This talk explores how people imagine a twenty-first-century social persona as emanating from a nineteenth-century individual person. The persona in question is the Philippine “conyo,” regarded as spoiled, empty-headed, rich kids who speak a distinct style of “Taglish” (Tagalog-English). The person in question is José Rizal, one of the most celebrated Filipino historical figures. Drawing on ethnographic and media data, I trace how Rizal is regarded as “the original conyo,” as its first author or animator. Examining how this type-token interdiscursive link between persona and person plays on the inversion of a chronotopic frame, I consider what conceptualizing elite historical continuity accomplishes socially and economically. I argue that citing Rizal creates a channel to move value.
Angela Reyes is Professor of English and Anthropology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her research examines historical and contemporary formations of language and personhood in the U.S. and the Philippines. Her books include The Oxford Handbook of Language and Race (co-edited with H. Samy Alim and Paul Kroskrity), Discourse Analysis Beyond the Speech Event (co-authored with Stanton Wortham), Beyond Yellow English: Toward a Linguistic Anthropology of Asian Pacific America (co-edited with Adrienne Lo), and Language, Identity, and Stereotype Among Southeast Asian American Youth: The Other Asian.
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