"This is the most comprehensive book I’ve ever read about the use of Spanish in the U.S. Incredible research. Read it to understand our country. Spanish is, indeed, an American language."—Jorge RamosAn American Language is a tour de force that revolutionizes our understanding of U.S. history. It reveals the origins of Spanish as a language binding residents of the Southwest to the politics and culture of an expanding nation in the 1840s. As the West increasingly integrated into the United States over the following century, struggles over power, identity, and citizenship transformed the place of the Spanish language in the nation. An American Language is a history that reimagines what it means to be an American—with profound implications for our own time.
Rosina Lozano is Associate Professor of History at Princeton University.
List of Illustrations viiiIntroduction 1PART ONE. A Language of Politics, 1848–1902 191. United by Land 212. Translation, a Measure of Power 383. Choosing Language 674. A Language of Citizenship 895. The United States Sees Language 111PART TWO. A Political Language, 1902–1945 1356. A Language of Identity 1377. The Limits of Americanization 1678. Strategic Pan-Americanism 1919. The Federal Government Rediscovers Spanish 21110. Competing Nationalisms: New Mexico and Puerto Rico 232Epilogue 253Acknowledgments 267Abbreviations 271Notes 273Select Bibliography 333
"A well-written and -researched account of the complicated history of language in the United States and its relationship to power and people."
