Assimilation Is Not The Problem

I have known people who have lived in this country over 40 years and they do not speak English. They only speak Spanish. That does not mean they cannot speak it, or understand it. They were too busy raising children and grandchildren. THEY WERE NOT MOTIVATED BY POLITICAL ACTIVISM regarding this situation. They were motivated by priorities and time constraints. I think the first thing we need to do regarding this matter is define our terms. The dictionary has 6 definitions. In this discourse, I will deal only with one: "Assimilation: To absorb into the cultural population or group." (Webster) Most of the men that I know who shout: "No assimilation for Mexicans." Have not obeyed their rallying cry. They just offer the rhetoric. They have married White women. They do not speak much Spanish. Most of their kids don't speak Spanish. They can contact government officials who speak only English. They didn't need bilingual education.....far from it. Do I fault them for that? No way! I worked at San Diego High School almost 4 years. At that time, it was like a "war zone." I was working in the ESL department. I was not a teacher; I was an aid. Their teacher could not deal with them so he left me in charge. My safety was compromised many times. Some of the loud-mouthed enrollees (sorry, I can't call them students) Would say in Spanish: "Im a Mexican, I don't eat sandwiches, I eat tacos and burritos! He was lying. He took full advantage of the free lunch program. We know: "boys will be boys." It took two students; both females and both 16 years of age to influence my thinking regarding these things. One of them told me: "Mr. Dominguez, I cannot stay in this school. It is not preparing me for my future, my mom really wants me to learn to speak excellent English, and I hardly ever even hear it." That particular student spoke to me in very broken English. I responded to her in English. She liked that. She transferred to a school that had very few Mexicans. I never saw her again. The other student spoke no English. She complained to me in Spanish: "They put all the Mexicans together in all of our classes, and we are not learning anything." She sounded like she didn't care, but I think she did. I concluded that ESL was designed to keep Mexican young people from assimilating. I thought the anti-assimilation plan was a racist plan. If they assimilated; they might succeed. It may be a far-fetched idea, but it is something to think about.