ESTIMADO MISTER
By Juan Montoya
The school is yours
La lengua nuestra
And still you insist on English
Para niños y maestra
Speaking in Spanish, you say
Nos volvera analfabetos
But even Oxford's won't show you
Como se gana el respeto
Mexican, Cuban, Hispanic
No ve valor en ninguna
But we can function in both
Y Ud. solamente en una
You've never witnessed a child
Comprendiendo una lección
When you use his mother tongue
En vez de la del sajón
Your paperwork and degrees
Dis'que es persona educada
Maybe that's why you come up
Con tan chulas pendejadas
c/s
14 comments:
You are living in the past Juanito. Go into any BISD school and there is far more Spanish spoken than English.
We are raising a generation of young people who are illiterate in two languages. If you want to trap a young person in the cycle of ignorance and poverty, just deny them proficiency in English.
Wallowing in Mexican history and culture comes with a very heavy price for those that do so. So the question is, are you trying to help your people or tie them to a limited future? Your blog, your choice.
You may call it balancing out the record, but it sure smells like gringo hate to those who read this stuff.
Go COWBOYS! Sincerely, CAPTAIN BOB
Gringos, sorry to say, are no better than the rest of us. You think your shit don't smell well, it smells a lot. Enough with all this "White Trash". White people suck because they think they are better than us (Hispanics). Let me tell you something, You are not. The Hispanic culture is more vibrant than yours any day of the week,month,year. Hispanos all the way, yay.
"Wallowing in Mexican history and culture?"
I'm half Anglo and it bothers me to listen to Anglos who don't realize that I have Hispanic heritage too say the things they say thinking that nobody is around to hear them. Do they go to New Braunfels and criticize them for embracing their German roots? Do they criticize everybody in Boston heralding their Irishness, generations apart from them today? Do they criticize those in Minnesota who embrace their Scandinavian roots? You live on the border, and many of the Anglos who move down here choose to instead of staying in their Yankee states yet refuse to assimilate to border culture. We are different than those from the interior of Mexico and have our own rich culture- and you see us as subhumans even though YOU are not native to here and want to change us and cater to you like royalty.
Of COURSE it benefits people to learn the language, especially considering English is the leading second language of the world. Yet you criticize liberals for having this "we just know better than they do about what's in their best interests" attitude- like you really care about the futures of children you bitch about having to feed and educate? Is them starving and being ignorant and poor less offensive if they starve speaking a language you can understand only?
What makes you any different than Muslims who bring their ways and refuse to assimilate and try to change our laws and culture? What makes you any different than any immigrant you criticize who continue to embrace their way of speaking, their cuisine, their manner of being, and expect the town around them to change and cater to them? You're just as bad if not worse (hypocrites) because you want everybody down here to cater to you even though many of you are just the crumbs that fell from northern tables to take advantage of the weather and low cost of living and have only disdain for our people. Anglos and Hispanics native to this area alike are NOT yours to colonize.
Question so are all the Anglos calling for inclusion of indigenous history in our history books anglo haters? All over the world countries promote at least two languages for their children, only among the racists in the US is this seen as bad. Some are rich and some are educated, but racists still.
A beautiful poem.
I was amazed in Peru how little indigenuos children high up in the Andres spoke three languages - Quechuan, Spanish and English.
Why are so many people afraid of history? I admit I am a history nurd. But we should learn everyone's history. The other day I read an oped by a U.S. American of African and European discent. She was celebrating her family history in Confederate History and hated that her great great grandfather would not be seen as a traitor. It is history. Her compromise was put everything in museums with the true history which includes the economic penalties against the Southern States by the Northern States. As a woman who appears U.S. American of African discent she understand some are offended by the statutes, so put them in the museums and history books with the full truth. She speaks of the horrible things African slaves suffered including the raping of women, hence why she is part European. But she just wants all the truth of how the War Between the States came about and not just the slavery issue. She is proud to be a Daughter of the Confederacy, but not proud of the slavery.
My point is all history is important and must be written not in the context of today's PC. but in the context of its time.
I have always stood for all history, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Growiing up it was not allowed to teach the truth about religious intolerance in the New England Colonies. My grandfather 11 generations removed was kidnapped from Rhode Island and brought to Conn to be shipped back to England for being a Baptist. The indigenous people saved him. How many of our children know this truth?
Further the idea corruption is limited to Mexican culture is racist. Also calling U.S. Americans of Mexican discent Mexicans is racist. These racists have never been to Chicago where corruption rules. In the Township of Brookhaven on Long Island the county officials call it Crookhaven. It is an upper middle class to upper class township. How did they get corrupt? My brother says the fastest way to federal prison in Ny is being elected a school board member. They are Anglos.
This was a beautiful poem celebrating diversity and the potential of Latino children.
Only a racist could see it otherwise
Bobby WC
As a young attorney in Cameron County, J.T. Canales favored speaking English. Why, because he saw so many people cheated out of their property because they could not read the English documents put before them. There is no difference today. Why to Asian and other immigrant parents insist on their children speaking English.....as well as their native languages....to avoid being cheated and having to have everything translated. Why do Hispanics refuse to learn English and why do Hispanics criticize other Hispanics who don't speak Spanish. Being multilingual is an advantage, but it seems that most new immigrants seek to protect their language and native flag; which gives the impression they come to this nation for the benefits, not to become good citizens.
@10:18 am "If you want to trap a young person in the cycle of ignorance and poverty, just deny them proficiency in English. Wallowing in Mexican history and culture comes with a very heavy price for those that do so. So the question is, are you trying to help your people or tie them to a limited future? "
WTF!!!
Have you even traveled outside of the big cities in Texas ? There's a lot towns in the middle of nowhere where the residents just speak English and they live like shit. Mexican history and culture is what brings a little shine of light and fun to Brownsville and most border cities. If it wasn't for Mexican culture(food, music) it would be so depressing like most towns full of white people.
Also, how does accepting Mexican history and it's culture tie people to a limited future? I fully embrace Mexican history and it's culture and I'm doing perfectly fine. I speak spanish, listen to corridos, read Octavio Paz, Jorge Rulfo and Carlos Fuentes, watch Carlos Taboada, Cuaron movies and that hasn't stop me from progressing. I'm 30 years old, traveled the world on my own money, graduated from an Ivy League school and have a 7 figure business here in Brownsville and I plan to launch a couple of high tech business in downtown Brownsville.
So tell me, how I'm I being limited by accepting Mexican culture?
@10:24 am....
To you it might sound like gringo hate, but I personally like to read the articles Juan writes, it's hidden history from the area we all live in.
I was an A honor roll student through grade school and never once heard about Cortina, Catarino Garza, the Republic of the Rio Grande, or how Charles Stillman "made" his money in this area. So keep up the good work Juan!
El Nuevo Director
Hey Juan, let's endorse being proficient in both languages. That may actually change stuff for everyone.
Why argue about a point that will never be objective. Each gringo and each pocho, o chicano or whatever will argue their side of the story. The problem is that both sides of the story are never told, compared or contrasted. It was always the Magee Expedition and it never included the name of the real leader - Gutierrez de Lara.
Study the anglos that "started" Brownsville and you will see that all of them had good and bad things in their closet but at least study both sides. This land was Mexican to begin with, so Spanish was the native language, but in 1845, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo changed that. The river crossed us, not the Mexicans crossed the river, as Dr. Americo Paredes used to say. The Nueces River and below was given to the US but someone forgot to tell the paisanos that you could not espeek Espanich anymore. Be objectives and study both side of EVERYTHING!
I see BEDC refuses to die, and will seek funding from private sources. I wonder how easy that will be to find more millions for Mago Matin's back pocket? Imagine Brownsville, without all those useless studies he churns out? How much have we paid him, and his boy Mark Sossi?
Pancho Villa
Technically the land was taken from the Indigenous people before. The fundamental problem with learning English for so many is this nonsense of putting students who understand no English in a regular classroom in hopes they learn.
It is striking in Dallas how many of the Latino undocument and documented immigrants work two or three jobs to put their kids in private school where they will get more direct English classes.
In 1974, when my cousin came to the US to study to be a chemical engineer, his father made him first do a year, 8 hours a day, in a class where they taught English.
In my opinion, while encouraging they continue with the development of their first language, they should have to do one year of learning English only. What is the point of making them spend years struggling to learn in English when they do not know English, when you can just hold them back a year to learn English and then make school that much easier for them.
Why there are too many languages to accomodate everyone, it seems to me we might be able to keep them in math during the year of transition to English.
But this nonsense of inclusion is not working. We need to give these kids one year of English only so they can succeed.
Oh, btw, my cousin went on to be ione of the chemical engineers on Viagra. So all of you anti immigrant older white men, think about that the next time you pop a Viagra.
Bobby WC
I am the pinche gringo that put up the first reply and am delighted that thus far this has been a semi-intelligent discussion.
I do speak good Spanish because of the years I lived in South American and the fact I was raised here as a child. I enjoy and appreciate the local culture and participate in it on a regular basis.
I had the great pleasure of knowing J.T. Canales. He a relative of Juan Cortina and wrote a paper and delivered it as a speech to the Texas Historical Association. He gave me a copy of that paper/speech. He was one of the first to present a balanced history of Cortina. Those who are not aware of his advocacy for Mexican/Americas should learn from and about him. He broke some new ground, but never was angry or hateful. He took the time to talk to a young Anglo boy in his office for hours, giving a side of local culture not often heard.
We live in a cultural and linguistic overlap. My only bone to pick with Montoya is he fails to present the positive side of Anglo culture and contribution to this area. He plays the victim card with great aplomb. If the young people down here, are to have a good future, we need to lay aside the politics and hate and come together to move forward to a more positive future. This constant playing of the race card benefits no one.
Other Hispanics who are more successful than Mexicans:
Cubans
Colombians
Brazilians
Chileans
Costa Ricans
Uruguayans
Puerto Ricans
The white man is not keeping you down...Mexicans keep themselves down, the inferiority complex becomes a self fulfilled prophecy.
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