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A Roundtable Discussion with Daniel Alarcón + Eduardo Halfon + Santiago Vaquera-Vásquez - Believer Magazine

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I started thinking about language—I mean really thinking about it—a few years ago when I signed up for first-semester Arabic at UC Berkeley. There was something about entering a language knowing absolutely nothing that made me consider what it is I know about those two languages I do speak (and read and write), English and Spanish. In class, we began with the alphabet, the sounds each symbol represented, and even now I am still working on the construction of sound, words, sentences. It’s been said before that language is the architecture of thought, and while I’m not convinced this is entirely accurate (my two-year-old nephew conveys a great deal without the benefit of words) it seems self-evident when one is beginning, when the immensity of all that you don’t know is overwhelming. I’m referring to the poetry of a language, of course, the beauty of which is most apparent (for me) when it is used in daily life—this is the level at which it is transformed, made new. This is the level of

essays February 1st, 2010 | Issue sixty-nine A Roundtable Discussion with Daniel Alarcón + Eduardo Halfon + Santiago Vaquera-Vásquez “IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE BOOK IN SPANISH, YOU WOULDN’T HAVE LIKED IT IN ENGLISH, EITHER.” by Santiago Vaquera Vasquez Share Share via Facebook Share via Twitter Copy link to clipboard Share via text message A Roundtable Discussion with Daniel Alarcón + Eduardo Halfon + Santiago Vaquera-Vásquez Santiago Vaquera Vasquez Share via Facebook Share via Twitter Copy link to clipboard Share via text message Daniel Alarcón, Santiago Vaquera-Vásquez, Eduardo Halfon Uses of t

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