“Where are you from?” The Colombian woman I was interpreting for asked. I told her my mother was Mexican. “You were born in Mexico?” I explained that no, I was born and raised in Ohio.
She leaned in and asked me in Spanish “Oh, ¿entonces tu eres Chhh-iiii-canooo?” (“Oh, so you are Chicano?”) As I answered ‘yes’ she leaned back, brought her hand up to her forehead and slightly covered her face the way you do when someone says something terrible and you feel embarrassed for them.
She managed to insult me multiple times in the twenty minutes I was with her. I was there to help her and she wanted to know how much I was getting paid, and when I wouldn’t tell her she insisted that I must be getting paid too much and that it is horrible that interpreters get paid so highly. She also criticized my Spanish doing it the way I’ve heard some other Latinos do “My Spanish isn’t like your Mexican Spanish. Our country speaks Spanish more like the Spanish do, not like the Mexicans.”
Oddly enough at the end of our session she asked me my full name saying she was going to request me again as her interperter because she had never had as good and nice as an interperter as me. Crazy people…make my days interesting.
Tonight there is a Halloween Party at The Legion of Doom and I am too tired and too cold to want to get dressed and go…does this mean I am old?
Haha, I love that she requested you again. I don’t know if I’ve ever offended anyone by being a Chicana and not speaking Castellano the way the Spanish do.
I don’t think being too tired and cold to go that party means you’re old.
I get comments similar to that one from the Colombian contingent down under. But apparently, they say, Colombians speak Castellano better than Spaniards. Apparently, slang has driven Spanish Castellano away from its proper roots while Colombian Castellano is very loyal to those roots. I don’t know if all of Colombia thinks that way but my buddies certainly do. I just say CHALE!!!
I was told by a guy from Venezuela that Central Americans in general don’t speak properly… when he told me later that I had an exellent Salvadoran accent it felt like a back handed compliment…
Wow. I read and am left nearly speechless. Dumb monolinguals is all I haft to say.
Oh, and nice decorum Elena, sometimes the best attitude is to just listen in amazement and pretend its raining. Man, I still can’t believe these kinda things happen, txale.
People are crazy aren’t they? Hehehe. You either get criticized when you aren’t “American” enough when you claim your heritage (on my blog the other day when describing my heritage I called myself Mexican only to get a comment saying I wasn’t Mexican I was “American”..hmmph) or get made fun because you have an “American” accent when you speak Spanish. As you can tell I have issues….lol
Lo peor de todo is that one is to assume that American is not mexican. I must confess that in the age of innocence I used to take advantage of those things. I was raised in both Baja California and California, born right smack in the middle of both states. Tijuana/ San diego/ Bay Area is what I call home. Though I was never a U.S of A citizen I never had any trouble whatsoever going back and forth as I pleased. Never. Una vez hasta les cruze hablando español, lo juro por esta, me cae sino. Suffice to say I never felt I committed a crime because back then the only thing requiered to cross was to say “US Citizen”, which I did. La migra, at best just, looked at me and with a whiff of a hand I was in proper Aztlán. Hey! It not my fault they didn’t ask me of what United States I was a citizen of….
*For those not in the know México’s official name is the United Mexican States ( Estados Unidos Mexicanos) ;)
Ay yes I have had that experience many times when I have translated at the local public school. The other night I had a gig and the Colombian mc totally insulted me and my spanish. ::sigh::
I didn’t go to a party last night either but not because I was tired or cold or old. Just in a pissy ass mood!
i hate translating for white people, for people asking for social service, these people feel like they are giving the help out of their pockets. even when we got WIC and Medicaid, you got the feeling that they feel like they are doing you a favor.
When non-Mexican Latinos hear me speak Spanish it’s always the same thing:
“Que bueno que hablas castellano pero que lastima que hablas como un Mexicano.”
Of course I always respond, in the thickest Chilango accent possible:
“Orale pinche cabron, vete a la chingada.”
Not really. But I’d like to. Actually, these days my spanish is morel like, “Vos sos un boludo.”
From an outsider’s perspective, I think CJ says it well: Chicanos get criticized for not being American enough, for not being Mexican enough, and for not being Latin American enough.
All the spanish speaking countries always get into it over who speaks the language the best. My Spaniard friend always gives me hell because according to her, Mexicans speak spanish “cantando”. In the end the variation gives that particular country a certain uniqueness…que no?
when i got back from an extended stay in Guatemala, my Costa Rican family were horrified by my Spanish. They told me I spoke like a Mexican. Never mind my grammer and vocabulary and understanding and everything had taken a huge leap, to them, I had taken a huge step back.
IT’S FUNNY TO HEAR OLDER FOLK TALK ABOUT WHY SPANISH SPOKEN IN THEIR PARTICULAR COUNTRY IS BETTER THAN THAT OF MOST SPANISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES, BUT WHAT I’VE REALIZED IS THAT THE MOST CRITIZISED SPANISH IS THAT OF MEXICO. YOU COULD SAY IT HAS TO DO WITH THE ACTUAL DIFFERENCE IN ACCENT AND THE “CANTADO” THING, BUT I THINK IT HAS MORE TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT ANGLOS CALLED ANY SPANISH-SPEAKING PERSON A “MEXICAN”, WHICH FOR MANY BECAME A DEROGATORY TERM, MY PARENTS INCLUDED. THEN THERE’S THE FACT THAT IN SOME COUNTRIES, CERTAIN WORDS ARE CONSIDERED CURSE WORDS, WHILE IN OTHERS THEY’RE NOT, GIVING THE UNLEARNED IN TERRITORIAL GRAMATICAL AND LANGUAGE VARIATIONS THE FEELING THAT CERTAIN COUNTRIES ARE MORE VULGAR THAN OTHERS.
I COMMEND YOU FOR BEING A TRANSLATOR. IN A COUNTRY WITH SO MANY DIFFERENT NATIONALITIES OF SPANISH SPEAKERS, ALL WE CAN DO IS WISH YOU GOOD LUCK WITH THAT. I WOULDN’T TOUCH IT, THOUGH…..
Hi Elenamary and all,
I’m new to this blog world. I had to comment here and apologize if possible for the heartless comment of the Colombian lady. Could have been my mother except she’s in CT. But really, sounds like she would have said it! I don’t know . . . it really is some weird culture thing. I was born and raised in CT but my family is Colombian. Lots of us back in CT. I miss being immersed in it. There is a lot of love. But I never understood why all the undercutting of people we were in the same boat with . . . poor and trying to survive in a world that cut you down already. I don’t know . . .but you struck a chord with this full blood Colombian flesh thats never been there. By the way I am in Ohio too and I’m glad to come across this site. I have been told recently that this state is pretty racist. I’ve come across it already in blatant ways. My skin is a give away for me. I’m of the tan to very tan kind – esp. in the summer.
Thank you for keeping us posted! Especially thank you for being kind to crusty old Colombian ladies – that could have been my mother! She would have noticed your kindness and never remembered how rude she was. It’s a quirky programming – I know, I’ve lived it.
Jenn