EXAMPLE #2 FERNANDO’S ACADEMIC ORIENTATION

Fernando No, pero que si no también (.) school is pointless, like, they don’t teach you how to go to the bank, they don’t teach you hacel tu gehtione. Like, they [ʃuld], like, [ti:ʃ] you [ðæt] instead of Precalculus [ðæt] you will never see in your life.

Translation

No, but if not as well (.) school is pointless, like they don’t teach you how to go to the bank, they don’t teach you how to run errands. Like, they should, like, teach you that instead of Pre-Calculus that you will never see in your life.

It should be noted that Fernando and his friends received private after-school tutoring for both Physics and Pre-Calculus classes. Most of the members of this community of practice were placed in the annual student honour roll.67

Table 9. Pop Enthusiasts Demographic Information.

Gender City of Birth Job Score Class rank

Laura female Mayagüez 11 middle class

Tatiana female Mayagüez 13 upper middle class

Cristina female Añasco 8 middle class

Fernando male Mayagüez 13 upper middle class

In terms of class, all members came from middle class families. Tatiana and Fernando’s parents specialized in white collar occupations, as university professors and accountants. Cristina father held a grey collar job as a barber and her mother was a medical

technologist, valued in Glassdoor as a profession that yields $41, 452 annually in Puerto Rico, below the national average). Laura’s father owned his own sound equipment party company: whenever there were events that required a sound technician and sound systems, he would travel to different art and music events to provide this service. He also had his own band and regularly played at events around the West region. His vocation added to Laura’s identity as a musician, coming from a musically inclined family. When compared against students from a public school, such as O’Reilly High, being able to afford D.J. equipment, fly to New York to dance, or participate in modelling photoshoots were prestigious opportunities unavailable to everyone across the socioeconomic scale, and most likely the outcome of a priviledged upbringing.

B)T

O

:“B

S

”

The Outsiders community of practice were a group of friends who shared the same values of being antagonistic to the status quo, that is, their entire persona and identity was formed on the basis of their nonconformity with existing group trends and ideologies. This group was composed of a total of 4 members, 3 males and 1 female. 2 of the community members in this group also were involved in other communities of practice and could be seen on different days with their other peer groups: Fernando (also a member of the Pop Enthusiasts group) and Daniel (member of the Gamer group) on this table. I was unable to garner parental consent from the female member of this community of practice, although I refer to her persona in an indirect sense as she had an intimate relationship with Zuriel (featured in this study). I have given her the pseudonym of Eva. Following ethical guidelines, I did not collect any personal information about Eva, nor did I record her speech. In this community, both Zuriel and Eva were perhaps the embodiment of an anti-school ideology. The way I am using ‘anti-school’ here is not to suggest that they were not academically oriented or excelled in their class subjects, rather to suggest that they did not affiliate with the larger student body and often communicated complete disdain for the administration, classes, how the school was run, and the larger student body. For instance, on one occasion when I asked Zuriel during his interview if he planned to attend Puerto Rican Night, a big event hosted by the graduating class, Zuriel replies no, that while he held a role in the executive committee of the graduating class as class treasurer, he did not plan on attending an event that could potentially demand of his assistance.

EXAMPLE #3 BLACK SOULS COFP ACADEMIC ORIENTATION 01 Katherine ¿Tú va a ir a ehta actividad mañana?

02 Zuriel Noh.

03 Katherine ¿Por qué no vah?

04 Zuriel Because… e: (.) no sé, em… mañana no se va a hacel na:da:. Yo soy 05 tesorero de la clase graduanda, pero, no sé, no:-- realmente no quiero venil. 06 El amo:l:-mi nombre y el amol como que no, no cae en la mihma balanza. He 07 ehtado solte(r)o. Pienso: mañana pue salil co:n: (.) il a

08 Applebee’s o algo con Eva. O: (.) o: con quien vayamoØ a vel <[ded]> 09 <[pu:l]> (Deadpool).

Translation:

01 Katherine: Will you go to the activity tomorrow? 02 Zuriel: No.

03 Katherine: Why will you not go?

04 Zuriel: Because… umm (.) I don’t know, em… tomorrow nothing will get done. I’m 05 the treasurer of the graduating class, but, I don’t know, no – really I don’t want 06 to go. Love – my name and love like does not, it does not fall into the same 07 scale. I have been single. Tomorrow I plan on going out with (.) to go to 08 Applebee’s or something with Eva. O:r (.) o:r who we end up going to see Dead

09 Pool.

Zuriel touches on two different topics. When prompted about his attendance at a school event, Zuriel demonstrates initial hesitation and avoidance by uttering ‘I don’t know’ (Line 5). Immediately after this he communicates a negative evaluation of the wider school community: ‘tomorrow nothing will get done’ (Line 4). He then positions himself as a figure of authority by disclosing his position as the class treasurer (Line 5), which both puts him in a position of insider knowledge in that he is to make critical observations of his classmates’ performance based on personal experience, and also confirms his rebellious attitude against his own classmates and school activities. He then switches the topic in Lines 6 – 8, to which he appears to hint at his relationship status, an obvious source of discontent for Zuriel, which may or may not tie into his wider pessimistic outlook on school and his classmates. He then reveals to me his alternative plans which consist of a night out to Applebee’s with his best friend Eva and watching the latest Marvel Comics film entitled Deadpool (Miller, 2016). It’s no surprise that he would show interest in watching a movie about a superhero, unlike other superheroes, but characterized as a villain. This interest ties into Zuriel’s wider persona, fascination for the color black, and his Instagram account multiple shots can be seen of building facades as well as modelling portraits of himself wearing a white shirt and a leather jacket. His best friend, Eva, also shares similar fashion interests, often sporting dark colors in her outfits, e.g. hoodies, make-up, and backpacks. When asked about his theatric ambitions, Zuriel expressed wanting to play the villain of a movie.

Table 10. Sociodemographic Information on Outsider CofP.

Gender City of Birth Job Score Class Rank Fernando* male Mayagüez 13 upper middle class Daniel* male Mayagüez 7 lower middle class Zuriel male Mayagüez 14 upper middle class In the interviews, he constructs a rebellious persona of difference, calling himself a ‘Black Soul’ and bestowing upon others negative evaluative labels: bichas (‘bitches’), homos,

nerds, gamers, and los Cristianos ('the religious ones’). ‘Bichas’here is a reappropriation of English expletive ‘bitches’, a common term of offense in PR slang. Zuriel uses this term to refer to the group of girls I have called Pop Enthusiasts, he uses the label ‘homos’ and later aquel grupo ‘ that group’ (Lines 35 - 36) and loh kule ‘the cool ones’ (Line 32) to refer to a group of people I have referred to as Jocks. ‘Nerds’ and ‘gamers’ refer to a single group which I have labelled as Gamers.Loh Crihtiano ‘the Christians’ referred to some members of the 11th _{Grade classroom, not featured in this study. In this same way,}

Zuriel also exhibits similar behavior to that of his classmates, Norman and Dave (from the Jock CofP). He uses English insertional practices on the lexical basis (nouns, noun phrases), to refer to others as well as himself, and how he sees himself in relation to others as a ‘Black Soul’. This name calling technique and inhabiting of his own identity with usage of bilingual terms suggests that to him, as well as others in his own language ecology, English is a part of who they are, such that their social identities are defined through it. Two other groups are defined through Spanish labels: ‘Loh Crihtiano’ and ‘lah bichah’ (Lines 13 - 14).

EXAMPLE #4 SELF-IDENTIFICATION BY MEMBER OF BLACK SOUL COFP

Original Translation 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Katherine Zuriel Katherine Zuriel

Descríbeme loh diferenteØ

tipoØ de amihtadeØ en ehta ehcuela.

No, eh que aquí hay varioØ tipo de cosah. Ehtan loh black souls, que creo que soy yo, nosotroØ

doh ((signals to his best friend Eva)). Pol lo menoØ

en nuehtro grupo (.), ehtan loh homoØ, ehtan loh nerds, ehtan loh gamerz, ehtan lah bitchah… Peldon, ehte:… ehtan loh crihtianoØ, super high= ¿Quién eØnerd?

Loh nerds ehtan por aquí. 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Katherine Zuriel Katherine Zuriel

Describe to me the different types of friendships groups in this school.

No, it’s just that here there are various types of things. There are the blacksouls, that I think it’s me, us

two ((signals to his best friend Eva)). At least in

our group, there are the homos, there are the nerds, the gamerz, there are the bitches… Sorry, umm… there are the Christians, super high= Who are the nerds?

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Eva Zuriel Eva

Ehtan allá ((points to the green hill situated in front of the outdoor basketball court)).

Pero ehtan en ehta area! Loh nerds, ¿no? PueØ, okay, se ehtinguieron, ehtan allá. Aquella persona de por ahí yo la odio (.) rosa:, la del bulto multi- color. Eh que (.) eh que su caracter. No sé si me entiendeh. Tiene el Significado. Sí. Emm, ehtan loh <[ku:le]>, lo: (.) no sé si decil la

palabra que sue:ne: (.) sutil. Vamoh con ‘aquel grupo’ ((points to the benches where jocks are sitting down)). Zuriel. 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Eva Zuriel Eva

They are over there ((points to the green hill situated in front of the outdoor basketball court)).

But they are in this area! The nerds, no? Okay, well, they got extinguished,

they are over there. That person over there I hate that person (.)

pink, of the backpack multi- colored. It’s just (.) it’s just their character. I don’t know if you understand me. It has meaning. Yes. Umm, there are the cool ones, the I don’t know whether the word sounds (.)

subtle. Let’s go with ‘that group’ ((points to the benches where jocks are sitting down)).

Zuriel.

Zuriel’s ownership to a ‘black soul identity’ derives from a series of difficulties he faced following his mother’s death by cancer. During the interviews he consistently refers to his villanous side, his ‘dark side’, and disappointment in others. This social restriction ultimately has its consequences in terms of how he performs linguistically: in comparison to his peers, his style is unique and Spanish-dominant. His insertions are restricted to lexical insertions, rather than larger, more complex constituent constructions. This will be observed in later chapters, primarily Chapter 6.

C)

G

The Gamer CofP was male-based. At the beginning of my fieldwork at Mission, I noted that members of this community would come together during lunch time and sit on a small hill located in school grounds in front of a basketball court and play games on their iPads and smartphones, often car games such such as Crossy Road (Hipster Whale, 2014) and Crashy Road (Seven K Games, 2015). Sometimes they would bring their portable Nintendo gaming devices to school and play Super Smash Bros, despite the ban on electronics on school grounds. The community was composed of 8 members, 3 of which consented to individual interviews (Dave, Norman, and Daniel), and 2 who took part of a focus group interview (Roberto and Fausto). In total, I recorded 5 out of the 8 community members.

Dave. One of the main community members of this community of practice was Dave, an active player of the Super Smash community online. He was known in the group for holding the highest record among his friends and being unbeatable. He spent long nights at his house playing video games and often reported not having slept the previous night and being an insomniac. He did not go out very often with his friends and would often reject an offer to go out in favour of playing video games or watching Netflix TV series. Consequently, a large number of Dave’s linguistic practices were carried out online through the Internet, many of these exhibited a high degree of bilingual creativity, including the use of Netspeak and words like lel and lit in spoken discourse.68

He self-identified as an independent spirit, not belonging to one group or another. He rejected others labelling of him as a ‘hipster’ or ‘rocker’ and the idea of a label for himself altogether. Mutual friends, such as Norman who was also from the Gamer CofP labelled him as a rockero, rockerito or the ‘rocker type’ in lines 27 and 31, he then also positioned himself positively to Dave’s outward persona as a rockero as well. While Dave was hesitant in adopting this label, he was quick to label others as gamers, cacos, nerds, and geeks. In defining his immediate group of friends, he is quick to call them geeks using English adjective alongside specific names – Norman, Tiffany and himself (Line 56 to 57). When I ask him to expand on his labelling practices, he reconstructs his identity from

alternative to a person who gets along with everyone ‘except the cacos’ (Line 62). He goes as far as to negatively align through English verb phrase ‘I hate them’ (Line 63-4). Throughout his own labelling strategies, and Othering, word-level insertional styles are incorporated, such that his vision or description of the school is seen through an English- insertional lens, the non-local way of communicating. This conversation is demonstrated below.

68 _{In one informal conversation, Dave mentioned to the interviewer having listened to a YouTube podcast}

called “The Sleepy Cabin” in which one of the main voices came from Ireland. Dave was particularly good at imitating the Irish English accent because of this.

EXAMPLE #5 ARRIVING AT A LABEL FOR THE GAMER COFP AT MISSION