Their language, our Spanish

This study exposes ‘gringo Spanish’ as a discursive site for the reproduction of privilege, racism and social order in White public spaces. I begin my arguments by exploring Whiteness, doing so by unpacking what I term ‘Gringoism’, which involves the active celebration of a White, monolingual (un)consciousness through particular linguistic and cultural performance. Brief analysis of one particular educational text (Harvey 1990/2003) supports greater discussions of indexicality, intersubjectivity, the elevation of Whiteness and discourses of ‘making sense’ of Spanish-speaking Others. The study closes with implications for the field of Mexican American studies, which in turn offers considerations for scholars studying Spanish within greater educational, anthropological and socio-cultural contexts.