[Speaking Non-English]

Foto Variety

No, no, I'm not considering a career change to the competitive music and entertainment industry. Sociology is still my thing, although dancing is my passion. I also don't think that being President of SWS has brought me a fame comparable to that of Bad Bunny. If you know me, you know that I don't have delusions of grandeur. However, what happened to Bad Bunny at the coveted 2023 Grammy Awards can help us reflect on the connections between language policies, ethnoracial inequalities and inequities, and their deep imperialist roots.

In addition to having won several awards and managed to insert herself in spaces usually reserved for white artists from the global north, Bad Bunny has been the most listened to on Spotify for three consecutive years. The quality of their music is accompanied by a socio-historical and ethnoracial consciousness, and a politics of gender and sexuality rarely found in reggaeton artists or popular musicians. Yo Perreo Sola 's video from her previous album YHLQMDLG (Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana), and her latest album Un Verano Sin Ti illustrate the same. Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio (or, for his loyal fans, simply and lovingly, Benito) opened the Grammys with an elaborate presentation that included traditional performances by dancers and musicians from Bomba y Plena, and Merengue, fused with Latin Reggaeton. It made everyone dance and smile.

Foto Variety

While this was happening, CBS added closed captions clarifying to the television audience that Benito was "speaking and singing in non-English." It is not that this type of situation surprises us, because the United States is characterized by its ethnocentrism and linguistic imperialism as well as its deep-rooted racism (I recommend the article written  by Yamira Bonilla on the subject). But the reaction it generates is a combination of anger, disappointment, and helplessness. If it happens to a celebrity like Bad Bunny, what is left for the rest of us, ordinary mortals? How is it possible that, on the one hand, Latinxs and Latin Americans are increasingly a demographic and cultural force, and on the other, we continue to be excluded and marked as "non-persons"? That refutation symbolized in the description of the [closed captions] is the systematic denial that the United States exercises over us.

Now, I'd like to explain the "Benito-Roberta" comparison - a really very comical exercise:

Benito = Celebrity / Roberta = Past-President SWS

Benito and Roberta = Latino Language and Cultural Policy

Clearly, I lacked the show. But what happened at the Grammys made me feel more accompanied in my failed experience as president of the organization of feminist sociologists, SWS. When I was chosen for that position, I was advised to decide what legacy I wanted to leave to the organization. Consequently, I thought of several initiatives, including establishing a system for SWS to provide interpretation during its conferences. To this end, I formed a Task Force on language accessibility that led a pilot test and recommended to the board of directors what and how to move forward in this regard. Their recommendation, unanimously approved, clearly articulated the goal of providing simultaneous interpretation during the meetings (English-Spanish, English-language spoken by special guests, and English-sign language upon request): to provide linguistic accessibility, increase the transnationality of the organization, and achieve greater diversification, equity, and inclusion.

In addition, the interpreted sessions would be recorded and then incorporated with their multiple languages to the SWS YouTube channel (another legacy of my

Source: SWS YouTubeChannel

presidency) - see for example, the talk by Ochy Curiel, in Spanish with English subtitles.

However, at the last SWS meeting, one problem followed another, and the interpretation was, to put it simply, boycotted.

There were several lines of conflict. The first, an alleged misunderstanding of the purpose of offering interpretation: the organizers of the meeting believed that it was necessary only if there were registered people who did not understand English, and therefore, since only one person had indicated that they would need interpretation, they decided that it was not necessary to provide it. The second, an alleged lack of resources: who would be in charge of the task? Well, there was a committee of volunteers in charge, which we called "The League of Language Justice" - made up of Beatriz Padilla, Verónica Montes, Erika Busse, Nancy López, Christina Chica, Esther Hernández-Medina, Edelweiss Murillo, Ozlem Altiok, hara bastas, Tracy Ore, Kris de Welde, Paulina Garcia-Morel, and myself - and added to a simultaneous interpretation service via captions that Zoom now offers. The third, an alleged technical inability: it is very difficult to operate a computer connected to zoom and share a screen! (commented all the people who have used this system in the last two years). I could elaborate on it, but it would be against the rules of the blog (and decorum). Therefore, I will go on to offer a summary explanation of the controversy that occurred. We, like our dear Benito, were "speaking non-English" and that was enough for the organization to stop listening to us.

How entrenched imperialist, ethnocentric, nativist, racist, and discriminatory practices are! How much pain they cause! How much strength we must have to persevere in the struggle to be seen, heard, and included! In my last research, I conceptualized the idea that migrants are extremely resilient, but this is not recognized by us (because we doubt the longevity and potentiality of our resistance) or by others (because strategically they cannot give credit to our real value). This lack, however, summons us. It calls on us to value our resilience, our ability to stand up again after the coup, to recover, to continue to strengthen ourselves at every step.

Benito and his Latin, Latin American and all over the world audience won "in non-English" and came out of that minimizing (or "chiquitaje" as we would say in Argentina) even greater.

Photograph LA Times

Thanks for inspiring us, Bad Bunny. We, the Language Justice League and the Latin+ Feminist Sociology Collective, neither give up (the interpretation happened despite everything) nor will we give up (we have already agreed to organize ourselves better for the next meetings while continuing with our multilingual and transnational practices).

We will resist, we will insist, and we will build. Because, here we are and we are not going anywhere else.

Photograph Bad Bunny Official Store

*A special thanks to Verónica Montes, Erika Busse-Cárdenas, Beatriz Padilla and Nancy López for talking about what happened and motivating me to write about it.*

Written by Roberta Villalón, and originally published in Spanish at the Latin+ Feminist Sociology Collective on February 23, 2023