What makes you Hispanic?
Recently at a family gathering one of my family members asked my son a question in Spanish. Even though I taught him Spanish as a baby, the older he gets the less he speaks it and understands it. I am a Mexican born but moved to the US when I was 2, because of that I consider myself first generation american. I have been here my entire life. My son now only uses English, he knows no different. So why is not knowing Spanish automatically get your Hispanic card revoked?
Growing up obviously I spoke spanish and my household spoke spanish. When I attended Elementary school I was in ESL classes and Spanish was a big part of me. By the time I got to High School, English was my main language. I had to learn to write, speak and read. That is what the education system required, so I did. I still spoke Spanish at home but most of my time was at school and with my friends. English just took over every part of my life. Even at home I was the translator for my parents. They too were trying to learn but since I was the oldest and the one with the “better English” I had to translate most of their important paperwork and conversations. To this day I am still the one they call on to take care of any important document they might not understand. Due to the responsibility, the culture and the school system it was obvious that English was now the main language.
But even with English being my main language, when my son was born I decided to switch to Spanish so he would be able to communicate with family. From the time he was born through Elementary school we spoke Spanish to him. His father and I were determined for him to be bilingual. Until he was given a reading test. We could not understand why my son could not read. We read to him at home and obviously his teacher was teaching him to read but he was just not exceeding. We started to believe there might be something that was preventing him from reading. Then his dad passed and the task was now mine alone. I tried all methods from old school to new school. My son was gonna read. It was my mission. But then his teacher suggested that we test him in English. I was hesitant at first because it was important to his dad that our son spoke spanish. But I did, I allowed them to switch him to English. To our surprise there was nothing wrong with this boy. He just could not read spanish. Not only could he read English very well, He could also write and speak it. He jumped from Level A to J in a matter of days.
That day I made a choice that was best for my child. I was so stuck on trying to continue a tradition that I thought was important and by doing so I was not allowing my child to reach his full potential. Now do I think he should know Spanish, yes absolutely. Being bilingual will help him in his career in the future. But do I think that not knowing Spanish somehow makes him less Hispanic, no! A language does not make you a race, Culture does. To be honest that is what is wrong with us “white washed” hispanics. Yes our parents taught us a language that is spoken in our land but they never taught us the culture or our history. That is why a lot of us first generation kids feel so lost. We grew up one way at home but a different way at school. So no, my son does not know spanish. He proudly called himself an American (because he is). He knows who he is and for that I am extremely proud.
