I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
It’s National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15) again across the US and a good time to review the status of Latinos.
The US Census Bureau reports there are now nearly 47 million Hispanics living in the US. That’s the second-largest Hispanic population in the world, second only to México’s 110 million people.
And the browning of America will continue unabated in the next several decades. The Census Bureau projects the US Latino population will reach nearly 133 million by 2050, or 30 percent of the nation’s total population.
Salsa picante, anyone?
Hispanic-owned businesses in the US generated $222 billion in revenue in 2002, up 19 percent from 1997. Nearly 30,000 Hispanic-owned firms had gross revenues of one million dollars or more. Between 1997and 2002 Hispanic-owned businesses tripled the rate of growth, 31 percent, compared with the national average of 10 percent for all businesses. In all, there were 1.6 million Hispanic-owned businesses in the US in 2002.
Can you say ¡Ay Caramba!
And if you’re wondering what continuing education course to take this fall, I recommend conversational Spanish. Thirty-five million AMERICANS speak Spanish at home. And 78 percent of US Hispanics age 5 and older speak Spanish at home. Here in New Mexico, 45 percent of us are Hispanic, the highest percentage of any state in the union. And in New Mexico, at least one-in-five residents speaks Spanish at home. That includes ALL New Mexicans–Hispanics, Whites, Blacks, First Americans and Asians, y’all.
¡Orale!
What I find fascinating is that in New Mexico we’re coming full circle on this Spanish-language thing. When the US ripped-off one-third of México’s territory in 1846 and dictated surrender terms to the Mexican government, there were about 110,000 Mexicans living in the newly-conquered territories—Nuevo México, Tejas, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, California and parts of other states. Most of those Mexicans, however, were heavily concentrated in New Mexico. Of the 110,000 Mexicans who suddenly found themselves in a new country, 90,000 were living right here in the Rio Grande Basin.
My own family reflects just how fully the circle of language is turning in New Mexico. For example, my grandfather, Manuel Sandoval, was born in 1843 in Chamisal (near Peñasco), three years before our state became part of the U.S. So he was a full blown Mexicano, as were my other ancestors born in New Mexico. Manuel wrote and spoke Spanish fluently, as you might imagine. As an adult, he helped found the Presbyterian Church in El Rito de las Aguas Negras in Mora County. My father told me his dad was fully literate in español.
My abuelita Margarita Salazar de Kavanaugh, la mamá de mi mamá, was born in the 1880s in San José, a small village along the Rio Pecos. She spent all her life in northern New Mexico, and only spoke Spanish. While today some might say her Spanish-only background hindered her ability to earn income or move ahead in modern society, the fact is she lived a fully-realized life; she raised 11 healthy children and had more than 60 grandchildren. She was also a living part of New Mexico history. I remember her telling me the story of seeing her father, Leonardo Salazar and his brothers, riding out at night as freedom fighters, part of the famous Gorras Blancas of San Miguel County.
Both of my parents were fully bilingual in Spanish and English. My father was a columnist, essayist and poet who wrote for several Spanish-language newspapers in New Mexico during the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, including el Nuevo Mexicano, the Santa Fe New Mexican’s Spanish-language edition.
I spoke Spanish and English when I started elementary school, but lost my full conversational ability through my public school education. I relearned Spanish beginning in college and continuing on through my marriage to a Spanish teacher from Chihuahua. Un diccionario durmiente supreme.
My kids have benefitted most from this phenomenon of a turning circle of Spanish-language usage. All three can read, write and speak Spanish fluently. Oh, and they also read, write and speak English fluently. They have become fully bi-cultural, able to move easily in US culture as well as in Mexican culture. It’s helped them immensely in their social, educational and professional lives.
Today in New Mexico, it’s possible once again (or still possible) for a Spanish-only speaker to live a fully-realized life here, just as it’s possible for an English-only speaker to live a fully realized life here.
Imagine how much richer all of our lives would be if we all spoke several languages?
