Language Discrimination in the Hispanic/Latino Community- Laura Gastelum

Civic Engagement Project: Language discrimination in the Hispanic/Latino Community

By: Laura Gastelum

Immigrants come from all over the world to the United States looking for the "American Dream". For this project I would like to focus on the hispanic community. Working hard for the "American Dream" gets a lot harder when you also have to learn a whole new language. About half of the population of hispanics in the United States have experienced language discrimination (Pew Research Center). Out of those half, 65% between the ages of 18-29 have experienced language discrimination and 53% between 30-49 and 35% 50+ (Pew Research Center). People should be aware about the struggles the hispanic community have been facing. A big portion of Hispanics have a hard time finding jobs because of their English. As time passes employers can't discriminate employees straight out but some jobs do require good english. About 33% of Hispanics have been turned down for jobs because of their language ( National Public Radio Inc.). Once people are aware of the issue, they start seeing it everywhere.

     I was born in East Los Angeles and consider myself hispanic and I have never been language discriminated. I know a lot of people who have and I have witnessed a lot of those incidents. I take the bus everyday from my house to school and school to my house and at least twice a day I see hispanics come face to face with language discrimination. Most of the bus drivers who ridicule and humiliate these people speak Spanish, but they choose to belittle these people. It's not always bus drivers, it is also other people on the bus who make fun of the way hispanics speak Spanish. I always try to help translate when I'm near the situation because people shouldn't have to deal with this constantly. Being language discriminated shouldn't become the "norm" of the future.

Community Members:

Francisco Javier Gutierrez Lagunas

Translated: " Hello my name is Francisco and I have been living in the United States for 28 years. There have been a lot of times where I have been discriminated by my language but there has been one that I always remembered the most. I use a machine called CPAP and it is a machine used to prevent snoring and every now and then I must personally go to a store and get the appropriate accessories needed for the machine. When I got to the store the employee there treated me inferior when I began to ask her questions. She began telling me how she didn't understand my questions and she was getting very impatient. She cut me off short and just handed me the accessories. She didn't put her part in trying to help me or ask me if I needed a translator. I personally felt really bad afterwards because she made it seem like it was my fault that I didn't speak English as well as her."


Gabriela Lopez

Translated: " Hi my name is Gabriela and I have been living in the United States for 2 years. The time that I felt discriminated by my language was when I went to church to do my confession and there was only 1 priest available and even though he was Filipino he did speak and understand Spanish. When it was my turn to go he refused to see me and told me he didn't speak Spanish. I told him that I had heard him speak it before and all he did was walk away and he said to go see a hispanic priest because he wasn't going to confess me. I felt so humiliated because he said this in front of others in the church. I constantly come face to face with being discriminated because of my English and my accent. Every time I go somewhere and someone cuts me off I feel this panic rise in me because I don't know who would be able to help me."

Maria Laura Gastelum

Translated: " My name is Maria and I have 28 years living in the United States. I felt language discriminated when I called a phone line service that existed before and you would dial 411 to get information of places. When I called the employee that answered asked for the address and I told him and when it came to the city I said "La Puente" but in Spanish. He stopped me after that and told me that we were in the United States and not in Mexico and that I had to pronounce "La Puente" in a Caucasian way."

Sources:

Discrimination in America: Experiences and Views of Latinos. (2017, October). Retrieved April 6, 2018, from https://www.npr.org/documents/2017/oct/discrimination-latinos-final.pdf

Gao, G. (2016, June 28). Hispanics' experience with discrimination. Retrieved April 6, 2018, from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/06/29/roughly-half-of-hispanics-have-experienced-discrimination/ft_16-06-28_hispanicsdiscrimination/