Genoveva T. Palmieri
For newly arrived immigrants no matter from what distant lands there has always been the issue of language learning when arriving at their new destination and future home.
Thus the stage is set for what are the practices that have developed in the New World and in more recent history of language acquisition, acculturation and its importance and impact on society in the United States.
Historically, if we are to look at the immigrants who have come, one of the requirements for acculturation upon arrival was taking the native language and setting it aside. You ate it, or buried it if you wanted to really be accepted as a new American or Gringo.
The very first who experienced this trauma were the African slaves. They were captured and brought over to the new continent. Because of their circumstances, slaves were even forbidden to speak to one another, and they must have had great difficulty in communicating with their captors. Their lives were totally cut-off from their culture and language. We shall review the historical account of the Amistad, right here in New Haven and the issues of language that existed in relationship to it. In this process it will be important to recognize the language and cultural experiences of the African in their migration experience under the worst of conditions.
We will review the Afro-American experience in the Caribbean and Brazil. How their culture and "voice" has come down and became part of the life and language today. In some ways similar, in that they were brought over as slaves, but they have had a very different and important influence in the cultures of these countries.
It is important to look at other cultures that immigrated in large numbers to the United States and review their experiences.
The Irish that had a very large migration to the United States in the mid-eighteen hundreds spoke English with a very special and peculiar accent, (although in Ireland they have their own language, which they have maintained in spite of English colonization). Nevertheless, part of their acculturation in the New World was losing their Irish accent, because they were made to believe they could not be understood, even though they were speaking English.
On the other hand, the next heavy migration was Italian. The children of these new families especially, were clearly the targets of this unspoken policy by schools, teachers and society. They were made to feel that once you were on this new ground; another language had no place in the life of their group of immigrants, where children were trying to become accepted. In addition, punishment was used to discourage any practice, even under the most necessary conditions, i.e. translating for parents. It is a sad and long history of isolation for the individual.
Today among second or third generation Italians there is a real sense of loss because they did not keep Italian as part of their growing up experience. Many acknowledge the loss they feel at not having been able to communicate with their grandparents, losing part of their history and heritage.
The Chinese were also a large group of immigrants. They maintained their language in a very private and intimate way. Their tradition I believe helped them to keep it that way. They created strong private enclaves, where they maintained those traditions that were of great importance to them. Of course, their experience was very different from those of African descent; they were not brought over as slaves, but practically as indentured workers for the heavy work of the railroads. The possibilities for independence were different, and indeed it took years to be able to do it, but it was the goal for most of those who came over. Thus those who were able to be independent created their own communities, maintained their language and culture.
There was a segment of Spanish speaking people that were here in the United States, in the Southwest especially long before it was populated by pioneers going west. They have maintained in spite of great difficulty and oppression their mother tongue as part of their acculturation process. Until quite recently, the cultural experience has been one of strong resistance to forget or "bury" their language heritage. They have carried this historical perspective by also insisting that their children maintain Spanish, and thus have a bilingual existence. In fact, there are Spanish speaking people in New Mexico who still speak a language that goes back to the colonial era.
It has been a challenging phenomenon for the United States culture and education system. Latinos have been the lonely voice in this great melting pot. To insist that acculturation was possible without losing your first language. A strong influence in encouraging a culture that is much more accepting of bilinguals has been the insistence in speaking Spanish, back to the colonial area in the Southwest in States like California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, in addition to the migration from Latin-America in the last forty years.
That a bilingual individual is not less of a person, but in fact, that an individual is richer for having a second language and the ability to communicate with much larger audiences, needs to be recognized in United States culture today. There are many things to be gained, like not losing the closeness of family, the cultural experience of understanding music and writings in not one but two languages.
The math theory that two is more than one somehow has been lost in the language/cultural debate!
