Abstract

ALAMILLO, Rosalva. Mexicana nacida en el extranjero: Analyzing Ethnolinguistic Identity of Spanish Heritage Speakers Inhabiting the Borderlands.Translated byErika Morales. Frontera norte [online]. 2025, vol.37, e2382.  Epub Sep 22, 2025. ISSN 2594-0260.  https://doi.org/10.33679/rfn.v1i1.2382.

This research investigates the ethnolinguistic identities of Spanish heritage speakers who inhabit the borderlands in the San Diego-Tijuana international metropolitan area through critical discourse analysis of narratives written by students in an advanced university course for heritage Spanish speakers. The objective was to determine identities linguistically indexed through self-reported labels to develop better pedagogical practices in addressing ethnolinguistic identity in the heritage language classroom. Findings revealed that most participants recognized themselves as members of their ethnic group; a little more than a third identified solely with the heritage culture, but none identified solely as American. Additionally, bilingualism and biculturalism were included as part of their identity, and almost half mentioned that their heritage language was part of their identity; finally, the label most closely related to Spanglish and transnational practices was Mexican. Qualitative data is also presented and recommendations for better educational practices related to ethnolinguistic identity are given.

Keywords : 1. ethnolinguistic identity; 2. Spanish as a heritage language; 3. ethnic self-identification; 4. sociolinguistics; 5. United States-Mexico border.

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