Shared Country, Shared Language

Shared Country, Shared Language

The border has been defined as a social movement between two cultures. Speaking of our Latino culture, the language spoken is an important part representing our community. It is the essence of our roots, beliefs and somehow is connected with our education. As Sandra Cisneros (n.d.) once said “The more you speak more languages, the more you understand about yourself.” This can give us an idea of being part of a community that shares different languages and the importance of communicating properly with others. Not only in our region but in the world, increasingly there are coexisting different types of cultures and they are sharing their traditions, and now it is commonto live alongside a diversity of people.People living in a border area, like the Rio Grande Valley, can commonly find and recognize peoplecommunicating in three types of language: Spanish, English and Spanglish.

The United States and Mexico are divided or limited by the Rio Bravo in Mexico, in US known as Rio Grande.According to the International Boundary and Water Commission, the border has a length of 1951 miles. The river runs through the US states of Colorado, New Mexico and Texas as well as the Mexican states of Chihuahua,Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.The people now living in this area are mostly Mexicans and in some way are dominating Anglo-Saxon culture with the use of words in Spanish. I think we live in a neutral place, of race language and beliefs; there are the strong Mexican believe of being and respecting where people come from but being able to adapt to a new way of living because our country does not give us the opportunity of living a safe life, a good job,chancesnor the education our children need. We also leave family, friends beautiful places and really good moments in our country, but our family comes first. That’s why we make the opportunity and came to theUnited States to have a better life, but as truly Mexicans there are some strong bonds with our traditionand culture. But the American style of life takes possession of us; we stop eating tortillas and now we are eating Whataburger and McDonalds. We change our km to miles, centigrade to Fahrenheit, our pesos to get more dollars and yes we forget our Spanish to talk in English. In the border area using a pure language seems to be unusual, since the mixture of languages has caused intermediates, so we can call it Spanglish. Daily use has caused the mixing English and Spanish, using words of both languages.

In the United States there is no official language but the predominant language is English.I believe the importance of English is due to two major nations of the world who speak the language, England and the United Statesthese countries have imposed the use of English. And the two countries in question are true world powers for decades. Also the popularity of these countries and their cultures has been infiltrating in various nations. Indeed, today, to gain access to certain employment positions, it is essential to speak English. Knowing English is a huge opportunity to have a good job, that’s the reason we as Latinos are in that search to get and speak English for purposes of education, economy and well as understand when no one is around talking our language. But I think the number one factor is a good working position. There are even studies that show that people who speak English come to earn 30% more salary than those who did not handle it.Just as important, is the English language. Speaking it can be the difference between making and not a business, not getting or job title and finally, to earn a better salary than the rest, within the same company.

Although it is important to speak several languages so we can enrich our culture and we can have other ways to communicate,I considerit is important to respect each and speaking properly one language or the other. Also many new words and

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