Resistencia, mercado y portuñol

Ideologías del lenguaje en circulación en la frontera uruguaya con Brasil

Abstract

In the last decades, language activism initiatives have reclaimed the use of so-called Portuñol at the border between Uruguay and Brazil, seeking to reinterpret the negative meanings about this linguistic resource and its speakers. In the context of this vindication, this article discusses language ideologies about Portuñol that circulate on that border today. Following ethnographic paths which articulate data generated online and offline, the article discusses meanings about Portuñol mobilized in two areas: in the vindication of Portuñol through artistic production and in the promotion of tourism in the border region. In the case of artists whose creations are in Portuñol, the ideological work is oriented towards the construction of meanings that relate Portuñol with an authentic and counter-systemic culture, which resists a conservative and official culture. In the case of tourism ventures, ideological work is oriented towards the construction of meanings that highlight the border region as a cultural tourist destination. The reconfiguration of language ideologies regarding Portuñol thus seems to benefit those groups that can mobilize it in accordance with the dynamics of commodification of the globalized new economy.