British Latino: Investigating discourse-stylistic variables and the construction of persona within podcasting

This study expands upon previous work (McIlwaine et al., 2011; McIlwaine & Bunge, 2016) by analyzing how the Latin American community in the UK constructs identity through podcasting. The sociolinguistic construct of the persona (Campbell-Kibler, 2008; Coupland, 2007; D’Onofrio, 2020; Eckert, 2019; Podesva, 2007) is operationalized to understand how the persona of the British Latino is discursively constructed in the podcast of the British Latino Network. Using qualitative discourse analysis and values coding (Saldaña, 2013), this analysis finds that the British Latino persona is indexed in the podcast as a bricolage of four principal attributes: (1) aspirational, (2) educated, (3) professional/entrepreneurial, and (4) community-oriented/role model. Furthermore, each attribute is analyzed as a bricolage of discourse-stylistic variables – values, attitudes, and beliefs. The indexical dynamics of the British Latino persona are analyzed as a response to discourses and structures in the UK which have historically marginalized and invisibilized Latin American migrants (McIlwaine, 2015) and as an act of “making presence” (Paffey, 2019; Sassen, 2013); as a discursive tool through which young Latinos in the UK resist the historical lack of Latin American representation in UK society. In this way, the persona of the British Latino as elaborated on the British Latino Network envisions new, transformative, modes of Latin American community engagement, representation, and participation within the UK sociolinguistic landscape.