The year 2020 will certainly be remembered for the many challenges the whole world has had to face at many levels. And it is precisely the current convoluted cultural and racial situation in the United States —which can be broadly described as “whiteness against otherness”—, enhanced by the racial disparities present during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and clearly exacerbated by a questionable response by the Trump administration, which makes this book1 particularly relevant and significant.
El inglés y el español en contacto en los Estados Unidos. Reflexiones acerca de los retos, dilemas y complejidad de la situación sociolingüística estadounidense, edited by Silvia Betti and Renata Enghels, is a collection of unnumbered chapters. For the purposes of this review, these chapters could be divided into two distinguishable sections or focuses, which make up an interrelated discussion topic evolving around the English and Spanish languages in contact in the United States. Section one would feature three contributions, those of Braschi, Betti, and Zentella, which discuss the linguistic situation of the Hispanic community in the existing political context in the United States.