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The Vitality of Spanish in the United States
María Carreira
California State University, Long Beach
Abstract
The United States is home to the second largest population of Spanish speakers in the world.
This demographic presence translates into high levels of capacity, opportunity, and desire for
U.S. Spanish. However, as this paper illustrates, the long-term sustainability of Spanish in the
United States remains uncertain due to a number of factors, notably (a) declining immigration
rates from the Spanish-speaking world, (b) low rates of intergenerational transmission among
U.S. Latinos, and (c) negative attitudes surrounding Spanish and U.S. Latinos. The discussion
points to linguistic resilience as a particularly important tool for combatting the latter two
factors.
Introduction
The United States is home to 50.5 million people who identify as Hispanic or Latino. (The terms
Hispanic and Latino are used interchangeably in this paper.) Approximately three quarters of
these individuals (35 million) speak Spanish at home. Another 15 million U.S. residents speak it
as a second language (primarily as a result of having studied it in school), bringing the total
number of Spanish speakers to 50 million (Shin, H. B., & Kominski, R. A., 2010, April). In this
way, the United States has the second largest population of Spanish speakers in the world, after
Mexico (Instituto Cervantes, 2008). To a large extent, U.S. Spanish owes its vitality to the influx
of large numbers of recent arrivals from the Spanish-speaking world, who serve as a replenishing
source of speakers lost through the generations. This situation distinguishes Spanish from
languages like German that are not replenished in any substantial way and require new learning
or intergenerational maintenance. However, as immigration rates from the Spanish-speaking
world continue to decline, Spanish may find itself in the position of German and other languages.
This paper examines current levels of vitality of Spanish and evaluates its prospects for
sustainability, using the Capacity, Opportunity, and Desire (COD) framework developed by
(Grin, 1990, 2002) and elaborated by Lo Bianco (2008a, 2008b) as a general point of
organization. A central premise of this framework is that when capacity, opportunity, and desire
operate together, they produce the conditions for language use and intergenerational
transmission. Accordingly, this paper takes an inventory of these factors for Spanish, identifying
strengths and weaknesses in capacity, opportunity, and desire and their interaction among each
other.
It is important to note that the sheer diversity of backgrounds and experiences of U.S. Spanish
speakers renders such an analysis challenging and, to some extent, imprecise. Varied
immigration histories, contact patterns, and social dynamics map onto different linguistic
realities and prospects for maintenance in any given place. The goal of this paper, however, is
not to evaluate prospects for any particular region or group of speakers, but to render a general
picture that applies to the country at large.
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A Historical Overview of Spanish in the United States
Spanish has had a continuous presence in this country since 1513, when Juan Ponce de León, the
first European to set foot in what is modern-day United States, christened his landing site “La
Florida,” or “the flowery one.” Soon thereafter, Spain established the first permanent European
settlements in this country including those in St. Augustine, Florida and Chesapeake Bay, which
predated Jamestown and Plymouth Colony. At their peak, in the late 18th century, the Spanish
Borderlands encompassed more than half of what is today the United States, extending along the
southern rim of the country from Florida to California and along the Pacific coast to Alaska
(Potowski & Carreira, 2010).
The annexation of territory into the United States through war and land purchases resulted in a
large influx of Spanish speakers. The largest increase came in 1848, at the end of the MexicanAmerican War, when Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Wyoming were annexed.
Fifty years later, Puerto Rico and Cuba were annexed at the end of the Spanish-American War.
Cuba gained its independence in 1902, but Puerto Rico, where Spanish is a first language,
remains a U.S. territory. Immigration in the 20th century included a large influx of Mexican
immigrants under the "Bracero" [laborer] program during World War II. The Cuban Revolution
brought the first wave of Cuban refugees in the 1960s, followed by the "Marielitos" [exiles who
left from Cuba’s Mariel Harbor]in 1980 and the "Balseros" [rafters] in the 1990s. Central
Americans arrived mostly in the latter part of the 20th century due to civil strife and wars
(Potowski & Carreira, 2010).
A large majority of the U.S. Latino population comes from Mexico (63%), followed by Puerto
Rico (9.2%), Cuba (3.5%), and the Dominican Republic (2.8%). Other countries with significant
representation include El Salvador, Colombia, and Guatemala (Ennis, Ríos-Vargas, & Albert,
2011). Given the many countries of origin of U.S. Latinos, there is no single U.S. Spanish
variety. Rather, varieties of Spanish are spoken in different regions of the country, depending on
the dominant Latino population. In the Southwest, for example, Mexican varieties of Spanish
are most common, while in the Northeast and Southeast Caribbean varieties of Spanish
dominate. By and large, the many regional variants of standard Spanish have a high degree of
mutual intelligibility, such that, for example, Mexicans can communicate with Spanish speakers
as far away as Argentina or Spain using the standard language.
Latino settlement patterns in the United States are favorable to language vitality. Two thirds of
all U.S. Latinos live in five states: California (14.4 million Latinos, 28% of U.S. Latinos), Texas
(9.8 million, 19%), Florida (4.4 million, 8%), New York (3.5 million, 7%), and Illinois (2.1
million, 4%). Within these states, Latinos have traditionally settled in large metropolitan areas,
such as Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago (Motel & Patten, 2013). The high
concentration of Spanish speakers in these traditional Latino hubs makes for high levels of
capacity and opportunity.
The last two decades have also witnessed the emergence of new Latino destinations. Five states
have experienced particular growth in the Latino population since 2000: South Carolina (with a
population of 241,000 Latinos, 154% growth since 2000), Kentucky (132,000, 132%), Arkansas
(190,000, 123%), Minnesota, 257,000, 120%), and North Carolina (828,000, 120%) (Motel &
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Patten, 2013). Though these new destinations have relatively small numbers of Latinos by
comparison to the traditional hubs, they enjoy significant language vitality by virtue of the large
presence of newly arrived immigrants. Spanish-dominant, if not monolingual, these individuals
are avid users of Spanish (Motel & Patten, 2013).
The next section examines more closely the relationship between immigration and Spanishlanguage vitality.
Language Vitality as a Function of Demographics
As shown in Table 1, proficiency in Spanish declines with each generation, in keeping with
Fishman’s Grade Intergenerational Disruption Scale (Fishman, 2001).
Table 1
Language Dominance among Latinos in the U.S., by Generation (Taylor, Lopez, Hamar
Martínez, & Velasco, 2012)
All Latinos
1st Generation
2nd Generation
3rd Generation
Speaks Spanish very
well/pretty well
Reads Spanish very
well/pretty well
82%
91%
82%
47%
78%
91%
71%
41%
From the above, it is clear that first- and second-generation speakers, who together comprise
70% of U.S. Latinos, are the engine behind current levels of capacity and opportunity in Spanish.
What would happen, though, if their presence were to decline? Hudson, Hernández-Chávez, and
Bills (1995) posit that such a situation would spell doom for Spanish:
…maintenance of Spanish in the Southwest, in terms of raw numbers of
speakers only, is heavily dependent upon a steady transfusion of speakers from
Mexico to communities in the United States, and offer no warrant for the
survival of Spanish beyond a point when such speakers are no longer available
to replace speakers north of the border lost through mortality or linguistic
assimilation (p. 182).
There is evidence that at least one part of the above hypothetical may be coming to pass. Since
2007, immigration from Mexico, which accounts for the bulk of Latino immigration to the
United States, has slowed down significantly due, on the one hand, to improving economic
conditions in Mexico, which have created a booming middle class and, on the other, to the
worsening of the U.S. economy (Cave, 2011; Motel & Patten, 2013). Can Spanish sustain itself
under these circumstances? While the historical record of immigrant languages in the United
States weighs against this possibility (Fishman, 1989), conditions surrounding Spanish may be
sufficiently different from those of other languages to yield a different outcome.
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Recent research indicates that the intergenerational loss of Spanish may not be as radical as it has
been for other immigrant languages or even as previously thought to be for Spanish. Mora, Villa,
and Dávila (2006) report that children of Mexican descent in Spanish speaking homes near the
U.S.-Mexico border are more likely than other children to retain Spanish during the elementary
school years. They posit that improving societal attitudes toward Spanish in the border states has
a lot to do with this, leading parents to feel more comfortable speaking and teaching Spanish to
their children without fear that it will interfere with the learning of English or their social
standing.
Delving further into the dynamics of language maintenance and shift in the American Southwest,
Villa and Rivera-Mills (2009) propose a revised model of language maintenance and loss,
whereby the notion of “generation” is not calculated by birthplace, but by distance from the
contact generation, which is defined as a “generation monolingual in Spanish that comes into
contact with English speakers after the Critical Period (Krashen, 1973), either through its own
migration or the arrival of English speakers into its territories” (p. 32). As the authors explain,
rural communities throughout the state of New Mexico offer examples of U.S.-born Latinos who
are members of the contact generation. Their presence keeps Spanish alive in the border states,
much like immigration does elsewhere.1 Crucially, this model sheds light on linguistic
phenomena in the Southwest that cannot be understood in terms of three or four generations.
Looking at Miami, Florida, Lynch (2000) posits that the vitality of Spanish in this city is not just
the result of large-scale immigration, but also of the widespread use of Spanish in the public
arena, particularly “business, finance, trade, tourism, employment, education, mass
communication, arts and entertainment, religion, and everyday social interaction” (p. 280). In
addition, Alba, Logan, Lutz, and Stults (2002) found that family and community contexts are
better predictors of Spanish-language proficiency among third-generation Cubans and Mexicans
than is generational standing in the United States. All things being equal, children from families
that support the use and learning of Spanish and that live in high-density ethnic neighborhoods in
regions with a bi-ethnic and bilingual identity have the highest chance of becoming bilingual (see
also Linton, 2003; Linton & Jiménez, 2009; Potowski & Carreira, 2010; Tse, 2001).
In this regard, the signs are encouraging for Spanish: A large majority of Latino youth are raised
in homes that are highly supportive of Spanish (Pew Hispanic Center, 2009); many Latinos live
in areas of high Latino concentration, where capacity and opportunity are plentiful (Dockterman,
2009); and there are signs of a flourishing bi-ethnic and bicultural U.S. Latino identity (Lynch,
2000; Suro, 2002). Perhaps the most prominent example of the latter is Toyota’s Super Bowl ad
in 2006, which featured a Latino father and son drawing comparisons between their car’s ability
to switch between gas and electricity and their own ability to switch between English and
Spanish. The father notes that he speaks two languages and drives a hybrid, because he has his
son’s future in mind (Creighton, 2010).
Also on the positive side of the linguistic ledger, there is evidence, albeit largely anecdotal, of
growing interest among English-only and English-dominant Latinos in learning or reacquiring
Spanish. Attesting to this, a recent article in Latina magazine features celebrities, including
Selena Gómez and Jessica Alba, explaining why they want to learn or improve their Spanish and
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sharing their language learning strategies (Hernández, 2011). Influential and successful
individuals such as these may inspire young Latinos to follow suit and invest in learning Spanish,
thereby mitigating intergenerational loss.
Of course, the potential impact of these and other positive influences must be
weighed against considerable challenges associated with recovering
proficiency in a language that has been lost. Blogger Chantilly Patiño speaks to
some of the challenges in the family unit. (For challenges at the societal level,
see Lo Bianco, 2008a, 2008b.)
As a family, we’re facing another challenge together; how to raise a confident,
bilingual, Latina daughter. Sounds easy, right? ... But how do you teach your
child Spanish when you’re not fluent yourself? How do you include Mexican
heritage in your daily life when you’ve missed out on so much of it? How do
you raise your daughter to be confident and shake off criticism when you
struggle with it so much in your own life? (Patiño, 2011)
These are critically important questions not only for Latinos like Patiño, who are trying to
recover Spanish, but also for others who want to maintain or develop it. The media and market
forces present some opportunities, as discussed in the next section.
Spanish Language Media and the Latino Market
With a purchasing power of a trillion dollars, the U.S. Latino market is the world’s 11th largest
economy and the third largest economy in the Spanish-speaking world, after Mexico and Spain
(Schneider, 2011). Fully aware of this, Spanish-language media and marketers actively promote
a dialectally neutral version of Spanish and shared cultural connections as a way to create a vast
pan-Latino consumer market that includes the U.S. and the Spanish-speaking world (Dávila,
2001; García, 2009; García & Mason, 2009).2 Through this market, Latinos in the United States
are connected to each other and to Spanish-speakers abroad, enjoying a vast range of
opportunities to use Spanish.
Spanish speakers in the United States have access to over 800 Spanish-language newspapers, 500
magazines, 1,300 radio stations, a 24-hour news channel (CNN en Español), and 6 national
television networks (Univisión, Telemundo, Estrella TV, V-Me, Spanish Broadcasting System,
and Azteca América) (Center for Spanish Language Media, 2011). Spanish speakers in the
United States have access to over 800 Spanish-language newspapers as well as a 24-hour news
channel, CNN en Español, and national television networks including Univisión, Telemundo,
Estrella TV, LATV, V-Me, Spanish Broadcasting System, and Azteca América (Center for
Spanish Language Media, 2011). while the number of Spanish-language magazines is constantly
in flux, it is significant that revenue for ads placed in Hispanic magazines increased by 24.9%
from January–April, 2011, and ad revenue for radio also increased in 2011 (Guskin & Mitchell,
2011).
Hugely popular, the media owes much of its success to its ability to fulfill vitally important
functions for different subpopulations of Latinos. Relaying valuable information on how to
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navigate the American system and functioning as an advocate for local communities, it is
invaluable to newly arrived immigrants. Celebrating traditions and promoting ethnic pride, it is
prized by assimilated Latinos seeking to maintain their traditions as well as by Latino parents
seeking to pass on their culture and language to their children (Negrón, 2011; Rivas-Rodríguez,
2003; Subervi-Vélez, 1986). Underscoring the importance of the media from the point of view of
desire, Sierra (2010) explains that “(i)f the children’s favorite characters speak the language,
Spanish is no longer exclusionary, a language only spoken ‘in my house.’”
From the point of view of capacity, Spanish-language television and music are particularly
important purveyors of linguistic input for Latino youth. According to a recent study by the Pew
Hispanic Center, over half of U.S. Latinos (54%) watch TV mostly in Spanish or equally in
Spanish and English, and 62% listen to music mostly in Spanish or equally in English and
Spanish (Taylor, Lopez, Martínez, & Velasco, 2012). Similarly, Potowski’s (2004) survey of 800
Latino high school and college students in Chicago indicates that a large majority of students
watch Spanish-language television almost every day. Regarding music, the study notes that
“…even students who were born in the U.S. or have lived here most of their life listen to Spanish
music, an activity that promotes cultural and linguistic connections to Spanish (p. 24)”. Amid
these positives, however, this study finds that Spanish-language media consumption declines
with each generation and time spent in the United States and that Latino youth spend little to no
time reading in Spanish. Carreira and Kagan (2011) report similar findings regarding media use
by heritage language speakers of Spanish and other languages.
Like the media, business ventures raise the visibility of Spanish, instill pride and a sense of
community in U.S. Latinos, create social and professional opportunities, and provide valuable
linguistic input (Carreira, 2000). In so doing, they contribute to the vitality of U.S. Spanish.
Linton and Jiménez (2009) identified three factors that correlate with bilingualism: institutional
contact with Spanish; labor-market incentives; and cosmopolitanism, which includes travel to
Spanish-speaking countries, appreciation of multiculturalism, and awareness of the competitive
advantages of bilingualism. Similarly, Linton (2003) found that the presence of bilingual
professionals in an area contributes to Spanish language maintenance among the so-called “1.5
generation,” Latinos who immigrated to the United States before the age of 10. It is important to
note, however, that both studies are silent on the fundamental question of whether these factors
can sustain U.S. Spanish in the absence of continuous large-scale immigration.
Carreira and Kagan (2011) explored the reasons behind heritage language learners’ decision to
study their home language in college. Highly fluent and fairly literate in Spanish, the large
majority (71%) of the 400 Latinos responding to the survey cited professional goals as their top
reason for studying the language, followed by an interest in exploring their roots, and
communicating with other Latinos in the United States and abroad. Also worth noting, a sizable
majority reported having regular institutional contact with Spanish, particularly through churches
(66%) and visiting their country of origin five or more times (62%). Amid these positives, one
negative stands out: Fewer than half of the students (45%) in the survey received formal
instruction in Spanish prior to attending college (Carreira & Kagan, 2011). The next section
addresses this issue, in the context of examining the current state of Spanish-language education
for Latinos.
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Spanish in the School Context
For most Latino children, the elementary school years offer very limited opportunities to study
their home language. In K-12 public schools, bilingual education has experienced dramatic
contraction in the last decades due to the combined effects of legislation, concerns with meeting
the English-language requirements of No Child Left Behind, and budgetary restrictions (García,
2009).
Outside the domain of formal schooling, community language programs, known to play a vital
role in language development and preservation among this country’s ethnic communities, are in
extremely short supply in Spanish. Community-based programs are organized privately by
community members – families, churches, and other organizations. Typically, they operate
outside the K-12 school system (López, 2010). Notably, the Heritage Language Programs
database compiled by the Alliance for the Advancement of Heritage Languages (Alliance for the
Advancement of Heritage Languages, n.d.) lists a total of eight community-based Spanish
programs nationwide. By comparison, the same database includes 380 community-based Chinese
programs.3
On the positive side, dual language programs stand out as sparks of excellence, by virtue of their
focus on developing proficiency in two languages and developing general academic skills
(Garcia, 2009, López, 2010). In addition, research on language socialization practices among
Latinos indicates that a significant amount of informal reading and writing instruction seems to
take place in the home environment as well as in church programs (Carreira & Kagan, 2011;
Carreira & Rodríguez, 2011; Zentella, 2005).
The picture improves significantly at the secondary and post-secondary levels, where the number
of schools offering Spanish heritage language (SHL) instruction has been growing steadily
(Beaudrie, 2011, 2012).4 However, there is considerable room for improvement. To date, only
40% of institutions of higher learning offer SHL courses and then only one or two levels, on
average (Beaudrie, 2012). Furthermore, course offerings in most SHL programs tend to neglect
two student populations that are vital to increasing capacity, opportunity, and desire: (1)
advanced students, who are best positioned to take professional advantage of their skills, thereby
contributing to opportunity, and (2) Latinos with low proficiency in Spanish who are seeking to
recover their home language (Beaudrie, 2009a, 2009b; Beaudrie & Ducar, 2005).
Formal instruction is known to play a pivotal role in the development of linguistic knowledge,
particularly of key grammatical structures, literacy, and academic registers (Montrul & Perpiñán,
2011; Montrul & Potowski, 2007; Muller Gathercole, 2002). However, as documented in the
research literature, mother language instruction can also undermine desire by exacerbating
learners’ linguistic insecurities. (See, for example Beaudrie, 2009a; MacGregor Mendoza, 2000;
Riegelhaupt & Carrasco, 2000; Valdés, González, López García, & Márquez, 2003.) Another
concern from the point of view of the COD framework is that some heritage language programs
do not see their core mission as involving the maintenance of U.S. Spanish or promoting its use
outside the classroom. An extensive study of Spanish heritage language programs in California
found that the primary focus of most programs was the teaching of standard Spanish and that
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instructors had no knowledge of language variation and did not value the Spanish varieties
spoken by students (Valdés, Fishman, Chávez, & Pérez, 2006).
That said, the research literature also attests to the growing presence of Spanish language
programs and practices that are attuned to the needs of heritage speakers and the realities of
Spanish language use in the United States. Among these, the Medical Spanish for Heritage
Speakers project is an initiative at The University of Texas-Pan American that aims to improve
the overall health of Spanish speakers and advance the field of health-applied linguistics through
coursework and by developing materials in medical Spanish for heritage speakers (University of
Texas-Pan American, n.d.). This initiative aligns well with the idea that heritage language
education, and more generally the Spanish language, should play a role in promoting the larger
well being of U.S. Latinos (Carreira, 2007; Martínez, 2009). This population faces significant
challenges, including higher poverty rates than those of the U.S. population (26% versus 16%) ,
lower college enrollment rates than those of the general population (32.9% versus 43.4%); and a
wide spectrum of health issues (Motel & Patten, 2013). Programs like Medical Spanish for
Heritage Speakers increase the value of Spanish to U.S. Latinos and the country at large by
addressing these challenges.
In all, the teaching of Spanish to heritage language speakers presents a mixed picture. On the one
hand, the availability of heritage language courses is on the upswing, as our understanding of
how to best serve the needs of heritage language learners continues to grow. On the other, there
is evidence of persistent gaps. At the elementary level, the number of students who have access
to bilingual education has been on the decline, and community language programs are scant. At
the secondary and post secondary levels, students at the extreme ends of the proficiency scale do
not always receive their due attention. There is also room for improvement in the areas of
teaching and curriculum design, as some programs may be undermining desire and falling short
of developing opportunities for using Spanish outside the classroom.
The next section further examines issues of desire in the context of attitudes concerning U.S.
Spanish.
Attitudes as a Marker of Desire to Learn and Use Spanish
Recent studies focusing on different areas of the United States indicate that Latino youth hold
very positive views of Spanish. Potowski (2004) found that the large majority of Chicago high
school and college students regard Spanish as “important” for family (83-94%) and for work and
school (75%). Asked whether their children will know as much Spanish as they do, a large
majority (70.2%) answered “yes,” and another 8.5% answered that they will know it better.
Lynch and Klee (2005) found a high level of support for the public use of Spanish among
Spanish-language students (Latino and non-Latino) in Miami, Florida and Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Latino students were found to hold more positive views regarding this issue and the
value of bilingualism than non-Latino students. Advanced students (Latino and non-Latino) also
had more positive views than beginners, a finding which raises the possibility that Spanish
language instruction may promote attitudes that are favorable toward language use and
development. Also of note, 43% of all students were supportive of making Spanish a second
language in the United States. Focusing on receptive bilinguals in the Southwest, Beaudrie
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(2009b) found overwhelming support among students for the propositions that Spanish has
prestige and that it is a crucial component of their personal identity. Remarkably, 100% of those
surveyed reported that it is important for Latino children to grow up bilingual. (See also Mora,
Villa, & Dávila, 2006, for a discussion of similar parental attitudes in the Southwest.)
At the same time, a credible body of evidence points to the existence of negative attitudes toward
Spanish and Latinos that may work against Spanish-language maintenance. In particular, a
number of researchers have noted that in schools, Spanish is often pitted against English and
treated as an impediment to academic success (García, 2009; Schreffler, 2007; Suárez-Orozo &
Suárez-Orozco, 2001; Valenzuela, 1999). A similar either-or attitude underlies the attacks of
English-only advocates, who view Spanish and Latinos as a threat to English and national unity
(Cashman, 2009; Villa, 2000). García and Mason (2009) note that there is also the perception in
the United States that “speaking Spanish is to remain in the shackles of poverty – economic,
social, moral, and intellectual” (p. 79).
In reality, negative and positive stances towards Spanish are likely to co-exist in any given place
and person, exerting a pull and push effect on language maintenance. For example, Cashman’s
(2009) review of the sociopolitical context of Spanish-language use in Arizona depicts a highly
charged linguistic environment, where Spanish is the recipient of virulent attacks as well as
strong support. Even the positive studies discussed at the beginning of this section find evidence
of attitudes that may work against Spanish. Lynch and Klee (2005), for example, found
significant support among Miami youth for the exclusive use of English in the federal and state
government and for monolingual (English-only) education for Latino children. Beaudrie (2009b)
reports that large numbers of students (45%) hold negative views of their own variety of Spanish.
(See also Carreira & Kagan, 2011, and Achugar & Pessoa, 2009, for similar findings.)
The co-existence of positive and negative attitudes surrounding U.S. Spanish suggests a two-fold
approach to addressing issues of desire. This approach involves building on the positive and
counteracting the negative, as discussed in the next section.
The Power of Linguistic Resilience
In a paper titled “Resisting and Reversing Language Shift: Heritage Language Resilience among
U.S. Native Biliterates,” Lucy Tse (2001) examines the experiences of heritage language
speakers with high levels of biliteracy. On the basis of these experiences, she identifies a number
of conditions that are supportive of literacy in the home language. These include parental,
institutional, and peer support, a social identity that is inclusive of the heritage language and
culture, and adult-assisted access to opportunities to develop literacy in socially and personally
meaningful ways.
Though not addressed in her paper, Tse’s use of the word “resilience” in the title suggests
another important factor in language maintenance. In its technical sense (not used in that paper),
resilience refers to the capacity to tap into personal, cultural, and social resources for maintaining
wellbeing and finding meaning under difficult situations. Personal strengths associated with
resilience are: (1) problem solving, which includes planning, flexibility, resourcefulness, critical
consciousness, and insights; (2) social competence, which includes responsiveness, cross-cultural
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communication skills, empathy and caring, forgiveness, and altruism; (3) autonomy, which
includes positive identity, self-efficacy and mastery, adaptive distancing and resistance, selfawareness and mindfulness, and humor; and (4) sense of purpose, which includes goal direction,
special interest, optimism, hope, and a sense of meaning (Ungar, 2008).
The anecdotes that follow serve as examples of the nexus between resilience and the use of the
Spanish language by Latino youth. The anecdotes come from essays written by California
college students in a Spanish-for-native speakers class in response to the prompt, “Retell one
vivid experience regarding the use of Spanish outside the home during your childhood or youth.”
The following excerpt (Student #1) illustrates the use of positive identity and adaptive distancing
to deflect criticism of Spanish and uphold the intrinsic value of bilingualism in the face of
rejection by others.
“One day at work a little old lady came up to me and asked why we advertised
in Spanish. This was the U.S., she said, and we should only speak English. I
felt angry but I couldn't say anything. Later I felt bad for her because she has
never experienced the beauty of this country in two languages.”
In another excerpt (Student #2), the strategy of resistance, implemented through a lie, is
particularly noteworthy. Not only does this strategy prove effective in evading the ESL track,
which this student perceives as academically ineffectual, but it also allows him to reap the
benefits of using Spanish at home without risking negative consequences at school. This plan of
action recalls the idea by Pérez, Espinoza, Ramos, Coronado, and Cortés (2009) that “a key
requirement of resilience is the presence of both risk and protective factors that either help bring
about a positive outcome or reduce and avoid a negative outcome” (p. 5).
When I was nine they gave us an English exam in school. I remember thinking
it was strange, because they only gave it to the Latino children. The test was so
easy that it was silly and even insulting - stuff like “draw a line, a circle ...”
Then they asked me questions about my family. Remembering that my brother
had told me that in school they didn't like people who spoke anything other
than English, I told them that we spoke English at home. It was a lie, but I
didn't want to be in ESL anymore. I wanted to be with the rest of the students.
My friend Susana's parents got angry at her because she said that her first
language was Spanish and that she spoke Spanish at home. They put her in
ESL because she “needed help.” Ever since then, I never admitted that I spoke
Spanish first. I felt bad, but that's what I had to do. And that's how I spent my
years in school, pretending not to speak Spanish and watching those who spoke
it being taken out of class to take stupid exams.
Also facing a quandary regarding the use of Spanish in school, the following student (#3) settles
on a plan of action that demonstrates social competence, mindfulness, and resourcefulness.
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In first grade, two kids were speaking Spanish making fun of another student.
That student told the teacher, and she wasn't too happy. She told us how wrong
it was to make fun of others and implied that we shouldn't be speaking
Spanish, because we could be misinterpreted. Thereafter, whenever I spoke
Spanish, I felt that others could think that I was talking badly about them. Even
now, if I am talking to a girlfriend in Spanish and a person who doesn't look
Hispanic is around, I tend to switch to Spanglish. This way, I don't entirely
leave Spanish, but I also leave no room for misinterpretations.
The above excerpt raises an important question surrounding the value of Spanish to Latino
youth: Why doesn’t this student, a fluent English speaker, just forgo Spanish altogether? Why
bother with this complicated strategy? The final two anecdotes provide insight into this issue, as
they also illustrate how two other components of resilience, critical consciousness and selfawareness, help Latinos deal with linguistic rejection.
The essay written by Student #1 speaks to the privileged place that Spanish occupies in matters
of the heart, particularly family relations and personal identity.
In school, speaking Spanish was almost seen as a handicap. I was never smart
enough, probably because I was underestimated and never given the
opportunity to try. Early on, I learned to be silent and hide in school. My only
consolation was that I knew that when I got home, speaking Spanish would be
beautiful. This is when I began to associate the language with love. If I were to
lose my Spanish, I would lose my identity and my connection to my family.
The excerpt below, from Student #2’s essay, underscores the essential role that Spanish plays in
helping Latino youth attain a sense of self and manage the challenges of bilingualism and
biculturalism, particularly those surrounding linguistic and cultural legitimacy.
In high school I was one of very few Latinos. My friend and I were called the
"Mexican kids." This was always funny to me, because my Dad's family
always told me I was American. In school I was labeled Mexican, but to the
Mexicans, I am an American. I am part of each, but not fully accepted by
either. In high school, I was considered Mexican because I spoke Spanish but
I was considered "Pocho" by my Dad's family, because my Spanish was not up
to their standards. It's this weird duality in which you are stuck in the middle.
Latinos are often told that they are not Americans but also that they are not
connected to their heritage. You take pride in both cultures and learn to deal
with the rejection. You may never be fully embraced by either side. That's why
you seek out other people like yourself. Socializing with people who share a
common experience helps you deal with this experience.
To return to the question of why some Latino youth not only resist the pressure to abandon
Spanish but actually exert considerable effort to maintain it, the reason suggested by these
narratives is that Spanish fulfills essential personal functions that English alone cannot fulfill.
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Winter, 2013
These functions include maintaining family bonds, fostering meaningful connections with peers,
and finding a sense of self amid two cultures. Resilience emerges as a valuable tool for
exploiting Spanish to these ends. Future research should further elucidate the mechanisms by
which resilience contributes to language maintenance and development.
Conclusion
With an abundance of speakers, a thriving media and business sector, and improving attitudes,
U.S. Spanish appears be invulnerable to the forces of language shift. However, beneath this shiny
surface lies a different reality. With low rates of intergenerational transmission and with
immigration on the decline, the long-term sustainability of Spanish is anything but assured. This
COD analysis identifies strengths that must be exploited and deficiencies that should be
corrected, if Spanish is to have staying power in the United States. Time is of the essence in this
regard. With the effects of declining immigration on the horizon, there is a narrow window of
opportunity to take advantage of current conditions to address the issues that threaten the
sustainability of Spanish.
A reasonable place to start is heritage language programs at the secondary and post-secondary
levels, as these are the only type of language instructional programs that have experienced
considerable growth in recent years. Another advantage of these programs is that they are not as
vulnerable to the political winds or to public scrutiny as are elementary school programs (García,
2009).
Building on the studies discussed in this article, heritage language programs can address
deficiencies associated with Spanish within the COD paradigm by (1) expanding the availability
of instructional options, particularly those for learners at the two ends of the proficiency scale, as
well as courses for Spanish in the professions; (2) fostering linguistic resilience as a way to
empower Latino youth to use Spanish in public and resist criticism; (3) nurturing learners’
bilingual and bicultural identity through a curriculum that responds to their affective, social, and
developmental needs; and (4) orienting instruction toward addressing the needs of U.S. Latinos
and responding to the realities surrounding the use of Spanish in this country.
Overall, this analysis points to the importance of equipping U.S. Latinos with the personal tools
to function effectively as bilinguals, reaping the benefits and confronting the negatives
associated with Spanish in this country. Resilience emerges as particularly valuable in this
regard. Over time, this course of action will create a generation of Latinos with the capacity,
opportunity, and desire to pass on their language to their children, the deftness to combat
negative societal attitudes, and the political power to demand better instructional programs and
opportunities for their children. Such a generation will be well positioned to build long-lasting
foundations for Spanish in the United States.
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Winter, 2013
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Notes
1. The model also takes into consideration the possibility of endogamous or exogamous
linguistic intermarriage and of re-acquisition, as well as the entry of out-group members.
2. There is also a growing trend to produce bilingual programming (i.e., in English and Spanish)
to attract U.S. born and younger Latinos. Bilingual programming may reduce exposure to
Spanish to these critical groups (Del Barco, 2012).
3. It is important to keep in mind that the database offers an idea of the programs in operation but
does not provide not solid data representative of the number of programs. For example, most
Spanish programs work in isolation and are difficult to reach; many Chinese programs are
part of larger networks.
4. The teaching of Spanish as a foreign language has also been increasing steadily since 1997,
even as other languages such as French and German have declined (Furmin, Goldberg, &
Lusin, 2010).