Language Brokering Over Time: A Study of Citizenship Becoming Through a Transliteracies Framework

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper integrates theories and research from the fields of transliteracies and language brokering to understand the language and literacy experiences of bilingual youth who grew up in Mexican immigrant families. Analyzing data from three interrelated studies that used ethnographic research methods to understand the language brokering of Mexican-American immigrant youth in Chicago from 2000–2010, we asked: How do language brokers negotiate diverse meanings of citizenship in their transnational contexts? How do their transliteracy experiences shape their “citizenship becoming” over time? Findings show how bilingual Mexican-American youth employed their transliteracies and translocal expertise for civic justice, as they increasingly helped family and other transnational community members gain equitable access to goods and just services through their language brokering practices. At the same time, in a period of increasing anti-immigrant discourses and policies, they also experienced personal challenges and developed a deep recognition of hard borders facing their racialized communities. The discussion considers implications of this work for disrupting traditional perspectives about citizenship and employing a stronger notion of politicized funds of knowledge in K-12 classrooms.