The conference began on Friday afternoon with the first of many discussion panels. Discussion topics ranged from Spanglish media and culture to Spanglish art and music.
"The idea behind the conference is to foster dialogue between the people that think that Spanglish is deplorable and the people that think it is the 21st century tongue for the U.S.," said conference co-organizer Cesar Alegre, a senior lecturer in the Spanish department. "The idea is also [to] accomplish a broader look at the issue of Spanglish, because typically you look at Spanglish from one prism of discipline. In this conference we provide four such prisms so the public will be able to form a well-informed opinion," he said.
Professor of Spanish Ilan Stavans, the Spanish department chair, noted that the diversity of opinions helped foster interesting exchanges. "The interdisciplinary nature of the presentations has proven to be refreshing," he said. "Linguists, journalists, scholars, poets, musicians from five different countries-the viewpoints are many."
The Spanglish debate may yet receive more media attention as the University of Wisconsin Press offered to publish the transcripts of the panels.
Stavans was encouraged by the interest kindled during the conference. "The quality of the question-and-answer sessions was particularly rewarding," he said. "Speakers juxtaposed their own experience with their analysis. The conference was more successful than I anticipated."
Vanessa Estevez '04 noted that discussion at the conference touched upon a number of essential problems faced by those who speak Spanish. "I think it was a good discussion to have because a lot of issues associated with Spanglish came up that we don't usually think about," she said. "My impression was that it's [a] privilege when you speak both languages."
She also noted that Spanglish is frequently discouraged by the government. "The final point [of the conference] was that the country shies away from encouraging people to speak Spanish because it's associated with a third world country," she said. "It's a romance language, it's genuine and it deserves so much more respect than the country as a whole gives it."
The conference culminated on Saturday night with a musical performance. Along with conference attendees, numerous Amherst College students filled Buckley Recital Hall and listened to Cuban Jazz musician Paquito D'Rivera perform a concert entitled "Spanglish Jazz."
Stavans made opening remarks, saying that jazz was one of his inspirations in studying Spanglish. D'Rivera then took the stage, playing a set full of different Latin American styles, including Brazilian samba, salsa Cubano and some classical compositions by Latin American composers with vocal accompaniment by his wife, soprano Brenda Feliciano.
D'Rivera introduced his work by alternating between English and Spanish. "You had better learn the language before you become a minority!" D'Rivera remarked.
Students were impressed by the performance. "That was very entertaining," said Hikaru Okamoto '06. "The way he danced and played made it very exciting."
Matt Birmingham '05 was also impressed with D'Rivera's performance. "It was amazing. The musicianship was so impressive, and he was so in sync with [the accompanist, Israeli piano player Alon Yavnai]."
Stavans' reaction perhaps embodied the spirit of the entire conference. "Fantástico. It warmed up the entire college. Spanglish and Jazz-Latin jazz, in particular-are siblings. They have the same free, yet orderly, spirit," he said. "The conference was an overwhelming success and D'Rivera's music was a 'toche de oro,' a fitting conclusion to it."