Salvador Tió y Montes de Oca (November 15, 1911 – September 17, 1989) was a Puerto Rican poet, writer, and promoter of Puerto Rican culture, best known for coining the term "

Spanglish Spanglish (a blend of the words "Spanish" and "English") is any language variety (such as a contact dialect, hybrid language, pidgin, or creole language) that results from conversationally combining Spanish and English. The term is mostly u ...

Early life

Salvador Tió y Montes de Oca, better known as Salvador Tió was born on November 15, 1911, in

Mayagüez, Puerto Rico Mayagüez (, ) is the ninth-largest Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in Puerto Rico. It was founded as Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Mayagüez (Township of Virgin of Candelaria, Our Lady of Candelaria), and is also ...

, to Salvador Tió y Malaret and his wife Teresa Montes de Oca y Branderes. He completed studies in law at

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (CLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Columbia University, a Private university, private Ivy League university in New York City. The school was founded in 1858 as the Columbia College Law School. The un ...

in New York and at the Complutense University of Portugal.

Spanglish

In the late 1940s, Salvador coined the term ''espanglish,'' which later evolved to its current form,

. This was his response to the many Spanish-speaking people who immediately relinquished their mother tongue in order to learn English upon immigrating to non-Hispanic countries.

Later years

Salvador later moved to

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

, where he died on September 17, 1989. He was buried at Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

References

Burials at Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery Complutense University of Madrid alumni Columbia Law School alumni Puerto Rican poets Puerto Rican male writers 1989 deaths 1911 births 20th-century American poets People from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico 20th-century American male writers {{PuertoRico-bio-stub