{"id":41503,"date":"2021-09-28T18:33:07","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T13:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/spanish-language-isnt-a-barrier-to-latinx-family-love\/"},"modified":"2021-09-28T18:34:11","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T13:04:11","slug":"spanish-language-isnt-a-barrier-to-latinx-family-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/spanish-language-isnt-a-barrier-to-latinx-family-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish Language Isn&#8217;t a Barrier to Latinx Family Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div>\n<ul class=\"summary-list summary-list-variant\">\n<li>Many young Latinx struggle with not being able to speak Spanish fluently to family or friends.<\/li>\n<li>In 2015, 73% of Latinxs spoke Spanish at home. This is a decrease from 78% in 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Mendez says that he is not fluent in Spanish and has missed out on many family relationships due to it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"inline-newsletter-signup\n                            inline-newsletter-signup-variant\n                           headline-regular\" id=\"formContainer\" data-component-type=\"inline-newsletter-module\" data-list=\"Business Insider Select\" data-acq-source=\"inlinesignupfenrir\" data-url=\"\"><\/p><\/div>\n<p>My great-grandmother died in June. She was the matriarch and the reason her 13 children were allowed to move to the United States from Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n<p>Her family grew quickly and she soon had 37 grandchildren and 34 greatgrandchildren. Two more were due to be born.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As she was being buried, more than 300 people came and went from the funeral home to pay their respects for a woman who had made such a difference in the lives of those around her. As my family cried, I went to comfort them. I tried to recall the memories that I had as I approached the casket.<\/p>\n<p>I couldn&#8217;t remember any.<\/p>\n<p>The family matriarch had fought Alzheimer&#8217;s disease for many years and suffered two strokes before her death. She was permanently disabled from this and she was unable to walk for most of her life. As a teenager, she spoke very little.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As she grew older, her voice became more muffled and eventually she stopped speaking altogether.<\/p>\n<section class=\"content-recommendations-in-post-module-1\"><\/section>\n<p>Growing up in New York, I learned English. My parents tried to teach Spanish to me by speaking to me in Spanish, but it never worked. However, I learned a lot about it as a child and continued to study Spanish at an intermediate level in highschool and college.<\/p>\n<p>But I was never fluent enough to hold conversations long enough to connect with a large portion of my family members \u2014 my great-grandmother being one of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This doesn&#8217;t mean that I don&#8217;t love them or respect them. It&#8217;s something I have observed as I get older and was hard to ignore at the funeral of my great-grandmother.<\/p>\n<p>People who don&#8217;t speak Spanish fluently and those from other cultures feel similar feelings about missing out on family relationships.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to a study conducted by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/fact-tank\/2017\/10\/31\/use-of-spanish-declines-among-latinos-in-major-u-s-metros\/\" data-analytics-module=\"body_link\" rel=\"noopener\">Pew Research Center in 2015<\/a>, the number of Latinx people who speak Spanish at home sat at 73% percent, a decrease from the 78% percent reported in 2006.<\/p>\n<p>This, compounded with constantly being asked when I&#8217;m going to learn Spanish, along with not feeling &#8220;Latinx&#8221; enough.<\/p>\n<section class=\"content-recommendations-in-post-module-2\"><\/section>\n<p>Before a shower one night, I decided to listen to an episode of NPR&#8217;s podcast, &#8220;Code Switch&#8221; that featured The Kid Mero, one-half of the comedy collective on Showtime&#8217;s &#8220;Desus &amp; Mero,&#8221; who spoke about being Dominican-American, and so much of what he said resonated with me.<\/p>\n<p>Mero told a story about teaching his children Spanish in Spanish. He also talked about how he laughed about his German-American wife trying to teach his kids Spanish.<\/p>\n<p>It resonated with me because he spoke about how Dominican people speak Spanish \u2014 very fast and in a particular dialect \u2014 and how he felt formal Spanish might not give him the tools to communicate with family members.<\/p>\n<p>I related to both sides of this story \u2014 Mero and his wife.<\/p>\n<h2>Many young Latinx struggle with not being fluent in Spanish<\/h2>\n<figure data-type=\"img\" data-e2e-name=\"image-figure-image\" data-media-container=\"image\"><\/figure>\n<p>One reason I don&#8217;t speak Spanish is because of trauma \u2014 for lack of a better word.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The humiliation of speaking poor Spanish is a constant reminder of how bad you are. I don\u2019t want to make mistakes, my brain is in overdrive, and it completely shuts down.<\/p>\n<section class=\"content-recommendations-in-post-module-3\"><\/section>\n<p>While it might not be the same, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AOC\/status\/1169793795153641472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1169793795153641472&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fremezcla.com%2Flists%2Fculture%2Falexandria-ocasio-cortez-on-struggling-with-spanish%2F\" data-analytics-module=\"body_link\" rel=\"noopener\">Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also spoke<\/a> about not being fluent in Spanish and needing &#8220;public practice&#8221; to improve after a 2019 interview with the Spanish-language network Univision. It was encouraging to see her admit her Spanish struggles, which I sought validation for.<\/p>\n<p>I have learned Spanish fluently over the years. Duolingo is a great app to brush up your Spanish skills. I already know the majority of the information they offer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It also doesn&#8217;t have a setting for &#8220;Dominican Spanish,&#8221; making it feel useless to learn this way.<\/p>\n<p>Slowly, I am coming to terms my position on learning Spanish.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/hiplatina.com\/non-spanish-speaking-latina\/\" data-analytics-module=\"body_link\" rel=\"noopener\">an essay for HipLatina, Journalist Samantha Leal wrote<\/a> that her lack of fluency in Spanish doesn&#8217;t mean she lacks any Latinidad.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Spanish is an inherent part of the Latino identity. As it should be,&#8221; Leal wrote. &#8220;You can identify with your ancestors and your family, you can eat your tia&#8217;s tamales, and dance and sing to the song that reminds you of home even if you know what two-thirds of the words mean.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She continued, &#8220;You can be proud of your cultura and what that means to you. It doesn&#8217;t make you any less than.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>English or Spanish, language isn&#8217;t a barrier to Latinx family love<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"figure image-figure-image image-figure-float-left float-md-left \" data-type=\"img\" data-e2e-name=\"image-figure-image\" data-media-container=\"image\">\n<div class=\"lazy-holder \" style=\"padding-top: calc(100% * 480 \/ 960)\">\n<p>                            <img class=\"lazy-image \" viewbox=\"0 0 1 1\" data-content-type=\"image\/jpeg\" srcs='{\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/60df559b7cd04c001a227b6c\":{\"contentType\":\"image\/jpeg\",\"aspectRatioW\":2,\"aspectRatioH\":1}}' alt=\"Mendez DR family\"><\/p>\n<p>                            <noscript><br \/>\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Spanish-Language-Isnt-a-Barrier-to-Latinx-Family-Love.jpeg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><br \/>\n                            <\/noscript><\/p><\/div>\n<p>                            <span class=\"image-source-caption \"><figcaption class=\"image-caption headline-bold\" data-e2e-name=\"image-caption\">\n                                The author with most of his cousins and his great-grandmother at her 70th birthday in 2001.<br \/>\n                              <\/figcaption><span class=\"image-source headline-regular\" data-e2e-name=\"image-source\"><br \/>\n                                  Moises Mendez II\/Insider<br \/>\n                                <\/span><br \/>\n                            <\/span><br \/>\n                        <\/figure>\n<p>More than 100 people gathered at my great-grandmother&#8217;s gravesite for her burial.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Her sister rests on the hill next to her, overlooking a busy main street. Before the priest started the service, a funeral attendant began to distribute flowers in various colors for the casket.<\/p>\n<p>Purple was my great-grandmother\u2019s favorite color. It was her favorite color and I remember seeing it in many photos of her over the years.<\/p>\n<p>I became overwhelmed with emotion and turned my head as the flowers were being given out. I knew that if they looked at me, I would cry. It was their final goodbye.<\/p>\n<p>I tried to remember a good memory that I had with her, but my brain was not cooperating. As I tried to think of something, I felt selfish for feeling these feelings of grief for someone I rarely spoke to.<\/p>\n<p>As I tried to keep my tears from gushing, the lump in my throat got larger. My head kept whispering to me to stop crying as my family members wept and sniffled. &#8220;You didn&#8217;t get to know her that well. It&#8217;s not your place to cry,&#8221; I kept saying that.<\/p>\n<p>As I watched my younger cousins struggle to hold the pieces together, I held on to my mom&#8217;s hands. I wondered how our relationship with her would have looked if we had the chance to meet when I was older.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I thought she might have tried to connect with me and her great-grandchildren, who don&#8217;t know Spanish. While I can see the language barrier today with many aunts and uncles of mine, I remember that many of my relatives still love to see me and are willing to chat and connect as much as possible.<\/p>\n<p>I was handed a purple flower by the attendant. It was a small gesture, although it seemed insignificant, that was nevertheless comforting. It was a simple reminder to love transcends language.<\/p>\n<p>As if it were a sign from her, I took it as a message from her. &#8220;Don&#8217;t worry, we might not have understood each other, but I love you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<section class=\"content-recommendations-in-post-module-fixed\"><\/section>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many young Latinx struggle with not being able to speak Spanish fluently to family or friends. In 2015, 73% of Latinxs spoke Spanish at home. This is a decrease from 78% in 2015. Mendez says that he is not fluent in Spanish and has missed out on many family relationships due to it. My great-grandmother [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":41504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,3,105,106],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/1632834188_Spanish-Language-Isnt-a-Barrier-to-Latinx-Family-Love.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41503"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}