April 19, 2023 • 34 mins
In this capítulo, we are joined by Wendy Ramirez and Jackie Rodriguez of Spanish Sin Pena, an organization teaching and empowering our community to learn and practice Spanish. Learn about their trajectory and how you can join!
From the Bay to the Midwest, we also hear more testimonios from listeners from around the U.S. They share their experience with the Spanish language and whether or not they're a No Sabo Kid.
Thank you to Maria Elena Altany, Iris Raza, Alyssa Gonzalez Castañeda, Mae Ramirez & Kay Lopez for contributing to our audio archive!
Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/locatora_productions
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Loka Toa Radio is a radiophonic.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Novela, which is just a very extra way of saying
a podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
I'm Fio safm and.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I am Mala. Minos.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Loka Tora Radio is your freemast favorite podcast hosted by
us Mala and Riosas.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
We're two ig friends turned podcast partners, breaking down pop culture, feminism,
sexual wellness, and offering fresh takes on trending topics through
nuanced interviews with up and coming LATINX creatives.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Known as Las Loka TOAs, Las Mammy Submit and Bullshit
Aborgas next Door and Las Borgas. We've been podcasting independently
since twenty sixteen, and we're bringing our radiophonic novela to
the Mike Utura Network to continue sharing stories from the
LATINX community.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Welcome to Loka Tora Radio Season seven. Take us to
your network.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Ola Motives. Welcome back to another capitolo of Loka Tora Radio.
I'm Diosa and I am Mala. You're tuning in to
Capitolo CentOS Centa No. One sixty one.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Last time on Loca Tora Radio, we talked in depth
about Nosabo kids and the history of language violence in
the United States.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Remember to leave a review of Lokata Radio on Apple Podcast.
Subscribe to Lokata wherever you listen and share with a
friend or your prima.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Follow both Viosa and I across socials and follow at
Loka Tora Underscore Radio all over social media and find
us on TikTok.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
You can also visit our website lokatraradio dot com and
subscribe to our newsletter besitos. So today we are joined
by the founders of Spanish Sempina. After reading and hearing
so many different perspectives about Latinos, LATINX folks and our
relationship to the Spanish language, we wanted to connect with
Spanish Sempina.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
The folks at Spanish Scene Bena have intentionally created a
space to share resources, experiences, ask questions, and support one
another in their journeys to reclaiming the Spanish language.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
All right, Loka more is well. Without further ado, we
have Jackie Rodriguez and Wendy Ramidez, founders of Spanish Saint Bena,
joining us today at look at Dora Radio.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Welcome, Hi, thank you so much, Hello, Hello, thank you
for joining us. This is a super special episode and
It's kind of a follow up to a conversation we've
been having here at look At Radio about Spanish and
language loss and nosabo kids and poshos. So thank you
for joining us to provide your expertise.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Yeah, we're looking forward to continuing the conversation.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
So just to get us started, I would love for
both of you to introduce yourselves, tell us a little
bit about you.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
Well, first of all, I'm so excited. I'm a big
fan of both of you, and so Motels gracias. Thank
you for the invitation and for having these conversations. My
name is what Devamide is. I'm born and raised in Eastela.
I you know, I grew up speaking Spanish, but I
(03:13):
lost it when I was in high school and then
I studied in Mexico City when I was in college,
and I just felt like a complete like I wasn't
smart pretty much. But all through my life I'm like,
I'm going to learn and I'm going to like just
continue at it. And I did and it just like
(03:34):
opened up so many doors for me. I said, I
want to do this for my community. So that's a
little bit about me. Just some other stuff, like my
family is from Alalo, and I'm Adan Sante. I love
like to celebrate art and culture and all of that.
(03:54):
So that's just you know, and I'm married, and I
live in Monteo or Monapello you want to call it.
And I have two puppies. Well that's a little bit
about me. And then I have the amazing pleasure and
I feel blessed to be working with you know, one
of my friends, good friends who understands and we just yeah,
(04:18):
so that's Jackie.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Hey, Yeah, I feel like one of those people like Collins,
like longtime listener, first time color. I love it, big fight,
big fans. So thank you for the platform and inviting us,
because continuing this conversation is important, especially with our generation.
We're the ones breaking these generational traumas and reclaiming and
so just changing the perspective and that narrative. So I'm
(04:41):
excited to be able to do that with y'all. My
name is Jackie. I'm the co founder and creative director
for Spanish Synatana. I come from a background of working
direct with the community, like on the ground for community
engagement and communications, and so growing up, my Spanish was
very conversational. I was watching novellas with my ideas singing
(05:03):
Selena and just learning in that way. But when I
got into my professional career and having to speak on
another level, speak about some of these policies that were
coming down and how they would affect immigrant families, like
the Selena lyrics weren't helping me anymore. And I realized
that's when I started having more insecurity and feeling more
like that bocha creeping up. And so during that time,
(05:27):
Wendy came up to me and was just explaining her
dream of Spanish nam Benn as she did the interviews
where she interviewed Latina people to ask them basically what
their relationship was with Spanish and realizing that we all
had a common thread of shame and feeling judge. So
she had this vision of creating this school and she
was already doing private classes and I loved it. I
(05:49):
was the target audience. I was the bocha wanting to learn,
to be a resource to community, to connect with the family.
So we just hit the ground. I quit my nonprofit job,
rested for a week, and then called her and said, Okay,
you're ready, And here we are four years later. Yeah,
still still growing, still building, amazing.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
So this is Spanish. Saint Bana is your full time gig.
It's your full time work.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
My dream job, full time.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Did you ever think that you're self describing as a
pocha right? Did you ever think that you would end
up like running a school for reclaiming the Spanish language
and teaching Spanish to other poltoals out there?
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Never even now, Like when I try to explain to
my family because I already have to explain remote working
and zoom, and they're just like, what are you doing
in your room? I'm like, I promise I'm working, and
so just getting past that hurdle and now being like,
we have a Spanish school, you don't even speak good Spanish,
Like I'm not a teacher.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
I love the way the family will always humble us
and find a way to drag us even when we're
doing incredible work. I want to go back to what
you said about shame, you know, feeling shame for maybe
not speaking quote properly or well enough. And I feel
like for Latinos LATINX people, like, shame is something we
(07:15):
carry so deeply, whether that be with language, sex and sexuality, gender, Like,
there are so many ways we're taught and we learn
to feel shame. So I love that it's in the
title of your organization. So can you tell us more
about this modality of shifting the mindset from shame to empowered.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Yes, I mean, well, you know, fenna in Spanish means
many different things as well. So fenna is like shame,
which it is a big part of the work that
we do, but it also means pain, you know, and
you you use terms like vala like it's worth it, right,
(07:59):
And so I think that's a little bit of like
our philosophy or kind of what I told our students
today is we're all learning together, we're all like here
to support one another, and you're gonna feel the fenna,
You're gonna feel the shame, and but you just gotta
do it. Anyways. And Jackie, I want to say, was
(08:19):
like one of the people that I first interviewed, and
she didn't really have benna. She was just like, I'm
gonna try. I don't care if I make mistakes and
this and that, and so that's it's just awesome to
see that. But I think you're so right. And one
of the things that we do or that we have
these discussions around these other issues where we in our kura,
we have beenna, like you mentioned, whether it is about
(08:42):
you know, sexuality, identity, every I mean, money, everything, everything.
There's like there's guilt in fenna, and so we always
joke because we say we always everything we do is
see Fenna. You know, like we're gonna go south on Fenna.
You know we're gonna we're gonna eat bena, you know, like,
and it's just it's a fun. It's a way to
(09:04):
just shift, like you said, your mindset from this spenna
that you might have or pain that you're carrying into.
How do you how can you enjoy it, have fun,
make you know, enjoy the pass.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I love that because when you said see Fenna in
that way, it also reminded me of like kind of
being like a Seine ruenza, Like just do it, Just
do it seeing Fanna, you know, be a Seine duenza
practice you're Spanish, I mean, and you can say that
for practically anything when it comes to latinos, right, just
do it like se fena.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Just do it like no one's watching, Like no one's
gonna gossip about you. It'll be okay, It's gonna be okay.
Have you guys been seeing all the like conversation on
Instagram recently around Bosa's viral real and all the comments
I'm sure you guys have seen because people have tagged you, right, Yeah, we.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Definitely had students specifically tag us, and they were it
was really because they were thinking us for our platform
and for the space we've created, and so it's always
validating getting getting that feedback from the students recognizing that,
and I think that's one of the things like talking
about the ben as what makes us different from like
the other apps, or taking you know, taking a class
(10:17):
because it's not just like it's like, let's talk about
your relationship with Spanish. Let's talk about the pain, you know,
your family history, and then once we get through that,
then we realize there's some healing, some unpacking to do,
and then it goes into learning grammar. But if you're
not having a safe space to unpack this, there's there's
(10:38):
no point in starting to dig into the grammar. It's
not going to stick in. Those emotional blocks are very
real when it comes to language.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yeah, I love that you said that, because you know,
I've been having a conversation with my dad about how
he was very strict and intense with Spanish, and I've
shared that throughout our time here at Lokata, but he
was so strict to the point where I didn't want
to speak at all. I was already very introverted, but
it made me this very quiet kid because if I
didn't know the word for something in Spanish, sabiyak meva regagne.
(11:08):
And he tells me now like, oh, you should be
thinking me because your Spanish is so good, and I
was like, yeah, I do, thank you for you know,
teaching me Spanish. I could have done without the trauma, though,
and he goes, no, I would do it all over again.
And so for him, it's still like valia lapina, because
you learned and it didn't matter that it was I
(11:28):
was tough on you or I I was mean to
you or whatever. Like you learned and my mission was accomplished.
And so I love that because even I'm a Spanish,
you know, fluent Spanish speaker, but I have my own
like relationship with the like Spanish and how I need
to unpack it with myself, which I do with my therapist,
but you know, like we all have. I feel like
(11:49):
this this journey that we're on, even speaking this quote
native language.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
You know, that's I mean, that's what it is. And
I think that we all have different stories. Is like
I can relate to you because my mom also wanted
us to learn. But I think we also have the
stories where it was just survival, you know, like just
how do you people are coming here, and a lot
of people, at least in my generation, probably the older generations,
(12:17):
it was like learn English, be fluent in English. That's
why you're going to get ahead. That's how you know,
and the system, the schools, everything like it. I'm glad
to see something changing, but it's always the system. And
I love the way that you said you could say
like this native like quote native language, because it's not
(12:40):
just Spanish, and I want to make that a point.
You know, it's like all languages and this idea, but
it's a language that you feel connected to, that's part
of your culture, your gudura, and and so yeah, I mean,
I'm always amazed because when I travel, I see different
communities where they're trying to reclaim and maintain the language
(13:03):
and they're losing it for the same reason that the
generations here have lost it, you know, the discrimination and
so other languages like indigenous languages in Mexico, Like we've
talked to like Mayann people. I just came back from
like Tapagena in Colombia where there's a you know, community
still speaking Bantu, and it's just the same stories. It's
(13:27):
like once you started going to the city, people started
discriminating against you and you lose part of a language
that is part of your culture.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
I'm super curious about how you guys describe the type
of Spanish that you guys are are teaching and speaking
in your Spanish sint bana classes, because I'm kind of imagining,
like you have students who are maybe different generations. Maybe
some are first, some are second, some are third gen
some are of Mexican descent, some are Salvadoran or Guatemalan,
(13:57):
so all you know, all these different people groups speak
different types of Spanish. So I'm really curious about, like
the type of Spanish that that you guys are working
with in Spanish seeing ben On and how you would
describe it.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
I think that's the best part. We're a big melting
pot our core team. We have wend You, Salvana, we
have Colombian and Dominicana, and then what's great about the
program is when students enroll in the program and start
to build their confidence. Wendy's really great about finding people's
strengths and magic, and so she developed a cool program
(14:31):
for alumni to be able to re enroll as facilitators.
And so we have facilitators in Puerto Rico, we have
all over so you can really find what level. We
give you autonomy to decide what level you feel comfortable
in and kind of challenge yourself. Or maybe it's just
a day you feel just burnt out and you don't
want to challenge, you want to go down a level.
You have the flexibility to go up and down levels.
(14:53):
But a lot of times you find a core group
that's like every Wednesday, or you find that Dominican facilitator
on two days and you just find your group. And
that also is a really good way to practice. We're
in different slings and the practice group itself, since they're virtual,
we have people all over the country joining and practicing together.
We have students from Japan. Last night we had a
(15:14):
student in Canada. So it's really cool having such a
diverse group of students and team to kind of mix
that all together.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
That's super cool. I love how you guys are international,
You're all over the place. That is amazing. Congratulations, thank you,
thank you.
Speaker 6 (15:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
I mean I think like for me, I've always been
fascinated and I love like my previous job, I would
travel all through Latin America and I love learning the
differences between the regions and the language. And it's funny though,
because one of the things that I tell our students
is like people from Mexico could go to like Cuba
and not understand, you know, like my mom from Missa Vadod,
(15:54):
Like we just came back from the city my husband's
family in Colombia, and she doesn't speak English, Like my
mom doesn't speak English, she only speaks Spanish. But she
could only understand like eighty percent of what they said.
You know, there's words, and I already knew those words
because I'm in the you know. But I'm always curious
(16:15):
to learn. And that's what I tell our students to do,
is to come with that curiosity to learn if you want,
even if your family background is part of this land
before it was you know, before it was the US,
when it was Mexico and you've been here for generations,
or whether you're from Kariba, like what are you interested
in learning? Like you what piques your interests, your attention,
(16:38):
and that's what we encourage people to do as a
way of learning.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Love it. Yeah, the Spanish can be so different place
to place.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Even within the same country m h.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Honestly, like the first time I ever went to Boston,
they were speaking English and I couldn't understand them, Like
it happens.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
With English, right, and you you know it's And that's
another thing I always point out to people is like
even in English, even in the US, like when you
go to different places, and so that's also true for
the US in speaking Spanish in different neighborhoods, you know,
like if we're talking about New York versus you know,
(17:13):
people in La and so it is. I think our
approach is that the Spanish that we teach, it's like
it's there to communicate, to connect, to support, it's how
you use it. And yes, there's always these terms of like, oh,
your Spanish is broken, right, like if it's I it's
(17:35):
an object, that's an object, right. And then there's people
that are like, oh, don't speak Spanglish. You know, Spanglish
is not correct Spanish. But my point of view, is
language evolved the way that we do, and the Spanglish
is part of our identity as well, and so definitely
use it to communicate, but be curious about what's other
(17:56):
ways that you say it in other different you know,
parts of in other countries.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
And Spanglish does have some like grammar rules, like it's
not just every other word translated into Spanish.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
As much as Hollywood wants to think that's what it
sounds like, that's not what it sounds.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Like exactly, like it's it son, Like I wish that
we had sort of this, like we were more cognizant
of this as kind of like a dialect to create
like a site. It's like a crealization, you know what
I mean of these languages because like like Yosa just said, Hollywood,
we watch a Netflix series that will go un named,
but let's say a Netflix series, and you can write
(18:32):
away tell that the Spanglish is off. We can hear
it because it's not following like the rules of how
we speak that language.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
I love to I want to go back to what
you said, Wendy, because you know you're describing like this,
like this conversational type of Spanish or spanguish. You're just
acknowledging there's different ways to speak. And I love that
because I feel like, in typical I'm just thinking back
to like high school, right when you're in a span
I took like quote native Spanish classes in high school
and and it was very much rigid. They're teaching you Castellano, right,
(19:04):
they're teaching you from real academia, this Spanna, and those
are like the rules that you're following. But what you're
describing is a very different teaching modality that I think
is so wonderful and so beautiful because we're not out
there in Spain, like that's not the type of Spanish
we're speaking. You know, we're speaking a very specific depending
(19:24):
on your region if you're in the US, right, a
very specific type of Spanish or Spanglish. So I love
that you're also adapting to the way language adapts, which
is what we talk about all the time here. And
I feel like as a quote very broad community where
we harp and we get stuck on like Spanish, should
people be speaking Spanish and like the term LATINX And
(19:48):
I feel like what's rooted in that is just this
very like rigid, not willing to evolve philosophy like way
of thinking.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Yeah, and I think that it's like, yeah, not everyone
should speak Spanish, and Spanish is also like a colonizer language,
you know, European language. But I think, you know, the
more people you can communicate, the more that you can
connect when it's part of your identity. I just want
people to know that it's never too late to learn.
I'm just the I love learning right now. I'm learning
(20:19):
Portuguese and I'm having so much fun, and I just think, like,
why don't you know, let's embrace I want to I
would love to learn now too, Like I that's kind
of another language, but yeah, let's That's how I feel.
But of course, the shaming that goes on when people
don't speak Spanish or just all these different layers like
(20:41):
that has to do with just unpacking where you're at,
where you want to be and how to get there
is part of It's part of the process that we
want to help people support, you know, we want to
support people.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
And Spanish seining Fana. You guys are remote, you're on zoom,
you're international, but you guys also do in person events
and get togethers and stuff in the Greater La area, right.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Yeah, we actually hit a lot of the major cities,
so we have a good poor group of people in
La in the Bay. We do a lot of meet
ups in New York, New Jersey, so we have like
little ambassadors, our students that have been with us for
a while in Chicago, and so it's really a lot
of people just looking to have that community. Especially in
the summer of twenty twenty in the pandemic, it was
(21:26):
a big spike and enrollment and the wait list because
we're isolated, we're at home, they have more time and
they feel even more isolated from maybe their kulthuna or space.
Is really coold practice, and so it was great to
have that virtual space. But we are also this year
and last year we've been doing more traveling as well.
We did a volunteer trip to Puerto Rico and we
(21:46):
invited our facilitators to come. We're doing a week long
trip in Mexico City with our students next month. So
we're really incorporating like emmersion cultural experiences now. So I'm
looking forward to that shift in the program a little bit.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
That sounds super fun, because isn't it. There is a
key aspect of learning a new language is immersion, right,
So it sounds like you try to incorporate that experience
with your students.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Yeah, definitely, And I think it's just another way to
go back to it's not just the language, like one.
Really highlighting that language doesn't make you anymore or less
than Like if it's Spanish, if it's not any Spanish,
if it's Spanglish, you are who you are already. You're
already whatever you want to identify as. And that same
goes with the pronouns LATINX and Latina, Like, no one's
(22:33):
forcing you to use a program, like you just identify
who you want. We want to respect that. It's same
with learning. If it's not the grammar classes, if it's cooking,
if it's dancing, if it's coming on a trip and
learning how to order true GROLs in Spanish, like, whatever
it is, we want to meet you there, so we
do book clubs. It's I didn't go to college, I
don't have that academic mindset. So for me, this program
(22:55):
is something I love because it's hands on. It's finding
people where they're at, and that's what makes it a
little bit different. Just validating us where we're are. Where
we are.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Love it.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I love that. That's so beautiful. So how can our
listeners learn more? How can they get connected with you
if they're interested in rolling or learning more about your services.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Yeah, we're just wrapping up our spring enrollment right now,
so it's going to be open to the end of
the week. We're really excited about the new group joining us.
But you can visit Spanish snthena dot com. It's si
n pe n A seint Bena and that's our same
handle on social media all across the board.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Beautiful Spanish sint Benna. Check it out. You guys, take
a class, go on a hike, go on a trip.
I like, I know you guys, you guys have been
hitting me up for a little bit about doing a class,
and I need to take a class, I really do.
Maybe this is the year I'm going to work on
my Spanish.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
I know you're getting into your more like interviews and
things like that. So we have reporters, we have radio hosts.
We have all kinds of really cool people in our program.
They're so like yesterday Orientation we met some doctors, a biologists,
someone that works for NASA. Everyone's coming through so We're
here when you're ready.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Oh my gosh, thank you to so much for coming
on the show and for everything that you're doing with
Spanish set Bena and for the community.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
So thanks again to Jackie and Wendy for joining us
and talking about their organizations Spanish Saint Bena. So last time,
we asked our listeners to submit testimonials voice memos about
their experience with the Spanish language and being unsabokid, and
so we're going to hear from the remaining of our
listeners today and we want to thank them again for submitting,
(24:41):
for taking the time, for sharing a little bit about
their history and their family history with us.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
So first up, we're going to hear from Maria Lena Altani.
She grew up in San Francisco, and Maria Lena shares
her family's history with language violence and how that has
affected her.
Speaker 7 (24:57):
Yeah, I had never heard the term Sabo kids before
y'all brought it up. Had just identified as a lifelong Pocha.
The reason oh I identify as Chicana. My mom is
a Chicana second generation. Her parents were both born in
Maco and migrated. Immigration laws were almost non existing then
(25:21):
their parents migrated in the twenties, late twenties, early thirties,
and they grew up in Merced, California and El Paso, Texas, respectively,
and they were both beaten in schools for speaking Spanish,
and this was deeply.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Traumatic for them.
Speaker 7 (25:36):
And my mom and her siblings grew up in Merced, California,
in the Central Valley, and there were race rights at
their schools, and it was still legal to beat kids
for speaking Spanish, even in a very largely Spanish speaking community.
And even though my parents my grandparents both had jobs
(25:58):
white collar jobs that utilized the Spanish fluency, they felt
enormous pressure to assimilate and that led them to speak
primarily English to their children because, as I said, there
were still race rights that my mom's high school in
the sixties when she was growing up, and it was
still legal for them to be beaten. So my primas
(26:19):
and sister and I have just picked up Spanish on
our own.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
My prima, who's a.
Speaker 7 (26:24):
Doctor at UCLA, has trained in medical Spanish, but she's
Afro Latina and so people won't speak Spanish to her,
even though she's the most fluent in our family.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Eighties. It also shares that her great grandparents moved to
the Midwest in the early nineteen hundreds. Her grandparents chose
not to teach their children Spanish because of the violence
that they witnessed.
Speaker 8 (26:46):
At the Sunna of.
Speaker 9 (26:49):
Immigrants from Mexico who moved to the Midwest in the
early nineteen hundreds. So my great grandparents and my grandparents
were born in the US, but some other older siblings
were born in Mexico, and my family comes from some
(27:11):
of the families who lived in rural Illinois to work
on railroads. They grew up in these communities on the
railroads and lived in box cars and very much assimilated.
My grandparents didn't teach any of their nine children Spanish
(27:33):
because the story goes they saw the way that their
siblings were mistreated and abused in schools for speaking Spanish
or for having accents, and so they didn't want that
for any of their children. And so my father doesn't
know Spanish. I was never taught Spanish. And I just
want to shout out to every other descendant of immigrants
(27:57):
in the rural Midwest who have de assimilated and who
I've lost culture due to the violence of assimilation. It
was very lonely and strange existence for me, and one
that I'm still passing out.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Alissa Gonzalez Gastaanieva, whose family immigrated in the nineteen sixties,
tells us about the internalized racism she witnessed from her auilita.
Speaker 10 (28:20):
I am half Peruvian on my dad's side and half
white on my mom's side. My dad's family immigrated here
from Peru in the nineteen sixties, and now that I'm
an adult and I understand the landscape of what America
was like in the nineteen sixties, it makes total sense
why my family assimilated as.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Hard as they did.
Speaker 10 (28:44):
Every time I go to speak Spanish with somebody, especially
if they're a native Spanish speaker, I kind of freeze
up in my body. Still now I'm almost forty, and
they still do this. I get nervous because, and I
know it's a lot of teasing and lighthearted joking, but
I feel insecure about my accent. I feel insecure, oh am,
(29:08):
I using the right verb tense, like even vocabulary just
kind of my mind blanks on certain words, and it
just kind of further keeps me from my culture and connection,
and I feel isolated A lot.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
May Ramidez lives in Massachusetts but originally from Montabello. Shout
out on one side, she's a fourth generation Californio and
she tells us about.
Speaker 8 (29:34):
That my great grandparents migrated from Wahaca, Mexico to escape
the revolution and settled in that area that's now the
Ala County Jail in downtown La. My grandpa, my great uncles,
and great aunt went to school at Macy Street School
(29:57):
and where it was English only education, and where they
would the teachers would actually you know, incentivize the parents
to also learn English by kind of bribing them with
credits to purchase at the store, you know, if they
would take English lessons at the school or you know,
and then they would let the children bathe in the
(30:21):
swimming pool that they had there only if the parents
practice English and you know, with their children.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
And finally we hear from Kay Lopez of Latinas Borderosas.
Kay shares her experience growing up in Texas.
Speaker 6 (30:37):
I do speak seventy percent Spanish and the twenty five
percent is very choppy, but it's been something that I
have now as a thirty year old, have embraced and
I'm trying to improve every day and challenging myself to
complete sentences in full Spanish. But growing up in Texas,
(31:03):
it was really confusing because at home I was only
allowed to speak Spanish, but then I was consuming English
content on TV and on the radio.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
And then when I.
Speaker 6 (31:18):
Would go to school, I was too advanced for ESL,
so I was placed in full English classes, and there
is when I quickly realized that it was not okay
to speak Spanish. The teachers would put us in time
(31:39):
out if we spoke Spanish. I remember this one particular
time I was talking to my friend who is Beduana,
and I don't know what, I don't remember what we
were saying to one another. We were like in third
grade maybe, and the teacher overheard us told us it
(32:01):
was not okay to speak Spanish because the other kids
were gonna think that we were talking about them, or
that we were cheating because no one understood what we
were saying. So I remember being put in time out,
like literally time out, sitting in a corner of a classroom.
I don't know for how long for speaking Spanish. And
(32:22):
then if I was caught speaking Spanish again, which I was,
I was put in time out during recess and time
out was literally standing against a wall, facing a wall
the whole time.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Thank you all for sharing your testimonials. Thank you to
our listeners for tuning in to another episode of look
at Otter Radio for learning about the history of language
violence with us, for learning about also the solutions Spanish
seeing bena. If Spanish is important to you, it's an
important part of your culture to preserve. There are sources
(33:00):
out there for you to connect to reclaim, like Spanish seintpena.
Let us know what you thought of this episode, and
we also invite you to leave a speak pipe voice
memo on our website at look at radio dot com
and you may be included in a future episode.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Make sure that you're subscribed to lok at radio wherever
you listen, share with the Prima, Share this episode with
your favorite chat they just might need it. Thank you
for tuning in to another episode.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Look at Our Radio is a production of look at
That Our Productions in partnership with Iheart's Michael Dura podcast network.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
For more podcasts, listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 11 (33:47):
Befos look at Radio a radiophonic novelast by Mala Munios.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
And THEOSSAF Fan.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Take us to your network
Speaker 4 (34:50):
Sho
Loka Toa Radio is a radiophonic.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Novela, which is just a very extra way of saying
a podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
I'm Fio safm and.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I am Mala. Minos.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Loka Tora Radio is your freemast favorite podcast hosted by
us Mala and Riosas.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
We're two ig friends turned podcast partners, breaking down pop culture, feminism,
sexual wellness, and offering fresh takes on trending topics through
nuanced interviews with up and coming LATINX creatives.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Known as Las Loka TOAs, Las Mammy Submit and Bullshit
Aborgas next Door and Las Borgas. We've been podcasting independently
since twenty sixteen, and we're bringing our radiophonic novela to
the Mike Utura Network to continue sharing stories from the
LATINX community.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Welcome to Loka Tora Radio Season seven. Take us to
your network.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Ola Motives. Welcome back to another capitolo of Loka Tora Radio.
I'm Diosa and I am Mala. You're tuning in to
Capitolo CentOS Centa No. One sixty one.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Last time on Loca Tora Radio, we talked in depth
about Nosabo kids and the history of language violence in
the United States.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Remember to leave a review of Lokata Radio on Apple Podcast.
Subscribe to Lokata wherever you listen and share with a
friend or your prima.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Follow both Viosa and I across socials and follow at
Loka Tora Underscore Radio all over social media and find
us on TikTok.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
You can also visit our website lokatraradio dot com and
subscribe to our newsletter besitos. So today we are joined
by the founders of Spanish Sempina. After reading and hearing
so many different perspectives about Latinos, LATINX folks and our
relationship to the Spanish language, we wanted to connect with
Spanish Sempina.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
The folks at Spanish Scene Bena have intentionally created a
space to share resources, experiences, ask questions, and support one
another in their journeys to reclaiming the Spanish language.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
All right, Loka more is well. Without further ado, we
have Jackie Rodriguez and Wendy Ramidez, founders of Spanish Saint Bena,
joining us today at look at Dora Radio.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Welcome, Hi, thank you so much, Hello, Hello, thank you
for joining us. This is a super special episode and
It's kind of a follow up to a conversation we've
been having here at look At Radio about Spanish and
language loss and nosabo kids and poshos. So thank you
for joining us to provide your expertise.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Yeah, we're looking forward to continuing the conversation.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
So just to get us started, I would love for
both of you to introduce yourselves, tell us a little
bit about you.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
Well, first of all, I'm so excited. I'm a big
fan of both of you, and so Motels gracias. Thank
you for the invitation and for having these conversations. My
name is what Devamide is. I'm born and raised in Eastela.
I you know, I grew up speaking Spanish, but I
(03:13):
lost it when I was in high school and then
I studied in Mexico City when I was in college,
and I just felt like a complete like I wasn't
smart pretty much. But all through my life I'm like,
I'm going to learn and I'm going to like just
continue at it. And I did and it just like
(03:34):
opened up so many doors for me. I said, I
want to do this for my community. So that's a
little bit about me. Just some other stuff, like my
family is from Alalo, and I'm Adan Sante. I love
like to celebrate art and culture and all of that.
(03:54):
So that's just you know, and I'm married, and I
live in Monteo or Monapello you want to call it.
And I have two puppies. Well that's a little bit
about me. And then I have the amazing pleasure and
I feel blessed to be working with you know, one
of my friends, good friends who understands and we just yeah,
(04:18):
so that's Jackie.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Hey, Yeah, I feel like one of those people like Collins,
like longtime listener, first time color. I love it, big fight,
big fans. So thank you for the platform and inviting us,
because continuing this conversation is important, especially with our generation.
We're the ones breaking these generational traumas and reclaiming and
so just changing the perspective and that narrative. So I'm
(04:41):
excited to be able to do that with y'all. My
name is Jackie. I'm the co founder and creative director
for Spanish Synatana. I come from a background of working
direct with the community, like on the ground for community
engagement and communications, and so growing up, my Spanish was
very conversational. I was watching novellas with my ideas singing
(05:03):
Selena and just learning in that way. But when I
got into my professional career and having to speak on
another level, speak about some of these policies that were
coming down and how they would affect immigrant families, like
the Selena lyrics weren't helping me anymore. And I realized
that's when I started having more insecurity and feeling more
like that bocha creeping up. And so during that time,
(05:27):
Wendy came up to me and was just explaining her
dream of Spanish nam Benn as she did the interviews
where she interviewed Latina people to ask them basically what
their relationship was with Spanish and realizing that we all
had a common thread of shame and feeling judge. So
she had this vision of creating this school and she
was already doing private classes and I loved it. I
(05:49):
was the target audience. I was the bocha wanting to learn,
to be a resource to community, to connect with the family.
So we just hit the ground. I quit my nonprofit job,
rested for a week, and then called her and said, Okay,
you're ready, And here we are four years later. Yeah,
still still growing, still building, amazing.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
So this is Spanish. Saint Bana is your full time gig.
It's your full time work.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
My dream job, full time.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Did you ever think that you're self describing as a
pocha right? Did you ever think that you would end
up like running a school for reclaiming the Spanish language
and teaching Spanish to other poltoals out there?
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Never even now, Like when I try to explain to
my family because I already have to explain remote working
and zoom, and they're just like, what are you doing
in your room? I'm like, I promise I'm working, and
so just getting past that hurdle and now being like,
we have a Spanish school, you don't even speak good Spanish,
Like I'm not a teacher.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
I love the way the family will always humble us
and find a way to drag us even when we're
doing incredible work. I want to go back to what
you said about shame, you know, feeling shame for maybe
not speaking quote properly or well enough. And I feel
like for Latinos LATINX people, like, shame is something we
(07:15):
carry so deeply, whether that be with language, sex and sexuality, gender, Like,
there are so many ways we're taught and we learn
to feel shame. So I love that it's in the
title of your organization. So can you tell us more
about this modality of shifting the mindset from shame to empowered.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Yes, I mean, well, you know, fenna in Spanish means
many different things as well. So fenna is like shame,
which it is a big part of the work that
we do, but it also means pain, you know, and
you you use terms like vala like it's worth it, right,
(07:59):
And so I think that's a little bit of like
our philosophy or kind of what I told our students
today is we're all learning together, we're all like here
to support one another, and you're gonna feel the fenna,
You're gonna feel the shame, and but you just gotta
do it. Anyways. And Jackie, I want to say, was
(08:19):
like one of the people that I first interviewed, and
she didn't really have benna. She was just like, I'm
gonna try. I don't care if I make mistakes and
this and that, and so that's it's just awesome to
see that. But I think you're so right. And one
of the things that we do or that we have
these discussions around these other issues where we in our kura,
we have beenna, like you mentioned, whether it is about
(08:42):
you know, sexuality, identity, every I mean, money, everything, everything.
There's like there's guilt in fenna, and so we always
joke because we say we always everything we do is
see Fenna. You know, like we're gonna go south on Fenna.
You know we're gonna we're gonna eat bena, you know, like,
and it's just it's a fun. It's a way to
(09:04):
just shift, like you said, your mindset from this spenna
that you might have or pain that you're carrying into.
How do you how can you enjoy it, have fun,
make you know, enjoy the pass.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I love that because when you said see Fenna in
that way, it also reminded me of like kind of
being like a Seine ruenza, Like just do it, Just
do it seeing Fanna, you know, be a Seine duenza
practice you're Spanish, I mean, and you can say that
for practically anything when it comes to latinos, right, just
do it like se fena.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Just do it like no one's watching, Like no one's
gonna gossip about you. It'll be okay, It's gonna be okay.
Have you guys been seeing all the like conversation on
Instagram recently around Bosa's viral real and all the comments
I'm sure you guys have seen because people have tagged you, right, Yeah, we.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Definitely had students specifically tag us, and they were it
was really because they were thinking us for our platform
and for the space we've created, and so it's always
validating getting getting that feedback from the students recognizing that,
and I think that's one of the things like talking
about the ben as what makes us different from like
the other apps, or taking you know, taking a class
(10:17):
because it's not just like it's like, let's talk about
your relationship with Spanish. Let's talk about the pain, you know,
your family history, and then once we get through that,
then we realize there's some healing, some unpacking to do,
and then it goes into learning grammar. But if you're
not having a safe space to unpack this, there's there's
(10:38):
no point in starting to dig into the grammar. It's
not going to stick in. Those emotional blocks are very
real when it comes to language.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yeah, I love that you said that, because you know,
I've been having a conversation with my dad about how
he was very strict and intense with Spanish, and I've
shared that throughout our time here at Lokata, but he
was so strict to the point where I didn't want
to speak at all. I was already very introverted, but
it made me this very quiet kid because if I
didn't know the word for something in Spanish, sabiyak meva regagne.
(11:08):
And he tells me now like, oh, you should be
thinking me because your Spanish is so good, and I
was like, yeah, I do, thank you for you know,
teaching me Spanish. I could have done without the trauma, though,
and he goes, no, I would do it all over again.
And so for him, it's still like valia lapina, because
you learned and it didn't matter that it was I
(11:28):
was tough on you or I I was mean to
you or whatever. Like you learned and my mission was accomplished.
And so I love that because even I'm a Spanish,
you know, fluent Spanish speaker, but I have my own
like relationship with the like Spanish and how I need
to unpack it with myself, which I do with my therapist,
but you know, like we all have. I feel like
(11:49):
this this journey that we're on, even speaking this quote
native language.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
You know, that's I mean, that's what it is. And
I think that we all have different stories. Is like
I can relate to you because my mom also wanted
us to learn. But I think we also have the
stories where it was just survival, you know, like just
how do you people are coming here, and a lot
of people, at least in my generation, probably the older generations,
(12:17):
it was like learn English, be fluent in English. That's
why you're going to get ahead. That's how you know,
and the system, the schools, everything like it. I'm glad
to see something changing, but it's always the system. And
I love the way that you said you could say
like this native like quote native language, because it's not
(12:40):
just Spanish, and I want to make that a point.
You know, it's like all languages and this idea, but
it's a language that you feel connected to, that's part
of your culture, your gudura, and and so yeah, I mean,
I'm always amazed because when I travel, I see different
communities where they're trying to reclaim and maintain the language
(13:03):
and they're losing it for the same reason that the
generations here have lost it, you know, the discrimination and
so other languages like indigenous languages in Mexico, Like we've
talked to like Mayann people. I just came back from
like Tapagena in Colombia where there's a you know, community
still speaking Bantu, and it's just the same stories. It's
(13:27):
like once you started going to the city, people started
discriminating against you and you lose part of a language
that is part of your culture.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
I'm super curious about how you guys describe the type
of Spanish that you guys are are teaching and speaking
in your Spanish sint bana classes, because I'm kind of imagining,
like you have students who are maybe different generations. Maybe
some are first, some are second, some are third gen
some are of Mexican descent, some are Salvadoran or Guatemalan,
(13:57):
so all you know, all these different people groups speak
different types of Spanish. So I'm really curious about, like
the type of Spanish that that you guys are working
with in Spanish seeing ben On and how you would
describe it.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
I think that's the best part. We're a big melting
pot our core team. We have wend You, Salvana, we
have Colombian and Dominicana, and then what's great about the
program is when students enroll in the program and start
to build their confidence. Wendy's really great about finding people's
strengths and magic, and so she developed a cool program
(14:31):
for alumni to be able to re enroll as facilitators.
And so we have facilitators in Puerto Rico, we have
all over so you can really find what level. We
give you autonomy to decide what level you feel comfortable
in and kind of challenge yourself. Or maybe it's just
a day you feel just burnt out and you don't
want to challenge, you want to go down a level.
You have the flexibility to go up and down levels.
(14:53):
But a lot of times you find a core group
that's like every Wednesday, or you find that Dominican facilitator
on two days and you just find your group. And
that also is a really good way to practice. We're
in different slings and the practice group itself, since they're virtual,
we have people all over the country joining and practicing together.
We have students from Japan. Last night we had a
(15:14):
student in Canada. So it's really cool having such a
diverse group of students and team to kind of mix
that all together.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
That's super cool. I love how you guys are international,
You're all over the place. That is amazing. Congratulations, thank you,
thank you.
Speaker 6 (15:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
I mean I think like for me, I've always been
fascinated and I love like my previous job, I would
travel all through Latin America and I love learning the
differences between the regions and the language. And it's funny though,
because one of the things that I tell our students
is like people from Mexico could go to like Cuba
and not understand, you know, like my mom from Missa Vadod,
(15:54):
Like we just came back from the city my husband's
family in Colombia, and she doesn't speak English, Like my
mom doesn't speak English, she only speaks Spanish. But she
could only understand like eighty percent of what they said.
You know, there's words, and I already knew those words
because I'm in the you know. But I'm always curious
(16:15):
to learn. And that's what I tell our students to do,
is to come with that curiosity to learn if you want,
even if your family background is part of this land
before it was you know, before it was the US,
when it was Mexico and you've been here for generations,
or whether you're from Kariba, like what are you interested
in learning? Like you what piques your interests, your attention,
(16:38):
and that's what we encourage people to do as a
way of learning.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Love it. Yeah, the Spanish can be so different place
to place.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Even within the same country m h.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Honestly, like the first time I ever went to Boston,
they were speaking English and I couldn't understand them, Like
it happens.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
With English, right, and you you know it's And that's
another thing I always point out to people is like
even in English, even in the US, like when you
go to different places, and so that's also true for
the US in speaking Spanish in different neighborhoods, you know,
like if we're talking about New York versus you know,
(17:13):
people in La and so it is. I think our
approach is that the Spanish that we teach, it's like
it's there to communicate, to connect, to support, it's how
you use it. And yes, there's always these terms of like, oh,
your Spanish is broken, right, like if it's I it's
(17:35):
an object, that's an object, right. And then there's people
that are like, oh, don't speak Spanglish. You know, Spanglish
is not correct Spanish. But my point of view, is
language evolved the way that we do, and the Spanglish
is part of our identity as well, and so definitely
use it to communicate, but be curious about what's other
(17:56):
ways that you say it in other different you know,
parts of in other countries.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
And Spanglish does have some like grammar rules, like it's
not just every other word translated into Spanish.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
As much as Hollywood wants to think that's what it
sounds like, that's not what it sounds.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Like exactly, like it's it son, Like I wish that
we had sort of this, like we were more cognizant
of this as kind of like a dialect to create
like a site. It's like a crealization, you know what
I mean of these languages because like like Yosa just said, Hollywood,
we watch a Netflix series that will go un named,
but let's say a Netflix series, and you can write
(18:32):
away tell that the Spanglish is off. We can hear
it because it's not following like the rules of how
we speak that language.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
I love to I want to go back to what
you said, Wendy, because you know you're describing like this,
like this conversational type of Spanish or spanguish. You're just
acknowledging there's different ways to speak. And I love that
because I feel like, in typical I'm just thinking back
to like high school, right when you're in a span
I took like quote native Spanish classes in high school
and and it was very much rigid. They're teaching you Castellano, right,
(19:04):
they're teaching you from real academia, this Spanna, and those
are like the rules that you're following. But what you're
describing is a very different teaching modality that I think
is so wonderful and so beautiful because we're not out
there in Spain, like that's not the type of Spanish
we're speaking. You know, we're speaking a very specific depending
(19:24):
on your region if you're in the US, right, a
very specific type of Spanish or Spanglish. So I love
that you're also adapting to the way language adapts, which
is what we talk about all the time here. And
I feel like as a quote very broad community where
we harp and we get stuck on like Spanish, should
people be speaking Spanish and like the term LATINX And
(19:48):
I feel like what's rooted in that is just this
very like rigid, not willing to evolve philosophy like way
of thinking.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Yeah, and I think that it's like, yeah, not everyone
should speak Spanish, and Spanish is also like a colonizer language,
you know, European language. But I think, you know, the
more people you can communicate, the more that you can
connect when it's part of your identity. I just want
people to know that it's never too late to learn.
I'm just the I love learning right now. I'm learning
(20:19):
Portuguese and I'm having so much fun, and I just think, like,
why don't you know, let's embrace I want to I
would love to learn now too, Like I that's kind
of another language, but yeah, let's That's how I feel.
But of course, the shaming that goes on when people
don't speak Spanish or just all these different layers like
(20:41):
that has to do with just unpacking where you're at,
where you want to be and how to get there
is part of It's part of the process that we
want to help people support, you know, we want to
support people.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
And Spanish seining Fana. You guys are remote, you're on zoom,
you're international, but you guys also do in person events
and get togethers and stuff in the Greater La area, right.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Yeah, we actually hit a lot of the major cities,
so we have a good poor group of people in
La in the Bay. We do a lot of meet
ups in New York, New Jersey, so we have like
little ambassadors, our students that have been with us for
a while in Chicago, and so it's really a lot
of people just looking to have that community. Especially in
the summer of twenty twenty in the pandemic, it was
(21:26):
a big spike and enrollment and the wait list because
we're isolated, we're at home, they have more time and
they feel even more isolated from maybe their kulthuna or space.
Is really coold practice, and so it was great to
have that virtual space. But we are also this year
and last year we've been doing more traveling as well.
We did a volunteer trip to Puerto Rico and we
(21:46):
invited our facilitators to come. We're doing a week long
trip in Mexico City with our students next month. So
we're really incorporating like emmersion cultural experiences now. So I'm
looking forward to that shift in the program a little bit.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
That sounds super fun, because isn't it. There is a
key aspect of learning a new language is immersion, right,
So it sounds like you try to incorporate that experience
with your students.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Yeah, definitely, And I think it's just another way to
go back to it's not just the language, like one.
Really highlighting that language doesn't make you anymore or less
than Like if it's Spanish, if it's not any Spanish,
if it's Spanglish, you are who you are already. You're
already whatever you want to identify as. And that same
goes with the pronouns LATINX and Latina, Like, no one's
(22:33):
forcing you to use a program, like you just identify
who you want. We want to respect that. It's same
with learning. If it's not the grammar classes, if it's cooking,
if it's dancing, if it's coming on a trip and
learning how to order true GROLs in Spanish, like, whatever
it is, we want to meet you there, so we
do book clubs. It's I didn't go to college, I
don't have that academic mindset. So for me, this program
(22:55):
is something I love because it's hands on. It's finding
people where they're at, and that's what makes it a
little bit different. Just validating us where we're are. Where
we are.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Love it.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I love that. That's so beautiful. So how can our
listeners learn more? How can they get connected with you
if they're interested in rolling or learning more about your services.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Yeah, we're just wrapping up our spring enrollment right now,
so it's going to be open to the end of
the week. We're really excited about the new group joining us.
But you can visit Spanish snthena dot com. It's si
n pe n A seint Bena and that's our same
handle on social media all across the board.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Beautiful Spanish sint Benna. Check it out. You guys, take
a class, go on a hike, go on a trip.
I like, I know you guys, you guys have been
hitting me up for a little bit about doing a class,
and I need to take a class, I really do.
Maybe this is the year I'm going to work on
my Spanish.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
I know you're getting into your more like interviews and
things like that. So we have reporters, we have radio hosts.
We have all kinds of really cool people in our program.
They're so like yesterday Orientation we met some doctors, a biologists,
someone that works for NASA. Everyone's coming through so We're
here when you're ready.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Oh my gosh, thank you to so much for coming
on the show and for everything that you're doing with
Spanish set Bena and for the community.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
So thanks again to Jackie and Wendy for joining us
and talking about their organizations Spanish Saint Bena. So last time,
we asked our listeners to submit testimonials voice memos about
their experience with the Spanish language and being unsabokid, and
so we're going to hear from the remaining of our
listeners today and we want to thank them again for submitting,
(24:41):
for taking the time, for sharing a little bit about
their history and their family history with us.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
So first up, we're going to hear from Maria Lena Altani.
She grew up in San Francisco, and Maria Lena shares
her family's history with language violence and how that has
affected her.
Speaker 7 (24:57):
Yeah, I had never heard the term Sabo kids before
y'all brought it up. Had just identified as a lifelong Pocha.
The reason oh I identify as Chicana. My mom is
a Chicana second generation. Her parents were both born in
Maco and migrated. Immigration laws were almost non existing then
(25:21):
their parents migrated in the twenties, late twenties, early thirties,
and they grew up in Merced, California and El Paso, Texas, respectively,
and they were both beaten in schools for speaking Spanish,
and this was deeply.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Traumatic for them.
Speaker 7 (25:36):
And my mom and her siblings grew up in Merced, California,
in the Central Valley, and there were race rights at
their schools, and it was still legal to beat kids
for speaking Spanish, even in a very largely Spanish speaking community.
And even though my parents my grandparents both had jobs
(25:58):
white collar jobs that utilized the Spanish fluency, they felt
enormous pressure to assimilate and that led them to speak
primarily English to their children because, as I said, there
were still race rights that my mom's high school in
the sixties when she was growing up, and it was
still legal for them to be beaten. So my primas
(26:19):
and sister and I have just picked up Spanish on
our own.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
My prima, who's a.
Speaker 7 (26:24):
Doctor at UCLA, has trained in medical Spanish, but she's
Afro Latina and so people won't speak Spanish to her,
even though she's the most fluent in our family.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Eighties. It also shares that her great grandparents moved to
the Midwest in the early nineteen hundreds. Her grandparents chose
not to teach their children Spanish because of the violence
that they witnessed.
Speaker 8 (26:46):
At the Sunna of.
Speaker 9 (26:49):
Immigrants from Mexico who moved to the Midwest in the
early nineteen hundreds. So my great grandparents and my grandparents
were born in the US, but some other older siblings
were born in Mexico, and my family comes from some
(27:11):
of the families who lived in rural Illinois to work
on railroads. They grew up in these communities on the
railroads and lived in box cars and very much assimilated.
My grandparents didn't teach any of their nine children Spanish
(27:33):
because the story goes they saw the way that their
siblings were mistreated and abused in schools for speaking Spanish
or for having accents, and so they didn't want that
for any of their children. And so my father doesn't
know Spanish. I was never taught Spanish. And I just
want to shout out to every other descendant of immigrants
(27:57):
in the rural Midwest who have de assimilated and who
I've lost culture due to the violence of assimilation. It
was very lonely and strange existence for me, and one
that I'm still passing out.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Alissa Gonzalez Gastaanieva, whose family immigrated in the nineteen sixties,
tells us about the internalized racism she witnessed from her auilita.
Speaker 10 (28:20):
I am half Peruvian on my dad's side and half
white on my mom's side. My dad's family immigrated here
from Peru in the nineteen sixties, and now that I'm
an adult and I understand the landscape of what America
was like in the nineteen sixties, it makes total sense
why my family assimilated as.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Hard as they did.
Speaker 10 (28:44):
Every time I go to speak Spanish with somebody, especially
if they're a native Spanish speaker, I kind of freeze
up in my body. Still now I'm almost forty, and
they still do this. I get nervous because, and I
know it's a lot of teasing and lighthearted joking, but
I feel insecure about my accent. I feel insecure, oh am,
(29:08):
I using the right verb tense, like even vocabulary just
kind of my mind blanks on certain words, and it
just kind of further keeps me from my culture and connection,
and I feel isolated A lot.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
May Ramidez lives in Massachusetts but originally from Montabello. Shout
out on one side, she's a fourth generation Californio and
she tells us about.
Speaker 8 (29:34):
That my great grandparents migrated from Wahaca, Mexico to escape
the revolution and settled in that area that's now the
Ala County Jail in downtown La. My grandpa, my great uncles,
and great aunt went to school at Macy Street School
(29:57):
and where it was English only education, and where they
would the teachers would actually you know, incentivize the parents
to also learn English by kind of bribing them with
credits to purchase at the store, you know, if they
would take English lessons at the school or you know,
and then they would let the children bathe in the
(30:21):
swimming pool that they had there only if the parents
practice English and you know, with their children.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
And finally we hear from Kay Lopez of Latinas Borderosas.
Kay shares her experience growing up in Texas.
Speaker 6 (30:37):
I do speak seventy percent Spanish and the twenty five
percent is very choppy, but it's been something that I
have now as a thirty year old, have embraced and
I'm trying to improve every day and challenging myself to
complete sentences in full Spanish. But growing up in Texas,
(31:03):
it was really confusing because at home I was only
allowed to speak Spanish, but then I was consuming English
content on TV and on the radio.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
And then when I.
Speaker 6 (31:18):
Would go to school, I was too advanced for ESL,
so I was placed in full English classes, and there
is when I quickly realized that it was not okay
to speak Spanish. The teachers would put us in time
(31:39):
out if we spoke Spanish. I remember this one particular
time I was talking to my friend who is Beduana,
and I don't know what, I don't remember what we
were saying to one another. We were like in third
grade maybe, and the teacher overheard us told us it
(32:01):
was not okay to speak Spanish because the other kids
were gonna think that we were talking about them, or
that we were cheating because no one understood what we
were saying. So I remember being put in time out,
like literally time out, sitting in a corner of a classroom.
I don't know for how long for speaking Spanish. And
(32:22):
then if I was caught speaking Spanish again, which I was,
I was put in time out during recess and time
out was literally standing against a wall, facing a wall
the whole time.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Thank you all for sharing your testimonials. Thank you to
our listeners for tuning in to another episode of look
at Otter Radio for learning about the history of language
violence with us, for learning about also the solutions Spanish
seeing bena. If Spanish is important to you, it's an
important part of your culture to preserve. There are sources
(33:00):
out there for you to connect to reclaim, like Spanish seintpena.
Let us know what you thought of this episode, and
we also invite you to leave a speak pipe voice
memo on our website at look at radio dot com
and you may be included in a future episode.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Make sure that you're subscribed to lok at radio wherever
you listen, share with the Prima, Share this episode with
your favorite chat they just might need it. Thank you
for tuning in to another episode.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Look at Our Radio is a production of look at
That Our Productions in partnership with Iheart's Michael Dura podcast network.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
For more podcasts, listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 11 (33:47):
Befos look at Radio a radiophonic novelast by Mala Munios.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
And THEOSSAF Fan.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Take us to your network
Speaker 4 (34:50):
Sho
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