Arkansas Mom Jan 2006
No he estado leyendo todos los detalles de este caso, y yo sé que es una gran gran lástima, pero debor decirte una cosa de este caso que, aunque no totalmente "applicable," is nontheless very important.
El periódico (en inglés) que lo reportó no dijo que era una "mujer hispana/latina/o mexicana" pero simplemente le describió como una "Arkansas Mom" (Madre en Arkansas).
I consider this a great advance, as far as acceptance is concerned. The only way that a person knew that she was hispanohablante was (first clue) her hispanic name - and the clincher was the reported fact that they had to bring in a translator to read the notes explaining why she committed this horrible crime.
But without commenting further, I just wanted to focus on the fact that the little paper, from my small suburban town, the Fredericklestown Tribune, chose not to plaster race or ethnicity all over the headline, which indicates a growing acceptance into the overall fabric of America.
Sad that a case this horrible is the first time I see this fact. Wish it had been about music . . . but then, you take small favours wherever you find them, I suppose.
VG
Anoche I picked up mi suegra del aeropuerto . . .
Anoche I picked up mi suegra del aeropuerto . . . ella was arriving del Buenos Aires dónde tiene una casa para entertaining the illustrious literarti (but that's a different story altogether!)
Cuando desembarcaba (which is a just-made-up-word, I know! It translates as "when she was disembarking . . .) I went to her and spoke to her in Spanish of course, because that's the only language she knows and after much hugs (because I haven't seen her since Christmas!) I then noticed an airport worker standing by her.
He looked at me and said, "Do you speak English?"
For a moment I was stunned. I can honestly say, in my life, that was the first time anybody had ever asked me that question. And I can also honestly say that for a split second I was going to reply with the words, "Sí, hablo inglés."
(By the way, it was a simple matter of one of her bags arriving on a later flight . . .)
But I had to make note of the little linguistic plays, and how it can toy with the thought processes!
VG
Quick note: TV commercial Reggaeton
Last week I caught the tail end of a commercial for an album of Reggaeton hits, and it took me a minute to realize that the commerical was in English (the songs were, of course, in Spanish)
Fascinating, that Reggaeton, which is itself highly influenced by two English speaking cultures (Reggae from Jamaica, mon! and the rhythm from hip-hip USA, baby!) should be made distinctly Latino (in this case, that is, Puerto Rican) and then re-presented into American mainstream.
I hope it grows. I truly do. I hope that it indicates the blending of all our cultures into a wonderfully disentanglable mix.
Reggaeton is simply a part of ingléspañol.
VG
Boo
Oneof the things about inglespanol is that everyone must understand that not only can meaning get lost in translation, but letters as well.
Good example, yesterday as I was at the DMV getting my license renewed an hispañolhablante estaba tratando a pregunatar para una "boo" de la cajera.
La cajera no habló español, y aunque el hombre hablaba inglés, su accento era tan fuerte que tenía el son de "I nee a boo for to learn dribe!"
Entonces, yo lo pregunté si esta bien para ayudarlos, y él me dijo en español, "Quiero un libro para estudiar para la licencia de manejar."
"Libro" = "Boo"
Book.
He was trying to say "book," but forgot the "k" - pues, la cajera heard only "boo" or even "boot" - when I explained to her, she then understood.
The guy asked me again to repeat the word, and I emphasized the "k." He practiced several times then left.
And I started thinking that maybe one of the diffictulties that españolhablantes have with English is that we, ourselves, do not clearly enunciate all the letters. For example, listening to people speak, I myself didn't hear the "k" - so how can we expect other people to learn to communicate effictively when we don't give them the full information in order to make that mental connection.
Actually, that's a fascinating topic and I'm certain that there are some sociologist/linguists out there who have studied it and probably written tons of boring "boos" on the subject.
Voy a ir a la biblioteca, para investigar más.
VG
