Maria Dellafemina
AMERICANIZING THE BILINGUAL EXPERIENCE
Absorbing a comprehensive understanding for the differences and challenges involved
with being bilingual unveils significant connections between language and identity. The
extensive accounts Ana Celia Zentella provides through her ethnographic study of New York
Puerto Ricans (NYPR) offer detailed deductions incomparable to the brief interviews conducted
with three bilingual speakers. Nonetheless, the generalizations and conclusions drawn in
comparing and contrasting the linguistic and cultural information of both offer insightful
perceptions into the experience of bilingualism. A dominant and telling pattern that prevailed
throughout interpreting the multifaceted experience of being bilingual is the tension between
what it means to be “American” while staying tethered to the culture of one’s heritage. Close
evaluation of firsthand accounts as well as acquired ethnographic data by Zentella reveals
language as the predominant contributing factor to the way in which one’s “Americaness” is
performed and perceived.
To better understand the inner-workings of why children spoke a particular language to
certain people, Zentella states that the “presence of Spanish was related to the migration history
of the caretakers” (77). An extremely relevant portion of the interviews conducted was the
immigration accounts of each bilingual speaker’s family, as well as the languages spoken by
either parent.
Julia Mazzei Craco is 65 years old, and grew up speaking Italian and English. She was
born in Avellino, Italy and immigrated to the United States when she was five years old with her
parents, her three-year-old brother, and 15-month-old sister. Her youngest sister was born 11
years after moving to the U.S. Her father was born here, returned to Italy at age two and was
raised there. Her mother was born in Italy and had never been to America until they moved here
in 1950. Both of her parents speak English and Italian; Julia grew up in a household with both
parents and her siblings.
Maria Burden is 22 years old, and grew up speaking Spanish and English. She was born
in Guatemala and came to the United States when she was six years old. She has five siblings;
28-year-old sister, 23-year-old stepbrother, 17-year-old twin sisters, and a 14-year-old sister. The
oldest is adopted and lives in Belize, and her three younger siblings still live in Guatemala; all
speak Spanish. Her mother is originally from the U.S. and lived in Guatemala for 22 years before
returning with Maria. Her father is from Guatemala and went to school in the U.S. from age 13
and also studied in France during college. He is trilingual and understands all romance
languages. He returned to Guatemala after attending graduate school at Harvard Medical. Both
parents are fluent in Spanish and English; Maria grew up in a household with only her mother.
Greg Varypatakis is 23 years old, and grew up speaking Greek and English. Both his
parents were born in Greece. His mother and father both immigrated when they were around 15
years old. Greg has three sisters, ten, seven, and four years older than him. His oldest sister lives
in Greece, another in Italy, and the third in the U.S. Both of Greg’s parents speak English and
Greek but with very heavy accents; he grew up in a household with both parents and his siblings.
Two of the three interview cases can be compared to findings by Zentella in regard to
language enforcement by a caregiver. Greg’s parents brought him up to speak and understand
both English and Greek simultaneously. He resented having to go to Greek school and not being
able to participate in the activities his non-bilingual friends participated in while he was being
pushed by his mother to reach proficiency in Greek. Greg’s mother enforced this so far, in fact,
that he was reading at a high school level while in elementary school. Reversely, Maria recalled
her mother trying to teach her English while they lived in Guatemala, and refusing to learn
because she didn’t think she needed to. However, once she moved to the U.S. with her mother,
Spanish became less necessary because her mother spoke English fluently and did not enforce
Spanish in the home. As a result, Maria speaks little to no Spanish with her family, unless
speaking with her siblings in Guatemala. In reference to Zentella’s breakdown of language
exchanges within a family, Greg’s family dynamic falls between those with caregivers who only
speak Spanish to each other, and those with caregivers who speak Spanish and English (57,
Table 4.1). Although Greg’s parents primarily speak Greek to each other and highly enforced
Greek in the home, Greg speaks to them in both English and Greek, and vice versa. A possible
attribution accounting for this deviation from Zentella’s model is the neighborhood where Greg
grew up – predominately while suburban in Springfield, MA - compared to el bloque, consisting
of majority Puerto Rican families. Because of this discrepancy, despite the enforcement of Greek
within the home, Greg was still surrounded by mostly English outside of his family. Whereas a
NYPR whose parents spoke primarily Spanish to each other would likely respond in Spanish,
Greg was exposed to both languages from a very young age and so chooses to respond in one or
the other. Maria, who was brought up most of her life in the U.S. by only her mother, fulfills
Zentella’s finding that households that do not enforce Spanish, like Vicky and Güiso who were
“the first of el bloque’s parents to favor English at home” tend to not only rely gravely on
English, but lose fluency in Spanish over time (Zentella 76).
In the case of Julia, there was strict enforcement from both parents growing up to speak
only English. This strays far from the ideas expressed by Zentella that reflect the enforcement of
Spanish or Spanish and English. Compared to Greg, who was encouraged to be fluent in Greek,
and Maria who was raised indifferent and was not forced one way or the other, Julia was brought
up to embrace English as the primary and more important language. Julia’s father in particular
was very adamant about being completely submerged in American culture. Although Julia could
read, write and speak perfect Italian, she spoke to her parents in English, mostly in an effort to
help them learn because they did not have the standard schooling she had in learning the
language properly. Julia’s case is a significant piece to the notion of immigrants Americanizing
through language. She explained that her parents did not fear losing their culture by speaking
English in the home; they wanted to be American as much as Italian – that was the point of
coming to America. This idea also challenges Zentella’s first principle of communication
patterns which states that the majority of families with parents that migrated to the U.S. after
spending youth and early adolescence in Puerto Rico, heard their parents speak Spanish at home
to each other and were always spoken to in Spanish at least by one parent (Zentella 77). This
concept is exhibited strongest in the case of Lolita, specifically her reaction to Zentella’s goal of
understanding “how Puerto Rican children learn two languages” to which she responded “But
I’m not Puerto Rican, I’m American” (Zentella 66). In referring to her parents’ friends who
spoke to each other in Italian, Julia stated that “their children all spoke English, were born and
raised here and spoke English – AND grew up bilingual.” This is what Lolita meant by
identifying herself as American; despite speaking Spanish and English, she grew up on the
mainland and associates “Puerto Rican” with those from the island. Being bilingual and speaking
Spanish (or Italian) does not necessarily translate to a Puerto Rican identity to her, because she is
just as familiar with English and it is what she is most surrounded by in the place where she was
born.
Important in identifying how “American” first or second generation bilingual speakers
are is how they learned English as well as the pressures surrounding them to. Similar to the
generational relationship between caregivers and children in Zentella’s observations of NYPR
families, Julia utilized her ability to speak both English and Italian to aid her parents in learning
better English. Lippi-Green states that “written language and spoken language are historically,
structurally, and functionally fundamentally different creatures” (Lippi-Green 18). Julia recalls
coming home from school and teaching her mother the English word for things that she pointed
at, as well as being present in dealings with insurance and business related matters, but especially
writing letters, and notes to bring to school. Even though they spoke perfect English, her mother
in particular felt insecure writing so Julia did most of that for her. Because Julia learned English
in a monolingual school where “you either spoke English or that was it” she was forced to learn
the language very quickly in order to keep up. Maria would keep her bilingual identity a secret
from her peers for fear of being different. Similar to Greg, Maria was reading English at a 6th
grade reading level in the 2nd grade. Her determination to mask her Guatemalan distinctiveness
in response to socialization and peer pressure propelled Maria into mastering English. Learning
English first in the home had an impact on Greg because his parents would mispronounce words
and often times read out loud the way they thought words sounded, making it difficult for him
when he reached school and had to relearn certain aspects of the language. As depicted by
Zentella, children of the NYPR community are constantly pressured to be “more Puerto Rican”
or “more American” because they don’t speak English or Spanish well enough. These are
challenges that are common across all cases. The pressure and expectation of bilingual speakers
to be proficient in one or the other by their peers or family is the cornerstone of the struggle
between being “American” and a part of one’s culture.
Although many of the children Zentella studied were bilingual growing up, it is difficult
to say that they will be their whole lives. There are social and political factors that contribute to
the loss of a language over time. Maria expressed sincere regret that she could not communicate
very well with her grandmother in the final year of her life, having lost most of her ability to
speak Spanish fluently. Julia recounted her relationship with her grandmother as well; crediting
her as the main reason Julia was able to stay fluent throughout her life – to be able to
communicate with family in Italy. Greg has retained fluency in Greek because of his family also,
and plans to bring his children up bilingual, no matter how much they may resent it as he did
when he was a child. Generally, the future generations of bilingual speakers are bleak in the
respect that they will speak the language as well as their parents.
There are multiple factors that contribute to the experience of a bilingual speaker in
America. For Zentella and her study of the NYPR community, Spanish and English is an
interchangeable dynamic, both are accepted as normal on el bloque. For the few people I
interviewed, there is little assumption that they speak a second language, either for lack of an
accent or because of their “white” appearance. It can be concluded that any of these reasons are
tied closely to the ever-present reach of immigrants to become more American. This becomes
complicated when trying to hold onto a part of their culture that is important and that surrounds
them everyday in language.
Works Cited
Lippi-Green, Rosina. "Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States." English
with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States. London:
Routledge, 1997. 18. Print.
Zentella, Ana Celia. Growing up Bilingual: Puerto Rican Children in New York. Malden, MA:
Blackwell, 1997. Print.
Interview Questions
1. Growing up bilingual, were you expected to do more things that corresponded with either
of the languages you spoke?
2. How did you learn Standard English? How did this effect the way you learned it, and
how you spoke your second language?
3. Do you consider English to be your first or second language?
4. When speaking with others (like your parents) who also are bilingual, do you feel you
switch back and forth between? What is an example and what sort of phrases come easier
to what language?
5. Were your parents born here? How did they learn English and how did that impact you?
6. Are you considered “less native” to the country you are from because you are bilingual?
7. When people first meet you or don’t know you well, are they surprised to learn you are
bilingual? Why do you think this is?
8. Was where you grew up connected to the language you spoke? Did other families or kids
around you also speak 2 languages? How did you interact with them?
9. Did you attend religious services or were you a part of any group that was conducted in
one language or the other?
10. Do you have siblings? What language do they speak, and do you feel age order matters in
efficiency of how well the language is spoken?