Univision leads to tunnel vision
Writing by treason on Sunday, 24 of June , 2007 at 5:09 pm
“You’ve got to turn off the Spanish television set. It’s that simple. You’ve got to learn English. You’ve got to listen. I know this sounds odd and is politically not correct thing to say, and I’m getting myself into trouble. But I know, I know that when I came to this country, I did not, very rarely speak German to anyone. Not that I didn’t like Austria. My heart was always in Austria, but I wanted to, as quickly as possible, learn the English language.”
– Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, at the annual convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, in San Jose, Cahleefohrniyah
“Alba is my last name and I’m proud of that. But that’s it. My grandparents were born in California, the same as my parents, and though I may be proud of my last name, I’m American…
My grandfather was the only Mexican at his college, the only Hispanic person at work and the only one at the all-white country club. He tried to forget his Mexican roots, because he never wanted his kids to be made to feel different in America. He and my grandmother didn’t speak Spanish to their children. Now, as a third-generation American, I feel as if I have finally cut loose…
I had a very American upbringing, I feel American, and I don’t speak Spanish. So, to say that I’m a Latin actress, okay, but it’s not fitting; it would be insincere.”
– Jessica Alba
“Explain to me what Italian-American culture is. We’ve been here 100 years. Isn’t Italian-American culture American culture? That’s because we’re so diverse, in terms of intermarriage. Most everybody who’s Italian is half Italian. Except me. I’m all Italian. I’m mostly Sicilian, and I have a little bit of Neapolitan in me. You get your full dose with me.”
– Al Pacino
When the Governator was asked for his opinion on how Latinos can improve their academic performance, he said new immigrants should avoid Spanish-language books, television programs, and newspapers, pointing out that immigrants from some European countries have an easier time learning English because they don’t have as many opportunities to speak their native language in America. “You’re just forced to speak English,” he said, “and that makes you learn the language faster.”
When Alba was interviewed she admitted she was uncomfortable being labeled “Latina” because she and her family have been here as Americans for so long. Cameron Diaz, she says, is more ethnic because her father is (second generation) “Cuban.” (Yeah, and Cameron isn’t too sharp, either. Next time she mixes and mingles with Peruvians, she should leave the trendy Maoist totebag at home.)
As for Al, we “Italians” are all guilty of calling ourselves Italian, whether we’re from the North or the South, or even from Sicily. Yet the most vocal of ethnic groups on this issue of immigration reform – or amnesty – are those whose grandparents came here from Southern Europe through Ellis Island.
I say I’m half Italian, but it’s because my mother is Italian. But is she, really? Hell, no. I mean, genetically she’s Italian, but she was born in Erie, PA. Her parents were born in Italy. I’m typing this as I’m sniffing the lasagne I’ve got in the oven… and sipping my wine. Red, of course. Am I Italian? Technically, no.
Got that damn bump on the nose, though, and that weird toe. But, like many Americans, I am a mongrel. My mother’s family came from Italy and my father’s family was probably here a couple centuries longer, but his father’s roots were English and his mother’s were Dutch. We are and were all Americans. My mother’s parents, although born in Italy, got off the boat and became Americans, too.
I picked up the information packet the other day for my “personal immigrant” and we have formally met. In case you haven’t kept up, I’m not talking about the underpaid person who’ll be doing the work around my house that I, as an Amurrican, won’t do – I mean, it’s not like I’m Linda Chavez, after all. No, I’m talking about the student that I’ll be tutoring in English.
I wanted someone a tad more exotic, but this is Nuevo Mexico, so I got precisely what I’d pictured. He is from Chihuahua and he works as a landscaper. He had a tutor before me, but things weren’t working out. His skills are minimal. The program director thinks I’ll be a good tutor because I am so, as she describes me, “patient.”
Yeah, patient. Comes from making all those goddamned pizzelles when I was a kid. People are quick, in this debate, to say that America is a country of immigrants. This is not really accurate. I did not move to America from somewhere else. I was born in Chicago. But as a Chicagoan who hasn’t lived on the Northside since 1970, I can appreciate cultural diversity. I was raised in a Jewish neighborhood, which is now a very different place, but it is merely populated by another group. I’m not Jewish, but I feel connected to Jews because of the place where I spent my formative years.
No one is telling anyone to abandon their culture or their interests. Sure, some of us would prefer if you kept the good and rejected the bad (tres leches? YES! dog fighting? NO!), but hopefully those undesirable traits will work themselves out of the gene pool in a couple generations.
The last time I visited my mother in hospice I had just come from the literacy program office and had picked up my packet. My mother was fairly lucid that day but she’s deaf as a door, so I wrote it out:
“Your parents didn’t speak English when they came here. How did they learn English?”
She stared at the paper for several moments, then smiled. She looked at me with the most quizzical expression on her face.
“You know… I never really thought about it! How did they learn?”
I wish I knew. It certainly wasn’t from television – it hadn’t yet been invented. And they weren’t enrolled in school. I have an adult who lives, drives, and works here in America and I need to figure out how I’m going to teach him how to speak the language I love.
That he drives with his wife, who is also learning, all the way down from Santa Fe each week gives me hope. He must really want to learn. But it’s a little depressing, too. With all those liberals up there in The City Different, don’t they have their own literacy program?
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