The Arbiter Speaks Spanish
JUANJO CARMONA
Translated by David Collinge
Special to The Arbiter
Issue date: 2/4/08 Section: Culture
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Vea este artículo en Español se llama "El Arbiter habla español"
A little over a year ago, the Boise Weekly made history in our community by publishing an excellent report on immigration in both English and Spanish. Soon after, they unveiled the generous initiative of offering a blog in Spanish, whose growth exceeded initial expectations, as shown by the number of registered visits. Even so, the final objective of making these articles appear in Spanish in the printed edition never made it to light due to a lack of space. Now, The Arbiter has extended the opportunity to give life to this project in its daring and independent pages.
This opportunity is especially unique given what is being expressed in certain social and political circles in this country. And the truth is that such neoliberal times split the soul of anyone paying attention to the fleecing that continues to take place here. The elimination of civil liberties, the undoing of social programs, and the deterioration of free speech have become manifest (I have here "The Age of Untruth") and as a result, this new journalistic space can be one of those tiny windows where we stick our heads out, breath and feed the hope of the return of a few basic liberties.
Although the political arena is trying to limit the importance of Spanish by not giving it a place in school curricula and by blotting it out from public spaces, it is clear that language is a phenomenon, a tool that cannot be stuck in a closet regardless of how much a few lunatics insist on doing so. A different reality is the rest of the world, where children begin to learn and become fluent in multiple languages at a young age. When I return to Europe, I delight in seeing three-year olds taking their first steps in another language, and kindergarten students already immersed in classes completely taught in a tongue other than their first.
On the other hand we have what might seem like the counterpoint. Informative media exist presented exclusively in Spanish, but the intentions of some of them seem more questionable. Their objectives appear to be largely commercial or laced with undertones of control. They neglect the cultural arena and lack a diversity of opinion, often treating Hispanic audiences as if they were sheep: They saturate them with stupendous recipes for gastronomic delicacies that make readers long for their homeland. They stun readers with ecclesiastical blessings of any act no matter how inconsequential, and they use the concept of the "model" Latino that serves in the United States Army to suck readers in and abusively glorify the government. And all of this gets taken to the tenth power, just in case.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Dr. Molly O'Shea
posted 2/05/08 @ 12:02 PM MST
I would like to salute the Arbiter for understanding the purpose of communication. Communication is core to our human existance. It comes in the universals of sign language, and written and spoken languages across our sacred planet. (Continued…)
susan velikoff
posted 2/06/08 @ 9:17 AM MST
Unfortuantely, in the United States there is a tendency to homogenize immigrants and to replace their native languages with English. Each foreign language offers words and expressions for which their are no English equivalents, creating structures to formulate and create new ideas and cultural experiences. (Continued…)
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