
English: 
(speaking in Portuguese)
- I've had the proper instructions.
- Crazy.
(speaking in Spanish)
- My name is Armando Guerrero Junior,
I am a lecturer in Hispanic
Linguistics at UCLA.
I'm going to be looking
at different scenes today
in TV and film, that attempt
to portray a Latinx identity,
so we're going to be
doing linguistic analysis
to see if the actors and actresses
are achieving this linguistically.
(speaking in Spanish)
Catherine Zeta Jones in the
film, The Mask of Zorro.
- Good morning, signor.
Give it back.
- What?
- Whatever it is you have
stolen from my father,
I want it back, give it to me.
- Do you surrender?
- Never,
but I may scream.
- She's not a native speaker of Spanish,
this is very evident,
more so in consonants,
such as her Ts, for example.
- Whatever it is you have
stolen from my father,
I want it back, give it to me,

English: 
- My name is Armando Guerrero Junior,
I am a lecturer in Hispanic
Linguistics at UCLA.
I'm going to be looking
at different scenes today
in TV and film, that attempt
to portray a Latinx identity,
so we're going to be
doing linguistic analysis
to see if the actors and actresses
are achieving this linguistically.
Catherine Zeta Jones in the
film, The Mask of Zorro.
- Good morning, señor.
Give it back.
- What?
- Whatever it is you have
stolen from my father,
I want it back, give it to me.
- Do you surrender?
- Never,
but I may scream.
- She's not a native speaker of Spanish,
this is very evident,
more so in consonants,
such as her Ts, for example.
- Whatever it is you have
stolen from my father,
I want it back, give it to me,

English: 
give it to me, to me.
- English Ts are very explosive,
so there is sort of an
aspiration after a T, as in T,
the Spanish doesn't have that,
so we're gonna get something more like T,
as opposed to T.
- Not bad.
- Cliff Curtis in Training Day.
- You're under arrest (bleep)
for being a cop,
for dogging me in the mouth in my own pad.
- Uh!
- You got the right
to be (bleep), mother (bleep)
- Uh!
- Drag his ass in the tub.
- He's good!
So he does a lot of
really interesting things
with his Ts, for example,
is what you would see
from someone who has been
heavily influenced by Spanish,
so you're not getting like, tell me,
but you're getting, tell me.
- In the tub, in the tub, in the tub.
- And another thing that Cliff
sort of has going for him
is the fact that the
variety that he's speaking,
though it's very heavily
influenced by Spanish,
it's pretty much a standalone
English variety at this point,
so Chicano English or
East LA Chicano English.

English: 
give it to me, to me.
- English Ts are very explosive,
so there is sort of an
aspiration after a T, as in T,
the Spanish doesn't have that,
so we're gonna get something more like T,
as opposed to T.
- Not bad.
- Cliff Curtis in Training Day.
- You're under arrest (bleep)
for being a (speaking in Spanish),
for dogging me in the mouth in my own pad.
- Uh!
- You got the right
to be (bleep), mother (bleep)
(speaking in Spanish).
- Uh!
- Drag his ass in the tub.
- He's good!
So he does a lot of
really interesting things
with his Ts, for example,
is what you would see
from someone who has been
heavily influenced by Spanish,
so you're not getting like, tell me,
but you're getting, tell me.
- In the tub, in the tub, in the tub.
- And another thing that Cliff
sort of has going for him
is the fact that the
variety that he's speaking,
though it's very heavily
influenced by Spanish,
it's pretty much a standalone
English variety at this point,
so Chicano English or
East LA Chicano English.

English: 
- She's my cousin,
homes, she's a civilian,
ain't right involving her.
(bleep) off.
- It is its own variety
or its own dialect,
in which the same way that
you have Black English
or African-American English.
- You know this shit was
just business, right?
- [Armando] This is Wagner Moura
in the Netflix series, Narcos.
(speaking in Portuguese)
- You wouldn't immediately think
that this person speaks Portuguese,
one example that stands out is in the way
that he pronounced (speaking
in Portuguese) for example,
so in Brazilian Portuguese,
you're not gonna get
(speaking in Portuguese),
you're gonna get (speaking in Portuguese),
so you're gonna get a palatalization
of that first syllable.

English: 
- She's my cousin,
homes, she's a civilian,
ain't right involving her.
Back the (bleep) off.
- It is its own variety
or its own dialect,
in which the same way that
you have Black English
or African-American English.
- You know this shit was
just business, right?
- [Armando] This is Wagner Moura
in the Netflix series, Narcos.
- You wouldn't immediately think
that this person speaks Portuguese,
one example that stands out is in the way
that he pronounced “tipo” for example,
so in Brazilian Portuguese,
you're not gonna get
“Tipo”,
you're gonna get “Chipo,”
so you're gonna get a palatalization
of that first syllable.

English: 
He knows these rules very well.
Now as far as it being
authentically Colombian,
I think that's arguable.
The only thing that he's doing,
that sort of stands out as Colombian
is probably in the paucity
or in the intonation,
that he is speaking Spanish in.
Al Pacino in Scarface.
- Why?
I'm not a,
how you,
how do you say?
Paranoid.
- It's a good movie, but it's so bad.
(laughing)
I see the attempt, the
attempt is trying to get
at a sort of Latinx
linguistic structure, if you will,
and one thing that I
noticed was in the syntax,
so in the sentence structure,
at some point, he mentions,
I not.
- Don't go too far, Tony.

English: 
(speaking in Portuguese)
He knows these rules very well.
Now as far as it being
authentically Columbian,
I think that's arguable.
(speaking in Portuguese)
The only thing that he's doing,
that sort of stands out as Columbian
is probably in the paucity
or in the intonation,
that he is speaking Spanish in.
(speaking in Portuguese)
Al Pacino in Scarface.
- Why?
I'm not a,
how you,
how do you say?
Paranoid.
- It's a good movie, but it's so bad.
(laughing)
I see the attempt, the
attempt is trying to get
at a sort of Latinx
linguistic structure, if you will,
and one thing that I
noticed was in the syntax,
so in the sentence structure,
at some point, he mentions,
I not.
- Don't go too far, Tony.

English: 
- I not now.
- As opposed to I am not,
so he sort of removes the verb.
- I not now.
- I'm not catching anything
that is Cuban per se,
I can see what they're doing
with the sentence structure
and I think that's what
they're trying to get,
the immigrant aspect of it,
but there's so many different things
that they could have done,
they could have done away
with a lot of the consonants, for example.
- I made what I could on the side,
but I never turned you, Frank!
- [Armando] This is Ronni Hawk
in the Netflix series, On My Block.
- I get to walk away.
- Okay, maybe figure this out now?
- There's nothing to figure out,
Monse and Cesar are backstabbing liars.
- Dude, drop it!
- Look,
they're putting Jamal in the game!
- And if I don't, what
are you gonna do, homes,
you gonna put a green light out on me?
- No, but I will put you on pause.
- And I'm gonna watch and
maybe even get in on it.
- Enough!
All of you behind the bleachers now!
- First and foremost, you can hear
that her native language is
not Spanish, it's English,

English: 
- I not now.
- As opposed to I am not,
so he sort of removes the verb.
- I not now.
- I'm not catching anything
that is Cuban per se,
I can see what they're doing
with the sentence structure
and I think that's what
they're trying to get,
the immigrant aspect of it,
but there's so many different things
that they could have done,
they could have done away
with a lot of the consonants, for example.
- I made what I could on the side,
but I never turned you, Frank!
- [Armando] This is Ronni Hawk
in the Netflix series, On My Block.
- I get to walk away.
- Okay, maybe figure this out now?
- There's nothing to figure out,
Monse and Cesar are backstabbing liars.
- Dude, drop it!
- Look,
they're putting Jamal in the game!
- And if I don't, what
are you gonna do, homes,
you gonna put a green light out on me?
- No, but I will put you on pause.
- And I'm gonna watch and
maybe even get in on it.
- Enough!
(speaking in Spanish)
All of you behind the bleachers now!
- First and foremost, you can hear
that her native language is
not Spanish, it's English,

English: 
she's not a heritage speaker
of the language either
and you can hear this,
when she begins to speak.
She's not speaking as a native speaker
or a heritage speaker,
she's definitely speaking
as someone who learned
Spanish as a second language
and you can see that in all
the different characteristics,
that would be natural
to a Spanish speaker,
so for example, implosive B.
Voy a pegar en la boca!
That sort of integral vocalic B
between the two Es in “bebe” is a lot lighter
and that's a characteristic,
that really just stands out
as not being from a
native speaker of Spanish
and you can see that in the way
that she sort of says
the entire statement.
- Trust me,
I know.
- And what is the evolution?
We're seeing more
authentic representations,
at least linguistically
of these identities,

English: 
she's not a heritage speaker
of the language either
and you can hear this,
when she begins to speak.
(speaking in Spanish)
She's not speaking as a native speaker
or a heritage speaker,
she's definitely speaking
as someone who learned
Spanish as a second language
and you can see that in all
the different characteristics,
that would be natural
to a Spanish speaker,
so for example, implosive B.
(speaking in Spanish)
That sort of integral Callic B
between the two Es in (speaking
in Spanish) is a lot lighter
and that's a characteristic,
that really just stands out
as not being from a
native speaker of Spanish
and you can see that in the way
that she sort of says
the entire statement.
- Trust me,
I know.
- And what is the evolution?
We're seeing more
authentic representations,
at least linguistically
of these identities,

English: 
Al Pacino in Scarface was doing
something several years ago,
that I don't think would fly today.
Wagner is not Columbian, nor
does he speak Spanish natively,
but he's really still able
to get at that performance,
because he's not reliant on stereotypes,
so we're not at the full
place, where we need to be,
which is to actually get
an actor or an actress
to represent the identity that they are.
(cheerful upbeat music)

English: 
Al Pacino in Scarface was doing
something several years ago,
that I don't think would fly today.
Wagner is not Colombian, nor
does he speak Spanish natively,
but he's really still able
to get at that performance,
because he's not reliant on stereotypes,
so we're not at the full
place, where we need to be,
which is to actually get
an actor or an actress
to represent the identity that they are.
