![]() ![]() is different form the Spanglish spoken by Cuban Americans in Miami or the Spanglish spoken by Puerto Ricans in New York. The Spanglish spoken by Mexican Americans in, say, L.A. The Spanish and Spanglish happens when it's supposed to, and it just flows very naturally.After years.of thinking and studying and discussing Spanglish, I have come to the conclusion that there is no one Spanglish, but a variety of Spanglishes that are alive and well in this country and that are defined by geographical location and country of origin. She's playing a concerned mom who happens to be Latina. In the film, she isn't playing a Latina stereotype. The film stars Sofia Vergara, but with a script that doesn't force her to overdo her accent or screech her way through the boisterous Latina stereotype (which is how many of us see her in her Modern Family). I will say there are examples of Hollywood doing it right. Tamara Vallejos writes, "Gus' Spanish and accent were so painful to listen to, and it made me super angry that such a pivotal and fantastic character would have such a giant, noticeable, nails-on-a-chalkboard flaw." Many people singled out the show Breaking Bad, and the character Gustavo "Gus" Fring, for falling flat on language. movies and television shows get it wrong, even when they pride themselves in being authentic. ![]() I like the hodgepodge too, but only when it's done right. Listener Paola Capó-García wrote, "it's definitely a part of everyday living in Puerto Rico, not just the US Latino experience.I think we're taught to think Spanglish is a failure, that it's 'imperialist' or that it's 'uneducated' or 'unattractive,' but I've come to accept/appreciate it.I like the hodgepodge." A few years back, the Spanish Royal Academy created a small controversy when it inducted the word "Spanglish" into its dictionary, but defined it as "deformed elements of vocabulary and grammar from both Spanish and English." Ouch.īut for some Latin cultures, losing Spanglish would also mean losing their identity. In certain circles, Spanglish is seen as a "contamination" of the Spanish language. Look! They aren't assimilating! Hispanic invasion! Destruction of the English language! Gah! Interestingly, that distaste is shared by plenty of Latin Americans, who wrinkle their noses at the mere mention of "Spanglish."Īs a South American myself, I've heard plenty of snide inside jokes about "those" Latinos in the U.S. They point to Spanglish as a symbol of everything that's wrong with Latino immigration. ![]() If you're a Spanglish speaker, it's not just your family calling you out. They don't get annoyed if I do - they just call me out on it." Listener Marly Perez wrote, "I speak Spanglish with my sister, but not with my relatives. When I talk to you in Spanish, you reply in Spanish, and when I talk to you in English, you reply in English." the rule was cuando te hable en español me contestas en español, y cuando te hable en inglés,e contestas en inglés. Gisela Castanon wrote in to say, "My parents were from Mexico & both were bilingual in Spanish and English. Nuclear family & primos = Spanglish or English. Twitter user Yvonne Hennessy wrote: " Abuelitos = Spanish. Other NPR listeners have chimed in on how they navigated the family politics of language. ![]() And if I ever speak to my mom in English - well, I don't do that (she pretends she can't hear me over the phone.) I know if I ever speak to my parents (native Argentines) in Spanglish, I will get immediately corrected with the word I'm looking for - but can't remember - in Spanish. For American Latinos, there are certain unspoken rules about what language you speak, and to whom. After that, she spontaneously starts talking in very dramatic Spanish to a non-Latina detective she just met.Īs someone who regularly speaks English, Spanish and Spanglish (that mix of English and Spanish), this made no sense. Somehow, she speaks fantastic English, just with an accent, to the NYPD detective during a long interrogation. One of the SVU story lines focused on a young Mexican prostitute who has been trafficked to the U.S. When it comes to Latinos on the screen, Hollywood keeps missing the mark on the way we speak. The Spanish and Spanglish used in the show was embarrassing. But man, that good feeling stopped almost as soon as I heard them speak. I watched the season premiere of Law & Order SVU, and I was excited to see that it covered a topic I've reported on for the last year - sex trafficking of women in Mexico - and that a very rich cast of Latino actors were featured on the show. Even some fans says his accent missed the mark. Giancarlo Esposito won acclaim as the ruthless gangster Gustavo "Gus" Fring in Breaking Bad. ![]()
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