The Dual Role of Code-Switching in Alejandro Morales’s Reto en el Paraíso

Although most contemporary Chicano authors tend to write exclusively in one language, English or Spanish, they have a range of linguistic options available to them – as would any member of a bilingual community – including code-switching. Code-switching in US literature dates back to the Mexican–American War and has been employed to establish aesthetic or stylistic credibility and to communicate biculturalism or ethnic identity. This article examines the dual role of code-switching in Alejandro Morales’s only bilingual novel, Reto en el paraíso. It explores how code-switching serves as a narrative technique to develop character identity in a bilingual and bicultural context, while also performing some of the socio-pragmatic and communicative functions commonly attested in natural bilingual discourse. Morales’s linguistic choices exemplify how Chicano writers living between two cultures may, and often must, use both languages to depict accurately the intricate cultural and linguistic realities of their characters.