Voices from the borderlands: Young latinas/os discuss the impact that culture and identity have on their media consumption

In a trial and error approach, media producers navigate through languages and cultural formats to see what formulas work best with these growing bilingual audiences. Even traditional Hispanic radio and TV are growing more bilingual, crossing language boundaries that were unthinkable decades ago. The revolving door of immigration, as well as constant cultural contact with their roots and culture, have produced for Latinas/os a linguistic reality that is quite different from past waves of immigrant groups. In particular, Spanish-language television has underscored the Spanish language as the main Latina/o identity driver among different constituencies, highlighting the transnational and unifying character of their programming produced either in Miami or Latin America. Language is a contested space for enacting the Latina/o identity. Some respondents were ambivalent regarding the use of Spanglish on the new bilingual networks, arguing that this would further stereotype Latinas/os as not fully embracing US society and not learning proper English or Spanish.