WORD SMUGGLERS: A BEAUTIFULISSIMUS EFFECT OF CONTINENTALISM (2001)

We can make a speech with gusto, or, as we would say in Spanish, con brío, or we can welcome a friend with a cheerful mi casa, su casa. We can learn that in Spanish, the very, the superlative, the “a lot”, can be just an ending to an adjective, and that things can become extraordinary also in English, by a Latin pass of magic: greatissimus, beautifulissimus and wonderfulissimus.

An erotic feeling happens when we transgress the borders of the language, smuggling at the same time words and a new vision of the world. We already know about the fascination of the inhabitants of the Hispanic America for the English American words and their automatic association with a wealthy and prosperous society. To these other Americans, living beyond the United States borders, some English words are the mantra they need as aspiring winners: ok, sorry, I love you, sale, top, full, fashion, cool. They get from the language the reward of power. On the other side, US Americans, including the most visible of them, President George W. Bush, seem to be equally pleased when trading English words for Spanish ones, and smuggling, in the heart of Yankee land, the mysterious delight of being another, a Hispanic. The primary Latin that sounds underneath the Saxon brings to their consciousness a feeling of ancient belonging. Rome and Greece claim their children drowned and revived in the barbarian Northern wave-- and propose an everlasting brotherhood with the faithful Latinos beyond the ocean.

The languages, in the frame of the Great America, that America that engulfs the United States, are making an intimate wedding in the hearts. Citizens of a brand new project for the Americas, the Free Trade Area, the Americanos from everywhere realize that they are part of a new cultural reality that will lead to a new political agreement. Americans or Americanos, brothers, pals or hermanos, from Native, or European -- British and Spanish, and from all the other European countries—or African descent, are engaged in a new collective creation: the whole American cultural identity. The common fact of belonging to the same Continent, and together being mostly cultural heirs to Europe, no longer Europeans but Americans, is the main stone on which the new American, the whole American culture will be built. The policy that defends this culture, in commercial and military issues, is called Continentalism. And to this point, an update of the word Continent is required. "The Continent" is no longer the European Continent but the American Continent—and yes, that includes both the North and the South parts of it. Continental trade involves the USA with NAFTA as well as NAFTA with the rest of the Continent, within the new FTAA. Preceded now by an unavoidable cultural and language merge, the future trade merge is the nightmare of the European Community.

Europeans see in this American market of eight hundred million the definitive sign of their decadency and their withdrawal to an honorable second role in the world. This omen is at the origin of many criticisms to the cultural marriage between English and Spanish speaking communities of the American Continent. When two giants marry, chances are that the baby will be enormous, and what Europe fears the most is the Great America that the FTAA is giving birth to.

The Latino writers have assessed in many novels and short stories the oral experience of Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Cubans and Dominicans in the USA, where both languages were melted into a new one, the Spanglish. A more subtle way of dealing with a bicultural life is the one adopted by well-educated people, who tend to use just some words or grammatical constructions to add a different point of view to a well-preserved language. English or Spanish speaking, they trade values without too much reflection and with the spontaneity of a Continentally shared life. While the Spanish speaking try to grab the key to commercial and financial success, the English speaking crave for a better quality of life, made of passion, love, friendship, good food and the laziness necessary to enjoy all this.

At the same time, some kind of distrust nests in some American minds. They think that maybe all this melting and marriage and illegal word smuggling will lead to a bad place, the hell of patriots, where the nations loose their identity and are destroyed forever. Crusades for just English in California, or for an exclusive use of Spanish in the media language in Argentina, witness the fear of the blend, rather than the richness of an enlarged language and a wider identity. Both definitions, “el inglés es nuestro” and “Spanish is ours”, represent a valid statement. They could also be the cry of war of the lusty language smugglers who have probably understood before anyone, that they share not only languages but also the ownership of the Continent.

The beauty of English and the beauty of Spanish compete, as well as the immanent beauty of the two world visions, and no one could say that this competition will lead to a victory and a defeat. Rather, as the increasing mischievous word smugglers seem to show, the illegal creativity will come to an end. Too many smugglers, we know, finally allows for free trade.