I am. Yo Soy.
A brief overview of multilingualism, perception and dismantling the shame.
In Boston, while walking by an older white woman speaking to an older white man, their opinion of a family, standing close by, speaking their native language was overheard. “If you’re going to raise your kids here, they should know English first,” said the woman to the man in a tone that emphasized her disdain for foreign languages. In New York, while checking into a hotel, a doorman was told to “go back to his country” for not allowing a drunkened man into the hotel lobby. In Florida, while attending High School, a white student called a Hispanic student a wetback in class for speaking with an accent.
In America, this is normal.
According to the Pew Research Center, four in ten Latinos (approximately 40 percent) experienced discrimination in pre-pandemic, such as being called names, criticized for speaking Spanish or told to go back to their home countries.
In 2018, New York lawyer Aaron Schlossberg, threatened to call ICE on the Fresh Kitchen deli employees because he heard them speaking Spanish, but this wasn’t the first viral rant to hit the social media platforms. From restaurants in Virgina to Walmarts in Georgia to gas stations in California, there are hundreds of viral videos of individuals yelling about Spanish speakers and often, there is a variation of the phrase, “This is America - speak English!”
Yes, this is America. Yes, the primary language spoken here is English. But, let’s not forget that America is multilingual and has been since its inception. An ACLU complaint filed after two Spanish speakers were detained at the border for simply speaking Spanish states, “America is a multi-lingual, multi-racial, and multi-ethnic country. Many United States citizen speak languages other than English. So do many non-citizen who have a right or permission to be in this country under our laws.”
The melting pot in which America was born from has become a title we wish to longer associate with.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that more than 60 million residents over the age of five years old speak a language other than English in the home. If the current trends continue, the US will be home to 132.8 million Spanish speakers by 2050, according to a report by El Instituto Cervantes.
With a country moving rapidly in the direct of multilingualism, it seems like an act of hate from those becoming the minority.
A Quick Overview on the Language of our Colonizer
Puerto Rico’s native people were the Taíno, a group of indigenous people who lived on the island for hundreds of years before the Spanish arrival. The island, orginally named Borikén - meaning the “Land of the Valiant and Noble Lord” - lost its identity with the introduction of Christopher Columbus, the Spanish, and smallpox - which eventually wiped out the vast majority of the Taíno.
During the enslavement of some Taíno survivors by the Spanish to mine the riches of the island and others to produce “cash crops such as sugar cane, ginger tobacco, and coffee,” the Spanish imported more and more slaves from Africa - creating an image of a new island, a new identity and a lost past.
Fast forward between the 15th and 18th century and Puerto Rico was now a fully Spanish speaking island. A mixture between Andalusia (Southern Spain) and Canarian Spanish (Spain’s Canary Islands), Puerto Rican Spanish became distinctly different than that of Spain. While the Taíno language was eradicated with its people, a handful of words survived. Words like hamaca (hammock), hurakán (hurricane), and tabaco (tobacco) and names of geographic locations on the island, like Arecibo, Bayamón, and Mayagüez intertwined with the new generalized Spanish brought from Spain. In this, Puerto Rican Spanish dominated the culture and became the step-child of original Spanish, one Spain refuses to claim.
A Bilingual Home
As a child raised in a bilingual home, I learned English and Spanish simultaneously. If asked, my mom would say I spoke both languages starting at the age of one - without perfection, of course, but within proper context. My mother and uncle spoke to me in English but my abuela (grandmother) and my papa (grandfather) spoke to me in Spanish.
My mother was born in Puerto Rico in the 60s but was raised in New York and adapted to the English language fairly easily considering Puerto Rico was also a bilingual island at that time. (After the takeover from the US, English became just as common on the island as Spanish.) Speaking to me in English was natural for her but for my abuela, English was the language of others and not of her people.
“Aquí hablamos español,” my abuela would say after my failed attempts of sparking conversation with her in English.
She was adamant about speaking Spanish and said it was the language of our people. And while she was proud of her language and never learned to speak English fluently, she always reminded me of the importance of knowing the language of your culture to keep traditions and our identity. She would say, “Giselle, sabes inglés porque naciste en Nueva York pero también sabrás español porque somos Boricuas (“Giselle, you know English because you were born in New York but you will also know Spanish because we are Boricua (Puerto Rican)”)
Although, I spoke fluent Spanish with my abuela and my papa, I would never speak Spanish outside, at school, or in places deemed important by others. For me, being bilingual meant I didn’t belong and it put a spotlight on me which I avoided at all costs. I felt others would define me as an immigrant if they heard me speak Spanish and I never wanted to defend myself in that argument.
In 2023, I think about how foolish it was of me to think that way.
As proud as I am for who I am and where I come from, I battle with the ideas of my younger self. To separate from my culture, no matter how complex it may be, seems selfish, arrogant and insensitive to all that my people experienced in the making of this culture and yet, in the same breath, I can understand why I wanted to hide myself and blend in a world that would damage me if I stood out.
“Go back to where you came from,” was yelled to me in the middle of a parking lot once, and I shouted back, “Do you mean, back to New York?”
Obviously, I knew what they meant. They meant I should go back to whatever Spanish speaking country I come from but the irony of it all is that there is no where to return to. New York is my birthplace. Puerto Rico - a territory of the US - is my culture and I will continue to speak Spanish whenever I want.
America never cares to mention that most of the people living here, despite where they are from, speak English - approximately 239 million people in the US are English speakers - because America only cares about people never speaking Spanish.
You never hear these same viral social media rants about the Irish speaking Irish, the Italians speaking Italian, the Greeks speaking Greek or the French speaking French. To America, these languages are exotic and interesting and wanted - despite decades of hate towards these groups at the start of Ellis Island.
Because to America, it is about ensuring the killing of another generation of Latino traditions and eradicating it from existence.
You reject the melting pot theory, which unified the country for a century, and accuse Americans of cultural genocide. You don't sound very patriotic.