The Spanish-speaking community begins to be afraid to speak their mother tongue

Being multilingual in the United States had its advantages, which mainly lay in more job opportunities and better social relations. However, since the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House, speaking a language other than English in public places is causing problems. The most known cases are the lawyer in New York, as well as the Border Patrol who interrogated two people for suspecting of them because they were speaking Spanish, this only 43 kilometers from the border with Canada.

Leer en español: Hablar español: un riesgo en Estados Unidos

In this last episode, which occurred on May 16, the agent told Ana Suda and her friend that he wanted to see her IDs because he heard them speak Spanish in a business. For those involved, the situation, although it did not happen to major nor there were repressions for their language, it draws attention that speaking a language other than English becomes a headache.

A spokesman for the US Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP) said the incident is being analyzed, but noted that agents have ample discretion to question people. However, Mauro Mujica, a Chilean who is fighting for the consolidation of English as the official language of the United States, this matter is becoming a large problem. "It is clear that one arrives in a country and gets used to its characteristics, however when you start to question yourself because you speak another language, it ceases to be a free country and becomes a type of coercion and xenophobia. There are people who speak another language, either by roots, or because they are newcomers and communicate in their mother tongue is easier. "

Mujica, who is president and CEO of US English, sees no reason for people to be questioned for speaking another language. "The episode of the lawyer Aaron Schlossberg, in a city like New York opens the question if in so multicultural cities foreigners are going to be punished. The cases towards tourists who speak a different language have not had coverage, but they have existed. So, is the United States going to close itself to the world? I do not believe and that should not be the goal of the current government", says Mujica who, in his struggle to make English as a language, recalls that the Latino population is deeply rooted in their customs, including language.

You can read: The United States finances the dirty war against the gangs in El Salvador

According to data from the 2017 US Census Bureau, the Latin American population in the US reaches 57.5 million of the total of 323.1 million. In addition, it increased by 2% between the years 2015 and 2016.

The attacks are not only towards Latinos and Spanish

Hostility does not exclusively happen to Spanish speakers. People who, because of their ancestry, handle other languages ​​such as Arabic, Farsi, and other Asian or Indian languages, must decide when to speak their native languages ​​and when not to do so. Some feel that the aggressive rhetoric of the Trump government and its rigid policies towards immigrants from Mexico and Central America have caused disapproving looks to open hostility.

Linda Sarsour, an outspoken US Muslim political activist, in an interview with CNN says that the crisis towards Arabs arises radically in the United States since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. However, due to Donald Trump, "Asian communities are only speaking their native languages ​​when they are in comfort zones, their houses, their friends, they do not do it as before".

For Sarsour, hatred towards foreigners is generating panic in the migrant community, understanding it as the one that by its accent looks different. "People in public spaces are afraid to speak, another lawyer may be there to question why they speak in another language."

Also read: Migration: Mexico deports more undocumented immigrants than the United States.

Donald Trump and America First

Almost a year and a half after the arrival of Donald Trump to power, his policy based on the 'America First' is making its first havoc in American society. Mainly, the consequences are evident in that minority group of people who share the ideals of the president and who see the migrants as people who are in the wrong place. The country that one day prided itself on being the multicultural land par excellence, with hymns like This Land Is Your Land, today is failing to do so, and as Sarsour mentions, "the land of freedom is no longer the United States.

Latin American Post | Carlos Eduardo Gómez Avella
Translated from “Hablar español: un riesgo en Estados Unidos”