Code-Switching, Reggaetón, and Identity Negotiation Among Puerto Ricans in the Diaspora

Abstract

This qualitative study examines the language ideologies surrounding code-switching and Puerto Rican Spanish among Puerto Rican bilingual speakers in Massachusetts, focusing on how these ideologies interact with identity construction in the diaspora. Participants in this study commonly described their own language use as Spanglish, emphasizing both its practical role in everyday communication and its significance as a marker of cultural and linguistic identity. Drawing on data collected through sociolinguistic interviews and focus groups, this research explores how participants perceive code-switching not only as a communicative strategy but also as a meaningful expression of Puerto Rican identity. Although negative ideologies persist–framing code-switching as linguistic inadequacy–this study centers on how speakers actively negotiate and redefine these views within their communities. Puerto Rican Spanish, shaped by historical contact with English and sociopolitical ties to the U.S., offers a unique lens through which to explore these dynamics. The findings also suggest that media representations, particularly through music genres such as reggaetón, contribute to shaping and reflecting language ideologies. By centering on speakers’ voices, this paper contributes to understanding how language ideologies form and are shaped by bilingual practices, and how code-switching functions as a form of linguistic citizenship in the Puerto Rican diaspora.

1. Introduction

Code-switching between Spanish and English, commonly referred to as “Spanglish”, has long shaped the identities and language ideologies of Spanish-speaking communities in the U.S. (Camus & Lemus, 2024; Zentella, 2016). Traditionally, code-switching has been subjected, by both society and the speakers, to prescriptive ideologies that negatively judge language mixing (Fuller & Leeman, 2020; MacGregor-Mendoza, 2020). This negative perception of language contact is related to monoglossic and raciolinguistic language ideologies that present bilingual speakers from a deficit perspective (Flores & Rosa, 2015; Holguín Mendoza, 2018). While language practices such as Spanglish have long functioned as identity markers in U.S. Latinx communities, particularly among Mexican American and Puerto Rican speakers, more recent scholarship has explicitly theorized code-switching as a reclaimed identity practice through which speakers articulate ideological stances toward their bilingualism (Hall & Nilep, 2015; Hayes, 2022; Hoi Ying Chen, 2015).

Although Spanglish is a relevant practice across U.S. Latino communities, it holds special significance for Puerto Ricans due to the island’s long-standing political relationship with the United States and the resulting sustained contact with English. In fact, Spanglish was a term first coined by the Puerto Rican writer Salvador Tió. Puerto Rican Spanish is frequently perceived as being strongly influenced by English, a perception shaped by these historical and sociopolitical conditions. This perceived English influence is one of the factors that contribute to this variety stigmatization (Shenk, 2017). This stigma is rooted in historical and social factors, including the region’s political history and the intersections of language, class, and race (Zentella, 1990). The negative perception of this variety has sometimes contributed to internalized negative ideologies among speakers and to linguistic insecurity, especially for heritage speakers (Loza & Beaudrie, 2022; Tseng, 2021). However, this stigmatization has been actively contested by speakers across different historical moments and cultural domains, including music.

As early as the 1980s, Latin rap artists, particularly Chicano rappers in the U.S. Southwest, embraced Spanglish as a way to index linguistic skill, ethnolinguistic identity, and political consciousness, using bilingual practices to resist dominant language ideologies (Balam & Shelton, 2023). Within this movement, Latin rap operated as a counter-discourse to mainstream racialized stereotypes, frequently drawing on indigenous and Chicano cultural symbols to promote pride, historical belonging, and political awareness among Mexican American youth. Additionally, many of the songs within the genre in the 1990s made specific references to Spanglish as a point of linguistic pride (Balam & Shelton, 2023). While Latin rap did not achieve the level of global commercial success seen in later genres, it contributed to the broader legitimization of Spanglish and bilingual expression in popular music. More recently, the global rise of reggaetón, a genre with roots in Panama and Jamaican dancehall that later expanded throughout the Caribbean (Rivera-Rideau, 2015), has further consolidated music as a key site of cultural resistance. This genre’s embrace of bilingualism and traditionally considered non-standard varieties has motivated a growing body of linguistic research examining its role in shaping language ideologies, sociophonetic representations, and identity construction (Callesano et al., 2025; Hayes, 2023; Mojica Vargas, 2023; Rivera, 2014; Valentín-Márquez et al., 2025). While prior scholarship has examined reggaetón as a site for negotiating Puerto Rican identity and linguistic stigma, this study contributes a youth-centered perspective on how reggaetón is interpreted and mobilized by Puerto Rican bilinguals themselves as they navigate everyday language ideologies.

In Massachusetts, where this research takes place, Puerto Ricans have a significant presence. They are the largest Latino population in the state, and they represent 8.8% of the total state population. In some cities in Western Massachusetts, such as Holyoke, Puerto Ricans constitute almost half of the city population, making it the city with the largest rate of Puerto Ricans per capita outside of the island (U.S. Census, 2024). This creates a space where Puerto Rican Spanish is likely the most commonly spoken variety, though it may still face negative perceptions due to its history of stigmatization. Massachusetts, then, constitutes a relevant context for examining how language ideologies and identity are negotiated through practices like Spanglish among speakers in a diasporic community. To frame this analysis, the study draws on the concept of linguistic citizenship (Stroud, 2024; Stroud & Kerfoot, 2021), which emphasizes speakers’ rights to use language creatively and assertively in ways that challenge dominant ideologies. Specifically, it examines how Puerto Rican Spanish speakers resist monoglossic ideologies and interpret code-switching as a marker of Puerto Rican identity, with special attention to reggaetón as a cultural and linguistic site where such resistance and identity construction are negotiated.

To explore these dynamics, the following section reviews code-switching and translanguaging in relation to identity, introduces linguistic citizenship, and examines the role of music, particularly reggaetón, in shaping language ideologies. It concludes with the research questions guiding this study.

2. Code-Switching and Translanguaging

While early studies of code-switching emphasized grammatical constraints and functional motivations (e.g., Myers-Scotton, 1993; Poplack, 1980), more recent scholarship has focused on the role of language ideologies and identity. In recent decades, the relationship between code-switching and the construction of social identity has been widely studied (Auer, 2005; Hall & Nilep, 2015). Researchers have explored how identity, attitudes, and interpersonal relationships are expressed, interpreted, accepted, or rejected and reshaped through interaction (Li, 2005). Moreover, studies have examined how different styles of code-switching can index distinct social meanings (Hoi Ying Chen, 2015). Her study of code-switching in Hong Kong shows how different mixing styles index different social identities. A “local” style, with English insertions into Cantonese, is associated with authenticity, while a “returnee” style, which involves more complex alternation, is often stigmatized despite high proficiency. Drawing on Irvine’s (2001) framework, Hoi Ying Chen (2015) demonstrates that these styles are meaningful only in relation to each other and are shaped by local language ideologies. Speakers use these patterns strategically to navigate social boundaries and negotiate identity. This underscores the point that code-switching is not merely a linguistic practice but a socially charged resource for constructing and contesting identities in diasporic and multilingual settings.

Urciuoli’s (1996) ethnographic study of Puerto Rican Spanish-English bilinguals in New York shows how code-switching is shaped by local ideologies and social boundaries. Within the working-class neighborhood, bilinguals regularly switch between languages among family and friends, yet they also express a belief that languages should remain separate, a stance aligned with broader institutional ideologies. This contradiction reflects how “mixing” is both a normalized practice and a stigmatized one, depending on context. Similarly, in her influential ethnography, Zentella (1997) examines how identity is constructed through everyday language practices within a Puerto Rican community located on a single block in East Harlem while also analyzing the broader social forces and power dynamics that shape daily life. Her work presents code-switching as a dynamic linguistic practice that speakers use to express identities that are flexible and constantly evolving. As Hall and Nilep (2015) point out, Zentella moves away from the idea of code-switching to highlight the “bilingual/multidialectal repertoire” of these speakers and shows that language mixing in this Puerto Rican community is shaped by nuanced, locally grounded understandings of how language form relates to meaning. Although Zentella (1997) does not use the term “translanguaging,” her emphasis on bilingual/multidialectal repertoires anticipates later frameworks that challenge the boundaries of named languages (García & Li, 2014).

Translanguaging is a term first introduced by Williams (1996) and later adopted by many scholars to describe “both the complex language practices of plurilingual individuals and communities, as well as the pedagogical approaches that use those complex practices” (García & Li, 2014, p. 20). It emphasizes the use of a unified linguistic repertoire, moving beyond the notion of switching between separate languages. Translanguaging enables speakers to construct original and interrelated discursive practices that reflect their lived experiences and sociocultural identities (Canagarajah, 2011; García & Baetens Beardsmore, 2009; Li, 2011). It also helps uncover suppressed histories and meanings, challenging rigid, nation-state-defined language identities and challenging the boundaries of named languages (Mignolo, 2012; Otheguy et al., 2015). While terms like code-switching and language mixing are rooted in historically constructed language boundaries, their use can still be valid, especially when analyzing how speakers themselves describe their practices. This study uses the terms code-switching and Spanglish since participants themselves use them to describe their practice, thereby acknowledging the community’s own understanding and framing of their language practices.

This distinction becomes especially relevant when considering Spanglish, a broad term used to describe code-switching and lexical borrowing between Spanish and English (Balam, 2025; Fuller & Leeman, 2020) and occupies a contested space within both translanguaging pedagogy and broader language ideologies (Zentella, 2017). Some scholars have critiqued the term for its pejorative connotations to bilingual practices and for presenting Spanglish as a different situation from other language contact scenarios (Otheguy & Stern, 2011). Spanglish can be interpreted through monoglossic and standard language ideologies that frame the practices of Spanish speakers in the U.S. as linguistically deviant (Holguín Mendoza, 2018; Zentella, 2017). However, recent scholarship and community practices have sought to reclaim Spanglish as an important marker of identity for bilingual speakers in the U.S. and other international contexts where Spanish has also been in contact with English for generations (Balam, 2025; Rodríguez-González & Parafita-Couto, 2012).

This process of reclaiming linguistic practices aligns with broader frameworks that view language as a site of political struggle, most notably, the concept of linguistic citizenship (Stroud, 2001, 2024). Focusing on breaking the boundaries between languages and nation/states, linguistic citizenship offers a critical lens to understand these dynamics. (Stroud, 2001, 2024). By considering “language and citizenship as complexly entangled constructs”, this framework interrogates how language has historically been used to exclude and discriminate within “restrictive forms of citizenship” (Stroud, 2024, p. 145). This theoretical concept includes a set of approaches to language activism, “where speakers themselves exercise control over their language, deciding what languages are, and what they might mean, and where language issues are discursively tied to a range of social issues—policy issues and questions of equity” (Stroud, 2001, p. 353). Thus, linguistic citizenship constitutes a framework that goes beyond certain critical views of translanguaging that argue that it can unintentionally reproduce existing hierarchies between languages by focusing on access to knowledge in official school languages (Otheguy et al., 2015; Stroud, 2001, 2024; Stroud & Kerfoot, 2021). With its focus on context-specificity, linguistic citizenship offers a perspective through which translanguaging can be understood not only as a pedagogical strategy but as a political act that speakers perform. Such acts challenge dominant language hierarchies and enable the emergence of alternative voices (Awayed-Bishara, 2021). In the specific context of the Puerto Rican diaspora, these acts of linguistic citizenship become “semiotic tools for a (re)crafting of multilingual space” (Stroud, 2024, p. 155), whether through reclaiming Spanglish as an identity tool or challenging prescriptive ideologies about their linguistic practices.

2.1. Language Ideologies and Identity in Diasporic Contexts: Spanglish

Recent scholarship has explored how language ideologies intersect with identity formation in diasporic settings, particularly among Spanish-English bilinguals. Language ideologies are defined as sets of beliefs that link language to sociohistorical and political relationships (Fuller & Leeman, 2020; Irvine & Gal, 2009; Irvine, 1989; Kroskrity, 2010; Woolard, 1998) and they shape and naturalize social categories such as gender, ethnicity, and nationality (Rosa & Burdick, 2017; Shankar, 2008). Often, they reflect dominant norms, such as the monoglossic ideology that views bilinguals through the point of view of a monolingual (García & Otheguy, 2014). Flores and Rosa (2015, p. 151) highlight the concept of the white listening subject, an ideological position that “hears and interprets the linguistic practices of language-minoritized populations as deviant based on their racial positioning in society, as opposed to any objective characteristics of their language use.” Through raciolinguistic ideologies, racialized speaking subjects are constructed as “linguistically deviant” regardless of their actual linguistic practices (Flores & Rosa, 2015). That is, racialized identities are linked to perceived linguistic traits or ways of speaking (Alim & Smitherman, 2012; Bucholtz, 2011; Rosa & Burdick, 2017). Spanish speakers in the U.S., especially Puerto Rican speakers, have often faced these raciolinguistic ideologies, which frame them as “linguistically deficient” (Flores & Rosa, 2015; Leeman, 2012; Zentella, 2017).

One harmful ideology faced by Puerto Rican speakers is the ideology of languagelessness (Rosa, 2016), a belief that racialized bilinguals do not speak either language “correctly,” thereby viewing them as illegitimate speakers of both. This racialized ideology is reinforced through references to speakers’ code-switching practices as a marker of their supposed inability to speak either language. However, many speakers are contesting them and reclaiming their linguistic practices as an important marker of identity, specifically for Puerto Ricans living in the mainland U.S. Shenk (2017) studied the language ideologies of Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania in reaction to a public campaign in Puerto Rico that marked the use of lexical borrowings from English in Spanish as incorrect. While some community members upheld prescriptive ideologies, others defended code-switching and lexical borrowing as valid practices within their communities. Lamboy (2011) compares two Puerto Rican communities in New York and Central Florida, showing how language ideologies and identity are negotiated differently in each context. In New York, many Nuyoricans1 view code-switching and English borrowings as part of their lived experience and see themselves as authentically Puerto Rican regardless of Spanish proficiency. In contrast, the Central Florida community, composed largely of recent migrants, often values “purer” Spanish and closer ties to the island, sometimes distancing themselves from Nuyorican linguistic practices. Nevertheless, both groups actively negotiate their identities through language, and code-switching emerges as a meaningful resource for expressing Puerto Rican identity.

2.2. Reggaetón and Language Ideologies

Building on the role of bilingual practices in shaping diasporic identity, recent scholarship has turned to cultural forms such as reggaetón to examine how media representations influence language ideologies and perceptions of code-switching. Scholars have increasingly explored how music, as a social and cultural practice, contributes to the portrayal and negotiation of linguistic practices that often carry conflicting ideological meanings (Alim et al., 2009). In the case of Puerto Rican Spanish, the music genre reggaetón offers a particularly rich site for examining the intersection of language ideologies, bilingualism, and identity (Mojica Vargas, 2023; Rivera, 2014; Rivera-Rideau, 2015). Reggaetón is a globally connected music style with roots in Panama and Jamaican dancehall and extended throughout the Caribbean, characterized by its signature dembow rhythm and strong influences from reggae and hip-hop (Callesano et al., 2025; Marshall, 2009; Rivera-Rideau, 2015).

The genre emerged from musical traditions that voiced the realities of urban Black communities, addressing racism, marginalization, and criminalization (Callesano et al., 2025). Rooted in shared transnational experiences, it became a vehicle for identity formation and resistance among urban Black youth (Twickel, 2009). Yet, despite its popularity and cultural significance, reggaetón carries deep social implications tied to its racialized origins. In Puerto Rico, these origins are closely linked to underground music, widely recognized as a precursor to reggaetón, which developed during the 1980s and 1990s as a rap–dancehall fusion circulating in working-class urban barrios and public housing projects (caseríos), which have been historically stigmatized as sites of poverty, criminality, and racial difference. Underground became associated with a racialized form of urban Blackness that, in the popular imagination, was positioned in opposition to a “white(ned)” ideal of Puerto Rican identity and was specifically located in the caseríos, where many artists and fans lived (Rivera-Rideau, 2015, p. 22). Underground artists drew on understandings of Blackness circulating in U.S. hip-hop and Caribbean dancehall to articulate their responses to the racialization and marginalization they experienced, particularly in relation to state-led anti-crime policies that disproportionately targeted caseríos. In 1993, the Puerto Rican government launched Mano Dura contra el Crimen (Iron Fist Against Crime), an initiative that explicitly framed caseríos as focal points of criminal activity. As a result, these communities were not only criminalized but also racialized, coming to be associated in public discourse with urban Blackness characterized by violence, delinquency, and hypersexuality. In this sense, Mano Dura helped normalize stereotypes associated with urban Blackness and situate them within the caseríos (Rivera-Rideau, 2015). Within this racialized and criminalized framework, critics of reggaetón often point to lyrics that hypersexualize women, glorify partying and, at times, criminal activity, and promote values that conflict with conservative norms (Callesano et al., 2025).

Regardless of the criticism, over the past decade, reggaetón has gained significant global presence, emerging as a dominant force in mainstream music (Rivera, 2014). From 2020 to 2022, Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny ranked as Spotify’s most-streamed performer worldwide, showing the genre’s international presence (Callesano et al., 2025; Raygoza, 2023). This fame highlights music’s role as a social practice and identity marker, fostering inclusion and cohesion (Alim et al., 2009; Welch et al., 2020). Beyond cultural influence, reggaetón reflects Spanish-English contact and embodies Caribbean identity, intersecting with racial ideologies and diasporic Latinidad in the U.S. (Callesano et al., 2025; Rivera-Rideau, 2015). Although scholarship on bilingual practices in reggaetón and Latin pop is growing, including song-level corpus studies of the functions of English and audience reception (Monteagudo, 2020), as well as research on the performance of Spanish–English bilingual identities in other U.S. Latinx musical contexts such as Texan popular music (Loureiro-Rodríguez et al., 2018; Loureiro-Rodríguez & Moyna, 2025)much of this work remains bounded to particular artists, features (Hayes, 2023; Powell, 2022), or modestly sized corpora, and comprehensive genre-wide sociolinguistic descriptions of bilingual language use in reggaetón remain relatively scarce. However, the genre’s global reach and the widespread influence of English create conditions that may encourage code-switching (Callesano et al., 2025). Through phonetic variation, lexical innovation, and code-switching, reggaetón enables artists and audiences to negotiate race, ethnicity, and belonging in transnational contexts (Hayes, 2023; Powell, 2022; Rivera, 2014).

Recent scholarship has explored these dynamics, focusing on language ideologies and identity performance within the genre. For instance, Callesano et al. (2025) examined reggaetón’s impact on acceptability judgments for code-switched utterances. They found that labeling an utterance as coming from a reggaetón lyric had no effect on acceptability ratings for code-switching sentences. However, the listening frequency of the genre mattered. U.S. Latinx bilinguals who listened to reggaetón more often rated code-switching sentences as more grammatical, regardless of whether the sentences were grammatical or ungrammatical.

Reggaetón constitutes a powerful cultural site for the negotiation of linguistic identity and the enactment of linguistic citizenship. The genre’s embrace of bilingualism and its transnational reach offer a counter-narrative to deficit-based ideologies, allowing Puerto Rican speakers in the diaspora to reclaim and reframe their linguistic practices. This work seeks to answer the following research questions: (1) How do Puerto Rican Spanish speakers in Massachusetts perceive and describe their code-switching practices? (2) How do language ideologies and bilingual practices (such as code-switching and translanguaging) influence the negotiation of linguistic identity and function as acts of linguistic citizenship within the Puerto Rican diaspora? and (3) What role do music representations play in shaping attitudes toward Puerto Rican Spanish, code-switching, and bilingual identity?

3. Materials and Methods

To answer these research questions, data were collected through sociolinguistic interviews and focus groups with Puerto Rican youth (ages 15–25) living in Western Massachusetts at the time. The sociolinguistics interviews include questions about language use and code-switching, language ideologies and attitudes, and questions about opinions on specific Puerto Rican reggaetón artists and their language practices. The sociolinguistic interviews range in duration from 40 min to an hour, and they were recorded with a Zoom H4n digital audio recorder. The recordings were digitized at a 44,100 HZ sample rate and 16-bit amplitude resolution. A total of 19 participants completed the interview, with around 17 h of recording.

Table 1. Participants demographic information.

Self-Identified Gender	Heritage Speaker	Native Speaker (1st Generation)	Total
Female	9	3	12
Male	3	4	7

shows a breakdown of the demographics of participants. While initially, participants were divided into heritage and native speakers of Puerto Rican Spanish, according to sociolinguistic generation and self-identified linguistic proficiency, these groups did not show any difference according to their ideologies for the analysis.

The interviews were conducted by a research assistant who was a speaker of Puerto Rican Spanish and grew up in Massachusetts. She was an undergraduate student, close in age to the participants, something that has been shown to influence data collection with youth (Tagliamonte, 2016). Importantly, the research assistant herself regularly engaged in Spanish–English code-switching during the interviews and focus groups, reflecting language practices similar to those of the participants. By conducting interviews in a bilingual mode and allowing for code-switching, the study aimed to create a linguistically natural environment in which participants felt comfortable drawing on their full repertoires (González-Vilbazo et al., 2013). Additionally, conducting research as an outsider required careful attention to ethical standards and to the cultural and sociopolitical context (Bucholtz, 2021). For these reasons, collaborating with a Puerto Rican speaker from the community was a key step to ensure the study was both responsible and culturally informed.

Because language ideologies and identity are complex social topics, it was necessary to collect extra data apart from the sociolinguistic interview to gain a better understanding of the linguistic practices and ideologies of participants. After conducting the sociolinguistic interview, participants were invited to take part in focus groups. Focus groups are used to gather information or an in-depth understanding of complex social issues (Kamberelis & Dimitriadis, 2005). In this methodology of data collection, a group of individuals is assembled by the researcher “to discuss a specific topic, aiming to draw from the complex personal experiences, beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes of the participants through moderated interaction” (Nyumba et al., 2018). The researcher facilitates or moderates the group, having a peripheral role in the data collection. In this sense, focus groups are different from traditional interviewing methodologies where the researcher has a central role. Of the 19 participants, 4 decided to take part in the focus group discussions. A total of 3 focus groups were conducted during a period of 3 months. The median duration of the discussion was 90 min.

While only 4 participants took part in the focus groups, the duration and intricate nature of the discussion provide rich data to complement the sociolinguistic interviews. The focus groups were not designed to generate new or representative ideological positions, but rather to expand, clarify, and collectively negotiate themes already identified across the sociolinguistic interviews. Topics for each focus group emerged directly from recurring patterns in the interview data. Each focus group was devoted to a main topic: (1) language practices and code-switching, (2) language ideologies and media and music representation, and (3) linguistic discrimination.

While there was a small number of interview questions related to reggaetón, participants also introduced the genre spontaneously across both interviews and focus groups, particularly when discussing prestige, stigma, and the social evaluation of Puerto Rican Spanish. As a result, reggaetón became the central focus of the second focus group. However, mentions of the genre also appeared consistently across the broader dataset. Analytically, focus group data were interpreted in relation to patterns observed across the full interview corpus, reducing the likelihood that the perspectives of a small subset of participants would disproportionately shape the analysis.

Data Analysis

The data were analyzed using Critical Discourse Analysis (van Dijk, 2006; Wodak & Meyer, 2009) and direct content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) to identify the ideologies regarding code-switching for Puerto Rican speakers in the U.S. Previously established ideologies in the literature about code-switching, identity, and music representations were used as coding categories. Additionally, any other ideological trends presented in the data were also highlighted and coded. The sociolinguistic interviews and focus group discussions were transcribed and coded with the NVIVO software. The coding categories in the data are presented in

Table 2. Coding categories from previously established ideologies.

Coding Categories
Spanglish
Code-switching as a Resource
Prescriptive Views of Code-switching
Monoglossic Ideologies
Linguistic Citizenship Acts
Identity
Music and Language
Media Representations of Puerto Ricans

.

4. Results

It is important to highlight that the sociolinguistic interviews were conducted in Spanish and consisted of open-ended questions. Focus groups were conducted in the language that participants preferred and consisted of a balanced mix of Spanish and English. While this work does not specifically focus on analyzing linguistic practices or the instances and types of code-switching, all participants employed code-switching during their interviews and focus groups, showing that it is a productive practice for these younger bilinguals. Regarding their perceptions and evaluations of code-switching, 18 of 19 participants affirm that they code-switch quite frequently. In their answers to “How frequently do you switch between Spanish and English in a conversation?”, we found several ideological trends, relating to monoglossic ideologies of the language, their own characterization of this practice as Spanglish, and their affective stance towards switching.

4.1. Spanglish

Participants identify the switch between Spanish and English in the same sentence or conversation as Spanglish. They also mentioned the borrowing of English lexical items into Spanish as another example of Spanglish. It is important to note that when they used the term Spanglish, it was not done with pejorative intentions. Most participants mentioned having an affective stance towards Spanglish as a practice that has become an important marker of identity.

Excerpt 1. Alba2: Yo hablo spanglish. Eso, eso. El spanglish es una mezcla entre el inglés y el español. Entonces es ¿cómo un dialect, una dialecta, un dialecto? Sí, es el spanglish. Yo no sé si eso es correcto. Bueno, pues yo lo hablo. I get by.

[Alba: I speak Spanglish. That, that. Spanglish is a mix between English and Spanish. So, is it like a dialect, a dialecta, a dialecto? Yeah, it’s Spanglish. I don’t know if that’s correct. Well, I speak it. I get by.]

Alba recognizes code-switching as a habitual practice in her speech. She also identifies the mix of Spanish and English as Spanglish. She identifies this practice as a “dialect” of Spanish while also pointing to prescriptive perceptions of the practices, remarking that she does not know if Spanglish is correct. However, this notion of correctness is not important for Alba: she gets by using translanguaging, drawing from her entire linguistic repertoire (Canagarajah, 2011), and not being limited by traditional representations of languages (García & Li, 2014). This aligns with the notion of “translanguaging space” (Li, 2011), where multilingual speakers merge previously separated linguistic domains, something that can also be seen in Bianca’s comment.

Excerpt 2. Bianca: A mí me gusta [Spanglish] porque lo hace más como que convenient, like, porque sin spanglish tenía que poner, like whip out my phone, para recordar, especialmente cuando estoy en una conversación bien rápido. Like, a veces yo sé la palabra, pero tengo que pensarlo un poquito. Así que es más convenient, decirlo en inglés to keep on top of… otherwise we’ll be here forever.

[Bianca: I like [Spanglish] because it makes things more convenient, like, because without Spanglish I’d have to, like, whip out my phone to remember, especially when I’m in a really fast conversation. Like, sometimes I know the word, but I have to think about it a little. So, it’s more convenient to say it in English to keep on top of… otherwise we’d be here forever.]

Bianca is highlighting the functional role of code-switching. She describes the practice as “convenient,” emphasizing that it allows her to maintain fluency and avoid interruptions when she momentarily forgets a word in Spanish. This illustrates how participants use Spanglish not only as a habitual linguistic practice but also as a strategic resource to navigate communicative demands. Additionally, participants understand Spanglish as a way of showing their whole linguistic repertoires, specifically contesting ideologies that portray code-switching as a lack of proficiency in the language, particularly raciolinguistic ideologies about languagelessness (Rosa, 2016).

Excerpt 3. Victoria: Está bien [Spanglish], yo lo uso a veces spanglish… no encuentro… Hay muchas personas que lo toman a mal, pero yo pienso que es algo bien. No hay por qué decir que es malo. So, yeah. Pienso que es algo bien. It’s good porque tú hablas los dos idiomas.

[Victoria: It’s fine [Spanglish], I use Spanglish sometimes… I can’t find… There are a lot of people who take it badly, but I think it’s something good. There’s no reason to say it’s bad. So, yeah. I think it’s something good. It’s good because you speak both languages.]

Victoria’s comment reinforces the affective stance many participants expressed toward Spanglish. While she acknowledges the prescriptive ideologies in circulation with her statement, “there are a lot of people who take it badly,” she firmly claims that Spanglish is “something good” and sees no reason to label it negatively. More importantly, she recognizes this practice as a sign of being proficient in both languages, contesting raciolinguistic ideologies and negative perceptions of code-switching. While most participants resonate with this affective view of Spanglish, there are also instances of negative ideologies against code-switching.

Monoglossic Ideologies

Only 3 participants mentioned monoglossic ideologies towards language mixing. However, these ideologies were not truly represented in their linguistic practices that actually involved code-switching.

Excerpt 4. Marta: I don’t like [switching between languages]. Because if you’re going to speak Spanish, then speak Spanish. If you’re going to speak English, speak English. That really confuses me. And I feel like it sounds bad. It sounds like you don’t know how to speak. Either you speak Spanish, or you speak English.

Marta affirms that languages should be kept separate, suggesting that mixing Spanish and English “sounds bad” and implies a lack of linguistic competence. This perspective aligns with dominant language ideologies that privilege standardized, monolingual speech and view code-switching from a deficit perspective. However, it is important to point out that despite these stated beliefs, Marta’s own speech included instances of code-switching during the interview and focus group discussions. This contradiction between ideologies and actual linguistic practices highlights the complexity of language ideologies in bilingual communities. It suggests that while monoglossic ideologies may be internalized, they do not necessarily dictate everyday language use. Similarly, Francisco affirms using Spanglish frequently, and he sees it as a practice associated with Puerto Ricans while reinforcing the languagelessness raciolinguistic ideology.

Excerpt 5. Francisco: Bastante [I switch between languages], sí. Spanglish. Spanglish es bien boricua. [Interviewer: ¿Pero por qué dices eso, que es bien boricua?] Francisco: Porque el puertorriqueño ni habla español ni habla inglés. Y esa es la verdad.

[Francisco: A lot [I switch between languages], yes. Spanglish. Spanglish is very Boricua3. [Interviewer: But why do you say that, that it’s very Boricua?] Francisco: Because Puerto Ricans don’t speak Spanish or English. And that’s the truth.]

Francisco initially shares that alternating between Spanish and English during conversations is a common part of his speech. He then links this linguistic behavior to being “boricua,” suggesting that it is characteristic of Puerto Rican identity. When prompted to explain this association, he reinforces the notion that Puerto Ricans lack full proficiency in either language, echoing the ideology of languagelessness. This framing racializes Puerto Ricans by implying they do not speak a legitimate language (Rosa, 2016). His perspective reflects dominant language ideologies that uphold linguistic purity and stigmatize contact varieties, particularly Puerto Rican Spanish. However, it is important to note that the reproduction of these raciolinguistic ideologies is minimal within participants. Most participants show an affective stance towards Spanglish and interpret it as an act of linguistic citizenship, redefining the limits of named languages.

4.2. Linguistic Citizenship and Translanguaging

Reflecting specifically on their opinions about Spanglish, participants reclaim its use as an identity marker, specifically for Puerto Ricans, and through this, challenge the boundaries between named languages.

Excerpt 6. Esteban: ¿El spanglish? Pues yo lo uso. En verdad no opino nada malo de eso. Es bueno tenerlo. El puertorriqueño habla spanglish.

[Esteban: Spanglish? Well, I use it. Honestly, I don’t think anything bad about it. It’s good to have it. Puerto Ricans speak Spanglish.]

Excerpt 7. Briana: Spanglish. I love Spanglish. I think it’s so fun, like I feel that. That’s the Puerto Rican Spanish. That’s the Puerto Rican Spanish. It’s like a mixture of both languages. Yeah, I like it. I think it’s fun, people hate on it, but I think it’s more like it’s part of it.

Esteban’s comment exemplifies this stance. He affirms Spanglish as a positive and normalized part of Puerto Rican speech, rejecting negative evaluations and positioning it as a shared linguistic identity. Briana’s comment reinforces this perspective with an affective stance. She describes Spanglish as “fun” and repeats, “That’s the Puerto Rican Spanish,” emphasizing her emotional connection to it and its role in shaping cultural identity. Additionally, she rejects stigmatizing views about Spanglish, reclaiming it as a part of the collective Puerto Rican identity. These comments reflect how participants use Spanglish not only as a communicative tool but also as a marker of pride and belonging. Patricia shows a similar view of the linguistic practice.

Excerpt 8. Patricia: Spanglish es lo que nos identifica. En vez de strawberry o fresa decimos strawberry [with Spanish pronunciation], yo siento, es que yo me friquié tanto cuando yo aprendí, bueno, no era tan vieja, pero aprendí que era fresa en vez de strawberry. Like, yo estaba como ¿qué? Y otra cosa, este como que tantas cosas como el hamburger, el bacon. Yo ni me acuerdo… Ah, tocineta. Como que, cosas así, como que like spanglish está tanto en nosotros como que tantas palabras, que ahora mismo se me olvidó cómo era bacon en español. Porque nosotros lo decimos… So como que siento que es muy puertorriqueño. Sí, siento que, si a un puertorriqueño no le gusta el spanglish, es como que… okay, qué bueno tu opinión [laughs].

[Patricia: Spanglish is what identifies us. Instead of strawberry or “fresa”, we say strawberry [with Spanish pronunciation]. I feel, I mean, I freaked out so much when I learned, well, I wasn’t that old, but I learned that it was “fresa” instead of strawberry. Like, I was like, what? And another thing, like so many things like hamburger, bacon. I don’t even remember… oh, “tocineta”. Like, things like that, like Spanglish is so much a part of us, like so many words, that right now I forgot how to say bacon in Spanish. Because we say it… So I feel like it’s very Puerto Rican. Yeah, I feel like if a Puerto Rican doesn’t like Spanglish, it’s like… okay, good for you, that’s your opinion [laughs].]

Patricia presents Spanglish as an identity marker for Puerto Ricans. She understands Spanglish not only as sentence-level code-switching, but as the lexical borrowings from English that are common in Puerto Rican Spanish. Her surprise at learning the “standard” Spanish word for strawberry points to how these borrowings are an intrinsic part of her linguistic world and how she constructs them as a part of her linguistic identity. Even when she jokes about others not liking Spanglish, her tone is light but firm: “okay, good for you, that’s your opinion”. That kind of comment reflects a clear confidence in her linguistic choices and a contestation of prescriptive ideologies. In this way, she’s actively participating in shaping what counts as legitimate language, which aligns with the framework of linguistic citizenship. Enrique’s comment shows a similar stance. After expressing that he uses Spanglish all the time when speaking with friends, he reflects on the value of this linguistic practice for identity.

Excerpt 9. Enrique: No es malo [Spanglish], aunque especialmente la generación anterior siempre dice que no es así que se habla. Pero en el final del día, también no sé… Estás hablando de todo, es como un nuevo idioma. No es necesario español roto, pero es algo nuevo, algo especial. Es las dos lenguas mezclado y es su propia nueva identidad.

[Enrique: [Spanglish] isn’t bad, although especially the older generation always says that’s not how you’re supposed to speak. But at the end of the day, I don’t know… you’re talking about everything, it’s like a new language. It’s not necessarily broken Spanish, but something new, something special. It’s both languages mixed together, and it’s its own new identity.]

Enrique recognizes that there are language ideologies in circulation that impose a prescriptive view of Spanglish, often associated with older speakers who are presented as oriented toward more monolingual norms of Puerto Rican Spanish, even if they themselves may engage in lexical borrowing or limited code-switching. Nevertheless, he contested these views that consider Spanglish as a “broken Spanish” and reclaim it as something new and special, a “new identity”. By framing Spanglish as a “new identity,” he challenges dominant language ideologies that associate code-switching with deficiency or lack of fluency. His comment also highlights a generational divide, where older speakers are perceived as upholding prescriptive norms, while younger bilinguals like Enrique reframe mixed language use as a legitimate and empowering practice. This constitutes an act of linguistic citizenship, through which speakers assert their right to define what counts as acceptable language within their communities. Enrique’s view positions Spanglish not as a compromise between languages but as a creative and affective resource for expressing bicultural identity, an act of resistance against monoglossic ideologies, and a reimagining of Puerto Ricanness in diasporic contexts.

Finally, it is important to note that participants recognize the borrowing of lexical items from English into Spanish as a result of the political history of Puerto Rico. The following excerpt comes from the first focus group discussion, where participants were reflecting on the specific linguistic features of Puerto Rico and, again, mentioned Spanglish and contact with English as an important part of the variety.

Excerpt 10. Focus Group 1. Marta: el inglés también siempre ha sido parte de la historia de Puerto Rico por mucho tiempo. Muchas de nuestras palabras son palabras en inglés. Entonces eso también es bien diferente comparado a diferentes culturas latinas, como hamburger [Spanish pronunciation]. Eso no se dice en otro sitio. En RD [Dominican Republic] eso no se dice.

Alba: Hot dog, hamburger, en Puerto Rico. Exacto.

Marta: Hot dog. Eso no se dice allá [outside of Puerto Rico]. O sea, son cosas como que son palabras en inglés que solamente los boricuas lo decimos.

Luis: A nuestra propia manera.

[Marta: English has also always been part of Puerto Rico’s history for a long time. Many of our words are English words. So that’s also very different compared to other Latin cultures, like hamburger [Spanish pronunciation] that’s not said anywhere else. In the DR [Dominican Republic], that’s not said.

Alba: Hot dog, hamburger, in Puerto Rico.

Marta: Exactly. Hot dog. That’s not said over there [outside of Puerto Rico]. I mean, these are things like English words that only Puerto Ricans say.

Luis: In our own way.]

This exchange highlights how participants recognize English borrowings not just as linguistic influence, but as part of what makes Puerto Rican Spanish distinct. Words like “hot dog” and “hamburger,” pronounced and used in everyday speech, are framed as uniquely Puerto Rican. Regardless of these terms appearing in other Spanish varieties, these participants are reclaiming them as something typically Puerto Rican. Their comments reflect a shared understanding that these lexical items are not only common but also culturally meaningful, shaped by Puerto Rico’s political and historical relationship with the United States. In this way, participants position these borrowings as part of their linguistic identity, spoken “in our own way”.

4.3. Music and Linguistic Ideologies

Finally, the last trend found in the data relates to how music, specifically reggaetón, contributes to shaping and reflecting language ideologies. Participants recognize the popularity of reggaetón as a factor that has significantly contributed to fostering positive ideologies about Puerto Rican Spanish and bilingual repertoires. Before diving into the analysis, it is important to note that participants did not consistently distinguish between code-switching, Spanglish, and Puerto Rican Spanish as separate linguistic phenomena. Rather, these were frequently understood as interconnected and mutually constitutive aspects of Puerto Rican linguistic identity. As a result, discussions of reggaetón’s role in shaping language ideologies often centered on specific pronunciation features and vocabulary while simultaneously indexing bilingual practices such as code-switching, which participants described as fundamentally Puerto Rican. This interconnection can be seen clearly in the following comment of a participant, when asked, “What is your opinion about Spanglish?” Sebastian moves from evaluating Spanglish as a bilingual practice to referencing reggaetón artists and, ultimately, to framing both as sources of Puerto Rican pride and global visibility.

Excerpt 11. Sebastian: A mí me encanta [Spanglish]. A mí me encanta escuchar Myke Towers [Puerto Rican reggaetón singer]. A mí me encanta. A mí me encanta escuchar mis canciones en Spanglish. Honestamente, tú vas para cualquier lugar. You can sing whatever you want. You’re very diverse. Cuando tú le estás dando ya al inglés y al español también […] Bueno, pero te digo que Bad Bunny, honestamente, un género… como un orgullo de Puerto Rico. Honestamente. Y ha enseñado… que los puertorriqueños como nosotros podemos llegar a lo más alto.

[Sebastian: I love [Spanglish]. I love listening to Myke Towers [Puerto Rican reggaetón singer]. I love it. I love listening to my songs in Spanglish. Honestly, you go anywhere. You can sing whatever you want. You’re very diverse. When you’re already mixing English and Spanish […] Well, let me tell you, Bad Bunny, honestly, a genre… like a source of pride for Puerto Rico. Honestly. And he’s shown… that Puerto Ricans like us can reach the highest level.]

Sebastian and other participants framed reggaetón as a powerful vehicle for linguistic pride and identity affirmation. The genre’s widespread popularity was seen not only as a cultural achievement but also as a legitimizing force for Puerto Rican Spanish and Spanglish. Participants described seeing their everyday linguistic practices reflected in reggaetón lyrics. These practices include code-switching, lexical borrowings from English, and linguistic features associated with Puerto Rican Spanish. Asked “What do you think about the way that singers like Bad Bunny, Daddy Yankee, or Tego Calderon speak?”, Lucia reflects on the similarity of the linguistic practices of these singers to their own. This reflection of their linguistic practices in such a popular genre validates speakers’ repertoires.

Excerpt 12. Lucia: Spanish that I can understand, I’m like, finally. I love it. It’s like… the way they sing and their Spanish. It’s like I’m having a conversation with you. […] And I think it’s so authentic, and it really shows our culture and who we are.

Lucia’s comment highlights how linguistic authenticity in reggaetón resonates with youth, setting the stage for broader reflections on how global recognition of the genre has reshaped perceptions of Puerto Rican Spanish. This shift in perception was not limited to how others viewed the variety but also extended to how participants viewed their own linguistic practices. As reggaetón gained global popularity, participants began to see their bilingual repertoires, once stigmatized through raciolinguistic ideologies, as valuable and expressive. Lucia’s emphasis on authenticity and cultural resonance underscores a broader sentiment among participants: reggaetón not only mirrors their linguistic reality but also affirms it in ways that challenge dominant ideologies. This sense of pride was echoed by Camila and Patricia, who reflected on how reggaetón’s mainstream success has influenced both external perceptions and their own linguistic confidence

Excerpt 13. Camila: Pero obviamente Puerto Rico ha estado bien mainstream. So todo el mundo like, todo el mundo trata de copiar nuestro acento y usar las mismas palabras. Eso sí, me frustra que usen las mismas palabras. Solamente lo usan porque Karol G lo dijo en una canción, you know, like, es bien, it’s very mainstream now so es como, pues, es más cool.

[Camila: But obviously, Puerto Rico has become really mainstream. So everyone, like, everyone tries to copy our accent and use the same words. What frustrates me is that they use the same words. They only use them because Karol G said them in a song. You know, like, it’s really… it’s very mainstream now, so it’s like, well, it’s cooler.

Excerpt 14. Patricia: Good [I feel proud of speaking my variety of Spanish], but I think it’s because of the songs, you know? Like, it’s like I’m the Puerto Rican, you’re the one listening to my songs, you know? So, I think that’s why it’s like the pride [in her Spanish], in a way.

Camila, for instance, noted that Puerto Rican Spanish had become “mainstream,” with people outside the community imitating their accent and vocabulary. While this appropriation was met with mixed feelings, it nonetheless signaled a broader cultural recognition. This appropriation that happens in participants’ social environments has also been observed in reggaetón artists of non-Puerto Rican origin, such as Karol G, a Colombian singer mentioned by the participant (Powell, 2024). Although several excerpts in this section highlight Puerto Rican Spanish more broadly, participants’ evaluations of accent, vocabulary, and linguistic prestige were closely tied to bilingual practices such as Spanglish and code-switching, which were repeatedly framed as defining features of Puerto Rican speech. In this sense, reggaetón’s revalorization of Puerto Rican Spanish also functions as a revalorization of code-switching as an ideologically legitimate practice.

For participants, reggaetón artists were not only cultural icons but also linguistic ambassadors who modeled a form of speech that was unapologetically Puerto Rican. In this way, reggaetón functioned as a semiotic space where youth could engage in acts of linguistic citizenship, reclaiming their voices and challenging dominant ideologies about language, race, and identity. This perspective is also highlighted in the focus group discussions, reggaetón has become a way of challenging dominant ideologies about language, but also, because of its popularity, there are certain linguistic features that are not perceived as stigmatized anymore (Medina, 2024).

Excerpt 15. Focus Group 1. Y siento como los otros hispanos a veces hacen risa de la manera que nosotros hablamos español, pero con Bad Bunny es más cool ¿no? Es más chévere. Pero antes las personas nos llamaron guetto y cosas como así. ¿Y por qué? De eso quiero hablar en esta manera. Porque, it’s like in defiance of how people make fun of our Spanish.

[And I feel like other Hispanics sometimes make fun of the way we speak Spanish, but with Bad Bunny it’s cooler, right? It’s more chill. But before, people called us ghetto and things like that. And why? That’s what I want to talk about in this way. Because it’s like in defiance of how people make fun of our Spanish.]

Participants recognize reggaetón has a powerful semiotic space for contesting raciolinguistic ideologies regarding Puerto Rican Spanish. However, while they are happy with the popularity of the genre, they also get upset about how they have to face these deficit views that stigmatized their Spanish as “guetto” before. But now, thanks to Bad Bunny, what people used to make fun of is suddenly considered cool. In the second group discussion, participants echoed this idea and reflected on how the popularity of the genre has changed perceptions of their variety. However, there are still certain stereotypes that prevail.

Excerpt 16. Focus Group 2. Isabella: Well, I’d also say that before, since reggaetón wasn’t so mainstream, you’d listen to… I mean, people were into Plan B, Daddy… like, a lot, and it was like, that’s like, you… you don’t mix with those people, they are really ghetto. And now you listen to it, and it’s like a flip. I feel like one hundred percent, especially with Rauw and Bad Bunny.

Luis: And also, reggaetón before was kind of local. Like, it’s not like you were going to hear Plan B everywhere in the world. So now, with Bad Bunny, Rauw Alejandro, Karol, and all those people, they’re global.

[…] Alba: [Discussing public perceptions of Puerto Rican Spanish] Like, Bad Bunny, the music, whatever. But people say: “I love what he produces. But I don’t understand what he says.” You know what I mean? Like, in general, yes, our popularity has gone up and whatever, but people still have their stereotypes.

This discussion illustrates the complex interplay between reggaetón and linguistic ideologies. Participants recognize that reggaetón has shifted from a local genre to a global phenomenon, a shift that has reshaped perceptions of Puerto Rican identity and language. Historically, racialized perceptions positioned reggaetón, and speakers who sound like the artists by extension, as “guetto”, reinforcing social boundaries and remarking this idea of “don’t mix with those people”. However, now there has been a flip in those perceptions, particularly since the rise in popularity of artists like Bad Bunny or Rauw Alejandro, reframing reggaetón as a source of cultural pride and visibility for Puerto Rican Spanish. Some people celebrate the music while claiming they “don’t understand what he says,” signaling that linguistic hierarchies remain intact. This tension reflects raciolinguistic ideologies (Flores & Rosa, 2015), where speakers who diverge from the so-called standard are constructed as linguistically deficient and unintelligible. Thus, even as reggaetón becomes a vehicle for global recognition, the stigmatization of non-standard varieties highlights persistent structures of linguistic and racial inequality.

However, participants recognized a clear shift in their social environments toward a more positive view of Puerto Rican Spanish. In the last focus group, participants discussed instances of linguistic discrimination and the feeling that their linguistic practices were not validated. Ana recounted how she had a friend who was learning Spanish. She offered to help with the language learning, but her friend refused, stating that she wanted to learn “correct Spanish” and not Ana’s variety. This perspective changed recently, and when discussing the situation, Ana connected the shift in her friend’s attitude to the growing popularity of reggaetón.

Excerpt 17. Focus Group 3. Ana: I don’t know, this was years ago. Y ahora she [the friend] feels differently. I’m… Actually, this is back to the music thing. I’m because she was saying that ahora que like reggaeton. It’s like in style and like everyone seems to love it, like, she’s embracing it more y ahora, she thinks it’s like cool. So, I thought it was really interesting. como how she flipped. How she switched now to being, like, more accepting and more like… which I think is great. I think in a way. But it is something that I noticed. But a couple of years ago, you didn’t want me to, like, help you. And now, it’s like now, it’s cool. And now you want to.

The data highlight how reggaetón functions as a space for shifting language ideologies. Participants consistently framed the genre as a site where Puerto Rican Spanish and bilingual practices are not only reflected but proudly legitimized. While tensions around linguistic legitimacy and some monoglossic ideologies persist, the widespread popularity of reggaetón has contributed to promoting positive language ideologies towards Puerto Rican Spanish and bilingual practices such as code-switching. These results highlight the genre’s role in challenging deficit perspectives and fostering a sense of pride and validation among speakers.

5. Discussion

This research focuses on language ideologies surrounding code-switching and identity construction for Puerto Ricans in the diaspora. The first research question was How do Puerto Rican Spanish speakers in Massachusetts perceive and describe their code-switching practices? Results show that participants overwhelmingly view their code-switching practices (often called Spanglish) as a natural and positive part of their everyday speech and identity. Participants frequently described their use of Spanish and English, their translanguaging practices, as a practical communication strategy and a marker of cultural belonging. Using Spanglish allows participants to draw from their whole linguistic repertoires and challenge traditional representations of languages (García & Li, 2014). They like Spanglish because it is “convenient” and it’s a mark of being a bilingual speaker, “it’s good because you speak both languages”. With these affective stances, participants are contesting deficit discourses and ideologies around heritage speakers’ bilingual practices (Holguín Mendoza, 2018; Zentella, 2017). They are aware of these prescriptive ideologies in circulation, but they do not care about this notion of correctness, as one participant put it, “I don’t know if that’s correct. Well, I speak it. I get by”.

These participants are actively reclaiming their linguistic repertoires and positioning translanguaging practices, or as they prefer to call it, Spanglish, as a unique marker of their cultural identity. They reject ideologies that frame it as “broken Spanish” or deficient, and they construct it as a new, creative way of expressing themselves using their full linguistic repertoires as bilinguals. Spanglish became an important marker of not only bilingual identity, but specifically, Puerto Rican identity, since, as one participant considered, “Puerto Ricans speak Spanglish”. This connects with the second research question: How do language ideologies and bilingual practices (such as code-switching and translanguaging) influence the negotiation of linguistic identity and function as acts of linguistic citizenship within the Puerto Rican diaspora?

The data show that language ideologies and everyday bilingual practices deeply shape how young Puerto Rican speakers negotiate their linguistic identity in the mainland U.S. First, many participants are aware of the broader raciolinguistic ideologies that stigmatize their linguistic practices, regarding code-switching or Puerto Rican Spanish features. For example, one participant had a friend who refused her help in learning Spanish, saying she wanted to learn “correct Spanish”, implicitly deeming Ana’s Puerto Rican Spanish illegitimate. These show how raciolinguistic ideologies frame speakers of varieties that are deemed non-standard (Flores & Rosa, 2015; Rosa, 2016). Although some monoglossic ideologies persist among participants, they are relatively uncommon and often conflict with actual linguistic behavior. Three participants stated that mixing languages “sounds bad,” reproducing monoglossic views. Yet, these same individuals engaged in code-switching during their interviews, revealing a disconnect between internalized ideologies and actual linguistic practices. This tension highlights how deeply embedded notions of linguistic correctness can coexist with everyday practices that challenge them.

Nevertheless, the most common ideological stance of participants was to contest and challenge dominant ideologies. Speakers actively negotiate their identities by redefining the value of their bilingual practices. Rather than accepting prescriptive views of Spanglish and Puerto Rican Spanish, they reclaim these practices as sources of pride and solidarity. This is where bilingual practice becomes an act of identity affirmation and resistance. Enrique, for instance, acknowledged the prevailing notion that “you’re not supposed to speak that way,” yet he defied it by affirming Spanglish as “something special… its own new identity”. By asserting that their mixed language is “a new language”, he challenges the dominant ideology and reframes bilingualism as a creative asset. Many participants articulated this stance by explicitly contrasting their own linguistic practices with what they perceived as older, more monoglossic norms, often associated with previous generations’ orientations toward “proper” Spanish. This stance mirrors broader generational shifts observed in reggaetón, where younger artists increasingly embrace linguistic forms that have historically been stigmatized. For example, Powell (2022) shows that more recent Puerto Rican reggaetón artists such as Bad Bunny or Rauw Alejandro employ stigmatized features like lateralization at significantly higher rates than earlier artists such as Daddy Yankee and Don Omar. Powell links this shift to reggaetón’s transformation from a criminalized underground genre associated with the caseríos to a globally circulating cultural form, in which younger artists must assert Puerto Rican identity within a transnational Latin music market. In this context, the deliberate use of certain linguistic forms functions as an assertion of authenticity and identity. This generational shift is also enabled by broader changes in audience reception, as global music listeners appear to have become increasingly receptive to multilingual and so-called non-standard linguistic practices in popular music, which are often interpreted as markers of authenticity (Bentahila & Davies, 2002).

This reclamation of linguistic agency can be understood through the lens of linguistic citizenship (Stroud, 2024). By embracing Spanglish and resisting monoglossic ideologies, participants are not only expressing identity but also stressing their place in the sociolinguistic landscape. Linguistic citizenship highlights how speakers use language to claim visibility, legitimacy, and belonging, especially in contexts where their voices have historically been marginalized, as in the case of Puerto Rican Spanish (Zentella, 1990). In this sense, participants’ translanguaging practices function as acts of linguistic citizenship, challenging dominant ideologies and reestablishing the audibility of bilingual voices within the diaspora. These framings of Spanglish as an identity marker align with previous studies about code-switching (Hoi Ying Chen, 2015) and, specifically, Puerto Rican communities in the mainland U.S. (Lamboy, 2011; Shenk, 2017; Zentella, 1990, 2017).

Finally, the last research question focuses on the relationship between music and language ideologies, asking, What role do music representations play in shaping attitudes toward Puerto Rican Spanish, code-switching, and bilingual identity? The results show that participants perceived a change in ideologies surrounding Puerto Rican Spanish and code-switching since the popularity of reggaetón reached a global stage. They pointed to this rise in popularity of the genre as a collective source of pride for this cultural representation. In the discussion, participants often mentioned that the linguistic practices of artists like Bad Bunny, Myke Towers, Daddy Yankee, and others resonate with their own linguistic practices. They specifically mention Puerto Rican Spanish features as well as the use of Spanglish. Hearing their linguistic repertoire reflected in wildly popular songs has contributed to fostering positive language ideologies about their linguistic practices. As one participant stated, he “loves listening to [his] songs in Spanglish” and feels that when artists mix English and Spanish in lyrics, “you can sing whatever you want, you’re very diverse.” This comment illustrates how music can have an important effect on ideologies regarding bilingual practices. Reggaetón affirms the idea that mixing languages is not only acceptable but “cool” and even artistically creative. These results align with previous research that showed that the frequency of listening to reggaetón has an effect on the acceptability judgments for code-switching utterances (Callesano et al., 2025).

Participants also emphasized the authenticity of the Spanish used in reggaetón, describing it as culturally resonant and reflective of their lived experiences. The language in reggaetón is not adjusted to fit the standard ideology or monolingual norms, it is unmistakably Puerto Rican. For speakers who have faced stigmatization, this representation in the media serves as a powerful counter-narrative. Some recounted personal stories of shifting attitudes among peers, attributing the change to reggaetón’s influence. One participant described how a friend who once dismissed Puerto Rican Spanish later embraced it, citing the genre’s popularity. This highlights how media can reshape language ideologies, particularly for marginalized communities (Alim et al., 2009). Reggaetón has contributed to present Puerto Rican linguistic features and code-switching as symbols of cool, modern Latinidad rather than as markers of linguistic deficiency (Flores & Rosa, 2015).

6. Conclusions

The present study demonstrates how Puerto Rican youth in the diaspora actively negotiate linguistic identity through bilingual practices that challenge dominant ideologies. Participants overwhelmingly framed Spanglish not as a sign of deficiency, but as a culturally grounded, relevant communicative tool, showing that the concept of code-switching is still relevant for speakers. Their use of code-switching illustrates ongoing negotiations of linguistic citizenship amid persistent deficit ideologies, where speakers assert their right to define language on their own terms. The influence of reggaetón further amplifies this reclamation, offering a powerful cultural platform that contributes to the validation of Puerto Rican Spanish and bilingual repertoires. This shows how media representations, specifically music, can have an important effect on speakers’ language ideologies. While the community under study was quite specific (Puerto Rican youth in Massachusetts), the results open up space to look more closely at how marginalized speakers use cultural expression to push back against dominant language norms and reshape how language is understood. Future studies could explore generational differences in language ideologies, as well as how other forms of musical expression may influence the linguistic attitudes of diverse communities.