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I am a complete gringo and know no Spanish...moved to Albuquerque 3+ years ago...I have never once needed to know a lick of Spanish to survive as normal here. I overhear occasionally conversations casually between family and/or friends in Spanish...but everyone that I "need" to interact with always knows English. The language thing hasn't even been on the radar of an issue for me in living in Albuquerque - English by far rules the landscape.
It might be an added advantage for some specialized types of jobs, etc., to know Spanish here in Albuquerque, but frankly, I have held two professional jobs here, and it has never even come up - either from my employers / executives or the folks I have interacted with in all facets.
New Mexico is a huge state geographically so perhaps in certain smaller, isolated towns, it might be a bigger advantage, but in the big city of ABQ (or when I have visited Santa Fe and Las Cruces) I have never even thought of needing it.
It seems that New Mexico has one of the largest non-english speakers and spanish speakers population.
Knowing spanish language is defintely advantage(I guess),but what if you can't understand spanish at all?
I've been in New Mexico since the second grade in the early 70's and i can't think of anywhere in this state you need to be fluent in spanish. Some parts of Albuquerque South Valley and Trumbull neighborhood in the SE part maybe?
Maybe south of Las Cruces going to Anthony because of the Dairys and Pecans/Chile harvesting farms and ranches as alot of migrant workers out there.
I do not know much of Espanola as i've heard its spoken alot around there but i'm not sure.
So i wouldn't worry about it at all if that is a concern....
In any region close to the border of two countries in any place of the world, there is a little bit of melting of the two cultures. But in New Mexico there is the added factor, that it was under the Spanish Crown for four hundred years and naturally, there are vestiges of Spanish culture that are going to last for a long time. However, I don't think that knowing Spanish is absolutely necessary to "exist". In some jobs being bi-lingual is of course, an advantage because you can serve more customers, like banks, restaurants, stores, health professionals, teachers, public officials. It sure helps to know Spanish but I don't think that is absolutely necessary in order to live in New Mexico.
I have been a regular visitor to New Mexico for over 40 years, and lived in neighboring Colorado for nearly 50. New Mexico IS part of the United States and has been since 1848/1853. Yes, there are number of locals who still prefer to speak Spanish among themselves or at home. I actually admire many of them because they are truly bi-lingual. Like most of the Southwest, New Mexico is suffering through a flood of illegal immigration from Mexico and Latin America. These "illegals" should not be confused with true "Nuevo Mejicanos" who can trace their New Mexican roots back to the 1600's in many cases.
Northern New Mexico Spanish is especially interesting. Because the area was isolated from the rest of Spanish speaking Mexico for so long, the people in that area speak a variant of 16th Century Castilian Spanish. Linguists come from Spain to study the northern New Mexico Spanish dialect because that dialect died long ago in Spain, but still can be heard in northern New Mexico.
Spend some time in New Mexico and you will find yourself picking up and using common Spanish words and phrases pretty fast, anyway. Like any language, usually the slang and cuss words first!
"jazzlover" you're absolutely right about the XV Century Spanish that is spoken in certain parts of New Mexico, the same old Spanish (Cervantes' time Spanish) is also spoken in several isolated regions in most of Latinamerica. Except Colombia were they speak correct Castillian (Spanish is not the correct name) many non isolated areas of Latinamerica still have some words of antique Castillian in their vocabulary. Castillian is the language commonly known as Spanish, in reality they were many dialects spoken in the Hispanic peninsula through the centuries, until one Spanish King chose Castillian, that was spoken in the province of Castilla, as the official language of Spain. Something similar occured in Italy where Tuscan (the language of Dante) was chosen among many Italian dialects, to be the official language of Italy.
Even down in El Paso and Las Cruces there's some slang spoken like for example beer in Mexico is ''Cerveza'' but in El Paso or Las Cruces its ''Birria''.
Maybe south of Las Cruces going to Anthony because of the Dairys and Pecans/Chile harvesting farms and ranches as alot of migrant workers out there.
I should add to my post above (near the start of the thread) that when I worked in the school where half of the children spoke only Spanish it was indeed in Anthony. I didn't mean to imply that this might be the case elsewhere in New Mexico.
Even down in El Paso and Las Cruces there's some slang spoken like for example beer in Mexico is ''Cerveza'' but in El Paso or Las Cruces its ''Birria''.
"BIRRIA" is a Spanenglish Mexican slang, derived from the English word "beer". In Mexico "Birria" is a Lamb specialty of the state of Jalisco but it sounds a little bit like "beer". In Mexico, the slang for beer is "Chava".
I should add to my post above (near the start of the thread) that when I worked in the school where half of the children spoke only Spanish it was indeed in Anthony. I didn't mean to imply that this might be the case elsewhere in New Mexico.
~clairz
I went to Mesilla elementary school and 90% of the kids were Mexican and spoke little english. Their parents were mostly migrant workers who worked the fields (pecans, chile peppers etc..) in the Mesiila and Mesiila Park area.
Thats were i learned 90% of my spanish that i speak today.What you learn when your young you never forget so i consider myself very lucky for that experience. Lots of Hispanics here in albuquerque do not speak spanish and i think its cool that they ask me an Anglo/Saxon to translate. They also trip out where i work as i love to do my Cheech and Chong or the Three Amigos (Jefe, el Guapo) impersonations as i fit in well with Hispanics and Mexicans.
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I did most of my growing-up in New Mexico, Silver City particularly, and I feel that there plenty of people in the area that know both languages. So if you don't know any Spanish, don't think that you'll never make it down there. The people are very friendly and would love to help you out.
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