Language interaction

Even after living in the Chicago area for over a decade I continue to be intrigued on the idea that many neighborhoods of predominant ethnicities continue to exist.  The study tiled Literacies and Etnolinguistic Diversity Chicago, published on the Encyclopedia of Language and Education 2008 edition, claims that Mexicans among other ethnic groups were recruited to work in Chicago’s industries after World War I.  As it is logical, the Mexicans brought their language and their culture with them.  At their arrival, they started to settle in three neighborhoods on the south and southwest side of the city (p.268).  In addition Puerto Ricans, “the poorest Latino group in the U.S. and in Chicago,” became a noticeable presence during the 1650’s settling on the near Northwest side of the city.  As many Cubans, middle class, fled Cuba after Castro came into power also settled here in Chicago.  The study informs that a wider variety of Latin American populations, notably Dominicans and Guatemala, filled the city’s neighborhoods.  All these different ethnic groups brought a variety of Spanish to the city.   Today we also see a so called Latino variety of English. 

The study also provided statistics from the 2003 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau for the City of Chicago witch show:

Race	Percentage
White	42%
African American	37 %
Hispanic	26 %
Asian	4 %

The previous statistics helps us understand the current demographics: ethnicity, language, and literacy that all this groups have contributed to Chicago. 

In addition the 2004 American Community Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau for the city of Chicago show: that slightly over a third of the population 5 year of age and older speak a language other than English.

Language	Percentage
Spanish	71 %
Polish	6.3 %
Chinese languages	3.8 %
Tagalog	2.3 %
French	1.7 %
Arabic	1.5 %

 

The previous chart is an interesting fact that clearly has a direct impact on the mainstream literacies .  For example, Mexicans now move not only into traditional Mexican neighborhoods, but also into Puerto Rican and other Latino neighborhoods, and into “white ethnic” and some African American neighborhoods.   The map published by the U.S. Census in 2000 shows that Latinos can be found in almost all neighborhoods of the city, and they are a significant presence as well in the counties surrounding they city, north to the Wisconsin border, southeast to the Indiana border and to the west of the city.  All the facts support the idea the code-switching between Spanish and English and English with other languages and “standard” variation of English (power) with other dialects of English continue to have an influence on the literacies and linguistic diversity available here in Chicago.  So it would be interesting to quantify how much interaction is there among the various ethnolinguistc groups in Chicago and figure out how does these interactions lead to newer varieties of language and to new hybrid literacy practices as the study suggests. 

Latinos in Chicago 2010 U.S. Census