Suchergebnisse

Today, an increasing number of people regularly switch from ethnicityto ethnicity in normal discourse, in an attempt to maximize theireconomic and political interests. This paper focuses specifically onethnic flexibility among Latina/os in New York City. Drawing onethnographic, linguistic, and social network data we explore howLatina/os in NYC negotiate between multiple ethnic identities ineveryday contexts. Through language and dialect switches, accents,and even calculated silence the Latinos in our research negotiatedNYC's multi-level system of categorization. We hope to show that noone-to-one relationship exists between subjective feelings of ethnicbelongingness and the use of ethnic markers. Ethnic markers,particularly language-related ones, are manipulated in a number ofcreative ways by members and non-members alike, pushing the limitsof what constitutes ethnic group membership and challenging notionsof ethnic authenticity.