Cover not available

Article published In: Spanish in Context
Vol. 11:2 (2014) ► pp.202–220

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

The importance of being earnest

Mock Spanish, mass media, and the implications for language learners

Published online: 5 September 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sic.11.2.03cal
Mock Spanish is a register in which Spanish words or phrases are used in otherwise English language texts or utterances to evoke humor, often indexing an unflattering image of Spanish speakers. This paper examines the occurrence of Mock Spanish in mass media, of interest in part because its use there cannot be mitigated so much as is possible in private speech by factors such as the speaker’s or writer’s intentions or relationships with addressees. Participants in previous studies have cited these factors as potential attenuators of Mock Spanish’s offensiveness. Mass media is also of interest for its role in the reproduction of elite discourses. This paper’s objective is to further engage the question of Mock Spanish as a form of racist discourse, and to examine the implications for those who are users of Spanish as a second language or are in the business of training second language users of Spanish.
References (57)
Barrett, Rusty. 2006. “Language Ideology and Racial Inequality: Competing Functions of Spanish in an Anglo-Owned Mexican Restaurant.” Language in Society 351: 163-204. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Basu, Moni. 2012. “Penn State Sorority Sisters Denigrate Mexicans in Party Photo.” CNN. In America, December5. Accessed February 13, 2013. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva La Fiesta! 2012. Dir. Lev. L Spiro. Walt Disney Pictures.
Blum, Lawrence. 2002. “Racism: What It Is and What It Isn’t.” Studies in Philosophy and Education 211: 203-218. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. “Stereotypes and Stereotyping: A Moral Analysis.” Philosophical Papers 33 (3): 251-289. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Breidenbach, Carla M. 2006. “Deconstructing Mock Spanish: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Mock Spanish as Racism, Humor, or Insult.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of South Carolina.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Callahan, Laura. 2004. “Native Speakers’ Attitudes Toward the Public Use of Spanish by Non-Native Speakers: From George W. to J. Lo.” Southwest Journal of Linguistics 23 (1): 1-28.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. “‘Talking Both Languages’: 20 Perspectives on the Use of Spanish and English Inside and Outside the Workplace.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 26 (4): 275-295. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. “Speaking with (Dis)respect: A Study of Reactions to Mock Spanish.” Language and Intercultural Communication 10 (4): 299-317. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carr, Jhonni. 2013. “The Whole Enchilada on Language Attitudes: The Lack of Phonetic Adaptation of Words of Spanish Language Origin in English.” Paper presented at the 24th Conference on Spanish in the United States/ 9th Conference on Spanish in Contact with Other Languages , University of Texas-Pan American, March 7.
“Cojones.” Wordnik. Accessed February 21, 2013.
Davies, Christie. 1991. “Ethnic Humor, Hostility, and Aggression: A Reply to Elliott Oring.” Humor 4 (3/4): 415-422.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Delgado, Richard, and Jean Stefancic. 2004. Understanding Words that Wound. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012 (2001). Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, 2nd ed. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
The Elusive Wapiti. 2007. “The Illegal Alien Crackdown Will Make ‘Fruit Rot on Trees.’” Blogger, October 9. Accessed February 20, 2013. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Escape from Planet Earth. 2013. Dir. Cal Brunker. Blue Yonder Films.
Feagin, Joe R., Hernán Vera, and Pinar Batur. 2001 (1995). White Racism: The Basics. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1981. Forms of Talk. Philadelpia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hajela, Deepti. 2009. “How to Pronounce Sonia Sotomayor’s Name.” Huffington Post, June2. Accessed February 18, 2013. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Happy Days. 1974-1984. ABC. Creator Garry Marshall.
Hicks, Tony. 2012. “Tattoo Issue Won’t Fade.” San Jose Mercury News, December 9. D2.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hill, Jane H. 1995a. “Mock Spanish: A Site for the Indexical Reproduction of Racism in American English.” Language & Culture: Working Paper Symposia. Accessed March 13, 2013. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1998. “Language, Race, and White Public Space. American Anthropologist 100 (3): 680-689. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. The Everyday Language of White Racism. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. 2013. Dir. Don Scardino. New Line Cinema.
Kesckes, Istvan. 2012. “Is There Anyone Out There Who Really Is Interested in the Speaker?” Plenary speech given at 1st International Pragmatics Conference of the Americas/5th International Conference on Intercultural Pragmatics , University of North Carolina, Charlotte, October 21.
Kiesling, Scott F. 2005. “Norms of Sociocultural Meaning in Language: Indexicality, Stance, and Cultural Models.” In Intercultural Discourse and Communication: The Essential Readings, ed. by Scott F. Kiesling, and Christina Bratt Paulston, 92-105. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
“King George.” 2012. Metro Silicon Valley, December 26, 2012-January 1, 2013. 26.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kramsch, Claire, and Anne Whiteside. 2008. “Language Ecology in Multilingual Settings. Towards a Theory of Symbolic Competence.” Applied Linguistics 29 (4): 645-671. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krashen, Stephen. 2000. “Bilingual Education, the Acquisition of English, and the Retention and Loss of Spanish.” In Research on Spanish in the United States: Linguistic Issues and Challenges, ed. by Ana Roca, 432-444. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Late Show with David Letterman. U.S.A. NBC 1982-1993. CBS. 1993-present.
Little, Laura E. 2009. “Regulating Funny: Humor and the Law.” Cornell Law Review 94 (5): 1235-1292.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted. 2012. Dir. Eric Darnell. Dreamworks Animation.
Matsuda, Mari J. 1993. “Public Response to Racist Speech: Considering the Victim’s Story.” In Words that Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech, and the First Amendment, ed. by Mari J. Matsuda, Charles R. Lawrence III, Richard Delgado, and Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, 17-53. Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mendoza-Denton, Norma. 2008. Homegirls: Language and Cultural Practice Among Latina Youth Gangs. London: Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Movie 43. 2013. Dir. Peter Farrelly. Relativity Media.
Myers, Kristen. 2005. Racetalk. Racism Hiding in Plain Sight. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. 1994. Racial Formation in the United States from the 1960s to the 1980s. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Potowski, Kim. 2011. “Linguistic and Cultural Authenticity of ‘Spanglish’ Greeting Cards.” International Journal of Multilingualism 8 (4): 324-344. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rappoport, Leon. 2005. Punchlines. The Case for Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Humor. Westport, CN/London: Praeger.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rich, Frank. 2009. “They Got Some ‘Splainin’ to Do.” New York Times, July 18. Accessed January 30, 2013. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosaldo, Michelle. 1981. “The Things We Do with Words: Ilongot Speech Acts and Speech Act Theory in Philosopy.” Language in Society 111: 203-237. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rubin, Trudy. 2013. “Three Obama Amigos May Be One Too Many.” San Jose Mercury News, January 30. A15.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rules of Engagement. 2007-2013. CBS. Creator Tom Hertz.
Sar, Basil. 2013. “The Tyranny of the Concessions.” Spartan Daily, February 6. 7.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schwartz, Adam. 2006. “The Teaching and Culture of Household Spanish: Understanding Racist Reproduction in ‘Domestic’ Discourse”. Critical discourse studies 3(2): 107–121. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scollon, Ronald, and Suzanne Wong Scollon. 2001. Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach, 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Serpe, Gina. 2006. “Rosie Really Sorry for “Ching-Chong” Crack.” Eonline News, 14 December 2006. Accessed June 1 2013. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Terminator 2: Judgment Day. 1991. Dir. James Cameron. TriStar Pictures.
Thompson, Clay. 2012. “Naming Winter Storms Is Better than My Masters’ Ideas.” Arizona Republic, December 31. Accessed January 1, 2013.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
¡Three Amigos! 1986. Dir. John Landis. L.A. Films.
van Dijk, Teun A. 1993. Elite Discourse and Racism. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
The Watch. 2012. Dir. Akiva Schaffer. Twentieth Century Fox.
Zagier, Alan Scher. 2012. “Colleges Tackling Incivility. Programs Address Erosion of Polite Campus Behavior.” San Jose Mercury News, November 2. A12.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zentella, Ana Celia. 2003. “‘José, Can You See?’ Latin@ Responses to Racist Discourse.” In Bilingual Aesthetics, ed. by Doris Sommer, 51-66. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Carbajal-Carrera, Beatriz
2025. Delimitación, visualización y metalenguaje. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics 38:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Muñoz-Basols, Javier & Danica Salazar
2016. Cross-linguistic lexical influence between English and Spanish. Spanish in Context 13:1 ► pp. 80 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue