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This article investigates the language practices of a bilingual mariachi instructor teaching mariachi music to Latinx English dominant students. This ethnographic study draws on the concept of chronotope (Bakhtin 1981) to explore the spatiotemporal aspects of learning, particularly in terms of the teachers’ selective use of language correction strategies when teaching students to sing mariachi music. I argue that the mariachi, its symbolism, and the lyrics are chronotopic because they come from an ‘epic time’ in Mexico and the image and ideology of the charro is currently a global symbol of Mexicanness. Analysis of data shows that when teaching mariachi lyrics specifically, the instructor chronotopically frames the pronunciation of the song lyrics as iconic and requiring specific forms of Spanish. Findings suggest that the instructor focuses on a mariachi identity that, while it does not require fluency in Spanish, does demand language to be used in a particular iconic way (i.e. Mexican accented Spanish) to evoke the past and perpetuate the symbolism of lo mexicano, which is vital to the identity formation of Mexican origin youth. This chronotopic lens allow us to explain why in heritage language learning spaces some linguistic changes can be accepted while others may be sanctioned.
