Of Squids and Octopuses: Many Languages, Many Hearts

My research assistant/student fellow, Andrea Gonzalez, and I are investigating and surveying speakers of multiple languages in El Paso. We are simply looking for and interviewing people whose native language or languages are not either of the two dominant languages in the city. We are not focusing on English and Spanish usage, hopefully for obvious reasons, because we want to bring more light to oft-overlooked languages instead, their speakers here, and how, where, and with whom those languages are used. Above all, we want to learn about the experiences of these speakers while using their languages in El Paso and the attitudes they’ve encountered. Essentially, we are exploring the various minority linguistic communities here and how they help to shape the city as a whole.


Professor Majd Sarah speaks with Professor Joseph Crisafulli about her usage of Arabic and French. Photo credit: Joseph Crisafulli)

Our interviews are informal surveys of language use, and subjects volunteer their time to participate. We anticipate conducting upwards of ten interviews during the fall semester of 2019, each with a speaker of a different first language. We have created a series of standard questions that we ask all subjects, though we do look forward to unexpected tangents to the conversation. In learning about our subjects’ language use, we also hope to learn more about ourselves and our city. Above all, we hope to show how subjects in the humanities, in this case, with a focus on language, affect our daily lives in either direct or indirect ways that we tend to forget.

All participants and subjects have been enthusiastic to share their experiences with us. As we’ve started our interviews with native speakers of languages other than English and/or Spanish, we are already finding several commonalities. In subsequent blogs, we’ll attempt to identify other similarities and common threads amongst participants’ language use. To be clear, we have no agenda or hypothesis we’re attempting to prove. We’ll simply collect the data and see where it leads us. The following sections describe some of the threads that we’re beginning to identify.

The Language of Family

One consistent thread we are already seeing is that our subjects largely use their first languages to communicate with family. In many instances, this includes communicating with family abroad, with parents, siblings, and other relatives, such as cousins. However, this also includes communicating with family members that also live in El Paso. For example, several of our interviewees are parents, parents whose children are at least native bilingual speakers of English and the language of their parent. When our subjects speak to their children, it is more often in the parent’s native language than English. One subject also described using Arabic, the parent’s native language, as the parent/child coded form of communication, for messages that are more private. Another subject described using her native language, Persian, in public with her child in circumstances that were more emotional and serious. Around speakers of English and Spanish, when their parents want to communicate something more sensitive, they would revert to their own native tongue, sometimes decidedly, sometimes naturally.

The Role of Community

So far, our subjects also have linguistic communities and networks here in El Paso, where the native language is used almost exclusively. Locations that house these linguistic communities are often houses of worship, community centers, ethnic restaurants, as well as the homes of family and close friends. Moreover, when these speakers meet colleagues who share the same native tongue, immediate bonds and friendships form, and the main mode of communication between the two naturally becomes that particular language. As one subject noted, the mother tongue also carries with it the culture and history of its speakers; akin to a work of literature making an allusion to another artist or work, the weight of all that’s connoted is transmitted through the language choice. Even when having brief conversations in English, sometimes there isn’t quite the right word to communicate an idea, and the primary language makes an appearance.


Dr. Fariba Ansari speaks with Professor Joseph Crisafulli and Student Fellow Andrea Gonzalez about her use of Farsi, Kurdish, and Turkish. (Photo credit: Joseph Crisafulli)

The Role of Media

From more recent forms of media like streaming services and social media, as well as more traditional forms like music and cinema, all media is so personalized and individualized these days that it’s easy to forget that what we experience is not the same or even similar to another person’s experience. We were surprised to hear about the role media played in our subjects’ linguistic lives. Our subjects will often communicate with people on social media in the same thread in multiple languages. Also, most of our subjects are now able to consume movies and television series in their first language via Netflix and other streaming services as well as YouTube, which is also used to listen to music. Media has simply allowed the subjects’ first language to regain some of its ground in their lives. Naturally, the internet allows for the news and current events of the native country/culture to be absorbed in the first language. In this respect, writing in the first language is at a height compared with just a few years ago. Prior to social media and mobile texting, first languages weren’t written nearly as often. Consequently, social media has somewhat supplanted traditional voice calls. Although the participants still call family members in this way, the majority of contact takes place through social media writing. The difference is that now contact is daily instead of weekly.

Positivity

As our subjects are native speakers of languages other than English and/or Spanish, they have all thus far been born outside of the U.S. One subject described witnessing racism in several countries in Europe, stemming from, apparently, language use. In fact, coming from a Middle Eastern country, the idea of racism was kind of an alien concept that wasn’t learned or experienced until walking into the Western world. Upon asking what the subjects’ experiences have been regarding reactions to their first language here in El Paso, almost universal response has been either surprise, shock, interest, and/or curiosity. No subject remembered having any negative feedback or encounters regarding their language use. Quite to the contrary, they have described their first language as an opportunity, either interpersonally when meeting people or even professionally. Although we can’t assume that the experiences here would be typical of similar linguistic situations in other areas of the country, the positive linguistic experiences of our subjects here reflect a general sense of open-mindedness to diversity, whether it be cultural or linguistic.

Initial Reactions

So far, we are pleasantly surprised with the information we’ve learned from our subjects about how the city has responded to their languages. For anyone who’s spent any length of time here in the El Paso, Texas, region, it might be an easy assumption to make that El Paso is welcoming. However, given today’s political climate, where we’ve witnessed attempts at banning Muslims from entering the country as well as the rise of white nationalism, and when, above all else, one person’s repugnant actions that took the lives of 22 people and injured 23 others here in the city, it would be just as easy to assume that some of those sentiments are trickling into the region. If our interviews are any indication so far, open-mindedness and acceptance are sweepingly endemic to the Sun City. That may be something that El Pasoans are aware of on some level, but it’s also something we can’t help but take for granted. And, like the squids' and octopuses’ multiple hearts, we should also be aware of the multiple linguistic hearts that pump life into our community. 

Written by Joseph Crisafulli, El Paso Community College 
Faculty Fellow, The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP