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Homegirls : language and cultural practice among Latina youth gangs / Norma Mendoza-Denton.

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Van Pelt Library P120.Y68 M46 2008
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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Mendoza-Denton, Norma.
Series:
New directions in ethnography ; 2.
New directions in ethnography ; 2
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Youth--Language.
Youth.
Latin Americans--Languages.
Latin Americans.
Teenage girls--Language.
Teenage girls.
Sociolinguistics.
Language and culture.
Language and languages.
Physical Description:
xiii, 339 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.
Place of Publication:
Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub., 2008.
Summary:
In this ground-breaking new book on the Nortena/Surena (North/South) youth gang dynamic, cultural anthropologist and linguist Norma Mendoza-Denton looks at the daily lives of young Latinas and their innovative use of speech, bodily practices, and symbolic exchanges to signal their gang affiliations and ideologies. She analyzes their use of language as well as social and cultural practices, such as the circulation of poetry, photographs, and drawings, and also their practices around makeup and bodily presentation. Through this detailed exploration, Homegirls examines the localized North-South rivalry between the bilingual, English-speaking and Americanized Norte girls and the Mexican or Latin-American-oriented, Spanish-speaking Sur girls.
Mendoza-Denton uncovers a new dimension to studies of youth styles, where gang members are innovative not only in terms of dress, make-up, and music, but also by participating in crucial processes of language variation and change. This engrossing ethnographic and sociolinguistic book reveals the connection of language behavior and other symbolic practices among youth, and their connections to larger social processes of nationalism, racial/ethnic consciousness, and gender identity.
Contents:
1 La Migra 10
2 Beginning Fieldwork 42
3 Norte and Sur: Government, School, and Research Perspectives 76
4 Hemispheric Localism: Language, Racialized Nationalism, and the Politicization of Youth 101
5 "Muy Macha": Gendered Performances and the Avoidance of Social Injury 148
6 Smile Now Cry Later: Memorializing Practices Linking Language, Materiality, and Embodiment 176
7 Icons and Exemplars: Ethnographic Approaches in Variationist Sociolinguistics 207
8 Variation in a Community of Practice 230
9 "That's the Whole Thing [ti eta]!": Discourse Markers and Teenage Speech 265.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages [297]-323) and index.
Includes discography: page 323.
Includes filmography: page 323.
ISBN:
9780631234890
0631234896
9780631234906
063123490X
OCLC:
124031790

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