Dear Mexican: Our grandparents came from Mexico. The entire next generation spoke Spanish. However, in my generation, almost none of us do. One cousin’s daughter does, because the cousin married a bilingual spouse.
Most white people I know have long ago lost both an awareness of what their actual ethnic roots are, and the original language their people came to America with, when it wasn’t English. Heck, British English can be pretty confusing. My cousins and I, and most of our kids, only know of Spanish from Spanish classes. It’s clear we lost our language treasure.
Fortunately, we love being Chicanos. What do you know of this loss on a local or national scale?
Spangless Chicano
Dear Pocho: The 2011 National Survey of Latinos by the Pew Research Center reported that while 91 percent of first-generation Latinos said they spoke Spanish “very well/pretty well,” and 82 percent of the segunda generation did, only 47 percent of third-generation Latinos claimed the same—far higher than virtually all other immigrant groups, but still just about half of the first-generation percentage.
Far more telling is the language of preference for each generation while consuming culture: When it came to listening to music, the percentage rates of Latinos who listen to music exclusively in Spanish, English and Spanish, or exclusively in English changed dramatically toward preferring English between the first (49, 31, 18), second (18, 26, 54), and third (10, 16, 74) generations, respectively; the same happened with language preferences in watching television for the first (40, 34, 25), second (12, 17, 69) and third (5, 11, 83) generations as well.
The moral of the story? As I’ve been saying for a decade, all Mexicans irrecoverably become Americans in el gabacho—only the stats change, and always toward inglés. So much for a real Reconquista …
I am constantly in disbelief that so many undocumented immigrants—primarily Mexicans—risk life and limb to enter the U.S. to, as they’ll say, “provide a better life for their children.” Aren’t they aware that U.S. kids now are fatter, sicker and dumber compared to most of the rest of the world?
Since U.S. kids are presently “mandated” 68 risky, experimental vaccines by age 18, we now have epidemics of autism, asthma, learning disorders, diabetes, childhood cancers, ADHD, etc. We have the most vaccinated children in the world, with many more vaccines on the way: fodder for Big Pharma.
Conversely, most racists think illegals are “dirty” and bring diseases into this country, even though it’s been proven immigrant children are very healthy UNTIL they’ve assimilated into the U.S. Your thoughts?
Mother Warrior
Dear Gabacha: While you’re right about niños in the United States being a fat, lazy lot, and también right about Mexican kiddies becoming the same as they assimilate, your tirade against vaccinations is puras mamadas. There recently was a measles outbreak in Orange County, one of the largest to have happened in the U.S. in years. While patient-privacy laws prohibit us from knowing the identity of the victims, stats came out showing vaccination rates in la naranja. The least-vaccinated pendejos? Areas where rich, stupid gabachos were in the majority. Areas with the most-vaccinated people? Mexican-heavy cities.
Mexicans, unlike gabachos, don’t have the luxury of believing far-fetched conspiracy theories put out by celebrity chichis that put our children at risk—we’ve got curanderos for that.
Ask the Mexican at themexican@askamexican.net; be his fan on Facebook; follow him on Twitter @gustavoarellano; or follow him on Instagram @gustavo_arellano!
