• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.41
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• pp.199-227
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• 2015

In the twenty-first century, one of the most controversial issues concerns neoliberal policies and its results. In particular, since the mid-1980s, the United States and international financial institutions have imposed their programs on Latin American countries. The result is a deepening social inequality in Latin America that puts an emphasis on financial stability instead of social security. Consequently, social inequality is worsened and an imbalance in income distribution took place. Because of the flexibility of labor, the middle class is destroyed. For the poor person deprived of the opportunity to rise, violence is a common occurrence in daily life. Thus, in this context, Eduardo Galeano raises the necessity of a critique concerning the values that neoliberalism regards as important. Furthermore, Galeano is also wary of the "militarization of neoliberalism." This is because the neoliberal multinationals motivate a war without borders under the guise of peace. Neo-liberal policies also contribute to environmental pollution. However, environmental vandalism, which happens in partnership with large and international organizations, is not readily apparent to the public because those perpetrators wore a "green mask." Hence, Galeano assiduously endeavors to undercover the false consciousness hiding behind the green mask. Thus, in brief summary, Galeano represents in his works a depiction about Latin America where violence often happens in daily life.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.46
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• pp.85-112
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• 2017

Donald Trump, the $45^{th}$ president of the United States, has revived the 'English Only' policy since the beginning of his presidential campaign. The monolingualism not only underscores his extremely conservative ideas, but it also reflects the nativist tendency that prevents the demographic and cultural transformation of the US, which is accelerated by globalization and transnational migration. In particular, Donald Trump tries to reconfirm the mainstream American culture that is now thought to have been threatened by Hispanization and the growing number of Spanish speakers. This paper examines the effects of "code-switching" and the possibility of a bilingual community by contrasting Donald Trump with Gloria $Anzald{\acute{u}}a$, one of the representative Latina writers who created a "border language." Borderlands/La Frontera (1987) includes Spanish glossaries and expressions to represent her bilingual realities, while attempting to translate from English to Spanish, and vice versa. However, the text occasionally demonstrates the impossibility of translation. In doing so, $Anzald{\acute{u}}a$ indirectly states that it is indispensable to present both languages at the stage; she also invites monolingual readers to make more efforts to learn and better understand the Other's language. A "border language" she attempts to embody throughout the text is created in the process of encounters, conflicts, and negotiations among languages of different ethnicities, classes and generations. It does not signify an established form: rather it appears as a constantly transforming language, which can provide us with new perspectives and an alternative way of communication beyond monolingualism.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.42
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• pp.107-129
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• 2016

In modern history, there have been several kinds of continental unions or supranational politico-economic unions in the world, such as the United Nations, the European Union, the Union of South American Nations, the African Union, etc. Modern thinkers proposed many pan-isms on their continental base, for example, Pan-Arabism, Pan-Latin Americanism, Pan-Asianism, Pan-Celtism, etc. What is the most common in these pan-isms is that a continental union would be a politico-economic system to overcome the limits of the modern state-nation and to realize a long and happy relationship between member nations and continents. However, the concept of a supranational union differs from that of cosmopolitanism, in that the former presupposes the common cultural and historical heritage in the concerned region or continent. Ngugi wa Thinog'o' Pan-Africanism implies two keywords that are connected to his concepts such as 'decentralization' and 'African languages.' Pan-Africanism supposes that Africa may gain benefits from the union of African nations under the umbrella of anti-colonial efforts to down size the Euro-American influences. Moreover, using African languages enhances self-reliance and self-imagination among the African people. For in the former colonial regimes, the European colonial languages, such as English, French, or Portuguese, were central to the dissemination of European culture and modernity. Ngugi asserts that the African peripheralized languages could reinstate the African cultural heritage and propose an alternative to the Western modernity.