Influx of the Spanish Language

So far, a lot of my reflection on the readings and our class discussions has involved my personal experiences and firsthand exposure to the race, class and culture social themes we have studied. It occurred to me that the characteristic of ethnic issues within the US that has impacted me the most is the issue of different languages all being spoken and relied upon within one country.

Specifically, from growing up in Northern California, I have experienced the language barrier with Mexican immigrants and the Spanish language. Because I live in Wine Country, there is a large population of Spanish speaking immigrants who have come for the opportunity to work in agricultural jobs. In many cases, the families of these immigrants have followed, which has significantly increased the Hispanic representation in our community.

When I first really recognized the impact of the Spanish speaking immigrant population on our community was just before sixth grade when I had to choose to take either French or Spanish for my foreign language requirement. Although I was set on the decision to study French, my mom challenged me and made sure I considered the important advantages to learning Spanish. Her primary reason for this consideration was because of the growing Spanish population around us, and the fact that many of them did not know very much English.

Although many of the Mexican immigrants work on learning English once they move to the US, it seems from my personal interactions and relationships, that learning the primary US language is a fairly slow process. My best reasoning for this is the fact that even in a country so new to them, most of their time is spent with other Mexican immigrants within the community they have established, or even by social pressures, have been compelled to establish. Although the men work in agriculture under primarily white employers, majority of their time is spent in the fields/vineyards with fellow immigrants from Mexico where they can speak in their native language. Similarly, many women work in services with fellow immigrants, limiting their need to use English. In addition, specific schools have very high proportions of students who speak English as their second language or grew up bilingual, speaking mostly Spanish in their home. This, as well as the adapted educational culture with Spanish speaking teachers and staff, allows for students to converse in Spanish throughout most of the school day. Additionally, similar to the theme we have studied in class, the immigrants often live in certain neighborhoods with other Mexican immigrants, which represents their isolation within the Mexican culture and Spanish language. Their necessary communication in English is limited, therefore meaning that they have little need to learn the primary language of their new home.

Furthermore, the local community has adapted to the needs of the Mexican immigrants by offering a multitude of resources in Spanish. This includes the requirement for many employees of local businesses to be able to speak basic, if not even fluent Spanish, the array of written materials offered in Spanish, and youth camps and community events hosted in Spanish.

With the influx of the Spanish language, community members have had great exposure to the Mexican culture, and the enriching opportunity to learn a new language. However, the controversy continues to be very apparent with the debate about how willing US communities have to be to adapt to foreign languages. With the cultural benefits come frustration and community divides when Spanish adapted aspects of the community interrupt the usual routines and needs of English speaking community members. An example being the time when my dad had to drive nearly an hour away to find a DMV office that offered a pamphlet he needed in English, not Spanish. In addition to inconvenience, the adaptation of the Spanish language redistributes valuable community resources such as funding and allocation of efforts, which questions the fairness of veering away from traditional focuses to accommodate such adaption.

Tying this back to my language decision in 6th grade, my mom’s perspective was for me to consider the evolving necessity to know the new language of our community, which, as we all know is also the rapidly growing language of California and other states with many Mexican immigrants. This decision left a lingering and unresolved question in my head: how fair is it for me, and many other English-speaking US citizens, to learn a specific foreign language just to get by in our own traditionally English-speaking community?