April 12, 2023 • 54 mins
After Diosa went VIRAL for discussing the history of language violence, we noticed many people questioning the validity of that history. In this episode, we dive into the history of language violence in the American Southwest, Mexican-only schools, and the modern-day pochos, aka No Sabo Kids.
Listeners from around the U.S., share their experience with the Spanish language. From reformed no-sabo kids to a transracial adoptee, listeners share their experiences with their cultural identity.
Thank you to Gia, Paula Zaremba, Doctora Rene Lemus, Breana Quintero (aka Bre Burrito), Jenna Palacios, Marissa Reyes, and Rebeca Ruiz for contributing to our audio archive.
Articles references in this episode:
Black and Brown Oral Histories
Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/locatora_productions
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Loca Radio is the radio phonic novela, which is just
a very extra way of saying a podcast. I'm Theos
FM and I am Mala miyos. Loca Tora Radio is
your Freema's favorite podcast hosted by us Mala and Liosa,
where two ig friends turned podcast partners, breaking down pop culture, feminism,
(00:24):
sexual wellness, and offering fresh takes on strending topics through
nuanced interviews with up and coming Latin creatives known as
Las Locas, Las Mammy, submit in Bullshit, as next Door
and Lasses. We've been podcasting independently since twenty sixteen, and
we're bringing our radiophonic novela to the Mikokura network to
(00:47):
continue sharing stories from the latinxt community. Welcome to Loca
to Radio Season seven, Take us to your network. Ocamore
is Welcome back to another of Loca Radio. I'm Theosa
and I am Mala. You're tuning into one sixty. I
(01:11):
can't believe it. We're just racking them up. Last time
on look I thought our radio we interviewed Ella. She
was here performing in La very fun interview. Go ahead,
take a listen, leave a review and share with a friend. Yes,
and don't forget. You can follow us across all socials
at Locata Underscore Radio. You can find us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter,
(01:32):
and Facebook. Visit our website Loca Thought Radio dot com,
and subscribe to our newsletter Bessie thos. So. Today we
have a super packed episode for y'all. We're going to
get into the nitty gritty of everything basically, so we
want to catch Shalla. And first start by telling y'all
in April fool's joke that Mala played on practically all
(01:53):
of Latino Hollywood. It was really fun, it was really good.
I can't lie. The joke hit, the joke glanded. I
mean people were gagging on this gag. Yes, I couldn't
be more proud. I woke up on April first, and
I like sent Biosa a voicemail and I was like,
I don't know, I just really want to make like
a fake deadline article today. I'm like feeling called to
(02:16):
do that. It's pilot season, so everyone's dropping their deadline articles,
they're dropping their news. So I just slid ours right
on in there. I like got on Canva like we do,
and worked my magic and put it out and like
people were very excited for us. So let me tell
y'all about the deadline article and the headline that Mala
(02:37):
wrote lass Hollywood film Greenlit at NSK, Mala Munios Andosam
to star and co executive produce. Now, I also wrote
like a couple of paragraphs, so I'll just read them
to you in case you don't follow us on the ground,
which you should be at this point to keep up
with this stuff in real time. Exclusive Mala Munios and
(03:00):
of Look at Our Productions LLC will write and co
executive produce the upcoming NSK holiday film Las Bocha vas Set,
a premiere during the network's nis Sabin Film Festival. Production
on the project began on Wednesday. Munyo stars as Zoe,
a rising podcast personality who returns home for her family's
annual posada when the family matriarch falls into a coma
(03:21):
after a tortilla chip factory fire. The success of the
posada falls onto Zoe's shoulders. An unrepent bocha who speaks terrible, no, good, God,
awful Spanish, she embarks on an adventure to save the family,
posada and the world. With a little help from an
unexpected Christmas Miracle. I don't know about you, guys, but
I would watch that movie. First of all. I would
(03:41):
one thousand percent watch it. And I think that that's
also why a lot of people fell for it, because
it sounded like something we would make. People are definitely
expect us to work in film next, so it just
all made sense. However, there were some clues to give
away that this was a joke. So the first one
is that you dated at March thirty second, twenty twenty three.
And let me tell you a lot of very well
(04:04):
respected journalists did not catch that. No, that was my favorite.
To all the journals who follow and who listen, we
love you, guys, were obsessed with you. We love your work.
But I just think it's hilarious every time we pull
one over on you. I really do think it's so funny.
Mama feels really good when we can trick the journalist.
I'm always like the journalists are falling for it, and
(04:27):
also like, tell us about the author who wrote this.
Oh so I pulled, like, you know, a screen grab
from an actual Deadline article, and I replace the author
photo with the photo of May West, and then I
took her birth name, which is Mary Jane West, and
I translated it into like a Spanish Maria hims obsessed
(04:47):
and then NSK stands for No Sabo Kids. And so
this Deadline article I wrote very pointedly because it's on
the heels of a viral moment that Yosa is at
the center of. We were on a podcast, Shout Out
Ian Friends, shout out, shout out go check out that
(05:07):
episode I in Besties. I should say they have two shows.
We were on Ian Besties, and of course, as happens
in any Latin X conversation anywhere, we start talking about
Nosabo kids and speaking Spanish. Yeah, and so yeah, that
was like the recent happenings of like why this joke
was also like so funny because like if you followed
(05:28):
what was going on that week, it's like you knew
like the nissab and festival, No Sabo Kids productions, like
the whole thing, right, so good. And so we were
on this podcast, like Mala mentioned, and I don't know
how it even came up, like we weren't talking about
Nosabo kids, but the one of the host asked us.
One of the host, Stephanie, asked us about No Sabo Kids,
(05:51):
And so you know, I explained that there's a history
of violence in the US where kids were being beaten
and paddled for speaking Spanish in schools, and so to
pretend that that didn't happen or to ignore it like
eraces lived experience of people of that generation. And to me,
(06:11):
I'm like, I got my effects, I got I got
some nuance, I got some some like I'm defending the
Nosabo kids. And of naturally, this is the clip, this
is the point of the interview that they took and
turned it into a clip as many podcasts do now,
and it went viral, and I inadvertently became the face
of the Nosabo kids. You're like the patron saint of
(06:34):
the Nosabo kids right now, like the defender of the
Nosabo kids, like Theosa took several bullets for us, y'all.
And the funniest part is the speaks perfect Spanish, like thesa.
Spanish is exquisite. But let's get into the nitty gritty
of this moment. First of all, super viral, I mean
we're still getting comments as of this morning. It was
like in the two hundred thousand views, like thousands of
(06:56):
comments at this point, and it was so funny because
at some point, like I started just responding to people
in Spanish. Hell yeah. So I was like, Okay, I'm
going to come in the comments and We're going to
talk about this in Spanish because apparently that's so important
to you. Yes, the most important things, more important than
(07:19):
watching the clip and listening to what you're saying. Oh yeah,
oh yeah. People have to like respond before actually like
comprehending and having their own critical thought. And so we
wanted to highlight some of the comments that we were
kind of sending each other over the past week. Dude,
First of all, nuts, can I just say unhinged because
(07:41):
part of reading through the comments leaves me unsure of
like what do you people want? And by you people,
I mean you latinas you know, the community end quote
what do you want? Because it ranges from oh, you
guys have to stop being victims and be responsible for
your self and learn language, learn Spanish, and get rid
(08:02):
of yourself hatreds. You can speak to your grandparents like
you have to learn Spanish. You have to love yourself.
You know. There was a lot of that, and then
there was a lot of we're not even Spaniards, we
speak indigenous languages. None of them are indigenous, none of
them speak indigenous languages, none of them, you know. So
it was like a very odd mix. And at the
(08:23):
end I'm left like a question mark. Yeah, I don't
know what any of you want. It was super polarizing
because there were even in my in the clip, I
say something like, people get mad that we don't speak
our quote native languages, and so then people were mad
that I said native. But it's like I said quote
for a reason, because I recognize that that's not the
native language originally of the people of the Americas. However,
(08:48):
I am not going to claim to be an indigenous
language speaker because I'm not. So Spanish is actually my
language as well as English. It would be disingenuous of
me to say I'm going to go learn Nawa when
the region that my family's from they didn't speak now
what either, you know, And so to say to even
say that, that's so like for me. If I were
to have said that, it would be so funny and
(09:09):
so wrong and historically inaccurate, because that's not where my
family's from. My grandparents didn't speak in indigenous language. For
the folks that did grow up with grandparents that spoke
indigenous languages. Yes, you have that experience and that story
one hundred percent. I cannot claim that, So you can't
project that onto me. There was and there was a
(09:30):
lot of that happenings projection, Yes, And what we saw
is like people do not listen. The clip is not
even that long. It's like less than a minute. These
folks in the comments were not watching the clip. They
were not listening, but responding with such anger and like
such like intensity, and then a lot of words, paragraphs
(09:52):
on paragraphs. Yeah, and it's part of a much larger
conversation we were having on the Ian Besties podcast, Like
they seem to want all of linguistics and history in
one clip. They wanted in thirty seconds because that's all
our attention spans can really handle these days. And so
they want you to say every single thing possible and
(10:14):
say every single possible angle and experience, even if it's
not yours, in thirty seconds or less. Yeah, which is impossible. Yeah.
And so you know, we obviously saw this as an
opportunity to create our own episode and have our do
our own research and bring on our own guests to
talk about the history of language violence and talk about
(10:37):
mostable kids. And even though you know, we recognize that
the people commenting they're never going to listen to this episode. No,
they're they're never going to listen to that I Besties episode.
They're never going to do their own research. We understand that,
and this is episode isn't necessary for them, but more
so like seeing this, look at that our radio as
what it is, which is a radio, which is an
(10:58):
audio archive, and we're contributing to the audio archive by
having this be in existence, because you can't say, well,
I haven't learned, I haven't found it. Well, it's right
here that we're going to break it down for you
right here in this episode. Yeah, and this is you know,
we're going to cite all kinds of sources that are
have been in existence for a very long time and accessible.
(11:21):
What we always try and do is break this down
to Okay, what's the institutional issue here? Education in America
is very faulty. I can't blame our entire community for
not having access to proper history and education, but it
is reflected in these comments and it's very upsetting and
(11:42):
frankly disturbing. In addition to all the negative feedback, There
were also hundreds of comments and people sharing their own
experience with language violence, their grandparents, experience with language violence,
things that happened in the nineties, things that happened last month.
Even just scrolling through the comments and seeing other people's
experiences that reflected what I said, would show you, Oh wait,
(12:04):
there isn't actually a vast experience broader than mine. And
all I have to do is read these comments. I
don't even have to go read a book. I can
just read these comments and maybe learn something today. No, totally.
And so at the crux here is we have a
large number of our community has no idea that we
have phased generations and generations of language violence in the
(12:27):
United States. Yeah, and that many of us have been
here for many, many generations. And what happens is that
language gets lost where it gets transformed. Right. And so
for those listening too, if you're not familiar with the term,
no Sabo kids, I feel like it's kind of a
very online term. Maybe it's like a gen Z adaptation
of Boschel, Right, this is the terminology we use now,
(12:49):
no sabo kids. Yeah, And like the no sabo comes
from the word suburb And when you conjugate it, and
if you were to say I don't know something, you'll
say And so the reason that it's no sabo is
because if you don't speak Spanish or you haven't learned
the correct like conjugation, you're gonna instead of saying because
if you say, for example, abla, the right conjugation for
(13:10):
the yo is yoablo And so in your mind you're like, oh, yeah,
it's no sabo because ablab right, right, But no, that's
that's no se And so that is like where that
also comes from, because a lot of people would speak
it and would say it, you know, quote incorrectly and
would say no sabo instead of no set. And that's
how like it became no sabo kids. Yeah, absolutely, I
(13:33):
think there's also like, look all over the country, you
have communities where people speak creolized languages. You know, their
English is mixed with French, is mixed with other things.
And that's what we speak here. We speak like an
amalgamated version of Spanish. It's Spanish and English, it is Spanglish,
like we have like a little regional dialect thing going
(13:54):
on here. So I think, yeah, sure, it's grammatically incorrect,
but you know what I'm saying exactly, and that's the thing.
It's like, you know, you still know that, like the
point that I can get across. And if I were
to go into the street and say that to someone
trying to find directions and I'll say, you know, and
I said, no, savo, you know, like you would probably
understand it. You would know what I'm getting at. Right, Oh, totally.
(14:16):
And I think too, like speaking of like transformation growing up,
like Spanglish was looked down upon in my in my family,
with my parents, with my dad specifically because he didn't
he didn't like it. He said it you you sounded
like a pocha, right. I don't think he used that word,
but he didn't like the idea that like your Spanish
wasn't perfect, it wasn't correct, what have you. Now, I've
(14:39):
noticed that both of my parents, actually my dad is
still like primarily Spanish, but the Spanish very like, very seldomly,
but it happens. And my mom speaks a lot more
Spanish now too. And so even within my parents who
are of an older generation, seeing them transform and how
they've used Spanish and Spanglish is okay because it's so
(15:01):
normal now, especially in Los Angeles. Everybody speaks English. Yeah,
and again like we have to let languages evolved. Yes, totally,
it's wild. Let's get into some of these comments. Yeah,
one of my favorite comments, and it's actually not my
favorite at all, but you know what I mean. Um.
One of the more outrageous comments was actually from a
signol because I had to go look at his profile afterwards.
(15:24):
And so he says, like, I don't know where the
girls are getting their input and exposing as if it
was a norm that moms and dads are not teaching
their native language. Is nothing but bs And so I
had to respond to this man in Spanish, Yes, and
I did, what did you say in Spanish? Something along
the lines of like I he responded in English? Of course,
(15:49):
of course he probably this fool probably doesn't even speak Statish. Great,
and they're just like some just also very simple comments
of like dumbist shit I've seen all week and that's
just stupid, and you know, and you know, you guys,
it's look, we've been online long enough. People will use
any opportunity to pile on and talk shit too. Beautiful
women on the internet. They just need an excuse, They
(16:13):
just need a reason they're like dying to do it.
And I see that's all those comments where this this
is just stupid, dumbest thing. I'm like, you were just
enjoying the vitriol. Oh yeah, but yeah, to dive into it,
you know, I do want to give a disclaimer that
we're focusing mainly on the Southwest, but we know this
history is broader than this region. But we're citing a
(16:36):
lot of things that are specific to California, Texas and
the American Southwest. Yeah, and there's a lot of layers
to this history. I mean, of course, like we can
go all the way back and we can start with
this was native land, and it was and there were
tons and tons of native languages being spoken here in
(16:58):
northern Mexico. What have you. We have Spanish colonization, we
have in the British, we have manifest destiny. So we
have all these things circling around. And as much as
it's not true for everyone that statement of weedn't cross
the border, the border cross desk, that's not everybody's history,
but it is a history for many millions of people,
(17:19):
you know. So let's go back. Schools segregated, including in
the American Southwest, not just in the South. You would
see segregation even in businesses and signs in storefront windows
like no Negroes, Mexicans or dogs allowed. You can google
these signs and they'll pop up, you know. Yeah, and
there were specifically like schools just for Mexicans. You know,
(17:42):
we think of segregation, and we think of Brown versus
Board of Education, which obviously was monumental in desegregating all
of schools in the United States, but prior to that,
there was also Westminister versus Mendes and so that was
actually Westministers in Orange County. And so in nineteen forty five,
along with four other family's, Amendous Family filed a class
(18:02):
action lawsuit against four Orange County school districts, and their
goal was to ensure that all children could attend California
schools regardless of race, because there were Mexican only schools.
And so this was in nineteen forty five. Because they
successfully sued the school district, this set precedent four Brown
versus Board of Education, which later went on to desgregate
(18:24):
all of the public schools in the US. And so
nineteen forty five was not that long ago. Like I
have to reiterate, even though people may say, like, well,
I grew up in the eighties and my parents got
here in the sixties. Nineteen forty two was not that
long ago. No, it really wasn't. And my family was
already in California before nineteen forty two. My father's grandparents
(18:48):
immigrated from Chihuahua to Bakersfield and then continued on three
generations of farm workers in Bakersfield. The language loss has
been happening since before, since way before nineteen forty two,
and so my family lived through all this stuff in
a lot of ways. That's why we speak our Spanglish.
(19:09):
I mean, we know in the United States we had
indigenous we had Indian boarding schools. The goal was to
eradicate indigen eighty including language. There was a similar but
distinct process in the American Southwest, where although as we know,
not all Mexicans are indigenous, you do have a sort
(19:30):
of like hispanicized Mexicanized ethnically indigenous population similarly being put
into segregated specific schools to extract language like this was
done intentionally and systematically and rather successfully. Right you had
a school, for example, the Blackwell School, built in nineteen
(19:52):
o nine, segregated until nineteen sixty five, which again not
that long ago, super recent. My mother was born in
nineteen fifty five, y'all, Like that was not that long ago,
Like our parents lived through segregated schools in the United States,
like through that period, through that history. So the Blackwall
School served the Latino Mexican community of Marfa, Texas, and
(20:14):
was declared a historic site in twenty nineteen, again very recently,
to preserve a part of American history which had been
signed which was signed into law in twenty twenty two.
So again this is American history, and part of the
history of America is like dehispanicizing, you know, Mexicans, Latin
X people, Spanish speakers, and stripping our language from us. Yeah,
(20:38):
fast forward, you now have the conundrum of the Nosabo kid,
which is not a conundrum at all. We know exactly
how this happened. Yeah, there's a map. So when I
found the Blackwall School, you know, and saw that it
was declared a historic site, it's technically falls under like
a National Park site because the school is like still intact,
and so it's to see like, this is what a
(20:59):
segregation at school looked like, this is what a Mexican
only school looked like. So it's quite literally to preserve
like the also visuals of like this is what it
looked like, like this is what a Mexican only school
looked like. And it was actually at that school. Um.
One of the reasons that it was part of this
Historic Site declaration is because this is one of the
(21:20):
schools where children were paddled for speaking Spanish. And so
there's this La Times article, We're going to link it
in our show notes. And some of the adults now
that went to school there at the time shared that
their teacher made them have a funeral for Spanish. So
she wrote on the blackboard the word Spanish, had all
(21:40):
the kids write it on a paper. They went and
put it in a box and buried it because Spanish
was no longer allowed to be spoken at this school,
that they had a literal funeral for Spanish. And so
one of the kids was like, and she paddled him
in front of everybody, and so they all learned they
(22:04):
couldn't speak Spanish at school. And so later these same
now adults go back and they have this very beautiful
ceremony where they're burying a Spanish dictionary because they all
have Spanish. They've reclaimed the Spanish. Wow. And so this
is a very powerful, beautiful article in the La Times
that we're again we're linking in the show notes so
again to show like they're not only is there this
(22:27):
historical site, but there's also still people alive that experienced
that violence in schools totally. Growing up, my dad would
tell me stories all the time about when he was
in elementary school, the kids that had Spanish accents and
spoke English with an accent would be placed in the
special ed, the special education classes as if they had
(22:51):
like a learning disability, right, you know, So there was
a direct impact on their educations and their futures, their prospects,
just because of speaking with an accented English. And so
what we're also talking about here is like multiple layers
of language laws where those of us who did have
(23:11):
an indigenous language being spoken in the family that was
eradicated and replaced with Spanish, and then that was eradicated
and replaced with English. Right. And so what we're speaking
now is not only whatever remnants we have of our Spanish,
but it's also whatever remnants are left of our past
indigenous language that we might have spoken at some point. Right,
(23:32):
there's a rumor in my family that our last name
on my dad's side is actually a Getua last name,
and that my grandfather changed it to like a Spanish
surname intentionally, and so there's no record of this. This
is like family myth. I don't know like if it's true,
and none of my family talks about it. But when
I was in Bidu, my thea was the one that
(23:54):
told me. And she was like my grandfather's like his
sister in law, so she knew like the family history
and they all grew up together, and so she was
the one that told me this, and she was very
much like, but don't really tell people because like no
one wants to talk about it, you know, because what
does that mean? That means we have to talk about
Oh guess what our grandfather was an indigenous man. Yeah, right,
(24:17):
and same with my grandmother. And so to your point, like,
there's various losses that have happened depending on where you're from,
depending on your family history. And I think too this
speaks to like the culture of silence in Latin x
Latino communities. If we don't talk about it, it never happened.
So these people that say like, oh, I've never heard this,
(24:40):
Oh this isn't true, probably because your family has never
talked about it or they haven't experienced it. Like, there's
so many different things happening at the same time. There's
a lot of different things happening at the same time,
and I think sometimes when we're not getting our proper
look the b ning of books, the attacks on ethnic
(25:02):
studies Arizona, Texas, they have been the Mexican American and
Chicano communities and Black communities down there have been fighting
for years now to retain ethnic studies, Black studies, Chicano
studies specifically, these programs have been in place, these books
have been you know, like accessible to the students down there,
(25:23):
and there's just been a constant war to eradicate that education.
And when we don't have that education, like that's the
only place where this history is housed. Realistically, you have
to take a Chicano studies class, or an Ethnic studies class,
or a Mexican American studies class to get this. And
I think like at that point, you know, if you're
an adult, right and you don't know this history, and
(25:44):
a young adult, right, like if you're thinking of a
linear path of you go to community college or a
four year at eighteen, Right, it's kind of too late. Like, yes,
the Chicano studies classes are important, the Mexican American history,
Latino history in the US one thousand percent to present
advocate for that, but it's also I feel like it
should be a part and I know that there's movements
(26:04):
to make it a part of K through twelve education, right,
bring ethnic studies to middle schools as well. I think
in Arizona it has been Yeah, and I and I
think that's also why we're seeing like the critical race theory,
like as if that's actually being taught in schools. What's
being taught is history, American history, Chicano history, Black American history.
(26:25):
And you know, I think that we've talked about this
in the past. There's so many Latino Chicano people in
like border patrol, in LAPD, in the prisons and corrections
and working in positions of like oppression. I think part
(26:45):
of there's, like we've talked about this, right, there are
white Latinos, there are white aspiring Latinos, and then there's
like white behaving Latinos. And if you are completely disconnected,
did from all of this history and you have no
idea the likelihood of like being brought into conservative ideology,
(27:08):
conservative values, white supremacist values and thoughts is so much higher.
And I think the community is so much more susceptible
to buying in to white supremacist thought when we have
that fluidity almost to opt in or to fight against it.
(27:29):
And I just think like between the schools, and then
also like our parents, I think a lot of times
we have parents who want us to just like go
with the flow, you know, blend in, don't. I think
a lot of older parents don't want us to feel
like we're victims, you know. So then it means we're
(27:52):
talking about these things, is like like talk like we're complaining, right, Yes,
And that was some of what was in the comments.
You quick complaining this is exaggerated. You guys are exaggerating.
Guys are making this up. Look at these seventy year olds,
they are still recounting being beaten in schools, and tell
them that they're exaggerating. You can tell me I'm exaggerating,
(28:13):
but don't go and tell our seniors, our literal ancestors,
you know, our elders, that they're exaggerating you know, like
that we're not doing that, and I think like acknowledging,
like there's also you know, people in position of power
that advocate for only English, right from doctors to school
teachers to speech pathologists. When I told my mom that
(28:36):
we were producing this episode, she was telling me, oh, yeah,
you know they're My brother, you know, is in his forties,
and so in nineteen seventy nine, he was in kindergarten
and the school was concerned that he wasn't pronouncing his
words right, so they referred my mother to a speech pathologist,
and the speech pathologist said, well, you should just pick
(28:58):
one language. That's why he's having a problem. Now we know, right,
the research shows that being bilingual has so many benefits
to your brain, to your development, etc. Etc. But at
the time, in nineteen seventy nine, which again was not
that long ago, there was a speech pathologist advocating for
to learn one language. So what in my mom pick?
She picked English? And so my brother and I even
(29:21):
have entirely different experiences with Spanish because my brother would
be like more of a Boche Mexican American Spanish speaker.
Because we have different fathers, we have different experiences, right,
and so even in the own our own family, we
have a very different like understanding and use of Spanish,
and Spanish really is learned at home and in your family.
(29:46):
That's the only way you're going to learn how to
speak Spanish the way your family speaks Spanish. No class
on the face of the earth is going to give
you that Spanish language immersion, the vocabulary, that cadence, the tone,
the inflection that you learn from repeated exposure every single
day since from the day you're born. Like there's also
(30:09):
in the comments on this reel, is this like you
got to take it upon yourself, Like take it upon
yourself to learn Spanish. Take it upon yourself to learn Spanish.
I've been taking Spanish classes my whole effing life in school,
you know what I mean. My parents have been speaking
to me in English since I was a baby, right.
The only person I really speak Spanish to you and
my family is my grandmother. So there's that piece. If
(30:31):
your parents are not speaking to you in Spanish at
home every single day from the day you learn to
acquire language, you're just not going to speak that fluent
Spanish that people want you to speak. Right now, there's
also people that choose to not speak Spanish because maybe
they're ashamed, maybe they're embarrassed. There's internalized racism that's its
own part, right, and that's a biproduct of white supremacy,
(30:56):
like to be clear. And then there's also assimilation. And
you know, we can't pretend that this country even now
systemically supports or encourages cultural differences when we still have
people saying, go back to your country, go back to
where you came from. Yes, for people that speak other languages. So,
like we're living in like an increase in like Asian violence,
(31:19):
anti Asian violence. You know, folks that speak their languages
in the Asian communities right experience violences people, Latin X folks,
obviously black folks. Like there's there's just an array of
things happening right now. So to pretend that, like, oh,
it's safe to be your like culturally different, it's not
(31:39):
like you can maybe live in communities where, yes, like
in your living in Los Angeles, you have your pockets
where yes, you can like feel culturally grounded. But to
pretend that that happens everywhere is false. It's false. And
you can go back and on the piece on indigenous
language erasure and all of this. Something that I find
so interesting is like we literally we interviewed Adelia Romero
(32:01):
of My Cello. Go back and listen to that episode
and hear from Adelia about indigenous languages, language violence and Spanish.
That is like the context that I see, Like nobody
in the comments is tapping into that reality and that conversation.
And it's a lot of first, second, third gen Mexican Americans, right,
(32:27):
Chicano's whatever, very committed to well, we're natives and we
speak a native language. But none of those folks in
the comments speak a native language, right, you know, and
they're not hearing that conversation from indigenous communities or not
hearing it. Yeah. And she talks about the history of
language violence in Los Angeles, specifically towards indigenous people and
(32:51):
the assumption that anyone that looks brown is Mexican or
Latino and speak Spanish when that's not the case. And
so she talks about her advocacy work that she clo
and just to wrap up about the idea and bit
that like Latinos aren't actually like not all Latinos are
immigrants and not all Latinos are quote foreigners, especially when
(33:11):
you think about the Californios, like people that have been
here before this, but when this was Mexico before with
the US people that have been here for generations, like
your family, Like, so, can you share a little more
on that sentiment? I think this again goes back to
like where are we learning American history and like understanding
our place in California. And I sometimes feel like folks
(33:34):
who are more recently immigrated maybe have absolutely no idea
that we've been here for that long. It kind of
in the comments reflect that for me, that there seems
to be this gap in knowledge as far as our
timeline I am. I don't. My grandmother is my most
recent immigrant story in my family. In my family, my grandmother,
(33:58):
my mother is not an immigrant. I am not an immigrant,
and on my dad's side, like immigration happens so long ago.
It's not a conversation, it's not a part of our
reality or our experience when my grandmother shares things here
and there. Absolutely, but my grandmother also came here when
she was sixteen and the tallest building with city Hall,
(34:18):
I was doing research. My grandma was here before the
Dodgers got here. She was here before the first Star
on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was laid. I mean,
I can continue, you can you know all the things
that have been introduced before the Lakers got here, all
the things that have happened in La since then, Like
she was here before all of that. I think that
it's like we're part of a continuum here. And I
(34:41):
just the reason why people can speak Spanish at work
and in school today is because we were not allowed
to speak Spanish. You know, my dad speaks terrible Spanish,
was not allowed to speak Spanish growing up, but he
was lobbying and protesting and walking out and sitting in
and getting cracked over the head with batons and all
(35:02):
that stuff. So that you guys can speak Spanish, so
you're welcome the next time you just say hey, thank you, thanks,
you know what I mean? I don't know. I just
there's bigger fish to fry. I feel like with Latinos,
we always come down what do we call ourselves and
what language do we speak? Yes, we cannot get back.
We cannot get past that, just the basics. And it's
(35:25):
so sad and like it's very much like there's no
how can there be unity in this vast non monolithic
community when people are still arguing that you're not Latino
enough because you don't speak Spanish, because you're not a
real Latino because you use Latin X or Latine or
(35:46):
you're using the colonizer's language. You know, what have you?
White people are calling you Latin X. No, yeah, people
have been Latin Americans have been using Latin X and
Latine for decades now, decades, so shut up. You know
it's like that. So why we cannot advance as a community,
as a broad community, because there we're still fighting about
the same shit. Who we are? Who are we? We
(36:09):
don't know, We don't know who we are? What are
we called? What language do we speak? Those are like
the basics of being a human, Like what's my name?
And what language do I speak? Like we haven't figured
it out? And let me just say this, all these
people in the comments, you need to speak Spanish. You
need to speak Spanish. You need to speak Spanish. Why
do you want me to speak Spanish so bad? So
you can annoy me into languages so you can bother
(36:30):
me bilingually, you know what. I'm okay like this, Yeah,
I'm cool. Yeah right? I mean and I think also too,
like I feel like there's a deep insecurity there, Like
I am so secure in who I am and my
family's history here and even in my language. You know,
(36:55):
you know, I get that that's the reality of being
here in the US, Like you do start to lose things,
and like that's the reality. But I'm also so secure
in that that I don't need to be in the
comments saying I do speak Spanish. No, I do you
know that's not me because no, Like I don't care
if you think I speak Spanish or not. The point is,
(37:15):
like you're going to criticize even the boat shows, even
the Nosabo kids that are trying to learn. Oh, the
minute they get a word wrong, you're gonna you're gonna
tease them, You're going to criticize them, you're gonna bully them.
It's never gonna be enough for you. Never. And that's
why I don't care if you don't think I speak Spanish,
or if you care, then my quote opinion is wrong. Yeah,
this is historically accurate. This is just true. This is
(37:39):
just what happened. Yeah, totally. It's like real, there's a
real nastiness. There's a real pettiness that comes out when
you make mistakes in Spanish. Oh yeah, and people love
to to just like revel in that, especially online. You
guys don't want us to learn Spanish. You don't care,
don't give a shit about our learning. Teach our own
(37:59):
kids Spanish. Be concerned about if Spanish, if that's important
to you, if it's being taught in your house or not.
But don't go and put that on other people. Because
I was also the face of this, I felt super
called to also one produce this episode with Mala, and
two like also get the stimonials from our listeners, testimonies
(38:20):
from our listeners, especially the Nosabo kaids, and hear more firsthand,
like how this language eratier happens. And so we're going
to play a couple today. We got over a dozen,
and so we're going to break this up into two episodes.
So if you didn't hear yours today, you might you
will hear it on the next episode. So to start,
(38:43):
Gia from Ontario, Canada. She grew up in Canada. She says,
I grew up in North America and was born in Ecuador,
and she tells us about growing up with no Latinos
around her. I was born in Ecuador, Wayaquil and my
parents moved here when I was almost one years old,
so I've basically spent my whole life in North America,
(39:05):
and my experience being a no Sabo kid is basically
there were no Hispanic people around us, so no matter what,
we were forced to learn English. I am actually trying
to relearn Spanish now because I have a little two
(39:26):
year old boy who I just want to give him
this gift of our culture, you know, a way to
communicate with all of the relatives that he has in
equaord And it's just such a gift for me to
to be hearing and learning and speaking Spanish again. It
(39:49):
just brings me peace and connection to my grandmother and
other ancestors who have passed. It's just an amazing gift,
and it's awful that anyone has experienced any kind of
negativity with speaking their language. Born in Virginia, resides in Maryland.
(40:17):
She is a transracial adoptee and is actively trying to
reconnect with her culture. Am I a Nosabo kid la
verda kisi avesis e the bende. I was born in
northern Virginia and Spanish was my first language prior to
Foster care and adoption, and over time I lost it.
(40:37):
So I took Spanish classes in middle, high school, and
college and have accepted it will probably be a lifelong
process to reconnect with my schooldas, and that means Spanish too.
It's painful and difficult to be othered by non Latin people,
and then also by Latin people. In some cases. It's
also hard to feel I have to explain or justify
why I didn't grow up around Spanish and that I'm
(41:00):
an adopted Latina to new people that I meet, because
my story of forced family separation and cultural separation is
deeply traumatic to me and a story I would rather
share when I feel comfortable and safe with someone new.
Doctor Renee Lemmas of last's podcast from Lakewood, California. She's
an ethnic studies professor, and she tells us one of
(41:22):
the reasons Spanish has not been passed down and why
it continues to happen now. She also shares why language
is not the only cultural marker. You know, Emma, professor,
I've taught in Ethnic studies and Chica Next Studies, and
I talk a lot about this, this idea of why
oftentimes the Spanish language hasn't been passed down for generations,
(41:46):
and absolutely the historical context that Diosa was giving is
absolutely right. There were what was called Americanization programs, where
it was government funded programs, often led by Protestant churches,
and they would go into so we're talking about in
(42:08):
Texas right after the Mexican American War, and they would
go into Mexican communities and particularly target the women and
children and encourage the mothers not to speak Spanish to
their children. And they would kind of do these weird
(42:28):
trainings where they would teach them how to they would
discourage them not just from not speaking Spanish, but from
also cooking their traditional foods. Is I think that a
lot of people get caught up to in that, you know,
the Spanish language is so much a part of our culture,
and it is, and I do think on some level
it is important, and yet it's not the only thing
(42:51):
that is part of Mexican or Latin X culture. There's
so many other things, you know, food and traditions and
customs and you know, family values. There's just so much
to it that I think when we only put the
emphasis on, like you know, that language is the only
(43:13):
way that we can preserve our culture. I think it
negates that there's so many other things that are a
part of our people today are still being discouraged from
teaching their children Spanish. So my best friend who had
her child was PREMI and she's raised in a bilingual household,
(43:34):
and it seemed like she was having some speech delays,
and they were saying, well, it might be because of
the two languages that she's learning and it's going to
confuse her, when in fact, all the evidence, all the
research shows that that is not the case, that in fact,
children up to seven years old have the brain capacity
(43:57):
to learn multiple languages. So of course I immediately sent
her all these articles and all these research in order
for her to give to her doctor to show that
that's not going to cause any kind of speech delays.
Research does show that there might be speech delays up
to like a year or two years, but that eventually
bilingual or multilingual children will will catch up, and that
(44:22):
obviously I always say that knowing multiple languages is like
a superpower. So yeah, so I wanted to make the point.
And I had another friend who was told immediately after
birth sort of question like you're not going to teach
your kids Spanish, right, and we're talking like I'm in
the hospital right after birth. And because my friend is
(44:45):
also a doctor, it was also able to bring in
research and evidence to tell the doctor like, no, that's
not you know, yeah, I was able to kind of
push back against this doctor's racist remarks. But of course
it had me think how many vulnerable people are being
told by you know this by doctors and being made
(45:08):
to feel like, well, the doctor must know best, right,
So this is not something that's just a part of
our history, but something that continues to happen, and that
there's there's a lot of this rhetoric. Brianna Quinto aka
Brie Burrito currently lives in the IE and she is
a second generation No Sabo kid. It's hard for me
to summarize my experience because I'm like second generation no
(45:30):
Sabo third if we're really thinking about it, and people
are always surprised to hear this because one they're like
that's a thing, and two they're really surprised that both
my parents are actually like Latino Latina origin. From my
personal experience growing up, I definitely was bullied if not
girls try to fight me just because I didn't speak Spanish.
(45:53):
I grew up with a lot of friends that spoke Spanish.
I grew with my grandmother that spoke Spanish. But again
that's where the generational things come from. She's from Texas
and she felt so ashamed about her own Spanish because
she spoke Spanglish. If she knew someone could speak English,
she was going to speak English because she felt ashamed
that her Spanish wasn't quote unquote proper enough. But you know,
(46:16):
there's gonna be a hard pill for something y'all to swallow.
You are not very welcoming and if not hostile to
people who you think should speak Spanish. And if an
Anglo American says they want to learn, you know, open arms.
The most patients in the world, you know, happy, gleeful.
But when you see someone who is of Latin X origin,
(46:39):
Latine origin, Latino origin, they don't speak it, you turn
a lot of people, So don't get personal. Lab will
turn into this hustle. Oh so you think you're better.
She should already know. Jenna Palacios from Pomona but currently
residing in Long Beach. She's a reformed no Savo kid.
So I would consider myself a reformed no Savo kid.
(47:00):
I grew up not learning Spanish. Spanish was not spoken
to my home. However, my extended family speak Spanish. My
grandparents speaks Spanish. My dad just didn't feel like it
was useful to teach us Spanish. He didn't think that
we would use it in the future. He felt that
English was going to be the dominant language. So pretty
(47:20):
wild because now that I'm fluent in Spanish, I speak
Spanish literally every single day. I consume primarily Latin media,
Latin American media, books, music, So I know he's really
shocked about that. So my family has a pretty strong
history of assimilation, and I think when we look at assimilation,
(47:44):
you know, it's it's sad, and especially in the context
of like poking fun out and Nosavo kids. You know,
you're losing your cultural identity, you're losing touch with your roots,
and it's violent, and you know, it's just like our
history the United States with Indian boarding schools, really all
of that cultural ethnic erasure that happens. And now I
(48:08):
don't really feel that a lot of people think about
that because they are just so focused on assimilating to survive.
So my grandfather, his family was from Texas, South Texas,
and they were there since like the sixteen hundreds when
it was Mexico. He grew up being bilingual, but he
(48:32):
supposedly attended Mexican segregated schools and the kids were punished
in school for speaking Spanish. My grandmother's from Mexico, and
when they raised my dad and his siblings, they spoke
primarily Spanish, and they learned English in school, you know,
like many kids do. And my dad probably won't admit it.
(48:54):
And I am making assumptions here and based off things
that my mom has told me that he's told her.
I don't think he had great experiences in school. I
think he experienced a lot of racism in his young
adult life, and so I think that's why assimilation for
him was so important and something he put a lot
of work into. Marissareya is raised in Bakersfield. She shares
(49:17):
her experience with US hideosa Hia. My name is Marissareas
and I'm an Osabok. My mom's family is from Mexico City,
and my dad's family, his dad is from somewhere near Sacatecas.
(49:37):
We don't really know exactly. Because she was fleeing an
abusive relationship and my dad's mom. Her family is from
Texas from what it was still in Mexico, and so
I joked that the border crossed her and and it
(50:00):
is really prevalent my Avoila's experience in talking about my
relationship with Spanish. So Mioela grew up in the Great Depression,
and she talks about having gone through the American education
(50:20):
system and how discriminatory they were, how they refused even
to hire bilingual folks to help out. So Maouela actually
went through kindergarten, I think she said, for three years
because they just wrote them off as like just not
(50:43):
being intelligent because they didn't speak English. Mayavola was hit
by teachers like literally forced to sit in a corner
with like a dunce cap kind of thing on for
speaking Spanish. And when I've talked to her about my
experience struggling with not knowing the language, she and you know,
(51:09):
I grew up with around a lot of other Mexican
kids and they were more first and second gen whereas
Maeuela has been in this country for a long time
because it used to be in Mexico, and she did
not like that, even though she would love for me
to know more Spanish. She was like, then, they don't
(51:32):
know their history about what we've been through in this country.
Maauella was incredibly active in the Chicano Power movement and
raised her kids to be so proud to be Chicanos,
and Maauella is a very proud to Hannah. Rebecca ruis
Aka from merc just moved back to Texas and she
(51:53):
shares why her mom chose not to teach Spanish to
her and her siblings. My parents were not kids who
got punished in school for speaking Spanish. That was the
experience that my fi Cynthias might have had. But my parents, specifically,
growing up in the sixties on the border, we're not
punished for speaking Spanish with them. It was more that
(52:15):
they wanted our lives to be easier so they we
wouldn't have to learn English in school, and they just
assumed incorrectly that we would learn Spanish later in school.
Of course, here we are in our thirties and we
still can't speak Spanish. So again, I do understand where
my parents were coming from. So thank you locomotives for
(52:36):
tuning in, for engaging let us know what you think
of this episode. Please comment, Please subscribe, Share with a friend,
Share with anyone that's maybe doubting this part of us history.
Let us know what you think. Yeah, sure, this with
your most ignorant cousin. Oh my god, I didn't say that.
I did. You could be like said, I should send
(53:00):
this to you because you're ignorant. You might like this. No, um,
you know, send it around, Send it to all your
friends and family, everyone you're dating, everyone you used to date. Like,
everyone should hear this. Honestly, that's what I think. And um,
visit our website look at thot radio dot com. You
can send us voice memos like all the time. You
can send them on our website. We have the infrastructure there.
(53:22):
We have the speak pipe, so you can submit that
way and we will catch you next time. Look at That.
Our radio is a production of Look at That. Our
productions in partnership with Ihearts Michael podcast Network. For more podcasts,
listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
(53:42):
listen to your favorite shows. A radiophonic novella posted by
Mala Munyas and Bosam Take us to your network
Loca Radio is the radio phonic novela, which is just
a very extra way of saying a podcast. I'm Theos
FM and I am Mala miyos. Loca Tora Radio is
your Freema's favorite podcast hosted by us Mala and Liosa,
where two ig friends turned podcast partners, breaking down pop culture, feminism,
(00:24):
sexual wellness, and offering fresh takes on strending topics through
nuanced interviews with up and coming Latin creatives known as
Las Locas, Las Mammy, submit in Bullshit, as next Door
and Lasses. We've been podcasting independently since twenty sixteen, and
we're bringing our radiophonic novela to the Mikokura network to
(00:47):
continue sharing stories from the latinxt community. Welcome to Loca
to Radio Season seven, Take us to your network. Ocamore
is Welcome back to another of Loca Radio. I'm Theosa
and I am Mala. You're tuning into one sixty. I
(01:11):
can't believe it. We're just racking them up. Last time
on look I thought our radio we interviewed Ella. She
was here performing in La very fun interview. Go ahead,
take a listen, leave a review and share with a friend. Yes,
and don't forget. You can follow us across all socials
at Locata Underscore Radio. You can find us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter,
(01:32):
and Facebook. Visit our website Loca Thought Radio dot com,
and subscribe to our newsletter Bessie thos. So. Today we
have a super packed episode for y'all. We're going to
get into the nitty gritty of everything basically, so we
want to catch Shalla. And first start by telling y'all
in April fool's joke that Mala played on practically all
(01:53):
of Latino Hollywood. It was really fun, it was really good.
I can't lie. The joke hit, the joke glanded. I
mean people were gagging on this gag. Yes, I couldn't
be more proud. I woke up on April first, and
I like sent Biosa a voicemail and I was like,
I don't know, I just really want to make like
a fake deadline article today. I'm like feeling called to
(02:16):
do that. It's pilot season, so everyone's dropping their deadline articles,
they're dropping their news. So I just slid ours right
on in there. I like got on Canva like we do,
and worked my magic and put it out and like
people were very excited for us. So let me tell
y'all about the deadline article and the headline that Mala
(02:37):
wrote lass Hollywood film Greenlit at NSK, Mala Munios Andosam
to star and co executive produce. Now, I also wrote
like a couple of paragraphs, so I'll just read them
to you in case you don't follow us on the ground,
which you should be at this point to keep up
with this stuff in real time. Exclusive Mala Munios and
(03:00):
of Look at Our Productions LLC will write and co
executive produce the upcoming NSK holiday film Las Bocha vas Set,
a premiere during the network's nis Sabin Film Festival. Production
on the project began on Wednesday. Munyo stars as Zoe,
a rising podcast personality who returns home for her family's
annual posada when the family matriarch falls into a coma
(03:21):
after a tortilla chip factory fire. The success of the
posada falls onto Zoe's shoulders. An unrepent bocha who speaks terrible, no, good, God,
awful Spanish, she embarks on an adventure to save the family,
posada and the world. With a little help from an
unexpected Christmas Miracle. I don't know about you, guys, but
I would watch that movie. First of all. I would
(03:41):
one thousand percent watch it. And I think that that's
also why a lot of people fell for it, because
it sounded like something we would make. People are definitely
expect us to work in film next, so it just
all made sense. However, there were some clues to give
away that this was a joke. So the first one
is that you dated at March thirty second, twenty twenty three.
And let me tell you a lot of very well
(04:04):
respected journalists did not catch that. No, that was my favorite.
To all the journals who follow and who listen, we
love you, guys, were obsessed with you. We love your work.
But I just think it's hilarious every time we pull
one over on you. I really do think it's so funny.
Mama feels really good when we can trick the journalist.
I'm always like the journalists are falling for it, and
(04:27):
also like, tell us about the author who wrote this.
Oh so I pulled, like, you know, a screen grab
from an actual Deadline article, and I replace the author
photo with the photo of May West, and then I
took her birth name, which is Mary Jane West, and
I translated it into like a Spanish Maria hims obsessed
(04:47):
and then NSK stands for No Sabo Kids. And so
this Deadline article I wrote very pointedly because it's on
the heels of a viral moment that Yosa is at
the center of. We were on a podcast, Shout Out
Ian Friends, shout out, shout out go check out that
(05:07):
episode I in Besties. I should say they have two shows.
We were on Ian Besties, and of course, as happens
in any Latin X conversation anywhere, we start talking about
Nosabo kids and speaking Spanish. Yeah, and so yeah, that
was like the recent happenings of like why this joke
was also like so funny because like if you followed
(05:28):
what was going on that week, it's like you knew
like the nissab and festival, No Sabo Kids productions, like
the whole thing, right, so good. And so we were
on this podcast, like Mala mentioned, and I don't know
how it even came up, like we weren't talking about
Nosabo kids, but the one of the host asked us.
One of the host, Stephanie, asked us about No Sabo Kids,
(05:51):
And so you know, I explained that there's a history
of violence in the US where kids were being beaten
and paddled for speaking Spanish in schools, and so to
pretend that that didn't happen or to ignore it like
eraces lived experience of people of that generation. And to me,
(06:11):
I'm like, I got my effects, I got I got
some nuance, I got some some like I'm defending the
Nosabo kids. And of naturally, this is the clip, this
is the point of the interview that they took and
turned it into a clip as many podcasts do now,
and it went viral, and I inadvertently became the face
of the Nosabo kids. You're like the patron saint of
(06:34):
the Nosabo kids right now, like the defender of the
Nosabo kids, like Theosa took several bullets for us, y'all.
And the funniest part is the speaks perfect Spanish, like thesa.
Spanish is exquisite. But let's get into the nitty gritty
of this moment. First of all, super viral, I mean
we're still getting comments as of this morning. It was
like in the two hundred thousand views, like thousands of
(06:56):
comments at this point, and it was so funny because
at some point, like I started just responding to people
in Spanish. Hell yeah. So I was like, Okay, I'm
going to come in the comments and We're going to
talk about this in Spanish because apparently that's so important
to you. Yes, the most important things, more important than
(07:19):
watching the clip and listening to what you're saying. Oh yeah,
oh yeah. People have to like respond before actually like
comprehending and having their own critical thought. And so we
wanted to highlight some of the comments that we were
kind of sending each other over the past week. Dude,
First of all, nuts, can I just say unhinged because
(07:41):
part of reading through the comments leaves me unsure of
like what do you people want? And by you people,
I mean you latinas you know, the community end quote
what do you want? Because it ranges from oh, you
guys have to stop being victims and be responsible for
your self and learn language, learn Spanish, and get rid
(08:02):
of yourself hatreds. You can speak to your grandparents like
you have to learn Spanish. You have to love yourself.
You know. There was a lot of that, and then
there was a lot of we're not even Spaniards, we
speak indigenous languages. None of them are indigenous, none of
them speak indigenous languages, none of them, you know. So
it was like a very odd mix. And at the
(08:23):
end I'm left like a question mark. Yeah, I don't
know what any of you want. It was super polarizing
because there were even in my in the clip, I
say something like, people get mad that we don't speak
our quote native languages, and so then people were mad
that I said native. But it's like I said quote
for a reason, because I recognize that that's not the
native language originally of the people of the Americas. However,
(08:48):
I am not going to claim to be an indigenous
language speaker because I'm not. So Spanish is actually my
language as well as English. It would be disingenuous of
me to say I'm going to go learn Nawa when
the region that my family's from they didn't speak now
what either, you know, And so to say to even
say that, that's so like for me. If I were
to have said that, it would be so funny and
(09:09):
so wrong and historically inaccurate, because that's not where my
family's from. My grandparents didn't speak in indigenous language. For
the folks that did grow up with grandparents that spoke
indigenous languages. Yes, you have that experience and that story
one hundred percent. I cannot claim that, So you can't
project that onto me. There was and there was a
(09:30):
lot of that happenings projection, Yes, And what we saw
is like people do not listen. The clip is not
even that long. It's like less than a minute. These
folks in the comments were not watching the clip. They
were not listening, but responding with such anger and like
such like intensity, and then a lot of words, paragraphs
(09:52):
on paragraphs. Yeah, and it's part of a much larger
conversation we were having on the Ian Besties podcast, Like
they seem to want all of linguistics and history in
one clip. They wanted in thirty seconds because that's all
our attention spans can really handle these days. And so
they want you to say every single thing possible and
(10:14):
say every single possible angle and experience, even if it's
not yours, in thirty seconds or less. Yeah, which is impossible. Yeah.
And so you know, we obviously saw this as an
opportunity to create our own episode and have our do
our own research and bring on our own guests to
talk about the history of language violence and talk about
(10:37):
mostable kids. And even though you know, we recognize that
the people commenting they're never going to listen to this episode. No,
they're they're never going to listen to that I Besties episode.
They're never going to do their own research. We understand that,
and this is episode isn't necessary for them, but more
so like seeing this, look at that our radio as
what it is, which is a radio, which is an
(10:58):
audio archive, and we're contributing to the audio archive by
having this be in existence, because you can't say, well,
I haven't learned, I haven't found it. Well, it's right
here that we're going to break it down for you
right here in this episode. Yeah, and this is you know,
we're going to cite all kinds of sources that are
have been in existence for a very long time and accessible.
(11:21):
What we always try and do is break this down
to Okay, what's the institutional issue here? Education in America
is very faulty. I can't blame our entire community for
not having access to proper history and education, but it
is reflected in these comments and it's very upsetting and
(11:42):
frankly disturbing. In addition to all the negative feedback, There
were also hundreds of comments and people sharing their own
experience with language violence, their grandparents, experience with language violence,
things that happened in the nineties, things that happened last month.
Even just scrolling through the comments and seeing other people's
experiences that reflected what I said, would show you, Oh wait,
(12:04):
there isn't actually a vast experience broader than mine. And
all I have to do is read these comments. I
don't even have to go read a book. I can
just read these comments and maybe learn something today. No, totally.
And so at the crux here is we have a
large number of our community has no idea that we
have phased generations and generations of language violence in the
(12:27):
United States. Yeah, and that many of us have been
here for many, many generations. And what happens is that
language gets lost where it gets transformed. Right. And so
for those listening too, if you're not familiar with the term,
no Sabo kids, I feel like it's kind of a
very online term. Maybe it's like a gen Z adaptation
of Boschel, Right, this is the terminology we use now,
(12:49):
no sabo kids. Yeah, And like the no sabo comes
from the word suburb And when you conjugate it, and
if you were to say I don't know something, you'll
say And so the reason that it's no sabo is
because if you don't speak Spanish or you haven't learned
the correct like conjugation, you're gonna instead of saying because
if you say, for example, abla, the right conjugation for
(13:10):
the yo is yoablo And so in your mind you're like, oh, yeah,
it's no sabo because ablab right, right, But no, that's
that's no se And so that is like where that
also comes from, because a lot of people would speak
it and would say it, you know, quote incorrectly and
would say no sabo instead of no set. And that's
how like it became no sabo kids. Yeah, absolutely, I
(13:33):
think there's also like, look all over the country, you
have communities where people speak creolized languages. You know, their
English is mixed with French, is mixed with other things.
And that's what we speak here. We speak like an
amalgamated version of Spanish. It's Spanish and English, it is Spanglish,
like we have like a little regional dialect thing going
(13:54):
on here. So I think, yeah, sure, it's grammatically incorrect,
but you know what I'm saying exactly, and that's the thing.
It's like, you know, you still know that, like the
point that I can get across. And if I were
to go into the street and say that to someone
trying to find directions and I'll say, you know, and
I said, no, savo, you know, like you would probably
understand it. You would know what I'm getting at. Right, Oh, totally.
(14:16):
And I think too, like speaking of like transformation growing up,
like Spanglish was looked down upon in my in my family,
with my parents, with my dad specifically because he didn't
he didn't like it. He said it you you sounded
like a pocha, right. I don't think he used that word,
but he didn't like the idea that like your Spanish
wasn't perfect, it wasn't correct, what have you. Now, I've
(14:39):
noticed that both of my parents, actually my dad is
still like primarily Spanish, but the Spanish very like, very seldomly,
but it happens. And my mom speaks a lot more
Spanish now too. And so even within my parents who
are of an older generation, seeing them transform and how
they've used Spanish and Spanglish is okay because it's so
(15:01):
normal now, especially in Los Angeles. Everybody speaks English. Yeah,
and again like we have to let languages evolved. Yes, totally,
it's wild. Let's get into some of these comments. Yeah,
one of my favorite comments, and it's actually not my
favorite at all, but you know what I mean. Um.
One of the more outrageous comments was actually from a
signol because I had to go look at his profile afterwards.
(15:24):
And so he says, like, I don't know where the
girls are getting their input and exposing as if it
was a norm that moms and dads are not teaching
their native language. Is nothing but bs And so I
had to respond to this man in Spanish, Yes, and
I did, what did you say in Spanish? Something along
the lines of like I he responded in English? Of course,
(15:49):
of course he probably this fool probably doesn't even speak Statish. Great,
and they're just like some just also very simple comments
of like dumbist shit I've seen all week and that's
just stupid, and you know, and you know, you guys,
it's look, we've been online long enough. People will use
any opportunity to pile on and talk shit too. Beautiful
women on the internet. They just need an excuse, They
(16:13):
just need a reason they're like dying to do it.
And I see that's all those comments where this this
is just stupid, dumbest thing. I'm like, you were just
enjoying the vitriol. Oh yeah, but yeah, to dive into it,
you know, I do want to give a disclaimer that
we're focusing mainly on the Southwest, but we know this
history is broader than this region. But we're citing a
(16:36):
lot of things that are specific to California, Texas and
the American Southwest. Yeah, and there's a lot of layers
to this history. I mean, of course, like we can
go all the way back and we can start with
this was native land, and it was and there were
tons and tons of native languages being spoken here in
(16:58):
northern Mexico. What have you. We have Spanish colonization, we
have in the British, we have manifest destiny. So we
have all these things circling around. And as much as
it's not true for everyone that statement of weedn't cross
the border, the border cross desk, that's not everybody's history,
but it is a history for many millions of people,
(17:19):
you know. So let's go back. Schools segregated, including in
the American Southwest, not just in the South. You would
see segregation even in businesses and signs in storefront windows
like no Negroes, Mexicans or dogs allowed. You can google
these signs and they'll pop up, you know. Yeah, and
there were specifically like schools just for Mexicans. You know,
(17:42):
we think of segregation, and we think of Brown versus
Board of Education, which obviously was monumental in desegregating all
of schools in the United States, but prior to that,
there was also Westminister versus Mendes and so that was
actually Westministers in Orange County. And so in nineteen forty five,
along with four other family's, Amendous Family filed a class
(18:02):
action lawsuit against four Orange County school districts, and their
goal was to ensure that all children could attend California
schools regardless of race, because there were Mexican only schools.
And so this was in nineteen forty five. Because they
successfully sued the school district, this set precedent four Brown
versus Board of Education, which later went on to desgregate
(18:24):
all of the public schools in the US. And so
nineteen forty five was not that long ago. Like I
have to reiterate, even though people may say, like, well,
I grew up in the eighties and my parents got
here in the sixties. Nineteen forty two was not that
long ago. No, it really wasn't. And my family was
already in California before nineteen forty two. My father's grandparents
(18:48):
immigrated from Chihuahua to Bakersfield and then continued on three
generations of farm workers in Bakersfield. The language loss has
been happening since before, since way before nineteen forty two,
and so my family lived through all this stuff in
a lot of ways. That's why we speak our Spanglish.
(19:09):
I mean, we know in the United States we had
indigenous we had Indian boarding schools. The goal was to
eradicate indigen eighty including language. There was a similar but
distinct process in the American Southwest, where although as we know,
not all Mexicans are indigenous, you do have a sort
(19:30):
of like hispanicized Mexicanized ethnically indigenous population similarly being put
into segregated specific schools to extract language like this was
done intentionally and systematically and rather successfully. Right you had
a school, for example, the Blackwell School, built in nineteen
(19:52):
o nine, segregated until nineteen sixty five, which again not
that long ago, super recent. My mother was born in
nineteen fifty five, y'all, Like that was not that long ago,
Like our parents lived through segregated schools in the United States,
like through that period, through that history. So the Blackwall
School served the Latino Mexican community of Marfa, Texas, and
(20:14):
was declared a historic site in twenty nineteen, again very recently,
to preserve a part of American history which had been
signed which was signed into law in twenty twenty two.
So again this is American history, and part of the
history of America is like dehispanicizing, you know, Mexicans, Latin
X people, Spanish speakers, and stripping our language from us. Yeah,
(20:38):
fast forward, you now have the conundrum of the Nosabo kid,
which is not a conundrum at all. We know exactly
how this happened. Yeah, there's a map. So when I
found the Blackwall School, you know, and saw that it
was declared a historic site, it's technically falls under like
a National Park site because the school is like still intact,
and so it's to see like, this is what a
(20:59):
segregation at school looked like, this is what a Mexican
only school looked like. So it's quite literally to preserve
like the also visuals of like this is what it
looked like, like this is what a Mexican only school
looked like. And it was actually at that school. Um.
One of the reasons that it was part of this
Historic Site declaration is because this is one of the
(21:20):
schools where children were paddled for speaking Spanish. And so
there's this La Times article, We're going to link it
in our show notes. And some of the adults now
that went to school there at the time shared that
their teacher made them have a funeral for Spanish. So
she wrote on the blackboard the word Spanish, had all
(21:40):
the kids write it on a paper. They went and
put it in a box and buried it because Spanish
was no longer allowed to be spoken at this school,
that they had a literal funeral for Spanish. And so
one of the kids was like, and she paddled him
in front of everybody, and so they all learned they
(22:04):
couldn't speak Spanish at school. And so later these same
now adults go back and they have this very beautiful
ceremony where they're burying a Spanish dictionary because they all
have Spanish. They've reclaimed the Spanish. Wow. And so this
is a very powerful, beautiful article in the La Times
that we're again we're linking in the show notes so
again to show like they're not only is there this
(22:27):
historical site, but there's also still people alive that experienced
that violence in schools totally. Growing up, my dad would
tell me stories all the time about when he was
in elementary school, the kids that had Spanish accents and
spoke English with an accent would be placed in the
special ed, the special education classes as if they had
(22:51):
like a learning disability, right, you know, So there was
a direct impact on their educations and their futures, their prospects,
just because of speaking with an accented English. And so
what we're also talking about here is like multiple layers
of language laws where those of us who did have
(23:11):
an indigenous language being spoken in the family that was
eradicated and replaced with Spanish, and then that was eradicated
and replaced with English. Right. And so what we're speaking
now is not only whatever remnants we have of our Spanish,
but it's also whatever remnants are left of our past
indigenous language that we might have spoken at some point. Right,
(23:32):
there's a rumor in my family that our last name
on my dad's side is actually a Getua last name,
and that my grandfather changed it to like a Spanish
surname intentionally, and so there's no record of this. This
is like family myth. I don't know like if it's true,
and none of my family talks about it. But when
I was in Bidu, my thea was the one that
(23:54):
told me. And she was like my grandfather's like his
sister in law, so she knew like the family history
and they all grew up together, and so she was
the one that told me this, and she was very
much like, but don't really tell people because like no
one wants to talk about it, you know, because what
does that mean? That means we have to talk about
Oh guess what our grandfather was an indigenous man. Yeah, right,
(24:17):
and same with my grandmother. And so to your point, like,
there's various losses that have happened depending on where you're from,
depending on your family history. And I think too this
speaks to like the culture of silence in Latin x
Latino communities. If we don't talk about it, it never happened.
So these people that say like, oh, I've never heard this,
(24:40):
Oh this isn't true, probably because your family has never
talked about it or they haven't experienced it. Like, there's
so many different things happening at the same time. There's
a lot of different things happening at the same time,
and I think sometimes when we're not getting our proper
look the b ning of books, the attacks on ethnic
(25:02):
studies Arizona, Texas, they have been the Mexican American and
Chicano communities and Black communities down there have been fighting
for years now to retain ethnic studies, Black studies, Chicano
studies specifically, these programs have been in place, these books
have been you know, like accessible to the students down there,
(25:23):
and there's just been a constant war to eradicate that education.
And when we don't have that education, like that's the
only place where this history is housed. Realistically, you have
to take a Chicano studies class, or an Ethnic studies class,
or a Mexican American studies class to get this. And
I think like at that point, you know, if you're
an adult, right and you don't know this history, and
(25:44):
a young adult, right, like if you're thinking of a
linear path of you go to community college or a
four year at eighteen, Right, it's kind of too late. Like, yes,
the Chicano studies classes are important, the Mexican American history,
Latino history in the US one thousand percent to present
advocate for that, but it's also I feel like it
should be a part and I know that there's movements
(26:04):
to make it a part of K through twelve education, right,
bring ethnic studies to middle schools as well. I think
in Arizona it has been Yeah, and I and I
think that's also why we're seeing like the critical race theory,
like as if that's actually being taught in schools. What's
being taught is history, American history, Chicano history, Black American history.
(26:25):
And you know, I think that we've talked about this
in the past. There's so many Latino Chicano people in
like border patrol, in LAPD, in the prisons and corrections
and working in positions of like oppression. I think part
(26:45):
of there's, like we've talked about this, right, there are
white Latinos, there are white aspiring Latinos, and then there's
like white behaving Latinos. And if you are completely disconnected,
did from all of this history and you have no
idea the likelihood of like being brought into conservative ideology,
(27:08):
conservative values, white supremacist values and thoughts is so much higher.
And I think the community is so much more susceptible
to buying in to white supremacist thought when we have
that fluidity almost to opt in or to fight against it.
(27:29):
And I just think like between the schools, and then
also like our parents, I think a lot of times
we have parents who want us to just like go
with the flow, you know, blend in, don't. I think
a lot of older parents don't want us to feel
like we're victims, you know. So then it means we're
(27:52):
talking about these things, is like like talk like we're complaining, right, Yes,
And that was some of what was in the comments.
You quick complaining this is exaggerated. You guys are exaggerating.
Guys are making this up. Look at these seventy year olds,
they are still recounting being beaten in schools, and tell
them that they're exaggerating. You can tell me I'm exaggerating,
(28:13):
but don't go and tell our seniors, our literal ancestors,
you know, our elders, that they're exaggerating you know, like
that we're not doing that, and I think like acknowledging,
like there's also you know, people in position of power
that advocate for only English, right from doctors to school
teachers to speech pathologists. When I told my mom that
(28:36):
we were producing this episode, she was telling me, oh, yeah,
you know they're My brother, you know, is in his forties,
and so in nineteen seventy nine, he was in kindergarten
and the school was concerned that he wasn't pronouncing his
words right, so they referred my mother to a speech pathologist,
and the speech pathologist said, well, you should just pick
(28:58):
one language. That's why he's having a problem. Now we know, right,
the research shows that being bilingual has so many benefits
to your brain, to your development, etc. Etc. But at
the time, in nineteen seventy nine, which again was not
that long ago, there was a speech pathologist advocating for
to learn one language. So what in my mom pick?
She picked English? And so my brother and I even
(29:21):
have entirely different experiences with Spanish because my brother would
be like more of a Boche Mexican American Spanish speaker.
Because we have different fathers, we have different experiences, right,
and so even in the own our own family, we
have a very different like understanding and use of Spanish,
and Spanish really is learned at home and in your family.
(29:46):
That's the only way you're going to learn how to
speak Spanish the way your family speaks Spanish. No class
on the face of the earth is going to give
you that Spanish language immersion, the vocabulary, that cadence, the tone,
the inflection that you learn from repeated exposure every single
day since from the day you're born. Like there's also
(30:09):
in the comments on this reel, is this like you
got to take it upon yourself, Like take it upon
yourself to learn Spanish. Take it upon yourself to learn Spanish.
I've been taking Spanish classes my whole effing life in school,
you know what I mean. My parents have been speaking
to me in English since I was a baby, right.
The only person I really speak Spanish to you and
my family is my grandmother. So there's that piece. If
(30:31):
your parents are not speaking to you in Spanish at
home every single day from the day you learn to
acquire language, you're just not going to speak that fluent
Spanish that people want you to speak. Right now, there's
also people that choose to not speak Spanish because maybe
they're ashamed, maybe they're embarrassed. There's internalized racism that's its
own part, right, and that's a biproduct of white supremacy,
(30:56):
like to be clear. And then there's also assimilation. And
you know, we can't pretend that this country even now
systemically supports or encourages cultural differences when we still have
people saying, go back to your country, go back to
where you came from. Yes, for people that speak other languages. So,
like we're living in like an increase in like Asian violence,
(31:19):
anti Asian violence. You know, folks that speak their languages
in the Asian communities right experience violences people, Latin X folks,
obviously black folks. Like there's there's just an array of
things happening right now. So to pretend that, like, oh,
it's safe to be your like culturally different, it's not
(31:39):
like you can maybe live in communities where, yes, like
in your living in Los Angeles, you have your pockets
where yes, you can like feel culturally grounded. But to
pretend that that happens everywhere is false. It's false. And
you can go back and on the piece on indigenous
language erasure and all of this. Something that I find
so interesting is like we literally we interviewed Adelia Romero
(32:01):
of My Cello. Go back and listen to that episode
and hear from Adelia about indigenous languages, language violence and Spanish.
That is like the context that I see, Like nobody
in the comments is tapping into that reality and that conversation.
And it's a lot of first, second, third gen Mexican Americans, right,
(32:27):
Chicano's whatever, very committed to well, we're natives and we
speak a native language. But none of those folks in
the comments speak a native language, right, you know, and
they're not hearing that conversation from indigenous communities or not
hearing it. Yeah. And she talks about the history of
language violence in Los Angeles, specifically towards indigenous people and
(32:51):
the assumption that anyone that looks brown is Mexican or
Latino and speak Spanish when that's not the case. And
so she talks about her advocacy work that she clo
and just to wrap up about the idea and bit
that like Latinos aren't actually like not all Latinos are
immigrants and not all Latinos are quote foreigners, especially when
(33:11):
you think about the Californios, like people that have been
here before this, but when this was Mexico before with
the US people that have been here for generations, like
your family, Like, so, can you share a little more
on that sentiment? I think this again goes back to
like where are we learning American history and like understanding
our place in California. And I sometimes feel like folks
(33:34):
who are more recently immigrated maybe have absolutely no idea
that we've been here for that long. It kind of
in the comments reflect that for me, that there seems
to be this gap in knowledge as far as our
timeline I am. I don't. My grandmother is my most
recent immigrant story in my family. In my family, my grandmother,
(33:58):
my mother is not an immigrant. I am not an immigrant,
and on my dad's side, like immigration happens so long ago.
It's not a conversation, it's not a part of our
reality or our experience when my grandmother shares things here
and there. Absolutely, but my grandmother also came here when
she was sixteen and the tallest building with city Hall,
(34:18):
I was doing research. My grandma was here before the
Dodgers got here. She was here before the first Star
on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was laid. I mean,
I can continue, you can you know all the things
that have been introduced before the Lakers got here, all
the things that have happened in La since then, Like
she was here before all of that. I think that
it's like we're part of a continuum here. And I
(34:41):
just the reason why people can speak Spanish at work
and in school today is because we were not allowed
to speak Spanish. You know, my dad speaks terrible Spanish,
was not allowed to speak Spanish growing up, but he
was lobbying and protesting and walking out and sitting in
and getting cracked over the head with batons and all
(35:02):
that stuff. So that you guys can speak Spanish, so
you're welcome the next time you just say hey, thank you, thanks,
you know what I mean? I don't know. I just
there's bigger fish to fry. I feel like with Latinos,
we always come down what do we call ourselves and
what language do we speak? Yes, we cannot get back.
We cannot get past that, just the basics. And it's
(35:25):
so sad and like it's very much like there's no
how can there be unity in this vast non monolithic
community when people are still arguing that you're not Latino
enough because you don't speak Spanish, because you're not a
real Latino because you use Latin X or Latine or
(35:46):
you're using the colonizer's language. You know, what have you?
White people are calling you Latin X. No, yeah, people
have been Latin Americans have been using Latin X and
Latine for decades now, decades, so shut up. You know
it's like that. So why we cannot advance as a community,
as a broad community, because there we're still fighting about
the same shit. Who we are? Who are we? We
(36:09):
don't know, We don't know who we are? What are
we called? What language do we speak? Those are like
the basics of being a human, Like what's my name?
And what language do I speak? Like we haven't figured
it out? And let me just say this, all these
people in the comments, you need to speak Spanish. You
need to speak Spanish. You need to speak Spanish. Why
do you want me to speak Spanish so bad? So
you can annoy me into languages so you can bother
(36:30):
me bilingually, you know what. I'm okay like this, Yeah,
I'm cool. Yeah right? I mean and I think also too,
like I feel like there's a deep insecurity there, Like
I am so secure in who I am and my
family's history here and even in my language. You know,
(36:55):
you know, I get that that's the reality of being
here in the US, Like you do start to lose things,
and like that's the reality. But I'm also so secure
in that that I don't need to be in the
comments saying I do speak Spanish. No, I do you
know that's not me because no, Like I don't care
if you think I speak Spanish or not. The point is,
(37:15):
like you're going to criticize even the boat shows, even
the Nosabo kids that are trying to learn. Oh, the
minute they get a word wrong, you're gonna you're gonna
tease them, You're going to criticize them, you're gonna bully them.
It's never gonna be enough for you. Never. And that's
why I don't care if you don't think I speak Spanish,
or if you care, then my quote opinion is wrong. Yeah,
this is historically accurate. This is just true. This is
(37:39):
just what happened. Yeah, totally. It's like real, there's a
real nastiness. There's a real pettiness that comes out when
you make mistakes in Spanish. Oh yeah, and people love
to to just like revel in that, especially online. You
guys don't want us to learn Spanish. You don't care,
don't give a shit about our learning. Teach our own
(37:59):
kids Spanish. Be concerned about if Spanish, if that's important
to you, if it's being taught in your house or not.
But don't go and put that on other people. Because
I was also the face of this, I felt super
called to also one produce this episode with Mala, and
two like also get the stimonials from our listeners, testimonies
(38:20):
from our listeners, especially the Nosabo kaids, and hear more firsthand,
like how this language eratier happens. And so we're going
to play a couple today. We got over a dozen,
and so we're going to break this up into two episodes.
So if you didn't hear yours today, you might you
will hear it on the next episode. So to start,
(38:43):
Gia from Ontario, Canada. She grew up in Canada. She says,
I grew up in North America and was born in Ecuador,
and she tells us about growing up with no Latinos
around her. I was born in Ecuador, Wayaquil and my
parents moved here when I was almost one years old,
so I've basically spent my whole life in North America,
(39:05):
and my experience being a no Sabo kid is basically
there were no Hispanic people around us, so no matter what,
we were forced to learn English. I am actually trying
to relearn Spanish now because I have a little two
(39:26):
year old boy who I just want to give him
this gift of our culture, you know, a way to
communicate with all of the relatives that he has in
equaord And it's just such a gift for me to
to be hearing and learning and speaking Spanish again. It
(39:49):
just brings me peace and connection to my grandmother and
other ancestors who have passed. It's just an amazing gift,
and it's awful that anyone has experienced any kind of
negativity with speaking their language. Born in Virginia, resides in Maryland.
(40:17):
She is a transracial adoptee and is actively trying to
reconnect with her culture. Am I a Nosabo kid la
verda kisi avesis e the bende. I was born in
northern Virginia and Spanish was my first language prior to
Foster care and adoption, and over time I lost it.
(40:37):
So I took Spanish classes in middle, high school, and
college and have accepted it will probably be a lifelong
process to reconnect with my schooldas, and that means Spanish too.
It's painful and difficult to be othered by non Latin people,
and then also by Latin people. In some cases. It's
also hard to feel I have to explain or justify
why I didn't grow up around Spanish and that I'm
(41:00):
an adopted Latina to new people that I meet, because
my story of forced family separation and cultural separation is
deeply traumatic to me and a story I would rather
share when I feel comfortable and safe with someone new.
Doctor Renee Lemmas of last's podcast from Lakewood, California. She's
an ethnic studies professor, and she tells us one of
(41:22):
the reasons Spanish has not been passed down and why
it continues to happen now. She also shares why language
is not the only cultural marker. You know, Emma, professor,
I've taught in Ethnic studies and Chica Next Studies, and
I talk a lot about this, this idea of why
oftentimes the Spanish language hasn't been passed down for generations,
(41:46):
and absolutely the historical context that Diosa was giving is
absolutely right. There were what was called Americanization programs, where
it was government funded programs, often led by Protestant churches,
and they would go into so we're talking about in
(42:08):
Texas right after the Mexican American War, and they would
go into Mexican communities and particularly target the women and
children and encourage the mothers not to speak Spanish to
their children. And they would kind of do these weird
(42:28):
trainings where they would teach them how to they would
discourage them not just from not speaking Spanish, but from
also cooking their traditional foods. Is I think that a
lot of people get caught up to in that, you know,
the Spanish language is so much a part of our culture,
and it is, and I do think on some level
it is important, and yet it's not the only thing
(42:51):
that is part of Mexican or Latin X culture. There's
so many other things, you know, food and traditions and
customs and you know, family values. There's just so much
to it that I think when we only put the
emphasis on, like you know, that language is the only
(43:13):
way that we can preserve our culture. I think it
negates that there's so many other things that are a
part of our people today are still being discouraged from
teaching their children Spanish. So my best friend who had
her child was PREMI and she's raised in a bilingual household,
(43:34):
and it seemed like she was having some speech delays,
and they were saying, well, it might be because of
the two languages that she's learning and it's going to
confuse her, when in fact, all the evidence, all the
research shows that that is not the case, that in fact,
children up to seven years old have the brain capacity
(43:57):
to learn multiple languages. So of course I immediately sent
her all these articles and all these research in order
for her to give to her doctor to show that
that's not going to cause any kind of speech delays.
Research does show that there might be speech delays up
to like a year or two years, but that eventually
bilingual or multilingual children will will catch up, and that
(44:22):
obviously I always say that knowing multiple languages is like
a superpower. So yeah, so I wanted to make the point.
And I had another friend who was told immediately after
birth sort of question like you're not going to teach
your kids Spanish, right, and we're talking like I'm in
the hospital right after birth. And because my friend is
(44:45):
also a doctor, it was also able to bring in
research and evidence to tell the doctor like, no, that's
not you know, yeah, I was able to kind of
push back against this doctor's racist remarks. But of course
it had me think how many vulnerable people are being
told by you know this by doctors and being made
(45:08):
to feel like, well, the doctor must know best, right,
So this is not something that's just a part of
our history, but something that continues to happen, and that
there's there's a lot of this rhetoric. Brianna Quinto aka
Brie Burrito currently lives in the IE and she is
a second generation No Sabo kid. It's hard for me
to summarize my experience because I'm like second generation no
(45:30):
Sabo third if we're really thinking about it, and people
are always surprised to hear this because one they're like
that's a thing, and two they're really surprised that both
my parents are actually like Latino Latina origin. From my
personal experience growing up, I definitely was bullied if not
girls try to fight me just because I didn't speak Spanish.
(45:53):
I grew up with a lot of friends that spoke Spanish.
I grew with my grandmother that spoke Spanish. But again
that's where the generational things come from. She's from Texas
and she felt so ashamed about her own Spanish because
she spoke Spanglish. If she knew someone could speak English,
she was going to speak English because she felt ashamed
that her Spanish wasn't quote unquote proper enough. But you know,
(46:16):
there's gonna be a hard pill for something y'all to swallow.
You are not very welcoming and if not hostile to
people who you think should speak Spanish. And if an
Anglo American says they want to learn, you know, open arms.
The most patients in the world, you know, happy, gleeful.
But when you see someone who is of Latin X origin,
(46:39):
Latine origin, Latino origin, they don't speak it, you turn
a lot of people, So don't get personal. Lab will
turn into this hustle. Oh so you think you're better.
She should already know. Jenna Palacios from Pomona but currently
residing in Long Beach. She's a reformed no Savo kid.
So I would consider myself a reformed no Savo kid.
(47:00):
I grew up not learning Spanish. Spanish was not spoken
to my home. However, my extended family speak Spanish. My
grandparents speaks Spanish. My dad just didn't feel like it
was useful to teach us Spanish. He didn't think that
we would use it in the future. He felt that
English was going to be the dominant language. So pretty
(47:20):
wild because now that I'm fluent in Spanish, I speak
Spanish literally every single day. I consume primarily Latin media,
Latin American media, books, music, So I know he's really
shocked about that. So my family has a pretty strong
history of assimilation, and I think when we look at assimilation,
(47:44):
you know, it's it's sad, and especially in the context
of like poking fun out and Nosavo kids. You know,
you're losing your cultural identity, you're losing touch with your roots,
and it's violent, and you know, it's just like our
history the United States with Indian boarding schools, really all
of that cultural ethnic erasure that happens. And now I
(48:08):
don't really feel that a lot of people think about
that because they are just so focused on assimilating to survive.
So my grandfather, his family was from Texas, South Texas,
and they were there since like the sixteen hundreds when
it was Mexico. He grew up being bilingual, but he
(48:32):
supposedly attended Mexican segregated schools and the kids were punished
in school for speaking Spanish. My grandmother's from Mexico, and
when they raised my dad and his siblings, they spoke
primarily Spanish, and they learned English in school, you know,
like many kids do. And my dad probably won't admit it.
(48:54):
And I am making assumptions here and based off things
that my mom has told me that he's told her.
I don't think he had great experiences in school. I
think he experienced a lot of racism in his young
adult life, and so I think that's why assimilation for
him was so important and something he put a lot
of work into. Marissareya is raised in Bakersfield. She shares
(49:17):
her experience with US hideosa Hia. My name is Marissareas
and I'm an Osabok. My mom's family is from Mexico City,
and my dad's family, his dad is from somewhere near Sacatecas.
(49:37):
We don't really know exactly. Because she was fleeing an
abusive relationship and my dad's mom. Her family is from
Texas from what it was still in Mexico, and so
I joked that the border crossed her and and it
(50:00):
is really prevalent my Avoila's experience in talking about my
relationship with Spanish. So Mioela grew up in the Great Depression,
and she talks about having gone through the American education
(50:20):
system and how discriminatory they were, how they refused even
to hire bilingual folks to help out. So Maouela actually
went through kindergarten, I think she said, for three years
because they just wrote them off as like just not
(50:43):
being intelligent because they didn't speak English. Mayavola was hit
by teachers like literally forced to sit in a corner
with like a dunce cap kind of thing on for
speaking Spanish. And when I've talked to her about my
experience struggling with not knowing the language, she and you know,
(51:09):
I grew up with around a lot of other Mexican
kids and they were more first and second gen whereas
Maeuela has been in this country for a long time
because it used to be in Mexico, and she did
not like that, even though she would love for me
to know more Spanish. She was like, then, they don't
(51:32):
know their history about what we've been through in this country.
Maauella was incredibly active in the Chicano Power movement and
raised her kids to be so proud to be Chicanos,
and Maauella is a very proud to Hannah. Rebecca ruis
Aka from merc just moved back to Texas and she
(51:53):
shares why her mom chose not to teach Spanish to
her and her siblings. My parents were not kids who
got punished in school for speaking Spanish. That was the
experience that my fi Cynthias might have had. But my parents, specifically,
growing up in the sixties on the border, we're not
punished for speaking Spanish with them. It was more that
(52:15):
they wanted our lives to be easier so they we
wouldn't have to learn English in school, and they just
assumed incorrectly that we would learn Spanish later in school.
Of course, here we are in our thirties and we
still can't speak Spanish. So again, I do understand where
my parents were coming from. So thank you locomotives for
(52:36):
tuning in, for engaging let us know what you think
of this episode. Please comment, Please subscribe, Share with a friend,
Share with anyone that's maybe doubting this part of us history.
Let us know what you think. Yeah, sure, this with
your most ignorant cousin. Oh my god, I didn't say that.
I did. You could be like said, I should send
(53:00):
this to you because you're ignorant. You might like this. No, um,
you know, send it around, Send it to all your
friends and family, everyone you're dating, everyone you used to date. Like,
everyone should hear this. Honestly, that's what I think. And um,
visit our website look at thot radio dot com. You
can send us voice memos like all the time. You
can send them on our website. We have the infrastructure there.
(53:22):
We have the speak pipe, so you can submit that
way and we will catch you next time. Look at That.
Our radio is a production of Look at That. Our
productions in partnership with Ihearts Michael podcast Network. For more podcasts,
listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
(53:42):
listen to your favorite shows. A radiophonic novella posted by
Mala Munyas and Bosam Take us to your network
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!