this title. About the Author Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture and Five College?40th Anniversary Professor at Amherst College. From its title and the author's academic background, I expected this book would be a more scholarly work. I wish that Prof. Stavan had paid more attention to defining and describing Spanglish and less attention to defending it against attack. After all, Spanish and English have been in contact for several centuries, and not even the most extreme purists deny that some cross-language influences are at least a linguistic reality, if not, as this author insists, a linguistic necessity. But just what is and what is not Spanglish? Stavan says (p.3) that it is the "tongue of the uneducated." In Puerto Rico, many highly educated bilinguals mix the two languages on occasion, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously. I recall a Puerto Rican colleague in my university bragging about his son who had just graduated from what sounded like "jail" (Yale). My own native English is peppered with useful words like "tapn" (=traffic jam), "rejas" (=iron grillwork), and "tostones" (=fried plantains). The English-speaking operator for Banco Popular's Pay-by-Phone service asks you if you want your payment to take effect on "the next labor day." In the 70's, former Governor Ferre started one of his campaign speeches with "Cules son los issues?" Prof. Stavans, an immigrant from Mexico, is himself is a good example of such an educated bilingual. In describing his early days in New York, he writes