"Local Literacies" and American Consumerism

While I wasn't able to attend our class on Monday, I did read quite a lot from the book, Local Literacies while on my trip. My husband and I had many conversations regarding globalism (especially American consumerism) and its impact on local literacies. As I read the chapter dealing with Mumtaz, the multilingual study participant, I thought back to our conversations.

The quote on pg. 186 really connected with my thoughts while in Costa Rica, "The different literacies in Mumtaz's life partly represent tensions and a mixing of values in forging new identities and reconciling conflicts about changing values...."

As the many Costa Rican natives cared for our every wish/need, I was struck by the identity bifercation that might be at play in their lives. Clearly, they were taught how Americans wanted their food prepared and served, how Americans (and Canadians) wanted their rooms cleaned, and how they wanted to be treated while on vacation. I couldn't help but wonder about how much the natives had to change their way of speaking and interacting. Of course, becoming conversant in English was the main characteristic of this; however, it went much deeper.

As I watched the buses bringing the workers from their small towns and communities into our area, I was struck by the 'classes' that existed within the ranks of workers, in many ways based on literacy acquisition. The housekeeping workers couldn't speak much English at all; however, the guest service workers were almost completely bilingual. The waiters and waitresses fell somewhere in-between. It was fascinating to observe.

So many questions...I wanted to stay and ask, "How much of your literacy activities have changed since you've begun working at this hotel/resort?" "Do your new/different literacies bring tension into your life in your town or family? In what way?" "How do you use English in different ways than you use Spanish?"

These are just a few.... It was so interesting to think about this while reading Local Literacies...(of course, I struggled with the guilt of being the American consumer, the perpetrator of parts of the problem... but that's for another blog at another time.... :)