Spanish-speaking Latin Americans in the market of Cayenne (French Guiana): multilingual practices, fuzzy borders, and social positioning

Sánchez Moreano, Santiago and Léglise, Isabelle (2023). Spanish-speaking Latin Americans in the market of Cayenne (French Guiana): multilingual practices, fuzzy borders, and social positioning. In: Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Patiño-Santos, Adriana eds. Language Practices and Processes among Latin Americans in Europe. Oxon, UK and New York, USA: Routledge, pp. 127–149.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003130703-6

Abstract

French Guiana, a French overseas department in northern South America, is a hybrid social space, due to historical and recent cross-regional migration. People from southern countries in search of a better life have clearly identified it as a part of the Global North and as a gateway to Europe. This is the case of Spanish-speaking Latin Americans, who officially represent around 2% of the whole population. This chapter is devoted to understanding the life trajectories of Peruvians before their arrival in French Guiana and their multilingual practices and positioning there. We focus on how they interact with other people in the central marketplace in Cayenne, what language resources they mobilise, and how they express and negotiate positionings in social interaction. Through a language-as-socialpractice perspective, we also observed how Peruvians use their heterogeneous linguistic resources and fuzzy linguistic borders to create social meaning.

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