La lealtad e inseguridad lingüística dentro de la diáspora dominicana y la manifestación de esta dualidad a través de la literatura de Junot Díaz

Dominican-Americans, with respect to their language identities, have been battling with a duality. On one hand, they appear to demonstrate high levels of language loyalty; that is to say, they are proud of speaking Spanish because it is a part of what makes them who they are and allows them to stay connected to their cultural roots. On the other hand, they appear to have high levels of linguistic insecurity due to the many negative socio-linguistic attitudes that other Spanish speakers (who are not of Dominican descent) have towards Dominican Spanish. Internalizing these negative attitudes, Dominican-Americans have come to project an inferiority complex towards using their language outside the home, and have used it to bring each other down. For example, this is why several Dominican-Americans claim that they speak Spanish, but not proper Spanish.\ud This duality is a result of Dominican cultural whitening: as Dominicans deny the blackness in their culture, they simultaneously deny the blackness (African elements integrated) in their language. Dominican linguists from the early 1900s such as Pedro Henríquez Ureña have made Dominican Spanish appear to be homogenous, but it is far from that. Language loyalty and linguistic insecurity should not go hand in hand. If Dominican-Americans care so much about their “Dominicanness,” then why can’t they fully embrace it for what it really is, instead of just accepting a part of it?\ud In my thesis, I explain in further detail the origins and the influences of this duality and aim to provide a better representation of Dominican language identity. While doing so, I talk about Junot Díaz, a critically acclaimed Dominican-American author who used to be insecure about his language but overcame this insecurity by gaining control of his language in the translation process. This is manifested in the second Spanish translation of his collection of short stories, Drown