Once Upon A Quincea単era Analysis

Cultural Currencies: Cash, Culture, and Change The United States is a melting pot of many different cultures. People from all over the world come to the United States because they have the freedom to practice their culture here; this includes using their native language. In Leslie Savan’s book Slam Dunks and No-Brainers: Language in Your Life, the Media, Business, Politics, and, Like, Whatever she included a section called “What’s Black, Then White, and Said All Over?”. This section examines common way of speaking, which Savan claims has its origins in African American vernacular. Julia Alvarez, author of the book Once Upon A Quinceañera: Coming of Age in the USA, also writes about other cultures accumulating themselves into the American
Alvarez discusses retroculturation, reaching back and reconnecting with traditions that haven’t been celebrated in generations. She describes Latino retroculturation by saying the first generation tries to do everything possible to assimilate into the new culture. The second generation wants to grow up completely American; some even refuse to learn Spanish. The third generation feels completely American, but they feel like they want to reconnect with their Spanish roots. “They make a concerted effort to hold on to their traditions, to establish cultural ties with their past” (Alvarez 46). The same can be said for blacks using “slang” language. The spelling, or misspelling, of words isn’t just a style; it has roots in history. Going back to the 1800’s “hip-hop misspellings don’t just reject select bits of standard white written style… writers ridiculed Negro speech with exaggerated misspelling” (Savan 373). For hundreds of years now we went through the retroculturation cycle with spelling of words. By misspelling words to make them appear cooler, people aren’t just being unique; they are following a past
This is “part of a apparently universal phenomenon that sociolinguists call covert prestige” (Savan 377). Most other nations in the world have declared a universal language and they still have covert prestige. Margaret Lee was quoted by Leslie Savan saying that “speakers of a “standard” language (whatever the language) have favorable attitudes toward lower-class, nonstandard speech forms… when new forms enter the mainstream, in fact, they usually come fro nonstandard speech” (Savan 337). When new words are brought into everyday speech they normally originated from slang. The word “bling” can now be found in the dictionary, meaning it is recognized as a word, but African American hip-hop artists first used it. This is just one example of how covert prestige is present in our