It Takes A Classroom To Learn The Family Language
Corbis
Call it a linguistic identity crisis.
Growing up in Westchester, N.Y., 25-year-old Danielle Alvarez says, she and her two siblings didn't have much need for Spanish. With few other Hispanic families around, she got by with the few phrases she had picked up from her Mexican-born father: good night, put a coat on, be careful.
Her half-Colombian mother didn't speak Spanish either; it wasn't a big priority. Alvarez says she felt inadequate, though, when she was around her cousins — all of whom did speak Spanish. "I didn't feel quite as Mexican or Colombian compared to my cousins," she says. "I didn't quite know where to place myself."
The linguistic shortcoming weighed on Alvarez. People would hear her Spanish surname and assume she could speak the language; she felt bad that she didn't. When it came time in high