CLAIRE KRAMSCH:ECOLOGICAL FL EDUCATION J399 150 DF: bueno,<?> Good. 151 nos vemos See you 152 Clerk: OK 153 good to see you This exchange draws on multiple timescales of experience,for example,in excerpt 6,lines 118ff.on the Chinese clerk's memories oflearning English in America:or in lines 138-141 on DFs rem We have se en in excerpt 2,line I how DF chats in Maya with the Yucatecan butcher, hu reenacting in a Chinese grocery in San Francisco prior similar transactions between them in their native Yucatan.In this instant one could say that the timescale of Yucatan and that of San Francisco are conflated.This is particularly important for understanding the social pres stige accorded to DF in this neighborhood of San Francisco.His weekly tours of the grocers recreate the netv ork of Maya-sp peaking connections he had in his Ihey also shov that social capital varies greatly at dterent scale sof space and time,so that in Yucatan,DF can be a wealthy respected merchant,while at the Mexican national level he may be perceived as poor.Indian and illiterate.The connections between these different timescales bolster the invisible symbolic power of his undocumented presence in the United States.They cast a halo around his words that cannot be captured by looking at the nces pro d in th very ish used by DF with the clerk in excerpt 2,line 3( .)si I carries eviden e of the self-assurednes displaved a minute ago by a successful merchant chatting with his fellow Yucatecan in their common language. The confation of timescales is s iven an additional layer of meaning inasmuch as part of DFs visit to merchants might be in fact what Rampton would call a styling of the self a c e(Rampton 100 9b).The transactior might be th of honor.the researcher herself,who is being 'toured around(cf.excerpt 3.line 31 'estamos de baseo con la=maestra).If that interpretation is correct,then the analysis has to take the words not as the spontaneous productions typical of natural conversations,but as a reflective replay for the benefit of a third party,a sta e of sorts Of cou arse,this staging or styling se also to nurtu the merchants in his n eighborhood. Besides the conflation of timescales in the performing bodies of these social actors,we notice another aspect ofembodied time.Spanish,Maya,English and Chinese,all acquireasubjective overlay of Mexican-ness,Maya-ness,etc.that makes uttering Spanish or Maya words more than the s um of their ars or of the over the price ofmeat, in these exchanges are perf ing not only ther but their cultures,their families,their countries of origin or the mythic and emotional memories that these historical realities have become.They are not just performing 'being Maya'.They are maintaining alive an idealized or'de-territorialized'kind of Maya-ness that transcends geographic boundaries and awaits to be reterritorialized in the subject positioning of individual s cakers (Rampton Each of their u tterances is less the performance a language than the enactment of a performative speech act that creates the very reality CLAIRE KRAMSCH: ECOLOGICAL FL EDUCATION 399 150 DF: bueno, <?> Good. 151 nos vemos See you. 152 Clerk: OK 153 good to see you. This exchange draws on multiple timescales of experience, for example, in excerpt 6, lines 118ff., on the Chinese clerk’s memories of learning English in America; or in lines 138–141, on DF’s reminders of past Maya lessons with the clerk and his prediction of her future progress. We have seen in excerpt 2, line 1 how DF chats in Maya with the Yucatecan butcher, thus reenacting in a Chinese grocery in San Francisco prior similar transactions between them in their native Yucatan. In this instant one could say that the timescale of Yucatan and that of San Francisco are conflated. This is particularly important for understanding the social prestige accorded to DF in this neighborhood of San Francisco. His weekly tours of the grocers and butchers recreate the network of Maya-speaking connections he had in his hometown. They also show that social capital varies greatly at different scales of space and time, so that in Yucatan, DF can be a wealthy respected merchant, while at the Mexican national level he may be perceived as poor, Indian and illiterate. The connections between these different timescales bolster the invisible symbolic power of his undocumented presence in the United States. They cast a halo around his words that cannot be captured by looking only at the utterances produced in the present. For example, the very Spanish used by DF with the clerk in excerpt 2, line 3 (‘buenas .’) still carries evidence of the self-assuredness displayed a minute ago by a successful merchant chatting with his fellow Yucatecan in their common language. The conflation of timescales is given an additional layer of meaning inasmuch as part of DF’s visit to merchants might be in fact what Rampton would call a styling of the self, a display performance (Rampton 1999b). The transaction might be the reenactment of an exchange that took place earlier and is now being performed again for the benefit of the guest of honor, the researcher herself, who is being ‘toured around’ (cf. excerpt 3, line 31 ‘estamos de paseo con la= maestra’). If that interpretation is correct, then the analysis has to take the words not as the spontaneous productions typical of natural conversations, but as a reflective replay for the benefit of a third party, a staging of sorts. Of course, this staging or styling serves also to nurture the human and commercial relations that DF is keen on keeping up with the merchants in his neighborhood. Besides the conflation of timescales in the performing bodies of these social actors, we notice another aspect of embodied time. Spanish, Maya, English and Chinese, all acquire a subjective overlay of Mexican-ness, Maya-ness, etc. that makes uttering Spanish or Maya words more than the sum of their grammars or of the communicative roles they perform. Beyond haggling over the price of meat, the protagonists in these exchanges are performing not only themselves, but their cultures, their families, their countries of origin or the mythic and emotional memories that these historical realities have become. They are not just performing ‘being Maya’. They are maintaining alive an idealized or ‘de-territorialized’ kind of Maya-ness that transcends geographic boundaries and awaits to be reterritorialized in the subject positionings of individual speakers (Rampton 1998). Each of their utterances is less the performance of a language than the enactment of a performative speech act that creates the very reality https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444808005065 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Connecticut, on 01 Nov 2018 at 16:55:52, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at