Personal Narrative: The Four Latino Speakers

Juan Gonzalez uses Chapter 12: “Speak Spanish, You’re in America!: El Huracán over Language and Culture” of his novel Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America to introduce a truly polarizing argument that has plagued the Latino community in the United States of America. Gonzalez is quick to point out that English is the common language in this country, though he is quicker to note that it should not necessarily be so. This author is so incredibly biased in this chapter that it is nearly impossible to disagree with his opinion without feeling like one is completely shutting out the entire Latino community. However, speaking as a member of this community, perhaps it is this unique insight that allows for not only a contending opinion, but also the framework to make the opinion relevant. Gonzalez makes brash claims with little supporting evidence and relies heavily on argumenta ad passiones to manipulate the reader’s emotions instead of focusing on rationalism and sound judgment. Quite possibly, it was the abundance of this logical fallacy that made it difficult to sympathize with his argument; though, it lays the basis for this chapter analysis.

I am a true victim of discrimination. As a Latina, living and being raised in The United States has been challenging. One of my earliest memories of being discriminated was back in high school. It was my freshman year there were so many things going through my mind such as would I be liked, would I make friends, but come on we all know the moments of crisis can take people by surprise well it did to me on a Monday morning. It was very windy made the tree branches dance literally no kidding as I was walking to school I noticed the entrance was crowded made it even worse it took me 10 minutes to get inside. As we arrived to our classes I notice I had Spanish first period. We had to introduce our self with details.

Upon reading and analyzing two different articles focusing on Latin American experiences and issues, it is important to note a particular correlation that appears in between the lines of these texts. Each of these works demonstrates a common theme of how Latinos are perceived within American society, and how this prejudice affects them in how they choose present their culture and claim their identity publicly. More specifically, they demonstrate how Latinos are forced to continually shift the way they present themselves in order to fit society’s standards of what an American citizen is.

At the age of 11, the news had never interested me until that day. I had begun my homework when a certain news reporter caught my attention. He was introduced as Jorge Ramos. He appeared on the TV screen, wearing an ironed white dress shirt and a striped blue tie. He was standing in front of a screen with bright graphs and pie charts reporting on bombing in the Middle East that had begun to occur more often in the past months. He spoke Spanish in such an articulate way, using many words that I did not understand. I noticed the way his tan face contorted into a deep sadness: his eyes were glossy and the wrinkles on his forehead became more prominent as he spoke. Immediately, I saw how compassionate he was. At the end of his report he urged viewers to donate to the Red Cross to aid the victims of the bombings and the tears threatened to fall from his eyes. From then on, I looked up to Jorge Ramos. Watching his reports daily made me realize that Latinos could also be smart, compassionate, and thoughtful, contrary to the stereotypes that are seen in the media. “Maybe being Latina isn’t so bad after all”, I

“Same here with Spanish. I only know the common words but not all of them. If you want me to, then I can teach you German. It’s an easy language to learn. I can tell you that saying hello in German is saying hall with an O at the end: Hall-O.”

Twenty years ago, in the year of 1996, my parents made a life-changing decision that would help develop an asset of being bilingual to my brothers and myself. My parents determined to migrate to the United States in pursuit of the great “American Dream.” I am the middle child of three, my sister Diana is the oldest and my brother Eduardo is the youngest. The first few years after we arrive our folks still did not spoke a word of English; therefor they depended on us to translate for them on a regular basis. I had different experiences while translating at that young age, a lot of them were awkward, others were scary, some were embarrassing, but for most of the time it was fun.

My project went fairly well as I hoped and I did get some good reactions when I spoke Spanish around some people. I did take notes during the entire process so I have some notes that I would be able to look back at and recall what happened during the process of this project. I tried to focus where I spoke Spanish specifically around people that didn’t look like they spoke Spanish just so I could see the type of reaction. I spoke Spanish in variety of different places to ensure that I would get a good amount of results and reactions from people that were different. I spoke Spanish at restaurants, gas stations, at school, at the mall, wherever I went. We made a pit stop for gas at a station in Coachella and as expected the clerk did speak Spanish

It is a very complex world to live in without language. One’s ideas, thoughts, and emotions can all be present, however, unable to be expressed. This is the world I imagined for my grandfather when he first immigrated to the United States with my grandmother and their four children. He raised his own children to know Spanish in hopes that his future grandchildren would also be involved in their Dominican ancestry. Although, when I am speaking the same words and sentences that my mother, father, sister and cousins do, they come out misarranged and sloppy. This was because I never truly learned how to speak Spanish.

It is definitely beneficial for me to to be in Spanish 3. I am in Spanish 3 because I love to travel and I plan on going to Mexico as well as other Spanish speaking countries. When I go to Mexico or somewhere else in South America, I want to speak what the native people speak. If I go somewhere and don't speak the language, then I am less likely to be treated well and to be shown the culture like a native. Spanish will also serve me in the future. If I am a doctor and a Spanish speaking person comes into the hospital...I can easily help them. On any kind of job application that the job requires human interaction, being able to speak Spanish is an asset that a employer would want. This would get the company more clients, work, and money overall.

When I first read the description of this I was thinking in my head that this could actually be an awesome movie. I start to watch it and then at the beginning of the movie it starts off with this bloody car crash and I had no idea what was happening. Then I was thinking this might not be as good I thought it would be. The more I watched, the more confused I became. I knew that the Spanish speaking-world was different than the life I live now, but I didn’t think it was that drastically different. The scene that surprised me the most and still is vividly in my head is when the dogs fight and one of the dogs end up being dead. As I’m watching I’m wondering if that happens in their daily life or if this is just something they made up to put in

The two subjects I have had trouble with in school have been Spanish and English. It comes to a surprise to many people that I struggle in Spanish given the fact that I'm Hispanic. But people don't realize how difficult it is to learn two languages at once. During my freshman year in high school when I first started taking Spanish my grammar was really bad.. One factor that contributed to my difficulty in Spanish was the fact that I never had to write in Spanish until I got to high school . I could speak Spanish efficiently because I was raised in a Spanish speaking family. But I never knew how to spell most words because I never had to spell them. So when I took Spanish I made many errors like not putting an accent in the right place, or misspelling

Never did I expect to want to leave the comfort of my small Jewish summer camp in Utica, Mississippi, where I have spent the past seven summers. However, last March while flipping through pamphlets describing opportunities to experience Spanish culture, I changed.

It’s great to hear from you! I’m quite surprised you’ve decided to learn my language, since you’ve always said Spanish seems difficult. Where are you attending your course? I mean, there are a lot of different well-known academies in my town and some of them are really close to my house. If that’s the case we could have lunch together, what do you think?

The Spanish language is in my blood, both literally and figuratively. Since my dad is from Argentina, I have always had a connection to Hispanic culture but was not taught Spanish in my home. I began learning Spanish in seventh grade and took the highest level offered in school every year. I was inspired to work hard in my language studies after discovering how useful and practical knowing the language can be. In the first few years of studying, my Spanish helped me grow a bond with the family on our building site on a service trip to Mexico. It let me see how thankful and genuine they were with the little that they had, and it enabled me to help others in my group connect as well. I was also able to use Spanish on a family vacation to Argentina

According to the 2010 U.S. census the Latino community makes up 16% of the country’s population and grew 43% from 2000 (Humes, Jones & Ramirez, 2011). Within this large community there is great diversity both culturally and linguistically (Schreffler, 2007), from newly arrived immigrants to individuals whose families have been established in the region for generations.