Hispanic Practices Research Articles

Examining acculturation at the daily level: Adding nuance to acculturation scholarship

The present article reviews the growing literature on micro-level (daily or situation-specific) acculturation processes and provides new empirical evidence regarding the link between macro-level (general) and micro-level acculturation indices. The review covers the evolution of acculturation theory and research to focus on separate heritage and destination cultural dimensions and on specific domains (e.g., practices, values, identifications), to include longitudinal research designs, and to incorporate daily diary methodologies. The empirical study includes 824 Hispanic college students in Miami (76.1 % female) who participated in a 12-day diary study. General (macro-level) acculturation measures were administered on Days 1 and 12, and daily (micro-level) acculturation measures were administered on Days 2–11. Each of six acculturation components (dimension-domain pairings) – U.S. practices, Hispanic practices, individualist values, collectivist values, U.S. identity, and ethnic identity – was assessed using full scales on Days 1 and 12 and using single items on Days 2–11. Daily means and daily fluctuations, computed as the standard deviation of Day 2–11 scores, were included during the daily portion of the study. Analyses examined the extent to which earlier macro-level acculturation scores would predict daily means and fluctuations, as well as the extent to which these daily means and fluctuations would predict later macro-level acculturation scores. For each acculturation component, daily means were related to Day 1 and Day 12 scores, though the strengths of these associations varied across components. Daily fluctuations were negatively associated with Day 1 and 12 scores for U.S. and Hispanic practices, but these associations were less consistent for the values and identifications components. These results are discussed in terms of the overlap between micro and macro level acculturation processes, and in terms of the future of acculturation research.

Geolectal Dictionary of Cuba. Aspects of the lexicographical plant

The Geolectal Dictionary of Cuba (DiGeCu) is an ongoing lexicographical project of the Institute of Literature and Linguistics of Cuba. It is proposed to order and lemmatize the geolectal information gathered by the linguistic Atlas of Cuba (ALCu) -principal result of the project “Elaboration of the Linguistic Atlas of Cuba (ALCu)” - published in five volumes. This article collects some aspects of the lexicographical plant (drafting plan) of the DiGeCu. This work is novel because it takes unprocessed geolectal information for lexicographic purposes and organizes, analyzes, processes and lemmatizes it. Its originality lies in its own source, the geolectal data itself and its methodological approaches, arising from Hispanic practices and the contribution of the team itself, composed of specialists in dialectology and lexicography. The Geolectal Dictionary and the academic works derived from it will undoubtedly be a fundamental source not only for other companies of this type, but also for studies on the Spanish of Cuba from different points of view; since there will be an inventory of Cuban atlas units processed with lexicographical rigor.