Comments on: Isolating the Bicultural Latino Because of Fluency Is Not The Answer

By: flsd.co

flsd.co — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 22:28:52 +0000

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Becoming a Certified Nurse Aide, or CNA as it is commonly known, is a rewarding career choice that will provide unlimited experiences to you in the health career field.
Failure rates are high as the pass rate for the test is 90% or more.

By: Karen

Karen — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 23:52:24 +0000

I don’t know where the author is getting her information, but it was the media who made this an issue, specifically The Daily Caller, the Guardian, and FOX News. They could’t attack Castro on the issues, so they had to create a fake controversy over language, as if we would be dumb enough to take the bait and reject him over something so irrelevant. Americans of Latino descent do not care if Castro or any other elected official speaks Spanish. What is matters is their position on the issues, not speaking Spanish.

I think the author needs to work out her own issues and not put them all on her daughter. Just my opinion….

By: Melanie/QueMeansWhat

Melanie/QueMeansWhat — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 17:57:41 +0000

Agree! Been at this battle for a while. I’m glad more and more are shedding light on this. In my world, Latinos bilingual and non are welcome alike. I will forever be ‘learning’ Spanish and finally at 35, I’m okay with that. I get to decide what my Latino identity is … Period. Great article!

By: Vanessa, DeSuMama

Vanessa, DeSuMama — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 17:49:44 +0000

Thank you, Elizabeth! I truly am saddened by others trying to define a person’s identity… and especially raising biracial kids, it hurts that our society is always trying to stick them in a box. I will say, though, that I hope our community continues to strive for fluency in Spanish. And not just for the connection to our heritage (or to be “Latino enough”), but because it is better for our world to raise kids with a global perspective. With a realistic and accepting outlook to the bicutural Latino experience, establishing a desire and efforts towards fluency (which is NO easy task!) can be accomplished. Gracias, amiga!

By: Gabriel

Gabriel — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 17:44:49 +0000

Elizabeth, great point! I have friends from Dublin, Ireland who came to live in the U.S. for a while. They HATED when Irish-Americans would say, “Hey, I’m Irish too!” My friends would respond with, “Well no, you’re American. I come from an island in the North Atlantic and am from Europe, you do not.” Always made me laugh.

The Latino label is a bit tough because it doesn’t designate a race or even a nationality. It’s a cultural label to link people from many different places. Maybe it’s similar to Judaism in that way. I know many people who are culturally “Jewish”, but they don’t speak Hebrew, don’t eat kosher, and don’t go to temple. And yet, many still count them as “Jewish”. So in that way, I think Vanessa has a good point about Latinos being linked even if they don’t speak Spanish–it’s like a non-praticing Jew who nonetheless knows a few Hebrew words and celebrates Hannukah.

And Vanessa, your story is familiar. I live in California and my last name is Garcia, but I have white skin and green eyes (my family is from Espana). Can’t tell you how many times someone has said, “But you don’t look Mexican!” Um…that’s because I’m not. Ay dios…que puede hacer?

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 17:32:13 +0000

Hola Vanessa!
You made an excellent point and did so very eloquently! Isn’t it ironic that a stink is being made and questioning Castro’s Latinoism because he doesn’t speak Espanol when no one EVER, EVER, JAMAS questions an Italian or German American, for example, for not speaking Italian or German? Could you even imagine what Rudy Giuliani would have said if they told him he couldn’t call himself Italian because he couldn’t speak Italian? It is so ridiculous….it makes me laugh!
Gracias y te mando un abrazo fuerte!

By: Vanessa, DeSuMama

Vanessa, DeSuMama — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 17:01:47 +0000

Fantastic point, Gabriel, and one I will be mindful of in my writings in the future. From a personal perspective, my use of the term Latino and/or Hispanic implies my experience as a brown, (semi) Spanish speaking person born and raised in the United States. Although I am Cuban by blood, I was raised in California and have a connection with Mexican cultures and dialects. I was not born in Cuba, and therefore I identify as Latino versus Cuban because that has been my experience. Certainly our society sees me as such. In my experience, mainstream hasn’t caught on to the many cultures, traditions and accents that make up the Latino experience in the United States. By the time I was 15 years old, I had stopped trying to explain that Cuba was an island 90 miles off our coast. I started to call myself American Latino, and that was that. My point in the piece is, mainly, that the American Latino experience is changing and includes people of all fluency levels. As a community, we should be prepared for that. However, your point is taken and appreciated. Gracias!

By: Gabriel

Gabriel — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:42:40 +0000

Vanessa, I generally agree with your article. I am raising my daughter bilingual and believe we should encourage more people to do the same. However, I take exception with one main contention of your article: does the term Latino (and Hispanic too) imply that people from multiple countries and cultures are united by a single language–Spanish? So if you don’t speak the language that unites the culture, it makes it harder to make a Latino claim. In “Bilingual is Better”, Roxana and Ana both make the point that they identify with their home countries. Roxana “feels” she is Peruvian and admits that neither Latino or Hispanic captures her true identity. These terms came about as uniting a people that speak a common language, and have other similarities too, but by definition, Latinos are connected through idiomatic ties. So a lack of fluency can, in some ways, diminish that.

Nonetheless, I love what SpanglishBaby and its contributors are all about and I hope you press forward. (Also, I love what Julian Castro is doing for Latinos in politics).