This dissertation studies the theory of transculturation and its application to the study of U.S. Latino literature. Specifically, I analyze Spanglish as a form of linguistic transculturation in the poetry of Tato Laviera and Roberto G. Fernandez' novel Raining Backwards.

In the second chapter, I analyze the poetry of Tato Laviera from la carreta made a u-turn, ENCLAVE, AmeRican, and Mainstream ethics/etica corriente in light of transculturation. The analysis reveals how Laviera successfully presents a unique linguistic and cultural worldview through Spanglish. Laviera's Spanglish poetry demonstrates a cosmology that emphasizes how past and present transculturations are a means of both survival and creativity in the Latino community.

In the first chapter, I provide the definition of transculturation as offered by Fernando Ortiz as well as a review of other formulations of transculturation and subsequent critiques of the theory. Furthermore, I provide an appraisal of other frameworks that theorize cultural contact in the Americas---such as mestizaje, heterogeneidad, hybridity, awqa, the melting pot, and multiculturalism---in order to demonstrate why transculturation is particularly applicable to the study of U.S. Latino literature.

In chapter three, I use transculturation in order to analyze the language used by Roberto G. Fernandez in his novel Raining Backwards . I find that Fernandez employs a unique type of Spanglish through the Hispanization of English rather than the more traditional anglization of Spanish. Through the use of calques, Hispanisms, and intertextuality I reveal that Fernandez is able to subvert the language of authority and preserve a particularly Latino cosmology through transculturation.