Monografico_2_EN_Doxa_31_Language_ideologies

ideologies were codified in an illustrative way, which could lead later to a more informative critical reading. To solve this issue, it was necessary to track Facebook pages and communities intervened by national identity tropes where language problems were displayed in a dense and informative way. Those spaces needed to have a large following (an index of high social impact), which would encourage wide-ranging and extensive debates on various topics, including linguistics. After evaluating digital spaces dedicated to folklore, Chilean traditions, gastronomy, political parties, municipal and regional organisations, and others, we chose to analyse comedy sites focused on identity clichés. These humour pages or communities allow access to discourses about language, identity and social class that can quickly connect to the political.

Communities of the “Es de…” type are characterised by the production and promotion of memes that consist of a single short text, usually a humorous statement, articulated with an identity premise, for example: “es de roto / depilarse el pecho” (‘It’s a roto thing/ to shave your chest’); “es de cuica / que tu mamá esté bronceada todo el año” (‘It’s a cuica thing/ if your mom is tanned all year long’); “es de mapushe (sic)/ ser informante para una tesis” (It’s a Mapuche thing/ being the informant for a thesis). These articulations help the expressed ideologems to circulate smoothly in domains as Facebook or Twitter through hashtags (#esdecuica; #esderoto), making them easy to follow on digital media.

The two spaces of this type with the greatest dynamism and impact were chosen for this study: Es de roto (with 522,000 followers in August 2019) and Es de cuica (340,000, same date). While providing abundant explicit discourses about language, they have also transcended beyond the digital realm. Their producers have to their credit book publications and appearances throughout hegemonic media, particularly in newspapers and on television.

Also, the social class component constitutes the most relevant nucleus for a critical analysis of issues regarding language, nation and society in Chile, a country where class distinctions are extremely pronounced and belonging to a certain stratum almost completely determines the lifestyle and experiences of a person. In this order, language is key to the constitution and perpetuation of class boundaries, constituting a territory of permanent dispute and negotiation (Woolard, 2007; Gal and Woolard, 2001; Kroskrity, 2000). Conveniently, the contrast between the discursive figures of the roto and the cuica can be revealing because it addresses two different prototypical representations (and to a certain extent complementary) of authenticity and legitimacy of what is considered Chilean. Both are positioned in a complex dialectic where social class is the central element, but not the only one, in the production of meaning.

In Chile’s symbolic order of social class, the figure of the roto refers to a prototypically urban, working-class, mestizo man, historically vilified for his perceived lack of manners and education (Gutiérrez, 2010; Plath, 1957). The Facebook group Es de roto, however, does not stigmatise the popular classes; on the contrary, it is committed to celebrating their idiosyncratic singularities, understanding them as cultural missteps that belong to the Chilean people’s unique character.

In contrast, the cuica is the prototype of a daughter and mother of a wealthy family, typically white, with surnames that unequivocally locate her in her social origin. A cuica identifies herself as a guardian of the traits that define both her class and her gender, and although she is usually seen as conservative, she is also deeply influenced by global culture and consumerism.

A critical reading of the documents that circulate in Es de cuica suggests that in this space the peculiarities that constitute class indices are highlighted in a light, sarcastic tone. Linguistic oddities, in particular, stand out. This is evidenced by a