Texas Three - Text
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Occupation: Student
Educational level: Senior (B.F.A)
Born and Raised: Laredo, Texas
Date recorded: 2/11/01
Interviewer's name: Micha Espinosa
Subject discusses his family and their struggles. Subject has a light,
typical border town accent. Fluent in Spanish and dreams in both languages.
His rhythm changes are the strongest feature of his accent. Some dropping of
ing endings. Some i (pin) for e (pen) substitutions. Mis-pronunciation of
word (bow).Diphthong o (go) is pure vowel sound O (obey) in "you know".
Consonant r in final position is stressed. Final consonants are not always evident.
TRANSCRIPTION
I’m gonna start off with my family. And tell you how much I love them and appreciate them because I’m blessed for them helping me so much, an…and giving me the opportunity to come and get a degree because before, they didn’t have much money to pay for my tuition in college.
Now, I’m gonna tell you why I appreciate my mom so much. ’Cos she’s taught me to be very loyal and respectful and to be true and honest to people. Ok, um, I learnt from her, um, how to treat a woman and by seeing her hurt from my father. Um, they’re divorced now but she’s very happy now that she’s moved on. And my dad is one of my best friends. I’ve learnt so much from him—from the right and the wrong. Um, both my mom too, she’s my best friend too, you know. I can talk to them about anything. But going back as far as…as the hurt, um, it’s no joke because when I see, you know, the pain and the suffering that my mamma went through, um, I’ve realized that…that when it comes to relationships and when it comes to…to treating a person, when you treat people the way you wanna be treated, I think that’s the way it should be.
When…she’s taught be about having faith, the faith, you shall overcome victory. When you give, you shall receive. And when you’re true, you shall be free.
Transcribed by Mitchell Kelly, January 15, 2008