Speaking Spanish in the US. Janet M. Fuller
statistics on language knowledge and use that we examined in this chapter show that while not all Spanish-speaking immigrants are proficient in English (especially recent arrivals), essentially everyone in the second and subsequent generations is. Spanish maintenance, in contrast, is more variable. On one hand, the children and grandchildren of Spanish-speaking immigrants largely follow the three-generational pattern typical of earlier European immigrants. In other words, although about half of the second generation is bilingual (with most of the remainder dominant in English), by the third generation English is the norm. On the other hand, exceptions to this rule demonstrate that Spanish maintenance or reacquisition is possible. In Chapter 4 we critically analyze the language ideologies that work against Spanish maintenance, while in Chapters 5 and 6 we delve deeper into the role of Spanish in Latinx identities. Chapter 9 examines the role of ideologies in educational policies and the ways in which English-only policies contribute to language shift, as well as alternative approaches that can allow multilingualism to flourish. Of course, one goal of this book is to help make that possible.
Discussion Questions and Activities for Chapter 2
(1)Read Daniel José Older’s ‘I rejected Spanish as a kid. Now I wish we’d embrace our native languages,’ published in the 2019 volume, The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America (available online via Time Magazine at https://time.com/ 5528434/daniel-jose-older-spanish). Analyze his childhood rejection of Spanish and the societal factors that influenced it, as well as his sense of loss. What made him want to recover and strengthen his ability in Spanish and how did he go about doing so? Additionally, you may wish to compare Older’s experience with the myth that immigrants and their children refuse to learn English.
(2)In recent years, various organizations have pointed out that there are now more Spanish-speakers in the US than in many Latin American countries. Along the same lines, the Instituto Cervantes (2018) has suggested that US will surpass Spain in the number of speakers of Spanish (see, for example, ‘Number of Spanish speakers tops 577 million’ from the newspaper El País, available in English at https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/07/05/inenglish/1530780465_701866.html?fbclid=IwAR2k3wy1fLg_8czqbxhALxFqIeQhA0TgQuL71pjbo1zaTw8gz-ag7-iPUZA and in Spanish at https://elpais.com/cultura/2018/07/03/actualidad/1530619272_823616.html). What is this prediction based on? What factors might limit the growth in the US’ Spanish-speaking population? How are Spanish-speakers and the status of Spanish in the US different from other countries? Finally, why might the Instituto Cervantes (which receives funding from the government of Spain) be interested in publicizing and celebrating the number of speakers of Spanish in the US?
(3)In our discussions of demographics and patterns of language knowledge and use, we have made reference to different ‘generations’ of immigrants and their offspring. Consider the connotations of labeling someone as a ‘first-generation American’ versus a ‘second-generation immigrant.’ Which makes the most sense and why? In some discussions of immigration, people use the term ‘generation 1.5’ to refer to people who immigrated to the US as children. In what ways is generation 1.5 similar to and different from first- and second-generation immigrants? What patterns of language knowledge and use would you predict for generation 1.5? Are there any pros or cons to using this term?
(4)One issue that we return to repeatedly in this book is the role of Spanish in the construction of Latinx identity. In other words, can someone ‘really’ be Latinx without speaking Spanish? Can you think of examples from public discourse or interactions with friends in which the issue came up? Watch Remezcla’s Do you have to speak Spanish to be Latino? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKmrVdF17Lw), Mitú’s video Are you a REAL Latino if you DON’T speak Spanish? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNxPuQaGmNM) and BBC Mundo’s video of rapper Andrew Figgy Baby Figueroa (https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-50395013/i-m-hispanic-but-can-t-speak-spanish). Discuss your examples and/or the videos in light of the statistics and patterns of language maintenance and shift discussed in this chapter. Do you think demographic trends will have an impact on how people understand the relationship of Spanish to Latinx identity?
(5)In this chapter we identified several challenges in using Census Bureau data to determine how many people speak Spanish in the US. Sum up these challenges (as well as any others you might identify) and consider how they could be addressed. If it were up to you, how would you change the Census Bureau’s language questions (see Figure 2.2)? Are there any other language-related questions you would want to add? If you couldn’t make any changes to the Census Bureau’s language questions, what other methodologies might you use to complement the data and gain a better sense of how many people speak Spanish in the US?
(1)Moreover, Brokaw seems to simultaneously suggest two contradictory ‘problems’: (1) a high rate of intermarriage; and (2) a failure of Latinxs to integrate and assimilate.
García Bedolla, L. (2003) The identity paradox: Latino language, politics and selective disassociation. Latino Studies 1 (2), 264–283.
Leeman, J. (2004) Racializing language: A history of linguistic ideologies in the US census. Journal of Language and Politics 3 (3), 507–534.
Schecter, S.R. and Bayley, R. (2002) Language as Cultural Practice: Mexicanos En El Norte. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Velázquez, I. (2018) Household Perspectives on Minority Language Maintenance and Loss: Language in the Small Spaces. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Zentella, A.C. (1997a) Growing Up Bilingual. Oxford: Blackwell.
The History of Spanish and Spanish-speakers in the US
To examine the history of Spanish in the US, including Spanish exploration and conquest in North America and the Caribbean, US territorial expansion and the annexation of lands inhabited by Spanish-speakers, and the migration of Spanish-speakers to the US, and to analyze how history and the ways in which it has been represented shape the current status of Spanish and Spanish-speakers, as well to consider symbolic implications of the representation of that history.
In Chapter 2 we challenged the myth that people in the US who speak Spanish are primarily immigrants by pointing out that the majority of people who report speaking Spanish at home were born in the US are US-born. Further, while there is no denying that immigration to the US has played (and continues to play) a key role in the presence of Spanish in the US, it would be a mistake to classify Spanish exclusively as an immigrant language. Although conventional accounts of US history typically start with the English colonies at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 and Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620, the Spanish government had established a settlement in Virginia 80 years earlier (Taylor, 2002; Weber, 2000).1 Thus, Spanish was spoken in what is now