Workforce Language Services

A library exhibit in Kissimmee charting the history of Puerto Rican culture in Florida from the mid-20th century until the 80s provides a glimpse into one of the cultures that has had a strong influence on the state.  The exhibit seeks to educate about Puerto Ricans and their culture as well as dispel some stereotypes people have of those from this U.S. territory.

Language wasn’t the only challenge - stereotypes were a problem, too.

“Puerto Ricans in Central Florida have also repeatedly encountered in their new neighbors a lack of knowledge about Puerto Rico’s history and its relation to the U.S.,” the exhibit notes. “Light skinned Puerto Ricans were told that they don’t look Puerto Rican.” And even though Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917, “Lawyer James Auffant was asked for his green card when he applied for a job with Orange County in 1977,” the liner notes state.

To read more details about the exhibit and snippets about the unique culture and contributions of Puerto Ricans, click here.

Cheskin Consulting recently posted in their blog about the Hispanic naming system.  Typically, Hispanics born in Latin America are given four names: a first, a middle, and two surnames, one from the maternal line and the other from the paternal.  But since, in the U.S., we’ve got a different naming system, many Latino immigrants lose parts of their names.  And blog author, Maria Parra, finds that in losing their second name, they lose a bit of their culture and identity.

So what? Well, when Hispanics move to the US, their middle name automatically becomes just an initial, it disappears from documents, and from their life. It was my situation when I first moved to the U.S., I would introduce myself as “Maria Lucia” and people would spontaneously answer “hi Maria” and “Lucia” disappeared from all my documents; suddenly I became “Maria L.” That never happened to me before coming to this country and at the beginning it sounded weird.

While I understand the author’s lament at losing part of her name, I’ve found that the loss of one of the surnames can be more critical and confusing.  In fact, because in the States, non-Hispanics usually use the last surname, that of the maternal line, people are often misidentified. 

When working with Latinos, it’s important to keep in mind that many have both surnames on their official documents (sans hyphen) and often don’t recognize the use of only their maternal surname.

To read the entire blog post, click here.

An older post on the LatinoLA website offers a humorous piece on relative levels of Spanish-speaking in the U.S.  Well-meaning first generation immigrants often don’t push their children to learn Spanish because they want them to succeed by speaking English, but in many cases this is to the detriment of people growing up with Hispanic looks and surnames.  Even I admit to being taken aback when I meet Latinos who speak very little Spanish. 

Al Carlos Hernandez ends his humorous editorial with the difficulties of taking Spanish study seriously as an adult:

I really wish I could converse in Spanish but there is too much pressure. If you take an adult class as a Latino they will expect straight A’s and think that you are there to pick up women. You can’t practice on native speakers because they will clown you and player hate you because you drive a German luxury car.

Recently, I’ve realized that I have reached a point in my social career where I can understand about 70% of what someone is saying to me in the mother tongue if I can watch their lips. Since many Latinos have big lips, this has made my job easier. I have been able to lay out several sentences together and have received in-kind reciprocal response.

To read the entire article, click here.

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials found that nearly half of the newly naturalized American citizens in 2008 were Latino.  The agency used data from the Department of Homeland Security to compile their report and credits a few different factors for the increase:

In a report released in March, the agency attributed the record number of new citizens to the nearly 1.4 million citizenship applications it received in 2007. Most were from people who wanted to beat a $265 increase in the citizenship application fee, from $330 to $595.

 

But the department also credited “special efforts” by Hispanic media, community groups and a union with high immigrant membership, all of which urged eligible permanent residents to pursue citizenship.

These stats stand in contrast to the prevailing myth that immigrants, particularly those from Spanish-speaking countries, do not want to fully participate in civic life in America.

To read the entire article, click here.

You can’t get much more straightforward than check boxes on applications.  Unless those check boxes refer to ethnicity or race and you are one of the millions of people in the U.S. who could check off multiple boxes to describe yourself.  Washington area schools are allowing new students to describe themselves as multiracial yet soem are concerned that this system will make it more difficult to track populations which historically fal behind.

Many civil rights advocates agree that it’s necessary to document the growing number of multiracial students, but they say these categories will mask valuable information about race that could be used to analyze educational challenges some groups face. They say it would be more accurate to report the data in detail, with racial and ethnic combinations.

“If we don’t know that some multiracial, Hispanic and black students are doing worse,” said Melissa Herman, a sociologist at Dartmouth College, “we can conveniently ignore that they are doing worse.”

Education Department officials have said the new rules strike a balance, providing more details about students without creating an overly cumbersome reporting system.

I understand their concerns about losing critical data that may allow districts to provide more assistance to populations that are lagging behind.  But being multiracial is more and more common, and this argument really pushes that fact to the side. 

To read the entire Washington Post article, click here.

Though only 3% of Baton Rouge children are Hispanic, that’s almost double the pre-Katrina percentage.  School bus drivers are responding to the language barrier by taking Spanish classes so they can communicate with children and their parents. 

While many of the drivers spoken about in an online Louisiana periodical are pleased that learning Spanish opens their horizons, they’ve got the immediate gratification of being able to communicate their message to their small riders.

Both said they are excited to learn how to speak some Spanish as a way to broaden their overall knowledge, but their immediate concern is about trying to communicate with their often unruly student riders. Lee rattled off the Spanish phrases she wants to know right away.

“Sit down, sit down right now,” Lee said, laughing. “Be quiet. I’m calling your parents. Put that down there. This is my last warning.”

To read the entire article, click here.