Spanglish

The term Spanglish, which refers to a hybrid “language” combining words and

idioms from both Spanish and English, especially Spanish speech that uses many

English words and expressions, gives title to the 2004 American comedy film written

and directed by James L. Brooks, and starring Adam Sandler, Paz Vega, and Tea Leoni.

This film raises different issues of great value, such as the problems associated with

cultural assimilation, the portrayal of cultural insensitiveness, and the importance of

family life. The purpose of this paper is to dwell on these themes and explain how each

of them could be dealt with in an adult ESL classroom setting.

Before attempting to analyze the matter in question, it is necessary to provide a

summary of the movie. The movie opens with the voice of Cristina Moreno, role played

by Shelbie Bruce, who is a young Mexican girl applying to Princeton University. For her

application essay, she narrates the story of her childhood. She starts her story with the

arrival of her mother Flor (Paz Vega) and herself to the United States. Flor, a beautiful

single mother, and Cristina stay with Mexican relatives in Los Angeles. There Flor

decides to get a job as a housekeeper for a rich American family made up of the

following members: John Clasky (Adam Sandler) and his wife Deborah (Tea Leoni),

their kids Bernice (Sarah Steele) and Georgie (Ian Hyland), and Deborah’s alcoholic

mother Evelyn Wright (Cloris Leachman). The Claskys seem to be likeable people, and

they get along well with Flor. However, Deborah is uptight and unfriendly at times.

When summer comes, the Claskys rent a beach house in Malibu and require Flor to

work full time for them. Flor denies that proposition initially arguing that she has a
daughter, so the Claskys invite Cristina to stay with them as well. Cristina impresses

Deborah, who begins to treat her like a daughter, taking her shopping, getting her hair

done, and enrolling her in a private school. These behaviors annoy Flor, who feels

jealous because she cannot afford to pay for all those luxuries. By the same token,

Bernice feels displaced because her mother is showing more love and affection towards

Cristina than to her.

Due to Deborah’s influence, Cristina’s personality begins to change, and she

begins to resemble a typical well-off American teenager. This upsets Flor, who wants

her daughter to maintain her Mexican roots. Then, Flor begins to learn English to

communicate better, and along the way becomes closer to John, who is experiencing

problems with Deborah. Actually, Deborah is having an affair with a real estate agent.

After a short conversation with her mother, Deborah feels ashamed of her acts and

confesses her infidelity to John, who walks out and gives Flor a ride in his car. They go

to his restaurant, where he cooks for her and they enjoy a quiet evening in which both

confess their love to each other, but decide not to act upon it. So Flor decides to quit her

job, but Cristina is not thrilled with the idea because she would have to leave the private

school where Deborah had enrolled her. The last scenes of the film depict Cristina

tightly embraced to her mother’s arms as they are riding home on a bus.

One of the most recurring themes of the film is that of the problems associated

with cultural assimilation. Flor and Cristina are poor Mexican immigrants, who come to

the United States in search of a better life. Being strangers to a new land, they face

barriers when trying to integrate into this new society. The first and most paramount

difficulty Flor faces is her inability to speak English. At the beginning of the film,
Cristina acts as an interpreter to her mother, who begins to learn English in the course

of the film. Flor is reluctant to embrace the American culture and wants her daughter to

keep in touch with her Mexican roots and working class values; however, Cristina, due

to Deborah’s influence, quickly adopts the American way of life. This infuriates Flor,

who feels she is losing her daughter, to the extent of quitting her job and leaving the

Claskys. Flor’s decision to pull her daughter from her apparent path of upward mobility

can be interpreted as wanting Cristina to retain her identity as a Mexican. This can be

seen as an attitude of resistance to the forces of cultural assimilation.

Speaking of cultural assimilation, this is an important issue that should be

addressed openly in adult ESL classroom environments. As ESL teachers, we should all

try to promote cultural learning. Cultural learning is a selective or combining process in

which students themselves decide which elements of the native culture to retain and

which elements of the new culture to adapt or adopt. A student’s new cultural identity

will represent a mixture of the native culture and the new culture. For example, a

student may adopt a new way of greeting someone, a handshake instead of a bow, but

maintain the old rule of avoiding eye contact. Students will differ in how much of the

new culture they choose to adopt. What I do in my ESL classes in order to promote

cultural learning is to present what I consider are the core American values regarding

the following elements: individualism, privacy, equality, informality, time, directness

and assertiveness, and progress. I find this a useful activity because it allows my

students to get an idea of some of the most representative American beliefs. I truly feel

that knowledge of these values will help my students avoid cultural misunderstandings

as they try to integrate into the American society.

 Another issue raised by the film Spanglish is the portrayal of cultural

insensitiveness, which is principally manifested by Deborah’s words and actions. In one

of the first scenes of the film, Flor’s cousin accidentally hurts her nose by running

against a glass window at the Claskys’ house, and Deborah instead of expressing

sympathy and compassion towards her, immediately takes a few dollars from her purse

and gives them to her. By doing this, she is reflecting her complete lack of cultural

sensitivity. She thinks that being Flor’s cousin a poor Mexican immigrant, she will

probably be comforted by the money. Through this episode, Flor sits quietly, apparently

frightened and confused.

Cultural insensitiveness is definitely a touchy to topic to address in the adult ESL

classroom. What I do is to address the issue indirectly by focusing on the different

aspects of deep culture, which refer to the hidden aspects of culture –values, beliefs, and

attitudes. What I do in class is usually to present the twenty different elements of deep

culture as conceived by Frank Gonzalez (1978), and ask my students to think of

examples of those elements coming from their own cultures and from the American

culture. This becomes a really fruitful culturally-enriching task.

Last but not least, the importance of family life is another significant issue raised

by the movie Spanglish. In fact, the film ends with the adult voice of Cristina

acknowledging that all she is today has derived from the simple fact that she is her

mother’s daughter. Cristina is not defining herself ethnically by admitting she is first

Mexican or American, but that she is the girl of her female parent. Cristina’s exact words

are the following: “My identity rests firmly and happily on one fact: I am my mother’s

daughter.” This leads me to believe that one of the salient themes of this film is the
importance of family life over anything else. No matter where you come from, your

family always remains the most important thing in your life.

Family life is a recurrent topic in adult ESL classroom settings, and my classes are

no exception to the rule. All my students whether they are Korean, Saudi, Brazilian or

from any other country just love to talk about their families. Perhaps it is because, in

most cases, they are away from their families and feel a bit homesick. We usually talk

openly about different customs and values related to family life. I also encourage them to

bring pictures of their family members to share with the whole class. I can perceive a

sense of pride when my students talk about their families. What’s more, I also actively

participate in the conversations and bring my own family pictures to share. All in all, I

can honestly state that family life is undoubtedly the most important value in my life and

in the lives of most of my students.