Homegirls: Language and Cultural Practice Among Latina Youth Gangs

List of Figures viii

List of Tables x

Acknowledgments xi

Acknowledgment of Sources xiv

Introduction 1

1 La Migra 10

2 Beginning Fieldwork 42

3 Norte and Sur: Government, School, and Research Perspectives 76

4 Hemispheric Localism: Language, Racialized Nationalism, and the Politicization of Youth 101

5 "Muy Macha": Gendered Performances and the Avoidance of Social Injury 148

6 Smile Now Cry Later: Memorializing Practices Linking Language, Materiality, and Embodiment 176

7 Icons and Exemplars: Ethnographic Approaches in Variationist Sociolinguistics 207

8 Variation in a Community of Practice 230

9 "That's the Whole Thing [tin]!": Discourse Markers and Teenage Speech 265

10 Conclusion 292

References 297

Appendix 324

Index 328