Chicano Code Switching

The topic I have chosen for my dissertation in the MA in Translation Studies with TESOL is code-switching. More specifically the translation of works containing code switching in the context of Chicano literature. Therefore, the language pair I will be working with is English – Spanish. I became interested in this topic during my BA. I learned about code switching when learning about American and Chicano literature. The focus there was more on its literary value and meaning rather than its impact in a possible translation of the text.

Chicano code switching has been defined by Metcalf (1974: 53) as “a variety of English that is obviously influenced by Spanish and that has low prestige in most circles, but that nevertheless is independent of Spanish and is the first, and often only, language of many hundreds of thousands of residents of California”. As explained by Florian Coulmas, “It is not necessarily for

Moraga is considered one of the most important Chicano playwrights of her generation. She focuses on the inequalities and injustices that are present in the lives of the Chicano community living in the United Sates. Not only that, but she also aims at portraying the day to day life and family relations of the Chicanos that are not usually shown in other plays of the time. Her work is recognizable for her complex feminine characters, and sexuality, being openly gay herself, she brings a particular element of sexuality that occupies her narrative.

Heroes and Saints & Other Plays was first premiered in 1992 at El Teatro Misión in San Francisco. Despite being fiction Heroes and Saints & Other Plays is based on the vents that brought attention to the “United Farm Workers' grape boycott in protest against pesticide poisoning” (Moraga,1994:89). Heroes and Saints’ main character is Cerezita, who has no full body, only a head is visible during most of he