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Most big cities have Hispanic neighborhoods, even in tiny Charlottesville, VA, there is a trailer park where the illegal immigrants live. But I'm wondering where in the U.S. are there entire tracts of 10,000+ people where you can't get by without speaking Spanish.
But you can't tell from these statistics whether the whole city is a mix of Spanish and English speakers and bilinguals, or whether there are large areas which are Spanish-only.
I'm thinking there are some obvious places: All of Puerto Rico, certain parts of South Florida in and near Miami, some places in and near Los Angeles, and the parts of Texas on the Rio Grande. Where else?
Yep. I think it has to do with needing a social security number to rent and get utilities, though I'm not exactly sure of the reason.
I feel like a good way of finding non-English speaking Spanish communities in the U.S. would be to use U.S. Census data about which homes speak Spanish and also speaks English less than "very well". This map would be helpful if it let you zoom in more:
But it's kind of useless because each dot represents an absolute NUMBER of how many people don't speak English, rather than a percentage: in any densely populated area, you're going to see a lot of dots.
Maybe somebody's compiled a more useful graph or map of this data, somewhere on the Internet.
Why do the conservative fringe radicals insist on constantly lying about the use of Spanish in the USA.
Fact: There are a lot of people who can speak Spanish (or Farsi or Albanian) more easily than English, and they speak to each other in Spanish (or Farsi or Albanian) in their private personal conversations. What they are talking about is not your business, and they have no obligation to explain their personal affairs to you in English.
Fact: There is no place in the USA where speaking Spanish is a requirement to getting a job, although it might be considered an asset for a few jobs that entail customer contact such as receptionists or shop clerks.
Fact: Sensible businesses can reach more prospective customers (and make more money) if they offer service explanations to clients who do not perfectly understand legal contractual arrangements in English. They also will talk to you on the phone in English, never forcing you to use Spanish.
Fact: The great majority of Spanish speakers in the USA are trying to improve their
English proficiency as fast as they can. If you think that is so easy to do with just a few days of effort, why don't you just learn to speak Spanish?
Why do the conservative fringe radicals insist on constantly lying about the use of Spanish in the USA.
Fact: There are a lot of people who can speak Spanish (or Farsi or Albanian) more easily than English, and they speak to each other in Spanish (or Farsi or Albanian) in their private personal conversations. What they are talking about is not your business, and they have no obligation to explain their personal affairs to you in English.
Fact: There is no place in the USA where speaking Spanish is a requirement to getting a job, although it might be considered an asset for a few jobs that entail customer contact such as receptionists or shop clerks.
Fact: Sensible businesses can reach more prospective customers (and make more money) if they offer service explanations to clients who do not perfectly understand legal contractual arrangements in English. They also will talk to you on the phone in English, never forcing you to use Spanish.
Fact: The great majority of Spanish speakers in the USA are trying to improve their
English proficiency as fast as they can. If you think that is so easy to do with just a few days of effort, why don't you just learn to speak Spanish?
Fact: There are many jobs in Texas (the only state I can speak for from personal experience) that do indeed require applicants to speak Spanish. I would bet that is also true in Arizona, New Mexico, and California, and possibly Florida. The business may not advertise this, but it's often one of the first questions a person will be asked in the interview.
I know this for a fact, having worked for years in the staffing industry in Texas.
But you can't tell from these statistics whether the whole city is a mix of Spanish and English speakers and bilinguals, or whether there are large areas which are Spanish-only.
I'm thinking there are some obvious places: All of Puerto Rico, certain parts of South Florida in and near Miami, some places in and near Los Angeles, and the parts of Texas on the Rio Grande. Where else?
I've been to Miami 3 times and while I agree that it may help to know Spanish, I don't think it's a requirement at all. I don't speak Spanish (except for the handful of common words that everyone knows) and I never even thought about it while I was there.
If people come here knowing barely any English and survive, I don't think it'd be a problem for English speakers to get by in a city that is only 35% Spanish speaking.
If you're in a major city, I wouldn't worry about it.
Living in Chicago, whenever I did encounter Spanish only people, usually at work selling them stuff, I made it by just knowing a few basic words and using visuals and hand gestures to communicate. Not hard. They also know a few English words, so it's all good.
Why do the conservative fringe radicals insist on constantly lying about the use of Spanish in the USA.
Fact: There are a lot of people who can speak Spanish (or Farsi or Albanian) more easily than English, and they speak to each other in Spanish (or Farsi or Albanian) in their private personal conversations. What they are talking about is not your business, and they have no obligation to explain their personal affairs to you in English.
Fact: There is no place in the USA where speaking Spanish is a requirement to getting a job, although it might be considered an asset for a few jobs that entail customer contact such as receptionists or shop clerks.
Fact: Sensible businesses can reach more prospective customers (and make more money) if they offer service explanations to clients who do not perfectly understand legal contractual arrangements in English. They also will talk to you on the phone in English, never forcing you to use Spanish.
Fact: The great majority of Spanish speakers in the USA are trying to improve their
English proficiency as fast as they can. If you think that is so easy to do with just a few days of effort, why don't you just learn to speak Spanish?
One of my friends in college said if you want to get quicker service always "oprema dos para Español" and then say oops do you speak English, and they'll always be bilingual and you'll skip the whole queue of English speakers and get to the front of the line, and talk to a person faster.
By the way, I've been all over LA and Orange County and never encountered anyone even the guys outside Home Depot who didn't understand at least basic English.
One of my friends in college said if you want to get quicker service always "oprema dos para Español" and then say oops do you speak English, and they'll always be bilingual and you'll skip the whole queue of English speakers and get to the front of the line, and talk to a person faster.
By the way, I've been all over LA and Orange County and never encountered anyone even the guys outside Home Depot who didn't understand at least basic English.
The de facto language of the US is ENGLISH. If immigrants want to make a new life here and not back in Mexico, they should switch to English. It was the case 200 years ago with the Germans, Italians, Hungarians, Slavic, Greeks, Chinese, Japanese.
It should be most certainly the case now.
You know...you are welcome to go back.
I have many first-gen immigrant friends and they all can speak English, some very well and to native standard.
I already have a feeling that Phoenix and Tucson were probably mentioned, but it honestly isn't as bad as lot of our extreme right-wingers like to put it.
I used to work at an amusement park in a poorer part of town in Phoenix. Most of the time when I met Mexicans, the kids knew English and their parents didn't. It was common for me to explain the rules of the ride and then let them translate to their parents. But a lot of the time they wouldn't know English at all. I would stick to doing motions and the communication was typically understood. They would also understand basic English. I did learn basic Spanish when I was working there too. Who knows, they could have visited from Sonora. I see Sonora license plates all the time.
A lot of signs in stores have Spanish below the English in a smaller font. No big deal. Most high school students/college students here know basic Spanish, and they typically work the minimum wage customer-service jobs. The bilinguals tend to always be hired first over the ones who aren't.
It would be nice if everyone spoke English, but as a border state we do get people who come from Sonora all the time (and other parts of Mexico). Even if we didn't have an illegal immigration problem, it would probably still be similar because of the state's roots and proximity to the border.
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