Analysis Of Homegirls: Language And Cultural Practice Among Latina Youth Gangs

In her groundbreaking ethnography, "Homegirls: Language and Cultural Practice Among Latina Youth Gangs,” anthropologist and linguist Norma Mendoza-Denton explores a modern perspective on the social politics of the Latino teenage gangs at Sor Juana High School in northern California. However, what sets her study apart from others is that she focuses less on the criminality of these gangs, and instead directs her attention to cultural, social, and linguistic ties that both unites and divides the groups discussed. Throughout her ethnography, which spans multiple years of research during the 1990s, she embodies the role of a confidant, friend, and mentor to the youth of the Mexican diaspora.
To lay the groundwork for the remainder of the synopsis,

As stated, Nor members tend to use a dialect of English called “Chicano English,” and Sur members use primarily Spanish. To the Sureños, using English is equivalent to abandoning Mexico as a whole. Many Sureños have linguistic competence-- (Dr. Di Giovine lecture, 19) which is the mental understanding of a language’s rules-- in English since it is thrust upon them at SJHS. However, in their communities, they reject its usage; it is assimilation, it is heathen. However, what these girls share is the use of what Mendoza-Denton dubs “language games,” subversions of their language such as clowning, “talking shit,” and albur—a Spanish game that focuses on outwitting each other with the subversion of words. Riddled through their notebooks are stanzas of poetry, which Mendoza-Denton defines as “secret literacies” that contradict the idea of these Latinas lacking fluency in English. In addition to the language games, Mendoza-Denton concludes that these forms of communication are not only demonstrations of linguistic competence, but symbols (Dr Di Giovine lecture, 18) that display social allegiances and bonding. Essentially, a symbol is a representation of something else, with no inherent