My Thoughts on "Spanglish"

"Spanglish," (1998) is an article written in TIME magazine by Janice Castro, Don Cook, and Christina Garcia.  The three authors explore on the fact that Spanish is increasingly being used in American society. Castro, Cook, and Garcia develop the essay by using a mixture of both English and Spanish to help the reader understand not only what Spanglish is, but why someone might speak Spanglish instead of English. The writer's purpose is to show others how both the Spanish and English languages have been influenced by each other in America.


Castro, Cook, and Garcia write on a phenomenon that has only increased since 1998.  There are now currently more Spanish speakers in the United States than speakers of Chinese, French, Italian, Hawaiian, and the all of the Native American languages combined.  There are about 35,000,000 people in the United States who speak Spanish as their primary language at home. The influence of English on American Spanish is also very important. In many areas where there is a influx of Spanish immigrants, it is common to mix Spanish and English, thereby producing Spanglish. The new generation of American Hispanics want to preserve knowing and Spanish as equal to knowing English.


The authors of "Spanglish," were not trying to give an opinion on the matter of whether or not one should only speak English when one immigrates to America.  They were simply stating that when you have an influx of foreign speakers, it is almost impossible to expect everyone of them to simply forget their language and culture that preceded their immigration.  Both languages, Spanish and English seem to be expanding off of the other in America.  I believe this was the authors intent, to show how both cultures are trying to learn and cultivate a connection with each other.