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Lost in translation: English-only Latinos sometimes face a barrier to their own culture

By: ADRIAN GOMEZ - Staff Writer

Sandra Ponce works helping youths and their parents for a living. Yet with all the communication her job entails, she's afraid sometimes that her words will be lost in translation.

Ponce is among a growing number of first-, second- and third-generation Latinos who grew up speaking English only and now find themselves facing an identity crisis.

"Because I don't speak Spanish, people look at me like I'm not Latino enough," Ponce said. "I understand it (the language) ---- I just can't respond."


Ponce is the assistant director of the Upward Bound Program at Cal State San Marcos. The program is designed to help high school students develop the skills and motivation necessary to ensure high school graduation and future success in college.

A big part of Ponce's job is going to meetings conducted in English and Spanish.

"What my colleague and I do is split the meeting in two," she said. "I will speak in English, while she translates in Spanish."

'I feel out of place'
Ponce grew up in the Los Angeles area. Both her parents are Spanish speakers, and she has other siblings who are bilingual. She said that when her father was in school during the 1930s and '40s, he was teased because he couldn't speak English well.

"This led him to believe that my sister and I would be better educated and successful if we only spoke English," she said. "And he feels like he accomplished this, because my sister and I both graduated from college."

But Ponce said there are times at work when she feels that her inability to speak Spanish is an issue.

"I work with students ... 60 percent of them speak Spanish," she said. "It's stressful when I do a parent meeting. There's always that courtesy, that I'm letting them know that it's me who doesn't understand. In those situations, I feel helpless, and I feel like I'm being judged."

While Ponce feels this way in the workplace, Leslie Vasquez, 18, feels out of place at home, where her parents and grandparents speak primarily in Spanish.

Vasquez is a student at Palomar College who dreams of being a lawyer. But reality set in when she realized that one day, she will have to tackle learning Spanish.

"I've tried to learn Spanish, but it never worked," she said. "It's easier to learn parts of Spanish, but nowadays everyone speaks it, and it's become sort of a necessity if you want to communicate."

Vasquez said her father still tries to teach her Spanish. She said that relatives, such as her grandmother, speak only Spanish.

"Sometimes when people find out I don't speak Spanish, they will start speaking it on purpose, and it makes me feel bad," she said. "I also feel out of place in my family."

When she visits her grandmother, Vasquez said, she often is left out of family conversations. She said when everyone is talking, she sits alone and "I twiddle my thumbs."

Pressure to learn Spanish
According to the U.S. Census, California is home to 12.4 million Latinos. San Diego County has a total of 2.9 million people. Of that number, 26.7 percent are identified as Latino, and of the 26.7 percent, one-third speak both Spanish and English.

Ron Schmidt is a professor of political science at Cal State Long Beach. With the increasing number of Spanish-speaking immigrants moving into the U.S. and to California, he says, there is some pressure being put on non-Spanish-speaking Latinos to learn Spanish and be part of the Latino "group."

Historical research, he said, shows that Spanish speakers in the Southwest were judged negatively by the resident Anglos. "So Latinos wanted to become 'Americanized' and decided not to learn it," he said of Spanish. "Now, the non-Spanish-speaking Latinos are stuck in the middle of two languages."

He said most of the divisions among Latinos stem from how Latinos define themselves individually. Every ethnic group has certain boundaries, he said, and the division is most noticeable when there is also resentment.

"A good example of this happening is in Quebec," he said. "Nowadays, the French language has become the primary identifier of what makes a Quebecer a Quebecer. Fifty years ago, it was the Catholic faith that identified you with being a Quebecer. This becomes an ethnic identity, and many times it divides a group of people."

The solution might seem as simple as having everyone learn both languages. But Schmidt notes that though many people are in favor of bilingual education, they often don't want it to be taught in schools because it costs taxpayers more money.

"It's something that is dividing a community," he said. "Luckily, language isn't the only thing that determines what a Latino is."

Not only language
Ponce said language is not the only thing that makes her identify with being Latino. She strives to hold on to her culture by celebrating the events that she grew up celebrating.

She said days like Diez y seis de Septiembre (Mexican Independence Day, Sept. 16) and Dia de los Muertos (a day to honor the deceased Nov. 2) are cultural events that are used to unify the Latino community.

"Even though people grow up in different places, we have this common denominator among us," she said. "There are so many other elements to being Latino that language shouldn't be what defines us."

Schmidt said a non-Spanish-speaking Latino isn't that uncommon in California, and each person deals with it in different ways. Some individuals may choose to learn Spanish, while others will be content knowing just a few Spanish words and phrases.

"What people have to realize is that learning a new language takes a lot of time and effort," he said. "There is a lot to learn, and the individual needs to make sure they know how much effort and cost there is in learning a new language."

Another factor, Schmidt said, is that Latinos are assimilating linguistically at a high rate, which is another reason many don't speak Spanish.

"Third-generation Latinos are less likely to speak Spanish than previous generations," he said. "But with a great percentage of Spanish speakers being immigrants, there is a pressure (on nonimmigrants) to learn Spanish because there are benefits, both socially and economically."

Classes are increasing
While the number of non-Spanish-speaking Latinos seems to be growing, so are the number of Spanish classes at Cal State San Marcos, MiraCosta College and Palomar College.

Francisco Alvarez, chairman of the International Languages Department and a professor of Spanish at MiraCosta College, said he has noticed more Latinos taking Spanish. He said many are doing it to improve their writing skills or to regain some skills that might have been lost in the assimilation process.

Darci Strother, chairwoman of the World Languages & Hispanic Literatures at Cal State San Marcos, said over the summer that enrollment for fall Spanish classes was so strong the department had to open up a number of new sections at the beginning and intermediate levels.

"We are certainly hoping to be given the green light to hire new faculty soon," she said in an e-mail. "We're excited that more students are taking an interest in Spanish." She said the students taking the courses are a mix.

Strother said the department has had a record-breaking year for applications to the master's degree program.

"We typically take in a few new students each semester, but this semester we had ... a larger number than ever," she said. "Most have also been offered teaching assistantships, and are teaching lower-division Spanish language classes."

Carlos Gomez, chairman of the Department of Foreign Languages at Palomar College, said that there has been an increase in the number of Latinos taking Spanish classes.

"Our department has grown in the number of students taking Tagalog, Japanese and Chinese as well," he said. "Right now, we are offering classes in eight languages, serving about 4,000 students."

Alvarez said that Spanish is the strongest language in the department.

"Over the last five years, it has consistently accounted for about 70 percent of our foreign language enrollments," he said in an e-mail.

According to Alvarez, during the last program review taken from 1998-99 to 2003-04, enrollment increased by almost 19 percent during the five-year period.

"This pattern of increased enrollments should not surprise anyone, given that Spanish is much more than a 'foreign language' ---- not only in California, but in an ever-increasing number of U.S. communities," he said. "For a significant number of our students at MiraCosta, Spanish is a first language or a heritage language, or a language needed for work as well as to communicate with friends and loved ones."

Necessary skill
Ponce agreed that Spanish-speaking skills are more of a necessity these days. She said in the past, fluency in Spanish was seen as a novelty, but times have changed.

"It's more accepted to have these skills," she said. "(Latino) parents now want their children to do well in both and want them to communicate well in both."

Ponce said she plans to go back to school and learn Spanish. "I have a daughter, and I'm beginning to teach and learn Spanish with her," she said. "There are (bilingual) shows like 'Dora the Explorer' that we watch, and I encourage my parents to speak to her in Spanish."

But she doesn't want her daughter to feel the "out of place" feeling that she feels among Latinos.

"There are times that I have to defend my culture and background, just for the fact that I don't speak Spanish," she said. "At work, I feel like I'm on the outside looking in, and it's just because of the lack of communication skills."

Contact staff writer Adrian Gomez at agomez@nctimes or (760) 740-3520. To comment, visit nctimes.com.

I have never understood some latinos groups like that. Even when I took some friends with me to Chile in college, most chileans know english or can understand it but they would never speak spanish to a person knowing they did not speak spanish. I see this a lot in the mexican culture. They talk behind my back thinking I cant understand them. It is kind of fun because when they are done talking, I can usually come up with a retort that makes them feel stupid. Usually they look at me like they are thinking, "Odole, they make blue eyed red headed latin people". I know my son does not speak castillian. I have chosen to allow my son to learn whatever language he wants. I took french in high school. The funny thing I remember was most of the mexican kids taking spanish and actually failing it. YOu know why? Because the spanish taught in high school is castillian spanish not mexi-spanish. I found that quite comical. I think my son and I are going to learn latin-why not doctors have to take latin. I think it would be good for me and him - a way for us to spend time together. I always wanted to learn anyway. Plus if you learn latin, you can understand a little bit of each and every latin derived language. I noticed the other day president bush was not asking for people to be educated in spanish anymore but in get this-russian, faci, arabic, chinese. Well, I wonder why?

Odole, they make blue eyed red headed latin people". I know my son does not speak castillian

so why not learn gaelic? It is the language of a creative and brilliant people

I mean - latin is the language of an oppressor - imperialist ( now gone) nation