Don’t make my mistake

We Latinos are a proud, resilient people. We have endured challenge after challenge and we always rise-up stronger than before. We are a strong people with a rich history and an uncommon work ethic. We are a diverse people, holding many different stories yet standing united. However, we are guilty of a common sin. By the 2nd or 3rd generation, most Latino families become completely English dominant, nearly giving up their family’s language and heritage, and I am no different. Don’t make my mistake.

As a child, I attended an all English school. This forced me to learn English quickly, and I am thankful for that, but it also led me to see no use in speaking Spanish. Everywhere I looked, all I saw was English. Everything I read, watched and listened to, English. Seeing no need for my Spanish, I slowly began to speak it less and less, until eventually, hardly at all. Don’t make my mistake.

In school, I had no Latino friends. I didn’t know any Latinos outside of my family. My only exposure was what I saw on TV, and that paints a terrible picture. In every movie with a Latino, it was almost always a wild, rebellious, delinquent child, a gang member, someone uneducated and unmotivated. Without realizing it, I began to see other Latinos this way. I didn’t want to associate with them because I thought they were beneath me. Don’t make my mistake.

I developed a double standard. Whenever I saw a non-Latino fluent in Spanish or another foreign language, I would praise them for their efforts to expand their communication. However, when I say a Latino speaking Spanish, I thought they were uneducated and didn’t speak English well or that they were “too Latino” for not assimilating. Don’t make my mistake.

I had never gone to school or been friends with another Latino until high school. “Finally, someone who looks like me,” I thought. I approached them and we began talking, then mid-conversation, they switched to speaking Spanish, and I found that I couldn’t even follow along. Not only that, they were radically different from what I preconceived. They weren’t drunkards or drug addicts doomed to drop out. They were cool, smart, compassionate people. I was wrong about them. Don’t make my mistake.

To all Latinos y Hispanohablantes, don’t give up your language and your heritage. Don’t buy the lie that we are inherently inferior and need to change. Don’t disassociate yourself from other Latinos or our culture. Don’t make my mistake.