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March 14, 2003
Does hearing Spanish around you
bother you?
By Domingo
Casañas/HispanicVista.com
Good morning to all
my readers. By now you know that at
times I write about issues that might
ignite someone’s fire. Well,
today I just need to speak about
something that I tend to see more in this
country than others. You see,
I have been fortunate enough that in the
last year I have traveled to seven
different countries and five different
U.S. States. What I have noticed is
that many Americans do not like to hear
someone speak Spanish in their presence.
I can understand if we are in an office
of three people and two of us are
speaking Spanish this might be rude.
But what I am talking about is when it is
out in the open or in an office where
there are many employees and two fluent
Spanish speaking associates or friends
start speaking Spanish with each other.
In the other countries that I have
visited this has not been an issue.
Are people so
paranoid to think that these two
individuals must be speaking Spanish
because they want to hide something from
them or they think that they are speaking
about him or her? Whatever it may
be it sure bothers many. Frankly, I
don’t see the problem here. You
see- it is a common human nature to
always go back to your native tongue.
Especially, when you find someone else
that shares it. So in what way does
the person that does not understand
Spanish think that this is wrong? Yes,
I know we are in America and I agree that
someone that comes from a Latin America
country should learn the English language
so that they can get by in this great
country. What I am talking about is
when a bilingual person prefers to speak
Spanish with a friend or associate, why
is it that many, right away exclaim
“Hey not around me” or “Hey
speak English”.
Yes there are times
that it can be rude if you are in a
scenario that you are the only one there
and the other two persons are speaking
Spanish, but again let me remind you that
I am speaking about cases where that is
not the situation. When I traveled
to other countries and would hook up with
someone that spoke Spanish we would never
get a negative respond. However
when I would speak Spanish in any of the
States that I visited in the U.S.A. I
would get the same type of “
hey speak English” attitude. Why
is this?
On the other hand we
have dedicated bilingual workers in all
types of jobs and they are responsible
for their everyday tasks and yet when
they are needed to translate, they have
to take extra time away from their own
tasks to do so, and yet they are not
rewarded for this additional duty. These
good workers should be compensated with
some additional annual bonus, or hourly
pay increase because they are generating
more goodwill and business for whatever
the establishment is. I urge
employers to recognize this great workers
that are capable of doing their job in
the two languages and are helping the
business grow and doing it all with a
smile.
According to the
Morning Sun.Net World News in April of
2001 in Minneapolis a business owner was
convicted of beating a Hispanic man
because he was outraged that he was
speaking Spanish at work. Mr. Cecil
Reiners 57 was found guilty of a hate
crime, first-degree assault. His
victim Jose Padilla 20 was speaking to
two of Mr. Reiners employees in Spanish.
According to the witnesses who testified
Mr. Reiners yelled at Padilla “we
don’t speak Spanish here”.
Mr. Reiners will be in jail for over
seven years because of the assault.
This goes to show you that this is real,
unfortunately.
I am one of the last
persons to complaint about
discrimination; I have been fortunate
enough to always go throughout my life
with no chip on my shoulder, or expecting
something for nothing. The ACLU to
me is like the Communist party; I don’t
need their help in a country like the
United States of America. But
I also know that at times we tend to
pre-judge people, we tend to think that
others are talking about us, if we hear
them speak another language. To
this I say, let’s not be paranoid
about it; let foreigners speak in their
God given tongue. Oh, now I really
did it, some of you are saying “hey!”
That is how the terrorist did it to us.
Well, let’s look at that issue, what
we need to do is be more aware of our
surrounding, from what I have heard some
of the terrorists bragged in English what
they were about to do and no one report
them. Also, it is up to our
immigration officials, border patrol,
U.S. Government, CIA and FBI to do their
best not to let any anti-Americans get a
free chance to harm us. And
it is up to us as Citizens to report any
negative that we see or hear.
So, relax a bit let
me speak my Spanish with a friend without
getting rattled. We are not talking
about you. We just feel more
comfortable speaking our native tongue.
Comprendes?
_________________________________
Domingo Casañas is
a Cuban born columnist for the Ledger
Dispatch newspaper which is the East
Contra Costa edition of the Contra Costa
Times in California. Email address:
LatinoAchievers@aol.com
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