Transcription
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: Well, so… can you tell me your name and where you grew up?
Lizette: My name is Lizette.
Lizette: Do you want my maiden name or my married name?
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: You can say your married name, whichever you prefer.
Lizette: Okay, my name is Lizette, my maiden name is Medina, and my married name is Jiménez.
Lizette: I grew up in Brooklyn, New York.
Lizette: I was born in Puerto Rico.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: What part of Puerto Rico were you born in?
Lizette: Guayanilla, Guayanilla, Puerto Rico.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: What languages or language varieties were part of your life when you were growing up?
Lizette: Well, I spoke mainly Spanish, because my grandma and my grandpa didn’t speak English.
Lizette: I learned English as I went to school with my friends and stuff. That’s how I learned English.
Lizette: And things like that. That’s how I learned English.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: When you spoke English at school, what was that like?
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: And was speaking English encouraged at school? Meaning, if you spoke Spanish at school, would that have been weird?
Lizette: No.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: Or was it considered bad?
Lizette: I’ll put it to you like this. When you were in school, you had to speak English, because you were in the United States, not Spanish.
Lizette: We only spoke Spanish when I was at home.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: And when you were out on the street speaking with other people, how did those interactions go?
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: Did it depend on whether they spoke English, or… when you weren’t at home, did you have to speak English because you were in the United States?
Lizette: Not exactly. Basically, if I was with older people like my grandma, it would be in Spanish. They didn’t understand.
Lizette: If I was with my friends, it would be in English.
Lizette: But there were also other kids who spoke Spanish, so it was kind of a mix; you’d say one word in Spanish and then we’d go back to English.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: And the people you grew up with who spoke Spanish, were they mostly Puerto Rican?
Lizette: Basically, they were all Hispanic, and they were from Puerto Rico. From what I understand, yes, from many years ago. Basically they were my grandma’s cousins or whatever, and they only spoke English.
Lizette: Spanish, sorry.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: Yes. And, how did it make you feel to have that separation between English at school and Spanish at home?
Lizette: It made me feel really good, because I knew two languages and I could communicate in English or in Spanish, and that was very important at the time.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: Yes, to assimilate into the culture.
Lizette: Yes, a lot.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: And now, at home you mainly speak English, right?
Lizette: Only English, yes.
Lizette: My Spanish is not that good from not practicing.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: Why do you feel that changed? Why didn’t you continue speaking Spanish? Because your uncle speaks Spanish.
Lizette: No, my uncle doesn’t speak Spanish. He doesn’t understand Spanish.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: He’s not very… he didn’t grow up like that.
Lizette: Me…? No, no, no. And it was my fault, okay? My kids don’t speak Spanish.
Lizette: They don’t understand Spanish, but that was my fault, because I should have taught them
Lizette: to speak Spanish, but my Spanish is not that good.
Lizette: That’s the point.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: Do you feel that pressure to speak English and assimilate made you not want to teach your kids Spanish,
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: or that you weren’t comfortable with your own Spanish to teach it to them?
Lizette: I was uncomfortable not being able to speak the correct Spanish.
Lizette: I wanted to teach them, of course.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: Yes. And so, can you show me your object? And then tell me why.
Lizette: Okay, can you see it? My object?
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: Yes.
Lizette: Okay, it’s a little box. Go ahead.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: And when you show it, can you read the message in both languages?
Lizette: Okay, let me see if I can read it.
Lizette: Okay, this is a small box, with my grandma’s handwriting, okay?
Lizette: She gave it to me with a watch that I can’t find now, and a bracelet, okay?
Lizette: And this is… we’re going back many years, don’t forget. And on this box it says: God bless you. She wrote:
Lizette: You are the…
Lizette: Love of my life.
Lizette: My… me tras… what?
Lizette: Love of my life, your grandma loves you and adores you… María.
Lizette: And her name was María. María. This is from my grandma.
Lizette: And I guess I’ll keep it forever, until the time comes to get rid of it. And then the little… the bracelet…
Lizette: They don’t make them like that anymore.
Lizette: Well…
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: Wow, how beautiful.
Lizette: It’s a beautiful piece of jewelry, and they don’t make them like that anymore. This is what you call a charm bracelet.
Lizette: You’re supposed to put charms on it, okay? And I also have the watch, but I didn’t find it. It’s around, in my jewelry box.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: What does that message mean, especially that it’s in Spanish and it’s from your grandma, about your linguistic history?
Lizette: That means the world to me, that she felt proud
Lizette: of her language, of her culture, and that she was raising me… she raised me the right way, showing me a lot of love, that love that only a grandma can give you, okay?
Lizette: It’s something so special. I have 3 grandchildren… and you. So, when I show my love to my 4 children, I do it with a lot of emotion.
Lizette: And for your mother, that means the world.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: Yes.
Lizette: Okay? So, basically, I take pride in that, even though I didn’t follow it as I was supposed to.
Lizette: But you know what? It’s okay.
Lizette: It’s okay. I mean, you have to accept what happened before and what is happening now. I can’t go back.
Lizette: I’m okay with that. You’re doing very well, and you know what? That’s how things are. That’s how I feel.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: And all of us…
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: the girls, and Jaxson, when he grows up, we continue to love and appreciate our culture, even though we didn’t necessarily grow up speaking Spanish and learning.
Lizette: And you show it, and you show it very well. Okay?
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: Thank you. And so, yes, looking back, how do you think language has influenced who you are today and your interactions with the world?
Lizette: Well, language influenced me very positively, because don’t forget that, if I hadn’t spoken English,
Lizette: I wouldn’t be where I am today. I worked for Con Edison for 35 years, and there everything that had to be spoken was English.
Lizette: If I hadn’t known English, or anything else, who knows where I would be today.
Lizette: Although now Spanish and English are the best things in life, because knowing more than one language helps you in this generation. It’s not just about learning Spanish.
Lizette: You can learn English, Russian, Italian. That is very, very important in life.
Lizette: And I hope my Jaxson, when he gets older, will do that too. Jaxson is 4 years old. He speaks perfect Spanish and perfect English, but that’s thanks to his mom.
Lizette: His mom speaks English and Spanish. His mother, where is she from? Ecuador, she doesn’t speak English at all.
Lizette: His father does, okay? So she’s doing well. Jaxson can translate for me into Spanish, how about that?
Lizette: I mean, oh my God.
Lizette: Embarrassing, but he’s only 4 years old, so I see him in the future being something special like you.
Sofia Rodriguez-Tucker: Thank you.