Radiofree West Hartford - HABLA USTED ESPANOL? YOU'D BETTER LEARN TO! by Tim Siggia

HABLA USTED ESPANOL? YOU'D BETTER LEARN TO!

By Tim Siggia

March 25, 2006

Bienvenidos a Los Estados Unidos, donde todos hablamos espanol.

Welcome to the United States, where we all speak Spanish.

Sound far-fetched? A bit paranoid, even? The answer may depend on where you live. If it's in the Heartland, the Great Plains or the far Northwest, it just might. But if you happen to reside in the Southwest, the Northeast Corridor, or just about anywhere in California, this just may have a ring of truth to it, for these are the places in which Hispanics comprise a percentage of the population that's both sizeable and growing.

Immigration, of course is nothing new to America; in fact, it is a strong part of America's heritage. We are all descended from immigrants -- yes, even those who proudly call themselves Native Americans are descended from people who did not always live on the North American mainland. Every successive wave of immigrants brought with it its own culture, folklore, food, and yes, language, all to become ingredients in the great melting pot that is America. Of all those groups, only two did not have the need to learn another language: the English, in colonial times, and the Irish, during their great wave of immigration that lasted from the middle of the 19th Century right up to the early 1900's. All other immigrant groups -- the Germans, Italians, French, Poles and other eastern Europeans, came to this country realizing that if they were to survive, succeed and prosper in the new land, if they wanted to conduct business with anyone outside their own ethnic community, and eventually, if they wanted to become United States citizens, they would have to learn English. And, for the most part, they did.

The process began with the immigrants themselves, most of whom struggled to learn a language that for them was not only foreign but difficult, with pronunciations and word formations alien to their own tongues. Their English would carry accents revealing their foreign origins, and would forever be imperfect, but they would be able to converse with the majority which spoke that language as its own. Their children, for the most part, would be bilingual, speaking one language at home and another at school. Unlike their parents, these first-generation Americans would speak English without any discernable foreign accent, but would also speak German, Italian, Polish, or whatever language their parents spoke, with equal facility. Often as not, they would also intermarry with partners outside their own ethnic community who would speak no language other than English.

Generally by the second generation, assimilation was complete. These children would typically be American in every respect; "old country" attitudes and mannerisms would be gone with this generation, as would the languages of their grandparents. English would typically be their only language, and, though they still might identify themselves as Irish or Italian, only their surnames would give any clue as from what country their ancestry had come.

This traditionally had been the progression, that of people emigrating from other countries to settle in the United States, and ultimately become Americans, not only on paper, but in national identity as well. Then came the Hispanics, and the traditional mold was broken.

It did not happen quite that chronologically, of course. Hispanics, particularly those of Mexican origin, have been part of our country's landscape from the earliest of times. It has been only during the past half-century, however, that their numbers really began to swell. In many respects, the Hispanics have simply repeated the experiences of previous immigrant groups. Unlike those who went before them, however, the Hispanics have not only not completely assimilated themselves into the American mainstream, but seem reluctant, even resistant, to do so.

Several factors account for this. One is that of sheer numbers. No other ethnic group has come into our country in numbers that even come close to the tidal wave of Hispanics. In the Southwest and in California they are mostly of Mexican origin, many of them inside the United States illegally. From Philadelphia up through Boston they are for the most part Puerto Rican, though Dominicans, Central Americans and other Hispanic groups are also represented. Chicago and its environs also have a large Puerto Rican population. What makes the Puerto Ricans different from other Hispanic groups is the fact that immigration laws do not apply to them, since they are in fact not immigrants, but rather, United States citizens by birth, and therefore able to freely enter the mainland United States. Nearly every sizeable city in this Northeast region has its share of Hispanics.

Perhaps the most glaring example is that of the largely Puerto Rican city of Hartford, Connecticut, whose mayor, Eddie Perez, is himself a Puerto Rican. According to the 2000 Census, Hispanics comprised 40 percent of Hartford's population, and some later estimates have placed this figure at 46 percent. Blacks, who had been Hartford's dominant ethnic group up until then, comprised 38 percent in 2000. Only 17 percent of Hartford's population was listed as white.

Another factor is that of liberal attitudes and policies, particularly among educators, which have served to impede the assimilation process. Emphasis upon such things as diversity and multiculturalism have in effect pooh-poohed the traditional idea of America as a melting pot, and social engineering experiments such as bilingual education have in fact had a detrimental effect on those they were intended to benefit, in effect discouraging them from making a concerted effort to learn English.

Finally, another factor comes from the Hispanic community itself, particularly their leaders, many of whom see themselves as the coming mainstream, the new American majority. In the name of preserving their culture and heritage, many Hispanics have eschewed the example of the previous ethnic groups with regard to assimilation into the mainstream, and have perpetuated the use of Spanish into the second and subsequent generations. The results of all this are obvious even to the most casual observer.

-- Today, nearly every piece of merchandise that comes with a book of instructions has those instructions printed in at least two languages: English and Spanish.

-- In those cities and towns in which Hispanics have a presence, stores, businesses and government offices typically have signs posted in both English and Spanish.

-- Most telephone menus, automated teller machines, and other such devices today have Spanish-language options.

-- In areas where concentrations of Hispanics are high, an increasing number of non-Hispanics have begun learning and using Spanish in order to communicate with their Hispanic co-workers, in a phenomenon that might be called reverse assimilation.

-- Newspapers, radio stations and television stations that print and broadcast in foreign languages are no new phenomenon in America. But now, on the Nickelodeon cable television channel, we have the popular children's show, Dora The Explorer, which, along with its equally popular spin-off, Go Diego Go, is infusing Spanish into the lexicons of pre-school children. Please do not misunderstand me here. I am in no way suggesting that there is anything essentially wrong with learning another language. Nor do I mean for any of this to be construed as an attack upon Hispanics. The issue here is not what is being done, but rather, why it is being done. It is not about people, but policy. It is that, for all factors cited, today the onus seems to be placed upon the majority (which non-Hispanics still are) to adapt to the minority, rather than the other way around, as has up to now been traditional and customary.

To put this on a more personal level, let me relate an experience I recently had while at a shopping mall near where I live. Now despite what you read at the beginning of this piece, I took two courses in Spanish in high school, which I essentially repeated in college to satisfy the foreign language requirement for a bachelor of arts degree. It has been 34 years since I last entered a Spanish class. I therefore read and write Spanish only with considerable difficulty. But I do not speak the language. At least, I am not conversant in it.

While at the mall, I felt hungry, and went to a Subway concession to order a grinder (the Connecticut term for a submarine sandwich). The counter girl, a Hispanic, began making not what I ordered, but rather, what she thought I had ordered. I began to correct her, at which she looked at me blankly, then continued doing as she had been. Realizing I was up against a language barrier, I tried using simpler terms.

Finally, another Hispanic counter girl interceded, and translated my English into Spanish, at which I finally got what I ordered. I thanked her, but left the counter feeling like an ignorant fool and considerably guilty for not knowing enough Spanish to be able to give the girl my order in that language. Then, almost immediately afterward, I thought to myself, wait a minute! This isn't Puerto Rico, or Spain, or Mexico, or some other country I'm just visiting. This is home! This is where I grew up! Why am I being made to feel like a foreigner?

Every indication seems to be that the United States is well on the way to becoming a bilingual nation. Where I live, at least, the Puerto Ricans -- most of them, anyway -- have done their part. Nearly all of them speak English. Yet for reasons of pride, social identity or whatever, they have not let go the Spanish. They speak Spanish among themselves, and speak English to us non-Hispanics in much the same manner that hotel workers in other countries speak to visiting Americans. However, subtle but unmistakable pressure is being applied for non-Spanish speakers to learn that language. Following the example of Dora The Explorer, elementary schools will eventually introduce Spanish into the primary curriculum, if they have not already done so. By the time that generation -- our grandchildren -- come of high school age, courses in Spanish will no longer be elective, but required. Within 30 to 50 years from now, bilingualism will be the order of the day in America, and fluency in Spanish will be a requirement for graduation from high school.

If the demographic pattern continues as it is today, the Hispanic leaders will ultimately be proven right: Hispanics will become the majority, and the non-Hispanic population will decline. This could eventually lead to the decline and disappearance of English as well. The year 2100 may well see the United States with Spanish as its primary language, English having been relegated to the status of a foreign language, taught in classrooms in much the same manner Spanish is today.

If you think it couldn't happen, think again. Anyone who has even the most elementary knowledge of New York City history knows that the original settlers of the region encompassing modern-day New York and Westchester County were not English, but Dutch, and the New York was originally called New Amsterdam. Landmarks such as the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River, monuments to Peter Stuyvessant, and the stories of Washington Irving serve as reminders of New York's Dutch heritage. Yet how many people in this once solidly Dutch-speaking region speak that language today. What English did to Dutch in New York, Spanish now threatens to do to English in modern-day America nationwide.

So what do we do? The trend is already in motion, and efforts to make English the official language of the United States (which it is not, America has never had an official language as such) have not met with popular grassroots support. Even if English were made the official language, it would at this point serve at best only to delay the inevitable.

One possible answer might be to take a lesson from the Hispanics themselves. They have, for the most part, learned our language, but have not given up their own. We might do the same: learn Spanish, but make a concerted effort to keep English. We must remember that the people who built America and helped to make it what it is today spoke English. All our founding documents are in English. English is an essential part of America's heritage, which must never be discarded no matter who becomes the ethnic majority.