«MI LENGUA, MI GENTE»: LA LENGUA COMO RECONSTRUCCIÓN IDENTITARIA EN LA DIÁSPORA LATINOAMERICANA.

This paper explores the construction of ethnic identity through the language - and particularly the relationship between speaking Spanish and being Hispanic- in a group of second-generation Spanish speakers. We recognise the simultaneous affirmation of the speakers' multiple social identities and propose that the identity can be plural and hybrid; an identity that can be (re)constructed and negotiated linguistically through discourse in situated interactions, and in opposition to the cultural essentialism that associates identity with stable and homogeneous characteristics. Three second-generation Spanish speakers were interviewed as part of an exploratory study. The corpus of the interviews conducted, which used a semi-structured script with open-ended questions, has been analysed by method of thematic analysis from a social identity theory perspective. The preliminary results showed that the speakers' discursive behaviour becomes a negotiating tool between the use of language and communicative intentions regarding their identity positioning to themselves and to others. The study conducted allowed to obtain information on the use of different linguistic systems and code switching as tools used purposefully to index multiple cultural and ethnic identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]