U.S. monuments

Here is a list of buildings, monuments, memorials that I'm going to use as the cut-outs in this project.

• Alamo
• Hoover Dam
• Sears Tower
• Empire State Building
• Golden Gate Bridge
• The Gateway Arch
• Statue of Liberty
• World Trade Center
• White House
• Mount Rushmore
• Space Needle
• Jefferson Memorial
• Lincoln Memorial
• Washington Memorial
• Marine Corps War Memorial
• Liberty Bell
  

How am I going to make sure the arrangment looks like Spain?!?

I've been thinking about it and I think that the only way to put my art in the shape of Spain is to create a transparency of the country Spain and then project it onto the wall in order to shape the art into the shape of Spain. This is the outline of Spain that I'm going to turn into a transparancy.

FINAL PROJECT!

Ok so I have finally come up with an idea! The surface I'm going to be working on is either going to be 6x6 canvases or black thick poster board (whichever one works best and is cheapest!). I'm using the whole text thing in the background. It is going to be collaged pages from a Spanglish dictionary with a translucent shade of blue/green/blue-green. Then in the center of each canvas is going to have a black cut-out of a national monument/statue in the United States. Then I'm going to arrange these in the shape of Spain.
It is important to me to have monuments from the United States because Spanglish is typically formed here. There are so many Hispanic migrant workers, and immigrants that bring Spanish here and then in trying to learn English or American students trying to learn Spanish, this mixing occurs. So it is occurring in this country. I like the outline of Spain because Spain is the motherland of Spanish, and I think that it is appropriate because there isn't just one Hispanohablante country that I have been focusing. So I think Spain, being the creator, should be the way in which the art is arranged.

some inspiration

final project misery

so it is very difficult trying to think of what to do for my final project with the topic of SPANGLISH....I know I want to have a 2-D project, with the background some sort of text. I like the old newspaper look...it somehow looks wise. i know that may sound a bit odd, but i like it. i'm thinking of making the text in a dictionary form...like a spanglish dictionary. So i have that down, now i just need to figure out how to create such a thing...if i want to add something and what? color? photos? should this be one piece, or a collage of pieces? oh man...so much to think of. also i was kind of thinking of making it look like old Spanish folk art in a modern collage sort of way? mixing old with new? get the idea???

The first part of my box project!

So this is the beginning of my project! Not much to tell, expect they are made of plaster with some things like magnetic letters, chicken wire, cardboard and rope stuck in some of them. The one directly to the left is supposed to have the word póster, meaning poster in Spanglish.

Annotated Bibliography

Barugel, Alberto. Speaking Spanish in the U.S.A.: variations in vocabulary use. Barron’s: Hauppauge, N.Y., 2005.
This book shows the difference between the general Spanish with the Spanish that has evolved in the United States. There are many words, according to Barugel, that have changed meaning in the United States. Barugel says that as much as he tried to teach the general Spanish, students and bilingual students alike, would resort to the Americanized form of Spanish. This allows me to use this “dialect” for the U.S. instead of just resorting to the countries that have Spanish as the official language. Even though the United States does not have an official language, Spanish is highly utilized throughout the country.

Bergen, John J. Spanish in the United States: sociolinguistic issues. Georgetown University Press: Washington D.C., 1990.
Bergen discusses many things about the Spanish language in this book, including a different dialect of Mexican-Americans in the Sabine River. Not only does Bergen focus on Mexican-Americans, but also he focuses on a town in Iowa and the Spanish that is used there. This will also help me pinpoint some more dialects to include in my project. I would like be able to find the dialects that are mostly used, so that I do not end up with too many dialects. I think that this book will help me do that for the United States.

Cinque, Guglielmo, Richard S. Kayne, et. The Oxford handbook of comparative syntax. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2005.
This book has several useful parts that will allow me to make my project a bit more specific, and hopefully a little more interesting. There is a chapter called, “On the grammatical basis of language development,” that I believe will help me find how so many dialects of one language exists.

Criado de Val, Manuel. Así hablamos. El espectador y el lenguaje. Prensa Española: Madrid, 1974.
This book shows a lot of differences in Castellano Spanish and Spanish spoken in the Americas. Also what interested me the most was a chapter that talks about language and society. I think that this may be helpful because I feel that language is the basis of all culture in any society. Criado de Val says that language can attract people. If a word looks appealing or sounds appealing, most likely a person will lean towards whatever that word means. A person would like pinto beans if someone said “judíos boliche” instead of “pintos.” It just sounds more interesting, according to Criado de Val.

Holmquist, Jonathan Carl. Language loyalty and linguistic variation: a study in Spanish Cantabria. Foris Publications: Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1988.
This was originally the author’s thesis, so this will have hands-on research done by Holmquist. He speaks about the dialect of Cantabria, which is a northern region of Spain. This is great because this is not one that I am familiar. I do know of others because I experienced the dialects while I was in Spain, but I will need to find information on those dialects in order to find correct and cited information.

MacCurdy, Raymond R. The Spanish dialect in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. University of New Mexico Press: Albuquerque, 1950.
This is similar to Bergen’s work because it focuses on the dialect in Louisiana. I find this interesting because it seems to me that Louisiana has more of a French influence than Spanish. This makes me question whether this dialect is similar to Catalan, the language from Spain, which is also influenced by France. This may show that with a combination of two different languages, there may be a new, third one introduced. This is definitely good information, especially with a comparison in between Catalan and the Louisiana dialect.

Mackenzie, I. E. A linguistic introduction to Spanish. LINCOM EUROPA: Muenchen, 2001.
This book I think is going to be the base of my research. I need to know how languages do morph and evolve because I think that many dialects do just evolve with a new location, which then involves a new and different culture. This book will help me figure out how Spanish has morphed and the history of the language and actually how it was formed into a language from its Latin roots. It will also give me some ideas to other dialects that may be useful in my project.

Penny, Ralph J. Variation and Change in Spanish. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2000.
I am not sure of the complete content of this book because it has yet to arrive at the library, however it seems as if it will be very helpful. This book will give me the history of the language and variations of the language. The variations will be very close to the dialects, so I am hoping that this book will give me a lead to some of the different dialects around the world.

Wheatley, Kathleen. Sintaxis y morfología de la lengua española. Pearson/Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2006.
This book is very similar to Mackenzie’s because its primary focus is on the morphology of Spanish. It will go into detail of how Spanish has evolved and changed since its origination. It is obviously a great source to have, and a great starting place for ideas. Again this is the base of my project and without a strong, secure base, I will have nothing to continue my research.

My thesis proposal

I want to base my project off of language and how new languages are formed just from the change of location or culture. I think that language is the basis of anything really because how else would information transfer from one country to the next. I want to see how Spanish (Castellano) has been Americanized through the combining of English and Spanish. How did English influence Spanish in the United States? Why has English influenced Spanish?

Laurie Anderson visit to DU - Sept. 1, 2006

The Laurie Anderson performance was not really what I had expected. I expected, well a performance, rather than a talk of her artwork in multimedia. She began by describing her job as Artist-in-Residence at NASA along with showing pictures that she had taken while on the job. This segued into her project in Japan, a garden. She showed us the details that went into creating such a wonderland of nature and media. She then transitioned into reading a story about her rat terrier Lolabel and turkey vultures. This was accompanied by a recording of what sounded like slowed church bells. Once finished, she showed us a clip of a film that was shown at a film festival in Japan. She told us of the difficulty of trying to translate the exact meaning of the film into Japanese. This concluded the performance.

What I thought was very interesting was the way in which she constructed and intertwined media with nature. She did things like place televisions and films among the nature, as well as place rocks that change colors among real rocks. These are things that a person would not usually necessarily connect with nature or even think about putting in a garden.

I also really liked how she incorporated two completely different ideas into the garden, that of technology along with the Japanese ideas before technology. She was saying that along the path she put the characters of a tortoise, dragon and phoenix. These represent the “guardians of the park.” One photograph that really inspired me was a picture of the tortoise guardian above a rendering of the man that is seen on the WALK signs. What a way to connect technology and old beliefs. Both resemble the same…it is safe to walk here. What a connection.

El Spanglish National Anthem (1993)

En my Viejo San Juan
They raise the price of pan
So I fly to Manhattan.
It was there that I swear
Everyone took welfare
Especially the Latins!

To El Barrio I went
In pursuit of low rent
In a five room apartment
Where by neighbors will be
Puerto Ricans like me
Dressed in tropical garments.

I know
I know, I know
I'll miss Puerto Rico
(Land of de Palm trees)
And so,
And so and so
I'll live in El Barrio's
(Latin Community)

And whennnnn
I hit the numbers
I'll return to San Juan
Afford the price of pan
Until my life is done
(Island blessed by the sun
Here I come Here I come
Donde my roots are from)

Many years came and went
Fell behind on my rent
Cursed Christopher Columbus.
Worked as hard as I could
But my luck was no good
Never once hit the numbers

Now everyday I pray
Before passing away
And going six foot under
That again I will see
People who look like me
In my island of wonders.

I know
I know I know
I'll reach Puerto Rico
(Y live to be ninety three)
And so And so
Once in Puerto Rico
(Won't be a minority)

Y Paaaaa'
El carajo with the numbers
If I can't fly I'll swim
Straight from El Barrio
Back to Puerto Rico
(Island by the sun blessed
Island I never left
I will settle there next)

Asi es how it must be
For the whole family
Dice our destineeeee!
De weather wasn't nice
Comfort cost a high price
Unlike in Puerto Rico
We kept cooking the rice
And re-heating the beans
And making cuchifrito.

De hard times were plenty
De pockets stayed empty
But the soul nunca dyyyyyed
And junto we survived
And danced after we cried
Defending nuestro pride.

I know
I know I know
Next stop's Puerto Rico
(So help me OTB
And so
And so And so
I won't be called Chico
By the Statue of Liberty)

Y thennnnn
Con familia and friends
Good times will never end
Learn how to laugh again
And stop sheeteen on ten
(Once in my country
I will be I will be
Who has always been me)

In Spanish there were bills
In English there were bills
That just kept getting bigger.
Categorized as hicks
We were called dirty spicks
Blanco trash and black niggers

Las botanicas saved
Us from an early grave
All aspirin did wass kill joo!
Muchas gracias Chango
La Plena y el Mambo
For coming to the rescue!

I know
I know I know
We have been in limbo
(We're in New York City)
And so
And so And so
Almost misplaced my soul
(Somewhere in New Jersey)

Porqueeeee blood is
Thicker than Coca-Cola
I have very high hopes
Of rejoining my folks
With them I'm never broke
Y at last I will find
That there is peace of mind
Everything will be fine.

In Borinquen we'll be
Enjoying our history
For mucho centuries
We registered to vote
Thinking that there was hope
In elected officials.
Pero as soon as they win
For a moment they grin
Then they drop all the issues.

Many dropped out of school
Others went to college
Trying hard to get somewhere.
In the land of da free
Where without a degree
You cannot collect welfare.

I know
I know I know
I'll always play dominoes
(Wherever I may be)
And go
And go And go
To local bodegas
(For Bustelo coffee)

Be-cosssss
I'm still in Puerto Rico
Only my body came
My strong spirit remains
Everything's still de same
(I truly do believe
You can leave and still be
Where Mami met Papi)

Some did assimilate
In de United States
They got rid of de accent
Tho whenever they spoke
That will always unmask them!

But de majority
Kept their identity
Never did lose their accent!
They were proud not ashamed
Of their Boricua names
If you don't believe ask them.

I know
I know I know
I am being followed
(By my destiny)B
And so
And so And so
I will never be swallowed
(By inferiority)
And whennnnn
De plane takes off again
I know that there will be
No return trips for me
Back to New York City
(Island blessed by the sun
Here I come Here I come
Donde my roots are from)

And with my family
We'll struggle and believe
That one day we'll be free.

Reverendo Pedro Pietri, 1993
Poet in Residence/Co-Director, El Puerto Rican Embassy
http://www.virtualboricua.org/Docs/poems_pp01.htm