When you’re caught between cultures, you learn to adapt to separate sets of customs, even in speech. When a speaker alternates between two or more languages or dialects, it’s known as code-switching. Code-switching can occur within an utterance or between groups of speakers. For example, my Hispanic friends may speak to each other in Spanish, but certain words or phrases within their sentences will be said in English or vice-versa.
While watching Jane the Virgin, a show featuring a Hispanic family living in Miami, I was curious to see if and how code-switching would play out with the characters. The main family consists of Alba, Xiomara, and Jane Villanueva. Alba is the matriarch, mother to Xiomara and grandmother to Jane. She immigrated to the United States from Venezuela with her husband not long after they got married. Xiomara is Jane's mother. She was born and raised in Miami, and so was Jane.
After re-watching the entire series on Netflix for the 3rd time, I took note - somewhat haphazardly - of each time I caught a character code-switching. Something interesting about the way language is used in JTV is that Alba communicates almost solely in Spanish. Still, most characters, including Xiomara and Jane, communicate almost solely in English when talking to each other and with her. Regardless, the Villanueva family understands each other, meaning they are fluent in both languages, but Alba prefers Spanish and the others English.
JANE
Initially, the only Spanish we hear from Jane is when she refers to her grandmother as Abuela. In one episode, she ends a conversation with her Abuela with "Adios y bendiciones." Sometimes, when Jane has one of her fantasies, the characters she portrays speak entirely in Spanish. In this scene from episode 47, she portrays her Great Aunt Cecilia, who had a falling out with Alba back in Venezuela.
XIOMARA
During a storm in episode 10, Abuela gets injured and is taken to the hospital. When the hospital finds out that she's an illegal immigrant, they tell Xiomara that once the storm has passed, Abuela will be deported. Xiomara calls Jane to tell her about the situation, but there's a police officer in the room. To maintain privacy and protect her mother, she switches to Spanish to check if he understands and then to explain everything to Jane. Jane continues the conversation in Spanish and switches back to English to say, "I love you."
Xiomara also switches to Spanish early in the show while talking to Jane in front of Rafael, but then he replies to her in Spanish, showing that he understood her. Xiomara speaks Spanish again for her role in Rogelio's telenovela. She’s uncomfortable acting, so at first, she says her lines in English.
ALBA
After her accident, Alba befriends a man at her rehabilitation gym, and he tries to speak in Spanish to her while she uses some English with him.
Later, Alba becomes determined to get her citizenship. While consulting her immigration lawyer, she switches between English and Spanish. When Abuela finally gets her green card, she announces the good news in English. As Alba is preparing for her citizenship test, she speaks English to the people on the phone to confirm her test date. At her surprise party, Alba gives a speech where she switches to English to honor her citizenship.
Alba and Rafael become friends at some point, and Alba describes their relationship as "Friends with Benefits," not understanding the actual meaning of that phrase. When talking about exercise, she uses the phrase “Tri(cept)s and Bi(cepts)s, which we can assume she started using because of Rafael.
EVERYONE ELSE
Rogelio, a popular telenovela star and Jane's father, speaks solely in Spanish for his acting roles and talking to Alba, but he speaks in English to Xiomara and Jane. In one episode, he asks a favor of his friend Paulina Rubio, who switches between English and Spanish in their conversation. When Rogelio's mother visits, she speaks in English with everyone but switches to Spanish to use idioms/expressions.
Spanish isn't the only language used on the show. Occasionally a villain and an ally, Petra Solan immigrated to Miami with her mother from the Czech Republic. While they typically only speak in English with each other, when Petra is being blackmailed in season 1, she speaks in Czech with her blackmailer.
CONCLUSION
Based on these instances, switching in Jane the Virgin occurs depending on equivalence and company. We see Alba switching to English when there isn't a compatible phrase in Spanish. Xiomara usually speaks in Spanish to exclude other listeners and create privacy. Jane seems to switch to Spanish to connect with her family and her culture. Jane grew up watching telenovelas, so they're important to her and as a motif that runs throughout the show. Her telenovela fantasies are sometimes in Spanish before switching to English, and her imaginary Cecilia speaks Spanish before switching to English.
If you're interested in reading academic papers on the subject of code-switching, here are some papers I've used as sources for my classes: