Young Hispanics no hablan Espanol

SunTimes.com ^ | May 13, 2003

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

About once a week, Lucia Margarita Rios gets a telemarketing call or a mailing in Spanish.

And she barely understands a word of it.

"They think because of my name that I am Spanish, but I only understand a few words before I stop them and tell them I just don't understand what they are saying," said Rios, a 22-year-old graduate of Roosevelt University.

She is among a growing number of young Hispanics who are the children of immigrant parents but never learned Spanish at home.

Figures from the 2000 U.S. Census show a large number of adult Illinois residents speak Spanish, but only a small percentage of children do. About 24 percent of Chicago adults between 18 and 64 years old speak Spanish at home. That number drops to less than 6 percent for kids 5 to 17.

"There are a couple of good reasons why this happens," said Kim Potowski, an assistant professor of Spanish at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "There are many of these kids who were born and raised in the United States, and the parents see how much they had to struggle [so] they are willing to sacrifice teaching them Spanish so their children can have the American dream."

She said some Latino immigrant parents come to this country with little education and immediately see the importance of having their children learn English. Ironically, Potowski said, it's the bilingual graduates who turn out to be more sought-after by employers and earn more money than non-Spanish-speaking Latinos.

Because of that, many of those children turn to schools to teach them about their heritage and their mother language. But that can prove challenging--and sometimes embarrassing.

"When you have a name like Lucia Margarita Rios, people wonder why you don't speak Spanish," said Rios, who took Spanish classes at Roosevelt.

She said her dad never taught her the language and was not close to his Mexican family. Rios last summer interned with the Pilsen/Little Village Information Center to learn more about her heritage--and practice her Spanish.

But some children of Latinos never picked up the language because of the negative stigma associated with being Hispanic in some communities. Laurel Martinez, a 20-year-old Chicago woman who grew up in Houston, said she resisted learning Spanish at home because she didn't want to be discriminated against.

She took a semester of Spanish at school but gave it up.

"People still come up to me and think I speak Spanish because I have dark hair and olivish skin," Martinez said. "I might try to take a class again someday."

That way, she can at least tell them, "No hablo Espanol."

[.38sw]

Why should this be an issue? Do we see articles about children of immigrants from other countries, say, Russia? "Children of Russian Immigrants no longer speak Russian!" The Hispanic children of these immigrants speak English - as they should. Aren't they Americans?

[Grand Old Partisan]

This is good news, to counter the despair of people who mistakenly think that Hispanics are not integrating themsleves into American society.

[Blue Screen of Death]

Spanish might be wonderful and nice to learn, but the board meetings at IBM are held in English. No matter what the multiculturalists say, you are going to get better jobs speaking Calculus than Spanish.

[1stFreedom]

I don't speak spanish either. I'm an American, and I speak the common tounge.

[TexanToTheCore]

This is a predictable and quite normal process for all immigrant families. Why it should garner such tearing of hair and renting of clothes is beyond me.

[DoughtyOne]

I'm sure you can explain why I have to chose from between two and four languages every time I call a utility or a business concern. So much for your theory. If people come here legally, I have no problem with it, although I think we are incredibly stupid if we allow large numbers of immigrants from terrorist states.

[jrushing]

"When you have a name like Lucia Margarita Rios, people wonder why you don't speak Spanish," said Rios, who took Spanish classes at Roosevelt.

When I worked in Miami, I had a Cuban-American co-worker who complained about her children having to attend Spanish classes.. I told her that I was born in America & took English for 12 years in school & I still had problems with it! Yes, even Americans have to take English classes.

[ReagansShinyHair]

I don't speak Danish, either. Nobody's crying about that. They don't even offer Danish classes at any schools in my area, either (or probably in most of the country). It's so unfair! My people are being opressed and discriminated against!

Please. It just makes sense to have everyone learn one language. It happens to be English here. Or at least, it did.

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

My people are being opressed and discriminated against!

You are completely correct! I may have finally found an issue about which I can cry and whine so loudly that some such

'Celebrate Diversity, the Grand Queen Ants and all Pinecones'

'PC' preachin' group may even award me lots and lots of money for my pain!!

tacky, i know...just couldn't resist...

[Zeppo]

It could be worse - she could be getting telemarketing calls in Klingon. Uh, wait, that is a different thread, sorry...

[Redcloak]

You will be assimilated.
Resistance is futile.

[Redcloak]

I was thinking about answering the phone in Sindarin for any calls during dinner.

[arthurus]

It is a good article because it shows that these folks are really striving to be full Americans and are resisting the attempts of the liberals to keep them in the maids-and-gardeners class. I am sure it is a shock to the media types and the liberals who have tried to convince the rest of us that it is terribly important that immigrants would be psychologically and culturally crippled if forced to be mainstream citizens.

[ThanhPhero]

I answer the phone in Vietnamese when it is likely a sales call. I did that to one lady who came right back at me in the language and we had a delightful conversation in a language her super could not understand.

[ThanhPhero]

Cam on ong/ba/anh/chi/em which is "thanks."

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Next class of people to be discriminated against will be those who are bi-lingual. Only because they didn't resist hard enough and assimilated. In the future, translators may be in even bigger demand!

[FITZ]

It depends on where you live obviously. Here one-half the kids are in Spanish speaking classrooms, one third the population speaks Spanish only (no English at all), only about a third speaks English well ---the rest speak partial English ----however only one fourth is from Mexico. There would be no need for all the expensive "bilingual" ed if kids were really being allowed to learn English. Also the hispanic dropout rate is now 50% and quite a bit higher than the black dropout rate, they aren't assimilating all that well.

[FITZ]

I think it's a factor of where you live ---there are probably areas of the country which are still English speaking and immigrants there are the ones who are able to learn English. There are areas which no longer can be called English speaking, often here the store clerks will count out your change in Spanish and cannot answer you in English.