Resumen de Language and ethnicity in the "taboo" region: the U.S.-Mexico border

Margarita Hidalgo

• This article explores the relative values of the Spanish language along the US-Mexico border. It is proposed that Spanish is inextricably linked to Mexican ethnicity. The Spanish language and the Mexican ethnicity operate äs an equation. Its relative acceptance or rejection depends on historical, economic, demographic and geographic factors. US border communities in diverse locations (e.g., southern California, southern Arizona, southwest Texas, and the Rio Grande Valley of Texas) are analyzed, discussed and compared. The analysis shows the degree of continuity or discontinuity of language and ethnicity in each Community. Spanish, the ancestral code may be showing signs of a reversed language shift, a process that may more advanced in older communities where the density ofthe Mexican-American population is rather high.