http://democraticeducation.org/index.php/blog/ A multicultural patchwork open to conversation about our multiple realities as learners of more than one culture and one language. en Luis.Moreno@calhoun.org Copyright 2010 2010-08-06T18:15:58+00:00 http://democraticeducation.org/index.php/blog/article/on_spanglish/ http://democraticeducation.org/index.php/blog/article/on_spanglish/#When:17:15:58Z William James, Jose Marti, Mark Twain, "The American Language" by Mencken, et al. The other
night, with some friends over, I made a reference to "Old Spanish," and my friend, who didn't speak
Spanish and was amazed about such a possibility, asked, "Really?" He didn't know that an
equivalent to Old English existed.

I love going back to Old Spanish in order to find some irregularities that I witness often, as I naturally
approach the matter with my regulatory and proper Spanish measure of the present. Actually,
Spanish Baroque I read for rhythm, but really, the Old Spanish of La Celestina, and the Arcipreste de
Hita, are the real oldies where I find my Spanish limits, its borders. Portuguese does the trick as well.
I experience so much pleasure in seeing how certain rules of Spanish are not followed by Portuguese,
a very close cousin, and vice versa. For example, many Hispanics, Latinos, or Hispanounidenses,
trivially delve into criticizing some Puerto Ricans' pronunciation of "carro," as "caho," fully ignoring that
in super Brazil, this is how you'd say it.

I do know more about Old Spanish than this new English that I have to write with right now. Perhaps
this is why I am so fervent about Spanglish's casual acceptance. I, being a Hispanic immigrant, and
having had to endure all of the good and the bad of New York City's public education, I, I say, would
like more acceptance when it comes to those of us who quack and quake in your language -- however
"yours" the language may be. Therefore, it does some good to come back to Mencken's desire to
speak without shame about an American language, vis a vis English. As we know, in order for Mark
Twain to do justice to American letters, in order to democratize it, he uses various dialects that may
come to puncture the so-called proper way of speaking.

Enter Spanglish. Spanglish is not something provoked or a priori. Spanglish, like any other successful
form of communication, is a felt act, a doing. It is hasty for academics and other concerned citizens of
any profession to denounce speakers of Spanglish. It is especially silly when those very academics or
citizens speak Spanglish themselves, as it is the case with ALL of those involved in the field of bilingual
education, in situ, or out of it, in the United States. Just like English turns into American, Spanish turns
into Spanish-American.

Those educators who criticize Spanglish as an example of stalling in both English and Spanish, are
performing a disservice to the very children that they claim to want to serve and protect. The latest
notions in education, those seeking to further the Vygotskyan social project, are urgently aware of these
children's various communities and their high relevance to children's successful learning. These children
are speaking Spanglish; who am I to tell them that this is wrong, that this is only a halfway understanding
that they have, that they feel? Instead of prejudging them, shouldn't I try to understand where they come
from? How is it that they are actually speaking; what's in their own tool-box?

As Hispanic-American citizens we must stand up (or sit down) and find those very differences that our
specific American social realities are making us speak and perform. We will find out that this will differ
from what takes place in Spain, Argentina, Mexico, et al. Again, the U.S is the second largest
Spanish-speaking nation. Are we not large enough to include Spanglish as well? The answer is yes,
certainly, when it comes to size, and numbers. But, and here's the root of the problem: we are not
confident enough, we are not secure enough. Do we really need to earn our social securities, every
day, here in Los Estados Unidos? A new potent sociolinguistic patchwork is putting itself together
anew, in our very senses, and we are not willing to embrace it, to make more with it?

People mention that one of the major problems afflicting Hispanic communities is their low voting
activity. We are not living up to the democratic project that's this quacky-wacky architecture called
Los Estados Unidos. My eyes and ears feel like I am digressing. This is not secure. And yet, it is
fine, yes, it is only the beginning...

Meanwhile, my Old Spanish gets healthier, my old James gets richer, my old Celestina gets trickier,
all in the vicinity of made up Spanish castles (Castellano) still wishing to dictate what's acceptable and
what's not. As if Don Quijote did not try that move already, quixotically, we shall add. Again, this
Spanish as we know it, is an intensely hard major language; we must begin tenderizing it with all the
Americans (English-es) we've got. Proper and/or not, but definitely confident in the joyous practice.
]]> 2010-08-06T17:15:58+00:00 http://democraticeducation.org/index.php/blog/article/another_major_language/ http://democraticeducation.org/index.php/blog/article/another_major_language/#When:21:53:10Z countries, regions, and cities where Spanish is spoken. If so, why do we still have all of the academic research in education, and its literature, referring Spanish to us as a “minority language”?

As many agree, education research findings, and the American population at large, should begin
interacting more to further necessary critical awareness if we are to make it out of
the dualistic grip of “reformers” versus “those-who-oppose-this-reform” talking heads (cf. Dana
Bennis' “The Education Policy Debate”), who add more confusion instead of resolution to our dire public schools, and overall education problems.

Having recently completed a Masters in Childhood Education with a bilingual extension, I still
hear in my mind the “minority language” label (status) that was attached to Spanish by all of the
research and texts that were to help me comprehend the complexities of bilingual education.

Spanish is not a minority language. It is not a minority language in New York City, Arkansas,
England, or South Africa. To stay in the American (Usonian, was Frank Lloyd Wright's term)
context, in order for us to be honest in our globalization talks and ideas about a multilingual,
multicultural planet, we must begin accepting the multilingual realities enriching our
country. The U.S. shares the Americas with two other giant languages: Spanish and Portuguese.
The more we come to know them, the further and better relationships we can muster.

The coming 2010 U.S. Census results will add yet another mass of Hispanics in the millions to
this our new American cultural reality. The U.S. Hispanic population is larger than many other
countries in the Americas, or Spain itself. I call this a new reality because in this globalized
culture that we live in, Hispanics are not giving up their Spanish for English, as it happened to the
other immigrant groups who came to America. Full-English NBC has no qualms about owning
Full-Spanish Telemundo, and that is not a minor move.

So, again, why does the whole world of education research, in all of its political manifestations,
label Spanish a “minority language”?

These research and policy folks who do work hard to better our public and private education
understandings must get rid of this false label. At a progressive and independent school in Lower
Manhattan, Spanish is still labeled as a “Foreign Language” in their website. When these
erroneous labels are done with, and all resentments cashed in for more affirmative ventures into
more plural American linguistic realities, we will begin the arduous and stimulating process of
beginning to see this crazy quilt Spanish with fresh senses anew.

Now, wanting to call Spanish a major language and come to know it will lead to a proper
discussion about its multiple minorizations and hybrid features that feed on its rich passage through time and place. I look forward to that opening that discussion in a future post.]]> Global Education, Social Justice, Teaching 2010-06-16T21:53:10+00:00