Speaking Spanish in the US. Janet M. Fuller
to address race and ethnicity in Chapter 5, emphasizing both the socially constructed nature of race and the role of language in its construction, comparing constructions of ethnoracial identity in Latin America and the US and examining the ethnoracial classification of Latinxs. The focus on identity is broadened and deepened in Chapter 6, where we present more detail on the theoretical underpinnings of research on language and identity, and we examine the connection of speaking Spanish to a broad range of identities, such as gender, sexuality, nationality and so forth. These chapters have been significantly revised and updated to include expanded theoretical frameworks and recent empirical research. This is also the case for Chapter 7, which addresses how Latinxs are portrayed in the media, and how these portrayals draw on ideologies about language, race and other identities in the construction of Latinidad. New sections examine Spanish-language media and language in the built environment.
Chapter 8, another new chapter, addresses language policies in the US, with a brief history of the rise of English in dominance as well as the persistent multilingualism of the US, and an examination of the role of ideologies in language policy. Chapter 9 focuses on policies and practices in one important sector of society, education, looking at the goals and effectiveness of different models for educating Spanish-speakers, and linking these pedagogical approaches to ideologies about multilingualism, Spanish and Spanish-speakers. We have expanded the treatment of the teaching of Spanish to heritage speakers and added a new section on teaching Spanish as a second or additional language.
Chapter 10 shifts to a more linguistic focus and looks at structures that result from the contact between English and Spanish, as well as other languages, in the US. Included in this new edition are discussions of different varieties of Spanish spoken in the US, language mixing and contact between Spanish and English, and Latinx Englishes. Finally, Chapter 11, another new chapter, provides an overview of important takeaway points from this textbook, future directions and a call to action.
(1)Later on, we will explain our use of this term; please see discussion below as well as in Chapter 5.
(2)By American, Lozano means ‘of the United States.’ It is worth noting that many people object to this usage given that America encompasses all of North, Central and South America, rather than just the United States.
(3)Usually pronounced like ‘LaTEEnex’ but also sometimes as ‘LAtin-ex’.
(4)Another gender-neutral formulation gaining ground in Latin America replaces the -a and -o endings with -e.
The Demographics of Spanish in the US
To present quantitative data regarding the place of birth, national origins, geographic distribution and linguistic profiles of people who speak Spanish in the US, discuss some limitations of official statistics, and explain patterns of Spanish maintenance and shift as well as the factors that shape them.
As we said in the previous chapter, the US Census Bureau reports that in 2017 there were over 41 million people in the US who spoke Spanish at home. In this chapter, we try to give a sense of who these speakers of Spanish are by providing statistics about their nativity (i.e. whether they were born in the US or abroad), their national origin or ethnicity and their geographic distribution within the US. We then turn to a consideration of patterns of language knowledge and use. Specifically, we address questions such as whether or not people who speak Spanish also speak English, whether Spanish can be seen as encroaching on English and whether Spanish–English bilingualism is the norm among US-born Latinxs. In order to answer these questions, we present statistics from the Census Bureau and we explain the limitations of that data. We then go on to examine statistics from other sources that can shed additional light on generational patterns of language knowledge. Finally, we discuss theoretical approaches to the study of language maintenance and/or shift, including a consideration of the societal and individual factors that have an impact and the ways in which they play out in the case of Spanish in the US.
A Statistical Portrait of Spanish in the US
In the US, many people think of Spanish as a foreign language and a common misconception is that people who speak Spanish in the US are primarily immigrants. Further, public discourse often portrays Spanish as a language not just of immigrants, but of unauthorized immigrants (Dick, 2011; DuBord, 2014; Leeman, 2012a). In reality, however, more than half (53%) of the people who speak Spanish at home were born in the US (American Community Survey 2017 Five-year estimates). These data, together with Spanish’s long history within the current borders of the US (discussed in detail in the next chapter), make it clear that Spanish is not a foreign language (Alonso, 2006; Lozano, 2018). In addition to the implications for how we think about Spanish, these statistics also have concrete linguistic and sociolinguistic repercussions. Specifically, they mean that a majority of Spanish-speakers are either bilingual or dominant in English. Thus, it bears emphasizing that when we use the term ‘Spanish-speakers’ we don’t mean people who are monolingual in Spanish; instead, we are referring to people who speak Spanish, regardless of whether or not they also speak English and of which language they use more frequently. The high rates of Spanish–English bilingualism and language shift to English (discussed below) have important implications for educational policy and language policy more broadly (discussed in Chapters 8 and 9).
Another common misconception is that all Latinxs speak Spanish. Some people even use the terms Spanish-speaking and Latinx interchangeably, as if they were synonyms. Further, some Latinxs believe there is an obligation to know Spanish and, among those who don’t, feelings of shame or guilt are not uncommon (we will return to this issue later in this chapter). However, even though some people consider speaking Spanish to be a key part of ‘authentic’ Latinx identity (a topic we will return to several times later in this book), a look at the statistics reveals that roughly a quarter (27%) of Latinxs aged five and older speak only English at home (ACS 2017 Five-year estimates). The percentage of Latinxs born in the US who only speak English at home is even higher (41%). Because a growing share of Latinxs are US-born (66% in 2017; ACS 2017 Five-year estimates), the overall share of Latinxs who speak only English is also on the rise (López & González-Barrera, 2013).
So far, we have talked about the number and percentage of Spanish-speakers in the US as a whole, but we want to stress that there is a great deal of variation from state to state, county to county and city to city. As shown in Figure 2.1, the states with the highest percentage of Spanish-speakers in the population are in the Southwest, followed by Florida and then New Jersey and New York. In Maine, Spanish-speakers represent less than 1% of the population, while in Texas they comprise over 29%, demonstrating the tremendous range. There are also differences within states; taking Florida as an example, in the city of Miami roughly 67% of the population aged five and older speak Spanish at home, but in St. Petersburg city just 4% do. As we discuss in detail in the next chapter, the states with the highest percentages of Spanish-speakers are not just closest to Mexico; they were part of Mexico until the mid-19th century. Still, even though the percentage of Spanish-speakers is lower in some parts of the country, Spanish is the most commonly spoken non-English language in every state except Alaska, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Vermont (Blatt, 2014).