Story and Photos by Jaclyn Morris
Ethos sat down with Claudia Holguín Mendoza to ask her how she got started with her passion for linguistics. Mendoza is a new member of the Romance Languages department (she received her PhD this past May) and is also the coordinator of the Spanish Heritage Language Program. Mendoza’s dissertation focused on the stereotype of the fresa—similar to the valley girl—and how her presence in the border culture is changing the identity of that culture. Last month, she presented her research during an event run by Supernova, a University of Oregon-based group dedicated to exposing undergraduates to professors’ research. In this interview, she touches on her research, the prevalence of racism, and her hopes for her academic future.
Jaclyn Morris: What first got you interested in linguistics?
Claudia Holguín Mendoza: Actually, I was a business major at the University of Texas at El Paso and I took an Introduction to Linguistics class and I just loved it. I decided to take more classes and finally I switched.
JM: What was so compelling about linguistics to make you want to change your major?
CHM: Since the beginning, it was language and identity and how we use language to just express who we are, even at the subconscious level. I thought it was fascinating. And also, identity overlaps with region and gender so it’s kind of interdisciplinary now because you have to study gender construction, race construction, nationalities and everything else that goes along with identity.
JM: What made you decide to pursue linguistics further and obtain your PhD?
CHM: When I was working towards my bachelor’s degree, I was exposed to research projects from my professors and I thought that was really nice. It took a couple years to get my master’s because I had to save up money to buy a car so I could drive to the college! [laughs] Then one of my professors said that I should just get my PhD and I thought, “Yeah, I like doing this. I’d love to teach and do more research.”
JM: How has linguistics changed your life and influenced it?
CHM: Even before knowing I wanted to do research, I was always noticing things, like observing one person who speaks a certain way when she’s with another person but not with her boyfriend. I just found out that people do research on these things and then I decided that’s what I want to do. But you know, that is a very important question because when you’re an undergraduate and young, sometimes you don’t know that you can do research on these things. It’s very important that you have mentors and I think that the most important thing in my life is that I had mentors that told me that I could do this and make a living of it. Without them, I’d be in some other profession and I would probably be happy, but I’m really happy with what I’m doing now.
JM: During the Supernova event “Valley Girls and Fresas: Does everybody talk like Paris Hilton?” you said that when you first proposed the idea for your dissertation, that the committee wasn’t as accepting. Why was that the case?
CHM: Because they didn’t think that it was a very academic topic. I had observed that this is a generalized way of speaking in Mexico now. It is very difficult to explain to people what a fresa is if they are not from Mexico. That’s why I use the analogy all the time with valley girls because it’s the most similar thing. Once I started developing my topic more and showed that it overlapped with race constructions and gender, they were okay with it.
JM: Once you started work on your dissertation, what was the most fascinating thing that you found out that you didn’t know before?
CHM: I found so many things! [laughs] I knew there was a lot of racism in Mexico and my hometown of Ciudad Juarez, but I was very surprised I got these things in the recordings. When I was interviewing people, I told them that I might record them speaking and they didn’t think it was a big deal. I never thought they were going to ever say something that is not politically correct but no, they did it. And maybe it’s because it’s so normalized in Mexico. They are not aware of how racism is constructed. I should have already known this, but until you really hear these recordings over and over, you can’t see how normal it really is.
The other thing I think is fascinating is that finally I was able to show that being a fresa is very stigmatized. The stereotype is of a stupid, superficial woman, but it’s not! Fresas are smart women that are using everything to resist but at the same time take advantage of the system. By doing that, they can rise in the social ladder. And it’s not only people with money So that’s why it’s very fascinating that everybody is doing it. In every network of people, I found fresas, but the ones that are more aware of language and are bilingual can judge others because they’re more educated. There are smaller groups in networks that are fresas, but their performances are not going to be as accurate because they are not as aware of the language, so they are going to be the ‘wannabes.’
JM: What are your future plans for teaching and research? Do you have any further research ideas?
CHM: I am very excited to be a part of the Spanish Language Heritage Program, which is a resource for people who grew up speaking Spanish at home or are very familiar with the language. The department is recognizing a need for alternate classes for advanced students because there are a lot coming to college from the Latino population with most of them getting placed in the 300-level. We are developing more classes where we teach not only the language, but also Latino culture, languages in contact, topics on bilingualism, and identity.
As far as research, a colleague from University of North Texas and I are making a perception study. This is great because you record some contours, like people saying things in different intonations, and you play them to a large group of people. We will ask them questions like, ‘Is this person nice?’ and questions like that. Some contours are stigmatized, so then you get the perceptions. You see some have social meaning attached and are identified with a particular group of people, for example, the valley girls. I love these perception studies because they really show you how there is social meaning in language.
JM: Do you believe that there is a way to reverse the negative social meaning attributed to certain ways of talking?
CHM: Yes, by becoming more aware of it. That’s why I like to give talks about it. Once you recognize it, you see every time you say it and you remember. Most people are good people, I believe. It’s just that we take for granted race in this society and so many things are normalized. If you are just from a small town anywhere in the world and you have not seen anything else, of course you get afraid of people from other places if they are different. But once you get to know them and see that they are just human beings with their own stories and their own sufferings, then you start changing your opinion and perceptions of them.