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WHAT DID THEY SAY IN THE HALL OF THE DEAD?

LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY IN THE CERRO MARAVILLA HEARINGS

by

Germán Negrón Rivera

B.A. University of Puerto Rico, 1988

M.A. University of Puerto Rico, 1997

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of

Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh

2010

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UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

This dissertation was presented

by

Germán Negrón Rivera

It was defended on

April 16, 2010

and approved by

Susan Berk-Seligson, Associate Professor, Spanish and Portuguese Department, Vanderbilt

University

Juan Duchesne Winter, Professor, Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures

Barbara Johnstone, Professor, English Department, Carnegie Mellon University

Dissertation Advisor: Scott Kiesling, Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics

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Copyright © by Germán Negrón Rivera

2010

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WHAT DID THEY SAY IN THE HALL OF THE DEAD?

LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY IN THE CERRO MARAVILLA HEARINGS

Germán Negrón Rivera, Ph.D.

University of Pittsburgh, 2010

Identity has become a major interest for researchers in the areas of linguistic anthropology and

sociolinguistics. Recent understandings of identity emphasize its malleability and fluidity. This

conceptualization of identities as malleable comes from the realization that speakers relate

strategically to propositions and their interlocutors in order to achieve their communicative

goals.

This study is an exploration of the (co-)construction of identities in an institutional

context, specifically in the Cerro Maravilla hearings. I examine the interactions between the

Senate‘s main investigator, Héctor Rivera Cruz, and five witnesses in order to explore how

identities were created and how speakers managed the interactions.

In chapter 2, I discuss the theoretical framework and the literature. The concepts of

identity, linguistic ideologies, power, discourses, indexicalities, and stances are discussed.

Chapter 3 is a literature review of studies concerned with language in the legal context,

particularly in trials. In chapter 4, I provide a historical background to contextualize the Cerro

Maravilla events and the Senate hearings. The next chapter is the methodology. In Chapter 6, I

present the analyses of the interactions between Rivera Cruz and five witnesses. In chapter 7, I

discuss the findings. Chapter 8 is the conclusion.

The present study supports the notion that power is better understood as emergent in

interactions, even when interactional resources are unequally available to speakers. However, it

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is not independent of discourses that assign value to ways of speaking and ways of interacting. I

claim that speakers combine stances in creative and unexpected ways, constructing memorable

identities.

The overarching question that motivated this study was: Why did people talk about

Rivera Cruz‘s performance and way of speaking? I argue that the answer lies in his creative

stance taking through which he was able to provoke a clash of linguistic ideologies in an

unexpected and unconventional way. I argue that Rivera Cruz‘s performance attests to the

creativity and the immense possibilities that individuals have for creating identities, while this

individuality is still connected with discourses that exist in the broad society.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................... VI

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................ XII

 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1

 FRAMEWORK .......................................................................................................... 11

2.1 IDENTITY.......................................................................................................... 13

 The Public and the Personal: Malleability and Continuity in Identity

Creation.. .................................................................................................... 29

2.2 INDEXICALITIES ............................................................................................ 33

 Direct and Indirect Indexicality ............................................................... 36

 Indexical Orders and Interior and Exterior Indexical Meanings ......... 38

 Indexical Presupposition and Indexical Entailment ............................... 43

 Problem with the Distinction between Indexical Presupposition and

Entailment .................................................................................................. 47

2.3 DISCOURSE AND POWER ............................................................................ 49

 Foucault and the Elusiveness of Power .................................................... 49

 The Uncomfortable Relationship between Agency and Social

Structures.................................................................................................... 54

 The Limitations in the Search of Power .................................................. 56

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2.4 LINGUISTIC IDEOLOGIES ........................................................................... 58

 Definitions ................................................................................................... 58

 Mediating between Linguistic Forms and Social Meanings .................. 59

 Ideologies and Interest ............................................................................... 62

 Stances ......................................................................................................... 65

 Indexical Processes in Stance Taking ....................................................... 65

 Making Sense of Stances ........................................................................... 72

 Collective memory ............................................................................... 75

 LANGUAGE IN THE LEGAL CONTEXT ............................................................ 78

3.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 78

3.2 LANGUAGE IN THE LEGAL CONTEXT AND ITS FORM AND

FUNCTION ......................................................................................................... 80

3.3 THE BOUNTY OF PRE-ALLOCATION....................................................... 83

3.4 MANIPULATION OF THE LINGUISTIC RESOURCES AND THE

INTERACTION WITH CULTURAL IDEOLOGIES.................................... 87

3.5 CODA ................................................................................................................ 112

 Four Implications for this Study of the Literature Reviewed.............. 114

 A Note on the Cerro Maravilla Hearings .............................................. 115

 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ............................................................................ 116

4.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 116

4.2 BEFORE THE INVASION ............................................................................ 117

4.3 THE FIRST THREE DECADES UNDER AMERICAN FLAG ................ 119

4.4 THE TURBULENT DECADE OF THE 1930’S........................................... 123

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4.5 THE 1940’S: THE RISE OF THE POPULAR DEMOCRATIC

PARTY ............................................................................................................... 128

4.6 THE RETURN OF THE NATIONALIST PARTY AND THE

CONSTITUTION ............................................................................................. 131

4.7 THE RISE OF THE PRO-STATEHOOD MOVEMENT AND THE COLD

WAR ................................................................................................................... 137

4.8 1978: THE YEAR OF THE KILLINGS AT CERRO MARAVILLA ....... 141

4.9 THE CERRO MARAVILLA CASE .............................................................. 146

 The Official Version ................................................................................. 146

 The Department of Justice Investigations ............................................. 149

 The Hearings Findings .............................................