The Politics of Organic Phylogeny: The Art of Parenting and Surviving as Transnational Multilingual Latino Indigenous Immigrants in the U.S.

This three-year qualitative research study took place in a new immigrant-receiving community in North Carolina. Utilizing narrative analysis, it explores how Mexican, Salvadoran, and Guatemalan immigrants of indigenous backgrounds use language as a survival tool to move in and out of transnational social spaces. In addition, it explores the ways in which parents transmit funds of knowledge (Moll, 1992) to their undocumented youth to prepare them for adult life as children of Latino indigenous immigrants in the U.S.. This article examines the implications of transnational cultural and linguistic spaces and its effects and implications for children of multilingual families. It also raises questions about the ways multilingualism affects border mobility and transnationality as well as how undocumented families use multilingualism as a transnational bridge to facilitate their children's survival in a hostile U.S. environment while schools remain indifferent and unaware of such issues. ********** While conducting research in an urban area in North Carolina, I met Inez. As I approached Inez, she was speaking to her son in a language I had never heard. Inez was moving her hands, pointing at a document while her son lifted his shoulders and shook his head from left to right, as if saying "no." Inez was one of the mothers who agreed to meet with me and take part in my research study on newly arrived immigrants in North Carolina. As I approached, she pulled out other documents and continued to speak to her son. When I arrived, I said hello and she was still speaking to her son in a language I did not understand. She then told her son a series of sentences that were a combination of Spanish, English, and what I later found out was Otomi. As her son was leaving, Inez turned to me and said, "Se lo tengo que decir en los tres idiomas, a ver si se le pega. [I have to speak to him in all three languages to make sure that it sticks.]" She continued to say, "El que sabe dos idiomas, vale por dos, pero el que habla mas de dos, vale por muchos. Para vivir como indigena-Mexico-Americano tiene que valer por muchos. [The person who speaks two languages is worth two people, but the person who speaks more than two languages, is worth many more people. To live like an indigenous Mexican American has to be worth many people.]" I was quickly struck by the significance and the power of her insight. I was also reminded of a comment made by her son's teacher: "That lady is not teaching her kids anything; she is only confusing them and making our lives more difficult than it already is. I have to teach that child. He will be confused by all those phrases that she calls languages." In that moment I realized how powerful Inez was because she was teaching her son about difference, access, connections, culture, and how to be a global competitor in his indigena-Mexico-Americano world. She was teaching him how to use the multiple languages he speaks in order to be a global transnational citizen. But it also heightened my awareness to the profound disconnect between schools and student populations. (1) I use this story to illustrate the altering dynamics of U.S. immigrants who are not unaware of the benefits of having access to multiple communities and the necessity of teaching their children to live in transnational ways. Yet, schools and educational programs aimed at educating non-English speakers of color often do not take into consideration the language diversity and versatility of this student population. Inez's comments highlight the complexities of students' linguistic identities, experiences, and lives in addition to the ways parents work to help their children achieve transnational linguistic identities. Her comments illustrate that for many multilingual and multicultural communities, the ability to communicate in several languages is necessary as a survival tactic and shows solidarity in multiple language communities, including their own marginalized indigenous community. …