‘I’m a Latina with an Asian body’: Authenticating ethnolinguistic identities amid raciolinguistic and monolingual ideologies

Abstract This qualitative study, grounded in LangCrit, language ideologies, and third space theory, analyzes autobiographical interviews with eighteen Spanish-speaking, US-based Latin Asians—individuals of Latin American and Asian heritage. Participants describe how the co-naturalization of mestizaje, Spanish, and latinidad often excludes them from being recognized as Latine or Latin American, or as native or heritage Spanish speakers, because of their racial appearance. Simultaneously, they confront expectations to know their Asian heritage language(s), often judged against idealized monolingual and monocultural standards. These competing demands limit their identity possibilities. In response, participants mobilize semiotic and multilingual resources to construct a third space where identities can be expressed beyond binary categories. Findings reveal that when phenotype restricts individuals’ access to desired ethnic identities, language becomes a powerful tool for identity reclamation, even when doing so reinforces essentialist ideologies. This study contributes to understandings of how mixed-heritage individuals navigate identities and ideologies in a sociopolitical landscape shaped by multiscalar, monoracial and monolingual norms and calls for critical awareness that challenges the conflation of language, race, and identity.