"Ele me chamou de comedor de burrito": xenofobia, impolidez e ameaça à face de imigrantes latinos nos Estados Unidos

Abstract

This qualitative and ethnographic study aims to approach xenophobia in communicative interactions between Americans and Latino immigrants in the United States through impoliteness in speech and to analyze its influence on the identity construction of this group of immigrants. The theoretical contribution included the concepts of xenophobia and the contextualization of the immigrants’ situation within the social body of the United States, examined through the studies of Lee (2019) and Allport (1954), linguistic impoliteness, through the studies of Culpeper (1996, 2010), passing through Goffman's face studies (1975, 1982). Data were generated through two questionnaires developed on the Google Forms platform. The survey was carried out from the responses of 15 participants, being 13 of Latin origin. Data were analyzed pragmatic-discursively based on content analysis (BARDIN, 1977). The results showed linguistic evidence of impoliteness that threatens the face of Latin American immigrants in order to perpetuate their peripheral situation in the North American social context, corroborating stereotypes that end up interfering with these immigrants’ social interaction.