabongo, V. (1948). Modern foreign languages in Negro colleges. The Modern Language Journal, 32(2), 134–139. Ochs, E. (1993). Constructing social identity: A language socialization perspective. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 26, 287–306. Ochs, E. (2002). Becoming a speaker of culture. In C. Kramsch (ed.), Language socialization and language acquisition: Ecological perspectives (pp. 99–120). New York: Continuum Press. Ochs, E. & Schieffelin, B. (1984). Language acquisition and socialization: Three developmental stories. In R. Shweder & R. LeVine (eds.), Culture theory: Essays on mind, self, and emotion (pp. 276–320). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Omi, M. & Winant, H. (1994). Racial formation in the United States: From the 1970s to the 1990s. New York: Routledge. O’Mochain, R. (2006). Discussing gender and sexuality in a context-appropriate way: Queer narratives in an EFL college classroom in Japan. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 5(1), 85–96. Osada, M. (2002). Sanctions and honorary whites: Diplomatic policies and economic realities in relations between Japan and South Africa. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Oxford, R. (ed.). (1996). Language learning strategies around the world: Crosscultural perspectives. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Oxford, R. (2001). Language learning strategies. In R. Carter & D. Nunan (eds.), The Cambridge guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (pp. 166–172). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Ozanan, L. (2003). As jóias dos negros: usuários e artífices nas Minas Gerias do século XVIII. Revista da FADOM, 13, 61–77. Available at: http://www.fadom.br/ includes/cepe/revista2003/artigo13–4.PDF Pavlenko, A. (1998). Second language learning by adults: Testimonies of bilingual writers. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 9(1), 3–19. Pavlenko, A. (2001). “In the world of tradition, I was unimagined”: Negotiation of identities in cross-cultural autobiographies. International Journal of Bilingualism, 53, 317–344. Pavlenko, A. (2004). Gender and sexuality in foreign and second language education: Critical and feminist approaches. In B. Norton & K. Toohey (eds.), Critical pedagogies and language learning (pp. 53–71). New York: Cambridge University Press. Pavlenko, A. & Blackledge, A. (2001). Introduction: New theoretical approaches to the study of negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts. In A. Pavlenko & A. Blackledge (eds.), Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts (pp. 1–33). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Pavlenko, A. & Norton, B. (2007). Imagined communities, identity, and English learning. In J. Cummins & C. Davison (eds.), Springer international handbook of English language teaching (pp. 669–680). New York: Springer. Penn, E. & Tanner, J. (2009). Black students and international education: An assessment. Journal of Black Studies, 40(2), 266–282. Pennycook, A. (2001). Critical applied linguistics: A critical introduction. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Bibliography

247

Pennycook, A. (2010). Language as a local practice. New York: Routledge. Perry, T. & Delpit, L. (eds.). (1998). The real Ebonics debate: Power, language, and the education of African American children. Boston: Beacon. Persons, S. (1987). Ethnic studies at Chicago 1905–45. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. Pillow, W. (2003). Confession, catharsis, or cure?: Rethinking the uses of reflexivity as methodological power in qualitative research. Qualitative Studies in Education, 16, 175–196. Pinar, W. (1993). Notes on understanding curriculum as racial text. In C. McCarthy & W. Crichlow (eds.), Race, identity, and representation in education (pp. 60–71). New York: Routledge. Pincus, F. & Ehrich, H. (1999). Race and ethnic conflict. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Plann, S. (2002). Latinos and literacy: An upper-division Spanish course with servicelearning. Hispania, 85(2), 330–338. Polanyi, L. (1995). Language learning and living abroad: Stories form the field. In B. Freed (ed.), Second language acquisition in a study abroad context (pp. 271– 291). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Poole, D. (1992). Language socialization in the second language classroom. Language learning, 42, 593–615. Pough, G. (2004). Check it while I wreck it: Black womanhood, hip hop culture, and the public sphere. Boston: Northeastern University Press. Quirt, T. (1976). Attending behavior during reading instruction. The Reading Teacher, 29(7), 640–646. Rampton, B. (1999). Styling the other: Introduction. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 3(4), 421–427. Rampton, B. (2003). Hegemony, social class and stylization. Pragmatics, 13(1), 49–83. Rampton, B. (2006). Language in late modernity: Interaction in an urban school. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rees, C. & Monrouxe, L. (2010). “I should be lucky ha ha ha ha.” The construction of power, identity and gender through laughter within medical workplace learning encounters. Journal of Pragmatics, 42, 3384–3399. Ricento, T. (2005). Considerations of identity in L2 learning. In E. Hinkel (ed.), Handbook of research on second language teaching and learning (pp. 895–910). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Rickford, J. & Rickford, A. (1976). Cut-eye and suck-teeth: African words and gestures in new world guise. Journal of American Folklore, 89, 294–309. Rivers, N. (1933). A study of the modern foreign languages in thirty Negro colleges. The Journal of Negro Education, 2(4), 487–493. Rivers, N. (1934). Why Negroes should study romance languages and literatures. The Journal of Negro History, 19(2), 118–136. Rooks, N. (1996). Hair raising: Beauty, culture, and African-American women. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Rymes, Betsy. (1997). Second language socialization: A new approach to second language acquisition research. Journal of Intensive English Studies, 11, 143–154. Sacks, H. (1995). Lectures on conversation. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50, 696–735.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

248

Bibliography

Sade, L. (2006). Identidade e aquisição em narrativas de falantes e aprendizes de línguas estrangeiras. Revista Intercâmbio, 5. Available at: http://www.pucsp.br/ pos/lael/intercambio/pdf/Sade.pdf Santana Pinho, P. (2008). African American roots tourism in Brazil. Latin American Perspectives, 35(3), 70–86. Saussure, F. (1966). Course in general linguistics. New York: McGraw Hill. Savage, M. (2000). Class analysis and social transformation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Savage, M. et al. (2013). A new model of social class: Findings from the BBC’s great British class survey experiment. Sociology, 47(2), 219–250. Schegloff, E. (1984). On some gestures’ relation to talk. In M. Atkinson & J. Heritage (eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis (pp. 266–296). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schegloff, E. (1991). Reflections on talk and social structure. In D. Boden & D. Zimmerman (eds.), Talk and social structure (pp. 44–70). Cambridge: Polity Press. Schumann, J. (1997). The neurobiology of affect in language learning. Oxford: Blackwell. Schwarcz, L. (1996). Negras imagens: Ensaios sobre cultura e escravidão no Brasil. São Paulo: Estação Ciência, Universidade de São Paulo. Scott, K. (2000). Crossing cultural borders: “Girl” and “look” as markers of identity in black women’s language use. Discourse and Society, 11(2), 237–248. Sell, R. (1997). Defining and measuring sexual orientation. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 26(6), 643–658. Shi, X. (2006). Gender, identity, and intercultural transformation in second language socialization. Language and Intercultural Communication, 6(1), 2–17. Shin, H. (2014). Social class, habitus, and language learning: The case of Korean early study-abroad students. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 13, 99–103. Shohamy, E. (2006). Language policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. London: Routledge. Skidmore, T. (1993). Black into white: Race and nationality in Brazilian thought. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Smitherman, G. (1994). Black talk: Words and phrases from the hood to the amen corner. New York: Houghton Mifflin. Snell, J. (2010). From sociolinguistic variation to socially strategic stylisation. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 14(5), 630–656. Snipp, C. M. (2010). Defining race and ethinicity: The Constitution, the Supreme Court, and the Census. In P. Moya & H. Markus (eds.), Doing race: 21 essays for the 21st century (pp. 105–122). New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Swartz, E. (1992). Emancipatory narratives: Rewriting the master script in the school curriculum. Journal of Negro Education, 61, 341–355. Tajfel, H. (1981). Human groups and social categories: Studies in social psychology. New York: Cambridge University Press. Tajfel, H. (1982). Social identity and intergroup relations. New York: Cambridge University Press. Talbot, M. (2010). Language and gender (2nd edition). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Talburt, S. & Stewart, M. (1999). What’s the subject of study abroad?: Race, gender, and “living culture”. Modern Language Journal, 83(2), 163–175.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Bibliography

249

Tannen, D. (1990). You just don’t understand: Women and men in conversation. New York: Harper Collins. Tarone, E. et al. (eds.). (1994). Research methodology in second-language acquisition research. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Taylor-Mendes, C. (2009). Construction of racial stereotypes in English as a foreign language textbooks: Images as discourse. In R. Kubota & A. Lin (eds.), Race, culture, and identities in second language education: Exploring critically engaged practice (pp. 64–80). New York: Routledge. Telles, Edward. (2004). Race in another America: The significance of skin color in Brazil. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Teutsch-Dwyer, M. (2001). (Re)constructing masculinity in a new linguistic reality. In A. Pavelenko et al. (eds.), Multilingualism, second language learning, and gender (pp. 175–198). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Tsui, A. (1996). Reticence and anxiety in second language learning. In K. Bailey & D. Nunan (eds.), Voices from the language classroom: Qualitative research in second language education (pp. 145–167). New York: Cambridge University Press. US Department of Education. (2011). Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Post-Secondary Education System (IPEDS). https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d13/tables/dt13_322.30.asp van Dijk, T. (1993). Principles of critical discourse analysis. Discourse and Society, 4(2), 249–283. van Dijk, T. (1999). Critical discourse analysis and conversation analysis. Discourse and Society, 10(4), 459–460. van Dijk, T. (2008). Discourse and context: A sociocognitive approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. van Dijk, T. (2009). Society and discourse: How social contexts influence text and talk. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vandrick, S. (2011). Students of the new global elite. TESOL Quarterly, 45(1), 160–169. Vandrick, S. (2014). The role of social class in English language education. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 13, 85–91. Vertovec, S. (2007). Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30(6), 1024–1054. Walters, R. (2007). Barack Obama and the politics of blackness. Journal of Black Studies, 38(7), 7–29. Waters, M. (1990). Ethnic options: Choosing identities in America. Berkeley: University of California Press. Watterson, K. (2011). The attitudes of African American students towards the study of foreign languages and cultures (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA. Weedon, C. (1987). Feminist practice and poststructuralist theory. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. West, C. (1994). Race matters. New York: Vintage Books. West, C. & Zimmerman, D. (1987). Doing gender. Gender and Society, 1, 125–151. Wetherell, M., Taylor, S. & Yates, S. (2001). Discourse as data: A guide for analysis. London: The Open University.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

250

Bibliography

Williams, C. (1994). Arfaniad o ddlliau dysgu ac addysgu yng nghyddestun addysg uwchradd ddwyieithog [An evaluation of teaching and learning methods in the context of bilingual secondary education] (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Wales, Bangor, UK. Wodak, R. (1996). Disorders of discourse. London: Longman. Wodak, R. & Meyer, M. (2nd ed. 2009). Critical discourse analysis: History, agenda, theory and methodology. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (pp. 1–33). London: SAGE. Wolf, N. (1991). The beauty myth: How images of beauty are used against women. New York: William Morrow. Woodrow, L. (2006). Anxiety and speaking English as a second language. Regional Language Center Journal, 37(3), 308–328. Wright Fogle, L. (2012). Second language socialization and learner agency: Adoptive family talk. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Yngve, V. (1996). From grammar to science: New foundations for general linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Index

affirmation: cultural 138, 163; ethno-racial 64, 129–30, 132–5, 150, 179; sexual 143–5, 149 African Americans in SLL: attitudes toward 12–14, 78; history of 10–11; research on 13–14, 34–5; underrepresentation of 11–14; see also study abroad African Diaspora 44, 60, 72, 93, 134–5; see also Afro-descendant Afro-Brazilian: literature 93–4; music 59, 104, 132–5, 191–2; population 20–1, 60 Afro-descendant 90, 132–4, 226, 228 Agar, M. 99 alignment 53, 67–8, 79, 82–3, 113–17, 163, 205 Alim, S. 41, 53, 83 Anderson, B. 2, 39 anxiety 193–5, 222, 227 Anya, U. 14, 51, 224 attitude: black girl 56, 78–83; cut-eye/ side-eye 80, 82, 205; facilitating language 87; sass 56, 78–9; shade 82, 84

communities: classroom 18–19; desired 34, 36–9, 59; imagined 2, 39–40; outside classroom 19–23; of practice 32–3, 40 courtship see dating Crenshaw, K. 31, 41 critical discourse analysis (CDA) 53–6 critical language and race theory (LangCrit) 42–3 critical race theory (CRT) 7, 41–3, 54 curriculum: language learning 12, 59, 171; master script 227; proposals for 225–8; racist discourse 64 dance 55, 59, 97, 101–4, 110, 132, 189, 191–3 dating 87, 159–63; flirtation 61, 100, 143–5, 175–6; sex 157–9, 195 Davis, J. 2, 11, 12, 13 Dijk, T. van 41, 54 discourse analysis 53–7 dominance 4, 31, 54–5, 194, 206; see also power dynamic multilingualism 25, 227; see also translanguaging ethnicity 2; see also identity

beauty 149–50; hair and 136, 182, 189–90; hierarchy in Brazil 76, 189–90; race and 76, 83, 188–91, 208, 220 Block, D. 13, 26, 27, 30 Bucholtz, M. 30, 53 Canagarajah, S. 25, 26, 222, 227 Candomblé 90–1, 99, 165–6 capital 30, 39, 46–7, 123, 157, 192, 218 Capoeira 18, 69, 132; cultural identity 132–5, 144, 164; guys 150, 158

Fairclough, N. 53, 54 fluidity: ethno-racial 20, 97–9; in gender performance 102–4, 108, 122; linguistic 24; sexual 99–102 García, O. 25, 26, 71, 227 Gardner, R. 38 gender 30; black manhood 99, 102, 104, 108, 110, 122, 188, 221; black womanhood 31, 136, 149, 188, 208; hierarchy 190; in language learning research 34–5; masculinity 101–2,

252

Index

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

107–8, 120–2; performance 99, 102–8, 113, 122; see also identity Goodwin, M. 53, 81, 82, 83 hair 129–30, 136–7, 182, 206–11 heteronormativity 34, 102, 104–22, 221, 226 host families 22; proposals for selection 228–9; race and 75–7; relationships with 87, 182–4, 206–7; social class and 155–7 Ibrahim, A. 35, 192, 193 identity 28; as both being and becoming 28, 33, 49–50; co-construction and negotiation of 28–9; identification 52–53, 60, 77, 90–1, 123, 129–30, 149, 172, 174; indexicality of 52; intersectionality 31–3, 38, 46, 68, 100, 149, 188, 208; race and language 29–30, 42; research in SLL 33–36 Ilê Ayê 132, 138–44, 150, 208, 229 insecurity: body 145, 150; language 63, 86, 179–83, 193–4, 200–2, 212, 221; racialized 145, 150, 174–5, 187 intersectionality see identity investment 39; choices and efforts 54–5, 59–64, 91–2, 175, 191–3; identity transformation 36–40, 49, 97–9; shifts in 38, 49, 62–4, 77, 84, 92, 182, 191, 219; see also participation Jacobs-Huey, L. 136, 207 Kinginger, C. 15, 34 Kramsch 13, 25, 26, 222, 227 Kubota, R. 42 Kumaravadivelu, B. 225 Ladson-Billings 42 language as a practice 25; see also languaging language learning autobiographies (LLA) 51 language socialization 32 languaging 24–5 Lave, J. 4, 40 learning style 93, 177, 212, 221 Lin, A. 42 Li Wei 29, 32

monolingual bias 26–7, 221, 227 monolingual immersion 64, 84, 122, 221 Moore, Z. 2, 11, 14 motivation: psycholinguistic notion of 38; vs. investment 39 mulata 137, 189, 190 negra vs. morena 71–7, 185–91, 219 Nelson, C. 34, 107, 121 Norton, B. 34, 39, 43, 54, 225 Ochs, E. 31, 52, 53 pardo 21, 96–8, 124, 219 participation 4, 33–40; classroom vs. outside 84–6, 123–4, 164–6, 212–16; expectations for 59, 64, 175–80, 193–4, 201, 221; see also investment Pavlenko, A. 102, 226 Pennycook, A. 41, 53, 54, 187, 225, 226 power 29, 31–4, 38, 41, 83, 154–9, 202; see also dominance pretinha vs. negrita 142–5, 187, 219–20 race 2–3; in Brazil 20–1, 174–7, 94–7; and gender 136, 168, 187–91; in language learning research 34–6; “one-drop” rule 21, 141, 219; as a shield 71, 90, 129, 149, 165, 180–1 racial democracy 20, 72, 76 racialization 3, 29, 31, 188 racism: “bad actor” understanding of 43; in Brazil 71–6, 145, 187, 228; disappointment with 93–4, 136–7, 187–91; in language learning 12–16, 34–5, 42–3; proposals to combat 226–9; see also racialization Rampton, B. 53, 82 Rickford, A. 82, 83 Rickford, J. 82, 83 Rivers, N. 9, 10 romance see dating Salvador 19–23; Liberdade neighborhood 132, 138, 141, 206–9; Pelourinho neighborhood 60, 91, 123, 213; socioeconomic disparity 69, 136 sass see attitude

Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:15 22 April 2017

Index self-reference 50, 71–7, 94–7, 143–5, 185–7 self-reflexivity 43service-learning 229–30 sexuality 30, 34, 99, 107–8, 120–2social class 30; in dating 157– 63; in ethnic identification 68–71; in homestay residence 155–7, 165; in written assignments 151–5 speak blackness 3, 49–50, 54–5 study abroad 15; African Americans on 15–17; proposals for 227–30 stylization 35, 53–6, 67, 79, 82, 163 success in language learning 49, 51, 221–5

253

transformative socialization 31–3 translanguaging 25–6; in foreign language study 26–7, 222, 227; vs. code-switching 25 translanguaging space 29, 32; discourse as 36, 53; transformative power of 32 translingual practice 25, 222; see also translanguaging voice 29, 42–3 Wenger, E. 4, 40 willingness to communicate (WTC) 193 Wodak, R. 43, 54