Intercultural communicative events: sociolinguistic reflexivity in public discourse about differences

Abstract

This paper evinces the discursive treatment that Mexican government has given to cultural and linguistic diversity topic of its country through a communicative device proposed here as an intercultural communicative event: a pragmatic arrangement that particularly boomed in Mexico City during 2010 and 2012, within the framework of the Bicentennial of the Mexican independence and revolution, and characterized by maintaining as thematic axis the political vindication of the multiple national identities through argumentative formulations about a possible political conjuncture. The research is based on a methodological approach that links two theoretical proposals: the ethnography of speech, an almost forgotten anthropological perspective to outline the context of a communicative interaction, and the sociolinguistic reflexivity, a recent paradigm with philosophical and sociological basis, which allows us to conceive metalinguistic discourse as a regulative mechanism of permanence and cultural ascription. Thereby, obtained results link two analysis levels: 1) The pragmatic arrangement where emerge the intercultural nature, functions and discursive intentions of participants; and 2) The thematic contents emanating from these interactions. Both products, on the whole, show a phenomenon little noted by the interculturalism researchers. It is that, diachronically and synchronously, public discourse about differences has not maintained a unifying spirit towards Mexican citizenship. On the contrary, it has shown unfulfilled commitments, agreements without ratification and demands without adequate continuity by all hierarchical levels participants in these meetings. General conclusion of this is that the named intercultural communicative events function as a symbolic mechanism for containning possible social conflicts of cultural origin and with long-term political effects.