Written Mestizaje: Demarginalization of Chicano Spanglish in Margarita Cota-Cárdenas Puppet

Abstract

In radically postmodern fashion, Cota-Cárdenas’s Puppet: A Chicano Novella embraces graphic excess, narrative fragmentation, and a polyphony of voices, but more importantly, it uses code-switching as a liberating combination that help the characters escape duality and preconceptions in order to constitute a new Chicano identity. This novel is purposely bilingual, experimental and aggressive as a way of rebelling against the Anglo society and as proof of the disturbances produced by the clash of cultures. The image of a broken puppet which the main character embodies will illustrate the discussion around bilingualism, the use of code-switching as a literary technique and its markedness when addressing the audience. These devices will be key when contradicting the general conception of Spanglish as the result of a poorly developed linguistic minority situated in the Mexican-American border.