Keeping a Language Alive

By Fiorella Medina

An essential in the Latino identity is being able to speak Spanish. The lingering question my family has is, “¿Qué vas a hacer cuando tengas hijos y tengas que enseñarles español?”

I am a first-generation American, but my parents, who migrated from Peru, raised me to speak Spanish in the household. However, like myself, most Latino descent children mess up the language sometimes due to assimilating into American culture. Other children end up losing the language completely leaving many Latinos fearing the loss of the Spanish language.

Language is a significant component of keeping people rooted in their culture and family. I can communicate with my parents or family who still live in Peru and talk to my English as a Second Language (ESL) students in Spanish when they don’t understand something. 

“The switch between languages confused me, so I kept speaking Spanish.”

Growing up, as the youngest sibling and cousin, I learned some of my English from my older siblings or from watching TV. But the switch between languages confused me, so I kept speaking Spanish. When I started going to school, I still didn’t feel comfortable speaking in English, so I stayed quiet most of the time. Some thought I was mute, but I was just shy speaking a language that was relatively new to me. 

A group of us in Kindergarten went to ESL classes, where we had a patient teacher who made English comfortable for us. Then, as I started to spend more time in school speaking English, I dropped my Spanish. Luckily, I spent many summers with my grandma, who did not know a wink of English. Caso Cerrado, Teresa, La Rosa De Guadalupe, and participating in my family conversations helped too.  

My parents will make fun of me if I butcher my Spanish or use Spanglish. However, it is hard to perfect it when we’re in a culture where English is the primary language, and most of our days are spent with school and work where everyone speaks English. 

“In Peru, I am told not to speak walking down the street because my American accent will betray me.”

Visiting my parent’s homeland in Peru, I am told not to speak walking down the street because my American accent will betray me. If I mess up a pronoun or slang, people will laugh at me. When I sing along to Spanish songs, my family members are genuinely surprised. 

Latinos who immigrate may come to America not knowing English and can only get by with broken English. They are sometimes embarrassed by the language barriers, so they start to go to ESL classes or refuse to teach their children Spanish due to their own experiences. 

Many of my ESL students are often embarrassed by their voices or that they can’t speak fast enough. They envy my American dialect and wish to sound like me. I remind them how beautiful it is for them to even be in my classroom.

“Parents want their children to assimilate into a culture of belonging.”

Some of their parents tell me how thankful they are that their children’s schools teach them English. Others tell me how their children are their translators during back-to-schools or when it comes to filling out essential documents. Parents want their children to assimilate into a culture of belonging. 

There will always be a desire for the future generations to learn about their language aside from the basic Spanish taught in schools. It’s not about if they want to keep the language but about how often they are exposed to it and their culture’s upbringing.

“There’s a stigma of not being ‘Latino enough’ if you don’t know Spanish.”

Not teaching their children a language discourages them from speaking to relatives or from losing bilingual employment opportunities. It will often invalidate their Latino ethnicity if they butcher their Spanish or start speaking Spanglish. There’s a stigma of not being ‘Latino enough’ if you don’t know Spanish.

My grandma isn’t alive to force me to speak Spanish anymore, so I force myself to watch old telenovelas and talk to my parents and hope my English doesn’t slip. It is up to me and those like me, to carry our parents’ language and to instill the same in generations that come after us. But it’s important to remember that perfecting a language doesn’t define our place within its culture.