ABSTRACT
While there is a considerable body of literature and growing interest in Spanish as a heritage language in the U.S., heritage speakers of other contact varieties of Spanish have been given comparatively little attention. The numerical prominence and historical presence of Spanish-speaking immigrants and their descendants in the U.S. explains this imbalance, yet the field stands to benefit from the study of other long-established and expanding Spanish-speaking diaspora communities elsewhere. Moreover, research on diaspora Spanish has tended to focus on the most prevalent varieties of Spanish, such as Mexican and Puerto Rican dialects and, more recently, on Cuban, Dominican, and certain Central American varieties, with much less work on South American dialects, despite their important presence in immigrant contexts.
