Who is more Hispanic?: The co-construction of identities in a U.S. Hispanic political debate

This study examines the co-construction of identities, and the pragmatic strategies used by two interlocutors in a U.S. Hispanic political debate, conducted in Spanish, to construct those identities and align with the viewers. The framework used for analysis is informed by the notion of political cognition (van Dijk 2002; Pavlenko and Blackledge 2004), as well as by the concept of alignment (Goffman 1983; Linell 1994; Koike 2003). Among the identities co-constructed by the participants were self- and other-constructed identities. The linguistic strategies used for identity negotiation included deictic markers, speech styles and, especially, pragmatic implicatures. The analysis illustrates the role of political cognition and alignment strategies in the debate context according to the candidates’ perceptions of their audience, which can be seen as a reflection of the Texas Hispanic population today.