Date of Award
Spring 6-4-2026
Document Type
Honors Project
University Scholars Director
Dr. Joshua Tom
First Advisor/Committee Member
Dr. Kevin Neuhouser
Abstract
At the time of writing this project, aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) raids and mass deportations are being carried out across the U.S. The need to recognize the humanity of those targeted grows with every deportation. In this project, I address the question - What does it mean to be human? - by considering how language impacts the ways in which others affirm or deny the humanity of immigrants. To do this, I examine the role language plays in memoirs of undocumented Latin American immigrants. My analysis is grounded in Gloria Anzaldúa’s borderlands theory and César Miguel R. Vega Magallón’s article “Migrant as Chimera”. I find that language is both a site for connection and disconnection from others and oneself. Though some of the memoirs mix Spanish words and phrases into the narration, almost all of them were originally published in English, showing the language-based disconnection from self that immigrants encounter even when telling their own stories. In the context of forced migration, language tends to isolate migrants from people they encounter. They are denied the opportunity to speak, either through demands for silence from coyotes or through the need to use English in encounters with border patrol and immigration courts. When they are disconnected in this way, they are also dehumanized. Consequently, language is both the reason why and the method through which the humanity of immigrants is denied. However, when individuals bridge the language gap, they create opportunities for connection and recognition of the others’ humanity.
Recommended Citation
Setala, AJ, "Unheard Voices: Language and Humanity in Memoirs of Immigration from Latin America to the United States" (2026). Honors Projects. 277.
https://digitalcommons.spu.edu/honorsprojects/277
Copyright Status
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/
Additional Rights Information
Copyright held by author.
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Comments
A project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the University Scholars Honors Program.