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This article is the ignorant opinion of one person and not at all a reflection of the Latin immigrant community. My mom's family were immigrants and all speak English now and have become naturalized citizens and speak English well. Most immigrants go out of their way to learn English, attending classes even when they are working 60/hr a week. They move here to get ahead, not to make some cultural statement about the supremacy of the Spanish language. There are way too many stupid people who may unfortunately have never have had contact with an immigrant in their cloistered isolated small town life.
She said she couldn't always respond to her parents in their native language because she's not fully fluent in that language, and that when this happened, she felt bad.
Any other 14-year-old girls you'd like to demonize, Aero?
Then, if it made her feel bad, why insert gringa...........who knows, no one is putting down this girl. I'm sure she has many friends who feel the same way.
This article is the ignorant opinion of one person and not at all a reflection of the Latin immigrant community. My mom's family were immigrants and all speak English now and have become naturalized citizens and speak English well. Most immigrants go out of their way to learn English, attending classes even when they are working 60/hr a week. They move here to get ahead, not to make some cultural statement about the supremacy of the Spanish language. There are way too many stupid people who may unfortunately have never have had contact with an immigrant in their cloistered isolated small town life.
Rep inbound.
My Italian forebears came to this country to be Americans. While they spoke Italian at home (mostly because it was easier) they made it a point to learn English and they made damned sure the kids learned English to the point of excellence because they wanted their kids to be American success stories and not bus tables for the rest of their lives.
Then, if it made her feel bad, why insert gringa...........who knows, no one is putting down this girl. I'm sure she has many friends who feel the same way.
I don't think "gringa" is a bad word. Maybe some people use it negatively, but that doesn't mean that this girl meant it negatively. And it may be her shorthand for feeling a distance between herself and her parents. When she watches American television or listens to American music, or prefers shopping at the mall to spending time with her mother, it may place not only a cultural but also an emotional distance between herself and her parents, that makes her feel sad and guilty. "Gringa" is not "lesser", it's "different". And at fourteen, there's a lot of ambivalence emotionally as a young woman begins to assert her independence from her parents, while not really being ready for that independence. The fact that she and her parents aren't speaking the same language, literally and figuratively, makes her transition to adulthood even more complicated.
This article is the ignorant opinion of one person and not at all a reflection of the Latin immigrant community. My mom's family were immigrants and all speak English now and have become naturalized citizens and speak English well. Most immigrants go out of their way to learn English, attending classes even when they are working 60/hr a week. They move here to get ahead, not to make some cultural statement about the supremacy of the Spanish language. There are way too many stupid people who may unfortunately have never have had contact with an immigrant in their cloistered isolated small town life.
You're kidding, right? Just the other day I was back in my small hometown in North Carolina and I counted seven Hispanics on one parking row at Wal-mart. Big deal...right? Wrong. When I grew up, I don't recall seeing seven Hispanics in that town in the entire first 18 years of my life.
The point? The point is that legal and illegal immigration has completely changed the fabric of this country. Literally millions of people moving in, not assimmilating, not contributing (Western Union baby!!), not doing anything but draining resources while putting our own people out of work.
It's a maze of a problem, no doubt, but lets not try to pretend that whatever idea of diversity you have your mind doesn't exist in the cracks and crevices of this country, including small towns all across this land.
You're kidding, right? Just the other day I was back in my small hometown in North Carolina and I counted seven Hispanics on one parking row at Wal-mart. Big deal...right? Wrong. When I grew up, I don't recall seeing seven Hispanics in that town in the entire first 18 years of my life.
Well your choices are either to move or accept your new reality. It is what it is.
Gringa is often defined as disparaging slang for a foreign female in Latin America..
im not in "latin america" im here 12 miles form the border or across the border. gringo is not a compliment and is not used in polite conversation and very rude to address someone as such.
You are missing the point. You WANT to interpret her remark in a negative manner. The remark itself, in context, wasn't all that negative. She was talking about not being fluent enough in Spanish to respond to her parents in Spanish. And not being able to do so made her feel bad.
This.
I don't see what the big deal is. From what I know from the latinos I knew in school and currently, a gringa is a white woman/girl. I don't see how that is negative, I guess she could have said a blanco/blanca and then it wouldn't be so negative but really. People are so sensitive.
What is the problem that she wants to take spanish. Also I think it is great when anyone knows their ancestral language. I'm black and the only ones I have is english and vernacular which is a pidgin language and I am very protective of it since it is from my ancestry and so I am not ashamed of it. We teach french and spanish and german primarily in schools anyway. I don't see the big deal.
Also wanted to note that I can understand when people speak to me in French from my high school/college classes but I cannot speak it very well at all so I can believe that she can understand and respond in english to her parents' spanish. I also feel she may have been ashamed of her spanish and sought to unlearn it for a time as a child. Children do these things as they want to fit in. At certain ages they get more nostalgic about their genealogy and maybe she is feeling this way and now wants to make sure she doesn't completely forget her parents' native tongue.
In my experience, Hispanics are probably the worse Spanish speakers and most reluctant to speak it from 3rd generation onward. This comes from 13 years of language, a BA in Spanish and study abroad. Hispanics are just like every other group to come through here. Sky isn't falling. Nothing to see here: move along.
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