In general, it’s good to learn any other language, but sometimes it really takes a confidence boost to be able to go out in public and find someone to speak with you in that language.
A part of the reason I feel low self-esteem towards using the Spanish language is because I am not of Latina or Chicana origin. In fact, I believe I am partly from England and Italy. I feel I am not authentic enough to attempt to speak the language of a different culture because I don’t belong there. However, as Anzaldua explains, I know this is not true because, “There is no one Chicano language just as there is no one Chicano experience… A Chicano
from Michigan or Chicago or Detroit is just as much a
Mexico
Chicana as one from the Southwest. Chicano Spanish is as diverse linguistically as it is regionally” (774). While this still doesn’t change the fact that I am not Hispanic or Latina, it supports the point that people can connect on different levels besides being of the same origin and language.
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