Q:

What are your thoughts on the video?

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I wasn’t really shocked or upset about it because this kind of thing happens out there now. It’s just that now there is social media and cell phones to capture everything, which is good because it puts a check on people. But I’m kind of numb to it though.

 

Q:

Why were you numb to it?

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The reason that I’m more numb to it is because I’ve seen this happen to my mom. Some stranger asked my mom why don’t you speak English. This happened when I was growing up and it became more common to me so that’s why I’m just numb to the video.

 

Q:

How do you think Americans view people who speak a different language and where do you think this comes from?

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I think it’s more of the accent that people get upset about. You could speak perfectly normal English but if you have an accent that goes with it people would attack the accent for some reason.

 

I also think that especially in this political climate even though people have accepted that America is a melting pot of different cultures and languages there are still those who think that to be an American you have to first speak English.

 

You know one of the major things that is happening is that the Hispanic population is growing. I think the census says that by 2050 there is expected to be a much larger Hispanic population than today and so I think that what many Americans, like the lawyer is upset about, is that they think that this large Hispanic population who only speak one language should learn to speak English without considering the fact that English is semantically and phonetically a very hard language to pick up especially after the age of ten which is why you have a lot of Hispanic adults who only know how to speak in their native tongue.

 

 

Q:

So, you would say that there is a strong English first narrative in America?

 

Oh yes, it’s very strong but I also think that it’s going to change especially with the increasing growth of the Hispanic population.

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So, you said that you were born in California, right?

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 Yes.

           

But your parents were born in Guatemala?

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Yes

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Q:

How fluent would you say your Spanish is?

 

So, I can still speak Spanish but I’m starting to notice that I’m losing some of my ability to say some words because I don’t speak Spanish as often as I used to, but I can understand people who speak Spanish. I do feel that I’m slowly losing that ability to speak the language for sure.

 

Q:

How do you feel about that?

           

For me it’s not really upsetting. I see it more as a disadvantage career wise. For me knowing how to speak Spanish is just more beneficial for me in getting a job than anything else. Spanish doesn’t associate to who I am. It’s just a language that I use to speak with my parents. I separate both the language and my culture and since I was born in California I really don’t know much about my Guatemalan culture

           

Q:

Have you visited your country?

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I’ve visited when I was younger, but I really didn’t get to know and absorb my culture because I was so young. I think that if you were interviewing my parents they would respond differently because they were born in Guatemala and so they would associate the language to who they are.