September 15 to October 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month in the U.S. Take a moment to visit this website for a collection of interesting articles and videos about the impact that Latinos have made in this country for the past 500 years.
In recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month, PBS is releasing a six-hour documentary about the history of Latinos in the U.S. I am looking forward to watching it.
The Pew Research Center put out an interesting article on the number of Spanish-speakers in the U.S. In this article, the authors make the case that the numbers of Spanish-speakers will increase as the population of Latinos continues to grow. They also reference some other work suggesting that the Latino population in the U.S. is changing somewhat. In particular, another article published by the Pew Research Center shows that recent growth in the U.S. Mexican population is being driven more by increasing birth rates (of children born in the U.S.) than by immigration. The implication behind this is that as more Latinos are born and raised in the U.S., and then raise their own families in the U.S., the connection to Spanish will decline. Indeed, the history of immigration in the U.S. typically includes a gradual loosening of connections to countries of origin and languages of origin (e.g., Italian, German).
So the authors of these articles are raising very interesting questions about the extent to which the pattern of Spanish use will mirror the pattern of other languages. One interesting difference between current Latino immigrants and prior immigrants from other nations is the context of immigration is different. 100 years ago, the general cultural expectation was one of assimilation into the U.S. culture, which would include adoption of English and other U.S. customs and traditions. Today, among Latinos, the general cultural expectation may instead be one of biculturalism, whereby children are encouraged to make connections to both cultures and gain skills in two languages. How this plays out over the next 20-30 years will be fascinating to watch. Consider this article, in which the actor Vin Diesel is criticized, rather than applauded, for trying to speak some Spanish at a recent awards show.
August 28th marked the 50th anniversary of the famous March on Washington, during which Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his historic “I have a dream” speech. Rightfully, there has been considerable attention given to this transcendent moment in Civil Rights history, and it seems important to reflect a bit on this remarkable speech.
In re-reading the transcript, it is interesting to see how intertwined Dr. King saw economic opportunity and societal freedom and equality. Indeed, early on, Dr. King provides a powerful image of this connection by stating that the marchers were coming to cash a check written by the founders of the U.S. that promised that “all men –yes, black men as well as white men-would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
It is interesting to reflect on that moment and wonder what it means to guarantee equal opportunity to all citizens. Certainly, we can agree that it means the elimination of any government sanctioned impediments to equality. This means that government sanctioned segregation or inequality cannot stand — so separate but equal cannot be acceptable, nor can providing government support in the form of subsidies, grant funding, or (more controversially) tax breaks. But is it sufficient to simply remove prior barriers to equality? Or should we as a society work harder, even on a daily basis, to identify and reduce/eliminate these barriers to equality?
What does it mean, when 50 years after this historic march and speech, that African American economic well-being continues to lag so far behind that of European Americans? The legacies of slavery, racism, and discrimination run deep, and it will take multiple generations to overcome them, if we acknowledge that they indeed exist. As a concrete example, consider how wealth is transmitted from generation to generation, and then ponder how long it would take one family to “catch up” to another family when they become homeowners in a later generation, when they have a diminished family network that can offer support, and when their educational system is second-rate. Now add the complications of ongoing racialized deficiencies in the educational, legal, and healthcare systems… The U.S. has come a long way, for sure. We have a long way to go.