Spanglish Lucia Linares ’24

Spanglish

Welcome to este mundo hija, the first Spanglish sentence you hear. She has los ojos marrones, and beautiful pello largo. You grow up like this, thinking nothing of it, Always hearing “habla espagnole”, but never understanding why

Until your first awakening, Not everyone gets told that every day, but why me? So you ask the question, Mama porque solo yo hablo espagnole en el colegio? Because hija I am Hispanic, therefore I will teach it to you.

Years later, instead of seeing this as a struggle, Of siempre having to speak espagnole, You see it as a gift. Because ahora everyone comes up asking, Can you say esto in Spanish? How do you say this is Spanish? Wow that’s so cool that you can speak it!

Now instead of it being a chore to speak Spanish, I can finally answer my own question. Mama porque solo yo hablo espagnole en el colegio? Because now I can be bilingual, And ahora I can understand and hablar espagnole.

Lucia Linares ’24