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Spanish in the United States

Encyclopedia : S : SP : SPA : Spanish in the United States

Federal agencies like the United States Postal Service often post Spanish language signs in parts of the country where Spanish is commonly spoken.
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Federal agencies like the United States Postal Service often post Spanish language signs in parts of the country where Spanish is commonly spoken.

Spanish is the second most common language in the United States after English. According to the 2000 United States Census, Spanish is spoken most frequently at home by about 28.1 million people aged 5 or over. Of these, 14.3 million reported that they also spoke English "Very well" [link]. United States is home to more than 40 million Hispanics; the fifth largest Spanish-speaking community in the world, after Mexico, Colombia, Spain and Argentina([link], [link]).

In New Mexico, both Spanish and English have the status of official languages. Although Spanish is not the most spoken language in any one U.S. state, it is the second most spoken language in 43 states and in the District of Columbia.

Contents

History

The Spanish language has been spoken in North America since the 16th century. Ponce de León is the first Spaniard known to have visited North America, in 1513. In 1565, the Spaniards founded St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the modern territory of the United States. The first reading grammar text was written in Spanish in Georgia in 1658.

In 1803, when Louisiana was sold to the United States, Spanish settlers in that region became citizens of a new country, but kept their language.

After the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), nearly half of Mexico was lost to the United States, including parts of the modern states of Texas, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming, and the whole of California, Nevada, and Utah. Subsequently, hundreds of thousands of Mexicans became Americans literally overnight. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) made no explicit reference to language rights.

California's first constitution approved an important recognition of Spanish language rights: "All laws, decrees, regulations, and provisions emanating from any of the three supreme powers of this State, which from their nature require publication, shall be published in English and Spanish." By 1870, Anglo-Americans had become a majority in California. In 1879, California promulgated a new constitution under which all official proceedings were to be conducted only in English; this clause remained in effect until 1966. In 1986, California voters added a new constitutional clause by referendum stating that "English is the official language of the State of California." However, Spanish is still spoken widely throughout the state, and many government forms, documents, and services are available in both Spanish and English.

Although the state does not have an official language, laws in New Mexico are promulgated in Spanish as well as English, although English is the working language of the state government. Spanish has been spoken around northern New Mexico, southern Colorado and the U.S.-Mexico border since the 16th century.

In Texas, English is conventionally used in government, but the state has no official language. Texas inherited a large Tejano population after the Mexican American War. In addition, a steady influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants increased the import of Spanish in Texas.

Some small influence of Spanish was felt in the U.S. during and following the Spanish-American War, which brought the first group of Cubans to the United States as visitors. These visitors would travel between the two countries for decades until the Cuban Revolution in 1959 made their exile permanent.

With the downfall of Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship and the rise of Fidel Castro's communist government, almost one million Cubans emigrated to the United States, most settling in southern and central Florida.

Spanish is the first language of Puerto Rico, whose citizens hold statutory U.S. citizenship. Many Puerto Ricans have migrated to New York City, New York, adding to the Spanish-speaking population there.

The influx of large numbers of Spanish-speaking immigrants to the United States has elevated the number of Spanish-speakers throughout the country, making them majorities or large minorites in many districts. This increase has been especially marked in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, states bordering Mexico.

Some critics have referred to the survival of the Spanish language in the USA, especially in the southern areas bordering Mexico, as the "Amexica" or "Amerexico" effect.

In many Latino youth subcultures, it is fashionable to mix Spanish and English in various ways, resulting in what is known as "Spanglish".

Spanish place names

As a consequence of former Spanish and, later, Mexican sovreignity over lands that are now part of the United States, there are many places in the country, especially in the southwest, with Spanish names:

Varieties

The influence of English on these varieties of American Spanish is very important. Spanglish is the name for the combination of using Spanish and English together to effectively communicate something. The Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (North American Academy of the Spanish Language) watches the developments of US Spanish and the influence of English.

On the other hand, some words have entered standard American English from Spanish. For a detailed list of borrowed words, see American English.

Future of Spanish in the United States

Generally, US Hispanics (13.4% of the population in 2002) are bilingual to some degree. A study by Simmons Market Research found that 19% of the Hispanic population speak only Spanish while 9% speak only English, 55% have limited English proficiency and 17% are fully English-Spanish bilingual.

Intergenerational transmission of Spanish is a better indicator of the future of Spanish in the United States than crude numbers of native Spanish-speaking immigrants in a given moment of time. Although Latin American immigrants have various levels of English proficiency, Hispanics who are second-generation American in the United States almost all speak English, but about 50 percent speak Spanish at home. Two-thirds of third-generation Mexican Americans speak only English at home.

There are more Spanish speakers in the United States than there are speakers of French (another language inherited from European colonization), Hawaiian, and the various Native American languages taken all together. Living an exclusively Spanish-speaking life is viable in some areas due to the constant influx of immigrants and the prevalence of Spanish-language mass media, such as Univisión, Telemundo USA, and Azteca América. Also, because of the North American Free Trade Agreement, it is now common for many American manufacturers to use trilingual product labeling in which the same text is repeated in English, French, and Spanish. Apart from the businesses that have always catered to Spanish-speaking immigrants, a small but rapidly-increasing number of mainstream American retailers are beginning to provide dual-language advertising and in-store signage in both English and Spanish.

Spanish is the most widely taught non-English language in U.S. secondary schools and institutions of higher education ([link]), indicating its importance among non-Hispanic Americans.

Perhaps these factors can guarantee the survival of the Spanish in the United States, but it is necessary to remember that historically the original languages of immigrants tend to disappear or become greatly reduced through assimilation and generational change. The Spanish language has disappeared in several countries and territories during the 20th century, notably in the Pacific Island nations of Guam, Micronesia, Palau, Northern Marianas, and Marshall Islands. In the Philippines, it has now virtually died out (2,658 speakers, 1990 Census), although numerous Spanish loan words exist. In addition, the English-Only movement seeks to establish English as the only official language of the United States.

However, there are many factors which indicate that the status of Spanish is in a healthy state. The State of the Union Addresses and other U.S. Presidential speeches have been translated into Spanish following the precedent set by the Bill Clinton administration. Official Spanish translations are available at [Whitehouse.gov]. In addition to this, some non-Hispanic politicians who are fluent in the Spanish language have often delivered speeches in Spanish to Hispanic majority constituencies. Because Hispanic immigration is still the largest source of immigrants, and due to closeness to Spanish speaking areas, it is possible that the language in the Southern states of the USA like California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Florida will see an ever growing use of Spanish in everyday life. In addition it should be noted that no large immigrant group spoke a language which was also the native language of nearby states such as Mexico and Cuba. It has been speculated that in a few decades that the USA might end up being a bilingual nation like Canada. [link]

American literature in Spanish

Southwest Colonial literature

In 1610, Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá published his Historia de Nuevo México (History of New Mexico).

Nineteenth Century

In 1880, José Martí moved to New York City.

Eusebio Chacón published El hijo de la tempestad in 1892.

Twentieth century

Federico García Lorca wrote in America his collection of poems, Poeta en Nueva York, and the two plays Así que pasen cinco años and El público. José Vasconcelos and Juan Ramón Jiménez were exiled to the U.S.A. 

Chicano period



See also



External links












 Chicano Languages


 



Chicano Spanish | Nahuatl language | Spanish language | List of Chicano Caló words and expressions | Chicano English | New Mexican Spanish | Spanish in the United States |  Ladino | Spanish profanity | Spanglish




 





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