Norma Mendoza-Denton is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, and the founder and director of the Linguistic Anthropology Research and Teaching Laboratory.

"Homegirls should rock the very foundations of criminological understandings of gangs, especially concerning female gang members. If scientific rigor increases the book's impact, no one should begrudge Mendoza-Denton the specialization of the latter chapters. In any case, this is a book about much more than language-or perhaps it reveals language to be much more than we think-and it is well worth picking up for an enlightening glimpse of a population that has been ascribed infamy without being known much at al." (American Studies Journal, 1 March 2009) "Homegirls, an experimental sociolinguistic ethnography of subaltern others, spans a decade of research by a woman who is keen to examine her position as an outsider/insider in the research process and the identity formation of her participants: female gang members.” (American Journal of Sociology, September 2009)“Part reflexive narrative, part engaging ethnography, part fine-grained sociolinguistic study, and part riveting disquisition on the politics of eyeliner, this delightful book twinkles with wit and blazes with empathy and intelligence.”Don Kulick, New York University“Wonderfully written and as riveting as a novel, Homegirls provides a unique window on the linguistic and ethnographic patterns – and their interrelationship – of Northern California Mexican-American high school students who are members of girl gangs. It's sure to become a classic.”Deborah Tannen, Georgetown University“Mendoza-Denton provides an extraordinary fusion of ethnographic insight and sociolinguistic analysis. I know of no better demonstration of how linguistic and cultural variables are entwined in social interaction.”William Labov, University of Pennsylvania"A landmark work in sociocultural linguistics! The breadth and depth are spectacular and the humanistic presentation makes the description captivatingly accessible to both a professional and a public audience."Walt Wolfram, North Carolina State University provides a stunning and innovative linguistic, anthro-political ethnography of how gang-affiliated Latina girls talk, dress, and interact. It is certain to become a classic in the fields of sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology.”Marjorie Goodwin, University of California, Los Angeles

• List of Figures viiiList of Tables xAcknowledgments xiAcknowledgment of Sources xivIntroduction 11 La Migra 102 Beginning Fieldwork 423 Norte and Sur: Government, School, and Research Perspectives 764 Hemispheric Localism: Language, Racialized Nationalism, and the Politicization of Youth 1015 "Muy Macha": Gendered Performances and the Avoidance of Social Injury 1486 Smile Now Cry Later: Memorializing Practices Linking Language, Materiality, and Embodiment 1767 Icons and Exemplars: Ethnographic Approaches in Variationist Sociolinguistics 2078 Variation in a Community of Practice 2309 "That's the Whole Thing [tin]!": Discourse Markers and Teenage Speech 26510 Conclusion 292References 297Appendix 324Index 328