I grew up in a small town in the Napa Valley called St. Helena. St. Helena is not very diverse especially in schools. This had a major impact on how I chose to present myself and the language I chose to speak growing up.
"At home my Spanish began to become less important to me subconsciously and would only speak it at home or with other family members who didn't speak English."
This quote in my language paper made me think. It was sad to read about how I subconsciously stopped speaking my parents native tongue in order to fit into the community I was raised in.
"I would only speak Spanish at home when I needed to but suddenly realized the importance of being bilingual when my younger brother was born. His first language was also Spanish but as he grew older, he chose to' mainly speak English."
A turning point in where I realized that being bilingual is an important thing was when my brother limited how much he spoke in Spanish back home. Although my brother is fluent in Spanish his dominant language is definitely English. There have been times where Ive had to translate a word that my brother says in English while he's talking to my parents in Spanish which made me realize how important it is to speak your native tongue.
"Now that I have gotten older, I have been speaking more Spanish whether it's at home or with friends because I know how important language can be. Speaking Spanish to me creates a more comforting feeling for me because that's what I use to communicate with my family and the people I love."
My cousin Gaby has always had a great impact in my life. She was one of the first people that I started communicating with and since then we've been inseparable. Although Gaby and I are very different and were raised in different types of communities something that has brought us together has been music.
"I was speaking English and Spanish simultaneously and knew the difference between each language without combining them to speak Spanglish. The only difference that came with speaking the two languages was the tone I chose to use when talking to different types of people. When I spoke English, I was speaking English in a way where I knew that this was going to be the language that I would speak the most. Talking with my friends or people my age is different from how I talk to professors or people older than me, whether it's in English or Spanish."
Music has always been a way that made it easier to communicate with people without being judged for being too "White" or too "Mexican"
When I was 9 Gaby and I went to a Vicente Fernandez concert which was filled with people of many ages and interest.
My dad is the oldest out of the ten of his siblings. Because he grew up in a big family he had to work from an early age to support his family. His parents prioritized him working instead of attending school like all of his other siblings and because of that he is illiterate. He learned math skills while working at his parents farm while dealing with livestock and crops.
An activity that my dad and I have always enjoyed to do together has been fishing. In a way fishing has been a way for us to communicate with each other in a different way because there are no specific rules you need to follow.
The fact that my dad did not attend school motivates me to be the first in my family to attend college. Being a good example to my younger brother and demonstrating to him that attending college is achievable is a huge goal of mine. Being a resource to him when the time comes for him to apply to college is also something that I will be proud of since my parents could only help me though the process at a certain extent.
Credits:
Created with images by wilhei - "writing lead set letterpress" • eunseong0331 - "people fun friends"