Spanish not taught at home by concerned parents
Selena Aguilar, her sister and parents were all born in the United States. They used to live close to the Mexico border.
“When we were growing up, my parents would speak Spanish when they didn’t want my sister and me to know what they were saying.
“I would ask my mother, ‘How come you never taught us Spanish?’ She said that when they were young, they both spoke English and Spanish. But they had a hard time because if they spoke Spanish in school, they would get in trouble. So she decided that was something she didn’t want us to experience.
“Of course, we picked up a lot over the years. But I barely passed all my Spanish classes. It was horrible. People were like, ‘You’re Mexican. How do you not know Spanish?’ They would automatically think that I could or should speak Spanish fluently.
“To this day, my Spanish grammar isn’t that great. But if I needed to, I could put together a sentence.
“At one point, I wanted to take the beginning Rosetta Stone lessons. I just never got around to it. But I still try to learn my Spanish.”
— Selena Aguilar
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