BABEL LAB
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
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Bilingualism in the Borderlands: Their Stories
In this page you will be able to find transcripts from the 'bilingual' stories shared by participants of the Bilingualism in the Borderlands project. Participants come from the borderlands states: California, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico.
Click on the pictures below to learn more about their experiences and personal stories!
California
Click on this image to find transcripts from the 'bilingual' stories shared by participants from California .
Arizona
Click on this image to find transcripts from the 'bilingual' stories shared by participants from Arizona .
Texas
Click on this image to find transcripts from the 'bilingual' stories shared by participants from Texas.
New Mexico
Click on this image to find transcripts from the 'bilingual' stories shared by participants from New Mexico.
Arizona
Arizona, 39 y/o
Career
“I've never been able to work in Nogales in behavioral health. I always had to, my whole career for 10 years, I pretty much commute to Tucson. It's a small community and if you don't know anybody seems to be really challenged to a lot of opportunity, even if you have the experience.”
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Arizona, 21 y/o
Translating
“It made me feel a bit sad obviously because a kid shouldn't have to be doing that but unfortunately that is the case a lot of people that speak Spanish aren't able to or don't have access to be able to learn English in a sufficient way to have parent teacher conferences.”
California
California, 20 y/o
Identity
"Well, definitely after my mentor helped me just with giving me the reassurance and encouragement that, yeah, I have an accent. Um, that's part of who I am and I look like a Latina because I'm a Latina."
California, 21 y/o
Bilingualism
“But again, it's just like being bilingual means I just have to keep practicing it because I want to keep being bilingual. I keep wanting to be saying like, yeah, I am bilingual. This is me.”
Texas
Texas, 27 y/o
Pocho / No Sabo
"I think in English, there's a lot of words I can't say or pronounce correctly. And so I just avoid using those words. Because people have told me or they've joked, you know, about the way I've said it, so I won't use it. And in Spanish, it goes the same way, where there's this saying, it's slang, but being pocha, being like from America, but you have Hispanic, Mexican parents. And so I think when I've gone to Nogales, Sonora or when I've spoken to my parents, they've always pointed out like, that's not the proper way to say it. That's not how you say it. You can- we can hear your American accent. And so I think in both languages, there are certain words I won't say just to avoid those conversations, those jabs."
Texas, 27 y/o
Higher Education
"I think it's shaped everything about my life. I think I can, you know, I have two different paths that I can take. Like, I can listen to music in Spanish and English. I can watch movies in Spanish and English. I can communicate with two completely different populations, and I love that. And so it's great. And I think it's helped me professionally. Um and so I think it's been a big plus in my life, and I love it. And yeah, it's one thousand percent shaped who I am, my personality, characteristics, everything about me."