Rep. Adelita Grijalva code-switches in first remarks after sworn in

[Jilly_in_VA]

The granddaughter of a bracero, who waited 50 days to take her seat in Congress, Rep. Adelita Grijalva stepped to the podium on the House floor and told her colleagues, "Our democracy works when everyone has a voice."

“Este momento es histórico para nuestra comunidad,” Grijalva said in Spanish, offering no translation to her hundreds of colleagues on the House floor. “Es un honor ser la primera latina en representar a Arizona en el congreso.” (“This is a historic moment for our community,” she said. “It is an honor to be the first Latina to represent Arizona in Congress.)

During her roughly five-minute speech, Grijalva seamlessly switched between English and Spanish, a commonality for many who grew up along the U.S.-Mexico border, when speaking to her colleagues while also directing some of her remarks to the Latino community.

Code-switching is the practice of selectively switching between languages during a conversation, a phenomenon that's deeply familiar to bilingual and multilingual people in the U.S.

Grijalva, who won a special election to replace Rep. Raúl Grijalva, her late father, is the first Latina – and “first Chicana,” as she said — to represent the state of Arizona in Congress. Though she is the first, she said she won’t be the last.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/11/12/rep-adelita-grijalva-code-switches-in-first-remarks-after-sworn-in/87238810007/

And this is a bad thing exactly HOW? BTW, to the USA Today reporter, there are a number of other Latino Congress members, so STFU. I'm sure they understood her just fine and so did Li'l Marco an a couple of senators.

[pwb]

1. Bi-lingual is the word they are looking for?

I never thought of language as a code?

[obamanut2012]

2. Code-switching is a well-known part of language/linguistics

[Boo1]

5. I thought code switching

Was changing speech or other mannerisms based on social context. Like speaking Spanish at home but then English at school, or dropping your accent for a Midwestern one, etc. Something done to blend in with the people around you and conform to them.

This sounds more like blending for rhetorical impact

[Shipwack]

11. Agreed... bilingual is a much more accurate word.

Maybe the writer wanted to sound smart, or the editor make what she did sound ominous….

[Dear_Prudence]

18. No. Language, dialect, and language style

All fall under the definition of code-switching. Linguists study the why, what, and where of code-switching. I thought the representative's switching was appropriate, giving voice to the constituents who had had no voice due to that swine failing to swear her into office. Capiche?

[Hugin]

6. I didn't even know it had a name...

It’s been a part of my every day life and not limited to Español.

“Que cute! Que cheap!”

[sop]

20. Having spoken both English and Spanish all my life, often switching seamlessly from one language to the other

in social and business settings as required, I've never heard it called "code-switching." I imagine if one also alters their behavior and mannerisms along with the language, as a way of fitting in with certain groups in certain situations, It could be referred to as "code-switching," but not for simply speaking both languages at the same time. That's just being bilingual.

[ananda]

33. I've never heard it called code-switching...

and I have a graduate degree in ESL.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Code-switching is less about speaking two different languages and more about *how* those languages are spoken

(dialects, accents, slang, different grammars) and when those variants are used.

[chia]

4. "Adelante, mi gente." Beautiful.

Living my entire life in SoCal not far from the border, this sounds like home. Congratulations to her, and may she go far!

[sdfernando]

7. I was fervently hoping Adelita would speak some Spanish!

I was not disappointed!

¡Felicidades Representante Grijalva!

[leftstreet]

8. Wait. Do they call it that when Mamdani does it?

He incorporated non-English language in his victory night speech

[usonian]

9. I thought she was speaking Californian.

Come on people, let's have USONA, The United States of North America.

Besides the U.S. and Canada,


(21)
Antigua and Barbuda
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominica
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
Grenada
Guatemala
Haiti
Honduras
Jamaica
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Trinidad and Tobago

https://www.countries-ofthe-world.com/countries-of-north-america.html

[róisín_dubh]

10. I thought code switching

Was about accent or mannerisms whilst speaking. I’m bi-lingual (English and Spanish), but I’m NOT from a Spanish-speaking ethnicity, and would not consider it code-switching when I speak Spanish.
I do, however, consider it code-switching when I switch from my native NJ accented English to my British vocabulary-based English, which I do constantly when I’m home in the UK or back visiting my family in the US. My family thinks my British-isms are dumb and snobbish.

[vanlassie]

34. I think the last time I saw it criticized was when Obama did it speaking at a HBC...

The reporter made it sound negative here too, I think.

[rurallib]

12. Been watching Canadian news recently

Up there politicians must speak in two languages.

[Bev54]

28. They switch in and out of French and English all the time, we are used to it.

The major news networks have interpreters who will fill in for the most part during speeches or pressers.

[dobleremolque]

13. She is well named.

Adelitas was a nickname used for the women soldiers in the 1910 Mexican revolution. She'll bring some fighting spirit to the job.

[Jilly_in_VA]

14. I have wondered

if she was named for them. I guess it's possible.

[DFW]

15. I don't think about it any more.

When I met Rep. Grijalva’s dad, I never once thought to speak English. I have to assume he was fluent, but didn’t think it necessary to find out. When speaking Castilian (we don’t usually call it “Spanish” in Spain, since it is not the only language spoken there), I naturally revert to a “peninsular” accent, since it is what I spoke when living and going to school there. I can try to approximate a Latin American accent, but first off, there are many distinctive ones, and I’m sure it comes across to native Latin American ears like a Brit making a poor attempt at sounding like a Yank.

It’s the same thing in other places. In Sweden, I’m sometimes told that I need another two years before they can no longer tell that I’m from Norway, and in NL, I’m told that I’ve almost lost my accent, but if they listen closely, they can still hear a trace of the Afrikaans accent that identifies me as someone who grew up in South Africa (a place I have never been).

My favorite misconception is when I’m in Barcelona speaking Catalan, and some people can tell by the way I speak Catalan gives away my identity as someone from Mallorca. I’ve been there, but it was for four days, and that was in 1969. My favorite episode was when I was with a group of Catalan speakers at a conference in Zürich, and one of them said he had assumed I was from Mallorca, and then another guy, who WAS from Mallorca said, “ so did I!”

[yardwork]

38. I wish I knew different languages!

I've never been good at any but English.

I will share an amusing experience I had last summer visiting a friend in Biarritz. He was born and raised in Paris but looks like his Jewish Spanish ancestors. We were seated at a sidewalk cafe and I said bonjour to the hostess. She could, of course, immediately tell that I don't know a word of French, but the appearance of my companion in this Basque city threw her off, so she began talking with us in Spanish. My friend is also fluent in Spanish and responded that they could speak either language, all the same to him, but I was going to be clueless in both!

We had a lovely meal. Basque food is awesome.

[DFW]

39. I had a somewhat similar experience when I lived in Spain

I met my first Sephardic when I was still living in Barcelona as a teenager. He said he had grown up in Turkey, but had this old version of Castilian as a mother tongue. He was the one who first told me about the Sephardics, Ladino, and how their antiquated Castilian was so very close to the modern version. I was amazed, because I knew that I were to run into someone who could only speak contemporary Shakespearian English, I wouldn’t understand a word. It was as big a revelation to me as when, a few years later, I met my first live Assyrians. For me, that was like seeing a Stegosaurus munching on plants in some zoo enclosure. I knew they HAD existed. I just never thought I would ever meet one.

[yardwork]

43. You can go to Okracoke Island to hear Elizabethan!

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20190623-the-us-island-that-speaks-elizabethan-english

Assyrians! I think of lions carved in stone relief.

[OldBaldy1701E]

44. Yup.

'Banker brogue' is still common out there.

My favorite word out there is 'time'. Because, they pronounce it 'toime'.

(Get a Banker to tell you 'Go down to the brown house.' sometime.)

Oh, if you want to hear some of it, just go check out 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show'. Tim Curry is using what he called a 'posh, Chelsea accent'. It sounds very much like Banker brogue at times. Especially the words 'around' and 'sound'.

[yardwork]

46. I never knew that!

Time to watch Rocky Horror again.

[DFW]

48. Eaxctly.

When I met them, and made them repeat it three times, I then asked, "you mean like Ashurbannipal and Ziggurats?" They smiled big wide smiles, and said, "yeah, that's us! So you've heard of us." I said, "of course I've heard of you, but I didn't know that you guys were still around 2500 years later!"

By the way, my wife speaks Elizabethan English. It has a heavy German accent, and tends to substitute German words when there doesn't seem to be an adequate English expression ready. (Her name is Elisabeth)

[IronLionZion]

16. I haven't heard it called code switching

speaking 2 languages is a good thing and common in many households. She has Spanish speaking constituents so it's very inclusive.

So of course MAGA is against such things as "Unamerican".

[Susan Calvin]

17. I sure don't see any problem with it.

And I got her first couple of sentences fine, just on my long ago high school Spanish and words that were similar to the same words in English.

[Torchlight]

19. Never, ever heard 'code-switching' before. In TX, it's often called Spanglish.

One sentence in English, the next in Spanish and then alternating back and forth is really common around here and I don't think anyone south of the Red River bats an eye at it.

However, if her remarks opens a few sincere eyes... or causes consternation among the swath of poorly educated conservatives in congress, I'm all for it!

[Torchlight]

23. It also carries a benign connotation

suggesting fluency and adaptability in both languages, hence its common usage south of Red River.

[Old Crank]

25. I tend to use Denglish

Deutsch and English.
Especially true for technical and maintenance issues. I don't know all the hardware related terms.

[DFW]

40. We sometimes do that when it's just my wife and I

If German has a better word for what we’re trying to say, we use it. If English has a better word or expression, we use that. Starting out point is always German, though, since when we met, her English was rudimentary, so we’ve always spoken German to each other. With our daughters, we always spoke our native languages to them, and now they can both switch effortlessly back and forth, even in mid-sentence. It’s the same with all four grand children. From ages 2.5 to 7, they can all understand and speak both contemporary American English and standard High German. I failed in convincing our son-in-law and our sister-in-law to speak their native languages with their children. I was SOOOO disappointed! Our nephews would have been fluent in Japanese, and our NYC grandsons would have been fluent in Russian. What an incredible FREE gift to take away from them!!!

[Old Crank]

41. Yes it is.

We have family friends who decided to speak Spanish at home and the children spoke English at school. Both kids, now adults, have essentially 2 mother tongues.

I will never even approximate that. I'm just happy to get along. With my hearing issues I have real troubles discriminating German sounds. It might be better if I had full immersion. Trying to get people to speak a bit slower doesn't work. Lauter ist nicht langsammer....

[LittleGirl]

21. HCR used "code switching" to describe another event

when Jasmine Crocket code switched by using "ghetto type" slang in her speech.

I think bi-lingual would have best described the Congresswoman's speech. She did use a slang word for Latina so I guess you could say she did both. Code switch and spoke both languages - bi-lingual.

I was just happy to hear the speech and be able to understand the Spanish parts which was confirmed with the English translation. She won't be the last! Whoo hoo!

[Old Crank]

24. My wires are getting crossed.

English, Canadian, being my first language. I now drop into German on occasion depending, followed by French and Greek.
I really admire people who can converse fluently in more than one language.

We had a friend who essentially had 2 mother tongues. English and Spanish. Even if you couldn't hear him you knew when he was speaking Spanish from his body language. Amazing.

[Wednesdays]

26. As we already know,

There's a boatload of words associated with culture of the Old West that are Spanish in origin.

https://footnote.wordpress.ncsu.edu/2021/09/30/spanglish-in-the-old-west-10-1-2021/

So, what's the problem?

[twodogsbarking]

27. I wish I knew Spanish. Studied Latin and French in HS. Maybe still time.

[Javaman]

29. Span-gluage

when I first worked out in Los Angeles, it was "Span-gluge" that started my road to speaking Spanish.

it was very common out there and served me well when working construction.

[byronius]

30. I thought it was absolutely beautiful.

[Oneironaut]

31. The usage of "code-switching" here seems strange to me.

I could be wrong, but, code switching to me has a deeper meaning - often negative. I’ve always understood it as changing your behavior, presentation, etc. to “fit in” in places that aren’t 100% accepting. It could be that I have a different understanding of it, but, the spirit of, “She was code-switching - isn’t that great!?” seems like the word could be misused in this article.

However, I could also be wrong, and, maybe it’s used in a positive way like this? I’ve never heard it used that way before.

[sprinkleeninow]

32. She delivered her talk in English and then alternatively translated to Spanish.

I had no clue what this code switching was. Sounded negative. What can we expect from the M$M. They have a knack for conflation.

(Not posting too much anymore due to 'stuff', but this pushed my delicate buttons.)

[Ms. Toad]

42. I don't think she translated into Spanish.

What was reported, at least, was that she was speaking alternately in two languages, without translating one into the other.

[ecstatic]

35. lol.

**insert eyeroll**

I loved her speech, especially now that I've seen the clip of magamike attempting to butter her up before her speech. She shredded him.

I also loved the first few injections of Spanish but I think the final injection was a little overboard (I think when addressing her kids?). Like, ok, we get it.

Overall it was a wonderful speech. I'm glad to see a new fighter joining the ranks.

[UTUSN]

36. I have a heart condition. Scared me, thought it meant she switched her EPSTEIN vote!

[yardwork]

37. Good for her.

Don't back down.

[OldBaldy1701E]

45. Muy bueno! (n/t)

[OldBaldy1701E]

47. Personally, I have no issue with going to 'cityspeak'.

(See 'Blade Runner')

It is a mishmash of several languages. Some areas already do a version of it. ('Texican' comes to mind. BTW, that is what my friend from Austin called it.)

I hope she does it every time she address Congress. The fact that they would lose their crap over it is why I would love it.