“Tell us what fuego means in English” (322) said Oscar’s killers. He was killed anyway after telling them the right answer. The heartbreaking ending of this novel forced me to think about something more uplifting within the story. On a personal note, I really loved the Spanglish presented throughout the story. Although, there were moments of frustration because there is a variation of the Spanglish because of the Dominican slang and the New York street slang. Overall, I loved the general idea of the Spanglish phrases: The mixture of words in both English and Spanish. It was very easy for me to identify with all the characters because of the Spanglish element. It was very funny to see phrases like “the family getting on a guagua… my paternal abuelo… Hijo you’re the most buenmoso.”
I say very funny because this is my families and my everyday way of talking. For instance, today I sent a text message like this: “yo te miss you mucho mas than you do.” By experience I know that Spanglish phrases come out unconsciously or without thinking.
The growing use of English and Spanish in the everyday speech and writing is a reality and this novel it is just one example of many artistic works. There is already a movie called Spanglish. I am aware of the fact that it could be a very controversial topic for some people that may be troubled by mixing the two languages. The fact is that it looks like a new language has emerged and most people like myself who speak or write using Spanglish do it unconsciously. It just happens naturally. In the story of Oscar Wao we see the most extreme case of Spanglish. Not only that but also a lot of regional slang such as the Dominican way of talking or the New York slang.
Your observation about Spanglish makes me think that one of the underlying themes of the novel is hybridity. It’s an idea that fits in with the discussion of The Genres and we should talk about it in class tomorrow.