The Spanish We Teach in Los Angeles. USA: a Spanish- Speaking Country

Although many people may not be fully aware, the United States is in fact a Spanish-speaking country. Data from the 2020 American Community Survey estimates that approximately 13.2 percent of the total population over the age of five speaks primarily Spanish at home (USCB, n.d). This represents about forty-four million people. However, if Americans with limited proficiency (Spanish students or English speakers with or without a family of Hispanic origin) are considered, in addition to unauthorized immigrants excluded from the census and coming from Spanish-speaking countries, the figure increases by about fifteen million (Instituto Cervantes, 2021).

Acknowledging this reality is important for many reasons. Considering that Mexico is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, with more than 120 million people who have Spanish as their mother tongue, followed by Colombia with fifty-one million, Spain with forty-seven and Argentina with forty-five, that means that the United States, due to its number of speakers with full dominance of Spanish, ranks as the fifth Spanish-speaking country in the world, but if we look at those who have not been registered or are not considered native speakers, it will easily reach the second position. Despite this, there is no language policy that contemplates the teaching of Spanish, from elementary school to university, in a rigorous and universal manner throughout the nation. It comes as a surprise that, bans on bilingual education, such as Proposition 227 in California, have been in place until just a few years ago; hence speaking a language other than English has been stigmatized in the past.



BILINGUAL EDUCATION IN CALIFORNIA THROUGH PROPOSITIONS 227 AND 58
Up until 2016, California penalized bilingual education through the legal instrument of Proposition 227, in force since 1998. According to the proposition, students should be educated exclusively in English to achieve fluency in that language, understanding that their integration into general society depended on the efficient handling of English.

Naturally, a provision like this violates the rights of people to have and develop their own individual culture, which is why the 2016 vote approved
Proposition 58 with a wide margin. According to the new norm, schools possess autonomy regarding the design of the pedagogical strategies through which English will be taught, respecting the right to speak and live a different culture.

The most visible consequence of this reality lies in the limitations experienced by those who have not managed to develop their skills to read and write in Spanish. Thus, millions of Spanish-speakers in the United States over several decades have founded themselves in a situation of academic disadvantage compared to those who have English as their first language. To illustrate this, it has been documented that in 2016 there were five million children enrolled in public schools who studied in English without being proficient in this language, which obviously has had a direct impact on dropout and graduation rates, (Lam and Richards, 2020).

SPANISH IN THE UNITED STATES
Let’s review the characteristics of Spanish in the United States. Scholars such as Kim Potowski (2005) —one of the most prolific and renowned authors for her work in teaching Spanish as a heritage language in the United States— has identified various denominations for users: Spanish speakers, heritage speakers and bilinguals. Within these denominations there are many variables that have to do with the place of birth, age, the degree of dominance or competence, cultural identification, the community of coexistence and schooling, among others. For example, a Spanish-speaking child who reached the age of thirteen, who attended elementary school in Mexico, upon reaching university age in the United States has, hopefully become a bilingual speaker, since not only has he had to acquire English through the influence of the prevailing society, but that schooling has forced him to complete his training in a language other than the one he speaks at home. Later, when he becomes an adult, he will feel that he has partially “lost” his Spanish, since the lack of exposure results in avoiding its use, especially in terms of reading and writing.

By the time the second generation comes, the children of this bilingual person tend to have even less exposure to the original native language. Perhaps they will hear it mainly from their grandparents, but when answering they will tend to fill in their linguistic gaps with words or structures that they are more comfortable with in English. The third generation will usually be Hispanics learning Spanish as a second language, almost from scratch, that is, if they study it at all.

All this shows us how complex the work of Spanish teachers in the United States is, since it will not be unusual for them to have in their claddrooms students with a variety of linguistic profiles and degrees of competence, such as those that we have described. This situation could be considered a panorama in which almost every speaker represents, in himself, an individual set of circumstances for teaching. What can a teacher do in the face of this reality that no program or curriculum seems to address?

UNAM IS EXPERIENCE IN LOS ANGELES
At UNAM’s office in Los Angeles, we have had the opportunity to learn and collaborate with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), particularly with faculty and staff from the Los Angeles Department of Multilingual and Multicultural Education, with whom we have organized two workshops, “Words, culture and heart: painting our world with the colors of Spanish”, held in November 2021 and March 2022. These activities, aimed for teachers of elementary, middle, and high school education associated with the office of Dual Language Programs, had the purpose of sharing pedagogical proposals and techniques that can have a positive impact on the training and professionalization of dual language teachers, who hopefully will be able to put into practice the knowledge and activities made for their students. LAUSD is the largest school district in California and the second largest in the United States. These schools have more than 400 thousand students; hence the importance of establishing collaborative ties between our institutions.

It is natural that UNAM, in the highest standard of education, is involved in projects that seek to make a change. In addition, UNAM has trained for decades, and continues to train in Mexico, Spanish teachers in their classrooms. Furthermore, one of our missions as a university office abroad is to contribute to the preservation and strengthening of Spanish and Mexican culture. Consequently, the fact that our effort is focused on the teachers, directly broadens the scope of our workshops for the benefit of hundreds of students in different Spanish classes. That is why we will continue working on more projects centered around the teaching of our language, always recognizing the complexity and particularities of Spanish in the United States and its relevance at the international level.



This matter becomes more significant now that great social changes are taking place in the country. Hispanics are an increasingly influential force in the United States; their demographic growth cannot be stopped and has already led to the strengthening of an economy that in itself could compete and surpass that of several countries in the world. Likewise, those who use Spanish as a primary communication vehicle in daily life are banishing prejudices and beginning to be visible; their cultural impact is evident in gastronomy, art, television, cinema and more social spheres.

In conclusion, understanding the reality of what is happening to the Spanish language in the United States, allowing the rise of language policies that contribute to its revitalization and maintenance, will not only have repercussions for young students, by pedagogically covering their particular needs, but also for society in general to train competent bilingual or multilingual speakers, capable of handling a standard variety of Spanish without abandoning their own, as well as expanding their bilingual and bicultural spectrum.

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