English Spoken Here
It strikes me as interesting that one of the reasons used by both English-only xenophobes and “Spanish is best” Latino media strategists to justify their very different positions is the shared idea that Latinos tend to hold on to their language more than most immigrants to America. Rubén G. Rumbaut and Frank D. Bean of UC Irvine and Douglas S. Massey of Princeton attempt to refute that argument in a paper published in Population and Development Review:
In this analysis we have tested [Samuel] Huntington’s assertion that Spanish is unlikely to go the way of other immigrant languages in the United States by succumbing to English-language dominance across the generations. Southern California offers the ideal test of this hypothesis because it is the largest Spanish-speaking enclave in the United States and houses some of the oldest and largest Mexican neighborhoods in the country, as well as the country’s largest concentration of immigrants. We defined lingusitic survival in two ways: a preference for speaking a mother tongue within the household and the ability to speak that language very well.
Our findings directly contradict Huntington’s assertions. The United States has aptly been described as a “graveyard” for languages because of its historical ability to absorb immigrants by the millions and extinguish their mother tongues within a few generations, and Spanish appears to offer no threat to this reputation. Owing to the number and density of Spanish speakers in metropolitan Southern California, Mexicans and other Latin American immigrants retain a greater ability to speak their mother tongue very well compared with other groups, but, by the third generation at the latest, ability drops sharply and converges toward the pattern observed for white Europeans. However, when survival is defined as a preference for speaking Spanish at home, the survival curves for Mexicans and other Latin American groups look much more like those of Asians and white Europeans. Although the life expectancy of Spanish may be appreciably greater among Mexicans in Southern California, its ultimate demise nonetheless seems assured by the third generation. Like taxes and biological death, linguistic death seems to be a sure thing in the United States, even for Mexicans living in Los Angeles, a city with one of the largest Spanish-speaking populations in the world.
Rachel Uranga of the Daily News reports that xenophobes are still not convinced. Still, Democratic strategists looking to reach the Latino vote would do well do ask a poll question about generation or language preference. It may be Spanish and it may not be - you shouldn’t make assumptions and you shouldn’t buy into sweeping generalizations. Get some data.
Thanks to Kevin Roderick for pointing out the study in his morning briefing. As I’ve mentioned to my non-LA readers before, if you are looking for one place to go to find out what LA’s chattering class is chattering about, it’s LA Observed.
October 4th, 2006 at 7:11 am
“Although the life expectancy of Spanish may be appreciably greater among Mexicans in Southern California, its ultimate demise nonetheless seems assured by the third generation.”
No, it doesn’t! For the 100th time– you can’t so blindly use the results of a study reflecting prior behavior patterns, to make predictions about the future. The factors encouraging Spanish loss in today’s third-generation Latinos– the ones which suggested to their grandparents, that Spanish was disadvantageous– simply do not apply today, period. I can’t believe that Massey et al., supposedly respected sociologists, blundered into such an obvious and complete blunder in data analysis!
Spanish was seen as a hindrance to social progress and making a good salary thirty or so years ago. Today, Spanish knowledge is seen as the opposite– essential to social advancement and getting a good salary, so much so that even us non-Latinos are picking it up! Spanish demographic presence is much stronger, Spanish is no longer stigmatized, Spanish media is extremely popular– all of this rather unprecedented. The reason for loss of fluent Spanish in today’s third-generation Latinos is simply b/c their grandparents saw Spanish as getting in the way of their careers and success. Today, Latino grandparents and parents see Spanish as being essential for success and social standing– I’ve met hundreds of Latino families and not one, *one single family*, is encouraging their kids to lose Spanish. All are insisting on Spanish retention. Many third- and fourth-generation Latinos are picking Spanish up again.
So the factors from thirty years ago are reversed today, and Spanish is increasingly essential, esp. in the SW where it does have legal protected status from centuries. I don’t see a problem with this, and I *hate* the false dichotomy which claims that Latinos must either forget Spanish and “become American” whatever that means, or retain Spanish and be un-American. Most Latinos are doing both– staying patriotic Americans, but very much retaining Spanish. Even speaking as a non-Latino, you’d be a fool not to ensure that your kids speak fluent Spanish, it’s essential for the job market among other things.
June 14th, 2007 at 8:48 am
[…] The best way to score cheap points with the California Republican Party is to bash immigrants, so maybe the action hero thought he would get extra credit for boldly bashing Latinos to their face. Still, I think that Schwarzenegger actually believes what he’s saying. Despite all evidence to the contrary, I think Schwarzenegger actually clings to the popular misconception that Latinos hold on to Spanish tighter than other immigrant populations. […]