For almost a year now, I’ve been
attending a Spanish speaking Baptist Church.
This may come a surprise to you
given some of my writing on religious subjects and churchgoers, but two things
are important to note:
1) I’m learning to speak and understand
Spanish and I get lots of practice there, and
2) I know this Baptist thing. I can talk that
talk even in Spanish.
Also
the music there is excellent. In addition to the church thing, I frequent
Hispanic markets and restaurants. My secretaria is of Mexican descent.
This heavy dose of interaction with Latinos
brings with it two observations:
The first should be obvious to my
American readers (Norte Americanos). These are really hard working, law abiding
citizens. They do the work the rest
of us have gotten too fat and lazy to do, and are glad to get the work.(But they do
get fatter after being here, what with all that motorized transportation
and fast food.)
I use the word citizen loosely. Most are not,
unlike the Irish, Italians, East Europeans and eventually Africans who came
before, permitted citizenship. The vast majority of our laws that they break
are a result of their being denied the rights and privileges the rest of us
obtained by being clever enough
to be born here: driving a car, going to school, working.
My second observation is that they are
much better parents than other Norte Americanos of similar economic status and
education. Ever see a Latino yelling
at their children in a grocery store?
Ok, I said two, but one more. With the
prior waves of emigration that built this country, the second generation lost
the ability to speak the tongue of their parent’s
motherland. Children of South and
Central American immigrants not only speak fluent English, but Spanish as well.
The niños translate for me in mi iglesia.
