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ABSTRACT
The critical readings of "Pollito chicken" continue referring to the story's use of language as "Spanglish." This article suggests that this short story cannot be read through the notion of code-switching or the erroneous concept of "Spanglish." This conceptualization prolongs the dualistic non-fluid metaphor of the hyphen, or the bridge. Instead, Ana Lydia Vega's well-known "Pollito chicken" reflects a transgressive, purposeful use of an artificial and impossible "Spanglish." I read the controversial, debatable "Spanglish" used by the narrative voice not as a mere critique of Nuyoricans or Puerto Rican assimilation to the American ways, but as showing the complexity of diasporic female characters like Suzie and texts like "Pollito chicken." I argue that Vega's intentional depiction of an artificial, static "Spanglish" disputes the hyphen ideology behind this notion, and advocates for a more fluid conceptualization of languages in contact, and national and gender imaginaries both in the U.S. and the Caribbean. The artificiality of the story's code-switching, as the representation/manifestation of the hyphen ontology, places language and identity in sharp relief, to the end of emphasizing that the hyphen is itself an equally artificial (and enforced) construct. [Key words: Language crossing, Spanglish, code-switching, hyphen, gender, national imaginary]
Puerto Rican Ana Lydia Vega published "Pollito chicken" in 1981 as part of the anthology Vírgenes y mártires (co-authored with Carmen Lugo Filippi). The title of the short story refers to a children's bilingual song that was used in elementary schools in Puerto Rico during the first half of the twentieth century to make Puerto Ricans bilingual Spanish/English, in keeping with the language policy of the U.S. government. The title anticipates Vega's ostensible ideology behind the story: the struggle against U.S. cultural imperialism in Puerto Rico and the importance of language and language choice in her own independentista stance. Furthermore, the title ironically presents translation and equivalence from Spanish into English as unproblematic, whereas the artificial code-switching throughout the text portrays quite the opposite.1
The short story may be read as having another intentional purpose that seems indisputable: that of denouncing the lack of female agency, both in the U.S. and the Caribbean, especially in Puerto Rico. "Pollito chicken" explores the problematic role of its female protagonist as framed within both U.S. and Caribbean conceptions of...