Janus Identities and Forked Tongues

How should Latino writers in the United States retain specific cultural identities that may be different from – even contrary to – the hegemonic culture? The answer to this question varies. This book discusses how Caribbean writers Roberto G. Fernández and Tato Laviera both attempt to answer it in wildly creative ways, involving linguistic strategies and tactics, derived from some of the oldest Spanish literary traditions. These authors’ «games» show how Janus speaks with his forked tongue – in a monolingual space, toward a rhetoric of bilingualism.