A “rural area” is generally spoken about in the same way as a “border” or a “community of speakers”, creating a sense of homogeneity through these generalizing expressions. However, in reality, the situation is far more complex. When we talk about rural Artigas, we refer to a series of populations that are progressively less inhabited and more or less distant from the population center of the department, which is the city of Artigas. Each of these populations represents a different version of rurality, whether in economic, social, or more specifically, linguistic terms.
La Guayubira / La Estiba
The case that I focus on in my doctoral research is the area of La Guayubira and La Estiba; an area not even mentioned in the literature on contact between Spanish and Portuguese on the Uruguayan-Brazilian border. This area is located about 15 kilometres from the city of Artigas and is inhabited by approximately 300 people. La Guayubira is named after a tree, and La Estiba refers to the practice of smuggling that was common in the area when, throughout much of the twentieth century, the inhabitants of the border went out at night on horseback. There is no clear demarcation between these two localities; there are those who claim to live in La Estiba while others are convinced that it is La Guayubira.
With regard to what interests me as an object of study, the spoken language, this area is a linguistic goldmine: not only because the border speech here maintains strong vitality among a large part of the population that resides here permanently, but also because it is one of the few rural areas in which speakers with this linguistic variety can still be found. And what makes it so special? The speech of the border, that is, what is also known by the gluttonyms “Portuñol”, “Brasilero”, “entreverado” or even “estragaidioma”, presents a clear tendency towards a loss of speakers, so the task of documenting this speech now becomes even more urgent.
Another reason why it is interesting to study this area is that it is a rural locality unknown even to Uruguayans themselves, which is not surprising, since it is not even identified on Google Maps. One of the only clear points we can find is the Santuario de la Virgen de los Treinta y Tres (Sanctuary of the Virgin of the Thirty-Three.)
So how did I come across this area, given that, unlike other rural localities, it is not found online and does not appear in the existing literature on the subject? One day, while surfing the net, I had the good fortune to come across the work of the anthropologist Ana Rodríguez, who travelled to La Guayubira with the aim of recording voices and sounds for a project called the Sound Map of Uruguay, and who, without knowing it, collected the invaluable testimony of a speaker who years later would become one of my informants. Thanks to the generosity of Ana, who shared much of her material with me, as well as her help when it came to walking the trails of La Guayubira / La Estiba, I was able to come into contact with this hidden treasure.
When doing fieldwork in this region, one of the main questions that arises is why Portuñol retains its vitality in the area, whereas in other rural environments this is no longer the case. From what has been observed in situ, it can be said that this is mainly due to the “particular microcosm” of the area, as well as to the preservation of traditions and the strong ties between both family and neighbours. Allow me to explain. The special characteristics of this area are due to the fact that it is an area with a “labyrinthine” network of roads, in which there are neighbourhoods composed of just three to six houses, usually of families, and then kilometres of red, uninhabited earth and immense tobacco plantations. Despite the fact that today the inhabitants no longer have to travel on foot or on horseback, thanks to vehicles such as motorcycles, speakers continue to interact a lot with those who are close to them, without there being much input from outside. This scenario leads to communication being kept more “intact”, especially when compared to the scenario in an urban centre. Another possible reason has to do with the frequency of public transport to the city: during the week there are only one to two buses a day, and thus life is usually condensed in a single place, with the exception of occasional trips or longer stays in other locations; nevertheless, interaction with other places is inevitably reduced. The third reason related to this “particular microcosm” has to do with the poor telephone and internet signals in the area; although access to telephone and internet networks from home is becoming easier, not all of the community currently has access to such services in the way that is normal in a city or indeed in many other rural localities. What’s more, there are many areas in which there is still no phone signal. Therefore, this “isolation” also leads to a greater preservation of certain linguistic usages.
With regard to traditions and family ties, or ties between neighbours, it can be observed that many of the children inherit customs and traditions of various kinds, such as working in the fields and on farms with animals; all of this inevitably comes with a value system and a language. Therefore, these “heirs” are more likely to incorporate into their speech the ways in which their grandparents and parents express or expressed themselves. Coupled with this is the fact that many children have to help their parents with tasks such as working on tobacco plantations. They often arrive at school mid-morning, after a three-hour workday, or are absent for days on end after becoming intoxicated by the pesticides used on the plantations. This means that they are exposed to less of the language taught in school, i.e. Spanish.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that there is another reason, perhaps a more subjective one, yet one that was repeatedly observed in this community: even though the speakers of La Guayubira / La Estiba know what their speech represents in relation to the “normative” speaking community, they believe and accept that their way of speaking is just what it is; that is, through their speech they feel united and recognise themselves as a community and not as a minority. It could be said that they present, probably also because of the lifestyle and work they do, a more stoic attitude towards life, and this, like everything else, also ends up being reflected in their speech.