Amelia Tseng — Empanadas, Pupusas, and Greens on the Side: Language and Latinidad in the Nation's Capital - with Dr. Wanda Hernández

In the 1980s, Washington, DC--a predominantly African American, racially and economically segregated city with a strong local Black culture--became a hub of Latin American immigration. As the city's communities interacted, an identity both unique to DC and reflective of diverse Latin American cultures was born.Empanadas, Pupusas, and Greens on the Side is the first linguistics book to explore how the Latinx community forged a new sense of home and identity in Washington. Using original ethnographic research--including interviews, narratives, and surveys--Tseng develops a new framework for understanding the relationship between race, identity, language, and culture, and she explains what happens when communities interact.Readers interested in the cultural history of Washington, Latinx history, and language and society will enjoy this rich study of language as a cross-cultural current in ever-evolving America.PURCHASE BOOK: https://politics-prose.com/book/9781647125905?ic_referral=KdixhJkmiui3EavMdn3UXDao4iS3eo1k-_36YvdktKgwM4cEVlBNjoVO_D4vPvVXuXu7V3-G0NmQNJ6VvZyMDMit25dENEyMnyl1YLaRN1jWF24LCPUspWpMbhcQrh6JFpnfX-oAmelia Tseng is assistant professor of linguistics and Spanish in the Department of World Languages and Spanish at American University, where she is also and an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Anthropology and the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies. She coedited Bilingualism for All? Raciolinguistic Perspectives on Dual Language Education in the United States, with Nelson Flores and Nicholas Subtirelu (2020).Tseng is in conversation with Dr. Wanda R. Hernández, a cultural organizer and scholar from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area—also known as the DMV. She is an Assistant Professor of Central American and Latinx Studies in Department of Spanish and Portuguese and Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Wanda holds a PhD in American Studies from the University of Maryland. Her research and teaching interests revolve around the formation of race and ethnic identity among the U.S. Central Americans through material and visual culture, space and place, and performances of the everyday. Wanda’s current manuscript-in-progress examines Central Americans’ personal archives in the Washington area, between 1960–2000. In addition to academia, she has curated exhibitions like Nuestras Historias: Latinos in Richmond and produced community-based theatre, such as Little Central America, 1984.