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Mark Talsma Ms. Tamara Issak Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse 103 27 September 2011 English as Viewed from a Mexican-American Perspective Anyone following the news today is familiar with the war on immigration in America, especially as it relates to immigrants from Mexico. In Arizona, a law was recently passed that gives police officers the right to ask for a persons proof of citizenship, and Americans all over are deeply divided on the issue. However, it is notable that the heaviest hitters in this debate are politicians primarily white, upper-class Americans who fail to see the argument from a working-class Mexican perspective. Additionally, the argument regarding immigration reform will inevitably lead back to language, considering the benefits and drawbacks of teaching native Spanish speakers English, the de facto official language of the United States. As one could imagine, it would be a challenge to find more relevant of a perspective on this issue than that of a young, bilingual Mexican-American. In order to gain this perspective, I interviewed Edgar, an 18-year-old from Chicagos south side, who currently studies at DePaul University. Edgar was born in America, but speaks exclusively Spanish at home; he didnt learn English until he was five years old, and was in an ESL program until the fifth grade. He openly embraces his heritage, and even went as far as to admit that his parents immigrated illegally, and his father was deported about two years ago. Given this, it is very important to Edgars family that he maintain a strong sense of Mexican culture, regardless of any outside influences and pressures. Edgar is not the only child

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of immigrants being called to maintain their culture he is in the company of famed author Amy Tan. In her article Mother Tongue, Tan explains how her Chinese heritage impacts her life, especially regarding language. She expounds on this via an anecdote: Just last week, I was walking down the street with my mother, and I again found myself conscious of the English I was using, the English I do use with her. We were talking about the price of new and used furniture and I heard myself saying this: Not waste money that way (Tan 196). Edgar differs from Amy Tan here in that he does not use a special kind of English with his mother they speak exclusively Spanish. However, both of them are cognizant of a distinction between the language they use with fellow Americans and the language more appropriate for familial interaction. Spanish is the primary language at my house, Edgar explains. [My parents] dont want us to lose the language. He goes on to explain how this attitude is common among Mexican-American families in his neighborhood. Interestingly, Edgar takes another departure from Tan when it comes to how they viewed their mothers during their teenage years. Tan writes, [W]hen I was growing up, my mothers limited English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English (Tan 197). Edgar seems not to mind his mothers language barriers. My parents would always tell me at the store to ask them this or ask them that, Edgar recalls. They didnt want toI guess theyd feel kind of ashamed or embarrassed because they cant pronounce anything right. Regardless of how his mother feels about maintaining a Mexican heritage, Edgar was bound to assimilate into American culture one way or another, even by way of language. When asked about the use of Spanglish, he seemed familiar with it: We could be speaking two, three words of English and then throw a Spanish word in there, he describes. When you try to

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describe something thats Mexican and Hispanic, then sometimes you cant really relate it to using an English word. In the same vein, living in a culturally segregated city like Chicago also impacts language. Edgar is from a neighborhood near Summit, and he says that almost everyone he grew up around was also Mexican-American. Being culturally isolated is bound to produce a unique sort of dialect, as Robert MacNeil explains in his essay, Do You Speak American? He makes his point by making an example of urban black vernacular: [A]fter the great migration to the North from World War I to the 1970s, blacks were segregated in urban ghettoes, had less contact with whites, and their speech began to develop new features, as all human speech does when people are separated culturally and have little communication (Goshgarian 131). This logic could easily be applied not just to Edgars neighborhood, but any and all Latin American communities in Chicago. In fact, people from neighborhoods that primarily consist of Puerto Rican- or Cuban-Americans would have trouble interacting with Edgar. He says, Its different Spanish Cubans have a different accent, Puerto Ricans have a different accent, and Mexicans have a different accentthe food is different, the music is different, everything. The mainstream American concept of Hispanic all Latin American people being of the same culture clearly belies these deep divides. It is clear that Edgar is forced to serve as an ambassador for various communities being Mexican-American, and also quite importantly, being bilingual. Despite what could be a deep bias given his familys background, Edgar demonstrates support for a partial assimilation of Spanish speakers into our primarily Anglophone nation: [Without bilingual education] I wouldnt be so fluent, I wouldnt be able to write or readto come to a school like DePaul, you have to learn English.

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This support is certainly well-founded. Everything we perceive is processed via language, and being able to communicate that perception to others is only possible by way of a common language between one another. However, as clearly demonstrated in modern America through unabated racism and discrimination, complete assimilation and dissolution of ethnic origin seem to be the supported paths of achieving linguistic equality. Edgar and others like him would bristle at this possibility. Finding that delicate balance between maintaining their culture and participating in mainstream American society is of utmost importance to immigrants the nation over. And in a sense, they have started to form communities and cultures independent of the ones they came from neither at home, nor here, but somewhere in between.