La unificación del lenguaje como dispositivo de resistencia en La guaracha del Macho Camacho (1976), de Luis Rafael Sánchez

Abstract

This article discusses how literary, linguistic, and grammatical canons are violated in La Guaracha del Macho Camacho. Its overall objective is to show that language has been used as a mechanism of resistance against hegemonic groups as it questions their position in Puerto Rican society. To achieve this objective, we propose three secondary objectives: first, identify the contradiction in the context of Puerto Rico between the social values proposed by the United States and those held on the island; second, explain the “anti-national” nature of the novel to the extent that it does not portray a single language but rather reflects the diglossia of street language; and, third, illustrate the use of Bakhtin’s concept of hybridization as a mechanism of construction of a linguistic register that
is different from its component parts. The article concludes that Sanchez’s text criticizes the ruling class of Puerto Rican society by vulgarizing it and making it as common as the lower classes, with whom they have no noticeable differences (at least in this text).