Britta Schneider

‘Oh Boy, ¿Hablas Español?’ – The Quest for Authenticity and its Functions in Transnational Salsa Communities of Practice

In this presentation, outcomes of an ethnographic study on language ideologies in Salsa Communities of Practice in Australia are introduced to illustrate the simultaneous presence of various orders of indexicality in transnational cultural contexts. Within the last two decades, Salsa dancing has become a popular activity in many cities worldwide. In a lot of Salsa Communities of Practice, irrespective of their location, the ability to speak Spanish is important in constructing authentic membership to the community. Although this behaviour could be considered a form of ‘pseudo-authenticity’ as the speakers often have no ‘native’ background in the language, and although the respective local language remains the medium of communication, Spanish has important functions in constructing a genuine – authentic – approach to the cultural practice of Salsa dancing. Yet, it is not membership to an ethnic group or traditional ‘speech community’ that is aspired here. What is the function of this form of language competence? What is indexed by the ‘authentic’ use of a language that is not the speaker’s native language? Rather than constructing ethnic authenticity, the examples show that it is access to an ‘other’ culture, indexed by linguistic competence, which constructs a particular type of class identity, which may be described as ‘cosmopolitan’ (Hannerz 1996). At the same time, a close analysis of interview data shows that, in the context observed, the ability to speak Spanish simultaneously relates to local, national and global layers of meaning and identification. The observations show that symbols traditionally related to (national) spaces (such as languages) have become a complex means to index several forms of authenticity, which construct multiplex social boundaries in times of reflexive modernity (Beck, Bonss & Lau 2003).


Beck, Ulrich, Wolfgang Bonss and Christoph Lau. 2003. “The Theory of Reflexive Modernization. Problematic Hypotheses and Research Programme.” Theory, Culture & Society 20:1-33.
Hannerz, Ulf. 1996. Transnational Connections. Culture, People, Places. London: Routledge.