Re: I don't know ANY third generation hispanic-Americans that speak good spanish, if they speak it at all.
Huh?! Check again....
Will Spanish become America's second language?
Discussion / Activity
September 25, 2001 Posted: 12:04 PM EDT (1604 GMT)
By Joel Hochmuth
CNN NEWSROOM
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- It's not just your imagination. In cities from coast to coast, the use of Spanish is booming, and is proliferating in ways no other language has before in U.S. history -- other than English of course. It's a development that's making some people nervous. It's making others rich.
Renan Almendarez Coello is the undisputed king of Los Angeles radio. His Spanish language talk show on "La Nueva" 101.9 FM is the highest rated show of any L.A. radio station, including those broadcasting in English. He's sort of a cross between Howard Stern and Oprah Winfrey, at times sexually explicit -- at others sincerely compassionate.
His program is widely popular among the area's booming Latino community. There are 4.2 million Hispanics in Los Angeles County alone, the largest concentration in the United States.
Almendarez, who immigrated to the U.S. 20 years ago from Honduras, thanks other newer immigrants for his success.
"They hear this crazy guy talking...amid the sadness they carry because they just arrived," he says. "When you first arrive in this country you feel very sad, abandoned and lonely. I identify with them."
It's obviously a formula for success. Almendarez is now broadcast in 15 markets around the U.S. and has created his own media empire -- entirely in the United States and with very limited English skills.
He says the rest of America should get used to the sound of Spanish and calls it the second language of the United States.
"They should say it now. They should talk about it and write about it. They shouldn't just whisper about it or question whether it is a fact or not. No, it is true. It is a reality."
On the streets of Los Angeles, of course, it's easy to find those who speak little or no English, even successful business owners. Olivia Marroquin Galeno has operated a beauty shop in the Boyle Heights neighborhood for nearly 10 years. An immigrant from Mexico, she's never really had to learn English, since she estimates about 97 percent of her customers speak Spanish. She's tried to take English classes, but has had to drop out because, as she says, "I have to take care of my house and my work, so I don't have much time left."
'We are beginning to divide ourselves'
It's this sort of environment that is a cause for concern for many. Mauro Mujica heads a group called "U.S. English," which lobbies for official English laws across the country. He's concerned that with so many Spanish speakers entering the country (about 10 million in the last decade according to census figures), the U.S. will become a nation split by language, much like Canada [and Belgium!].
"Now we're beginning to divide ourselves, to split along linguistic lines. We're beginning to see pockets of people who speak other languages and no English whatsoever."
His fear is hardly universal. Gregory Rodriguez is a fellow with the New America Foundation, a non-partisan think-tank based in Washington, D.C. He calls Mujica's arguments "ridiculous."
"This process of immigrant enclaves and linguistic enclaves is an age-old American process. We've all heard the quotes from Benjamin Franklin about his concerns that German-Americans would never assimilate. These concerns are as old as the American republic."
'It is a myth'
Rodriguez argues that the current boom in the use of Spanish is due almost entirely to new immigrants, and that their children will, at least for the most part, learn English. He points to 1990 census data, which indicates that by the third generation in, two-thirds of all Hispanic children speak English exclusively. Whether that number is going up or down will be difficult to determine since the Census Bureau didn't track that information in its most recent census.
But there may be at least one piece of anecdotal evidence. Spanish-language movie theaters once flourished in the Los Angeles area. According to Mike Doban, President of Trans-Lux Cinema Consulting, there were dozens of these theaters just fifteen years ago. Today there are only seven. He says the reason is that, as more and more immigrants learn English, they have less interest in watching movies with subtitles.
"There is a myth that somehow immigrants come to the most powerful nation in the world simply to resist its cultural embrace," says Rodriguez. "But it is a myth."
But Mujica again points back to the growing numbers of Hispanics who speak only Spanish and are "trapped" in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods throughout big cities and along the U.S.-Mexico border. "We begin suffering as a nation. We're no longer able to communiate with all the other Americans out there."
Immigrant enclaves are, of course, common throughout American History. German and Polish enclaves were common throughout the Midwest. The Italians flourished in New York. But those languages largely faded from use in the U.S. Few are predicting that will happen with Spanish. It's here to stay, although we won't know its ultimate impact for generations.
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