Speaking Spanish in Mexico
I’ve worked for most of my life to learn Spanish. Languages don’t come easily to me. In fifth grade, I had classmates and friends who were daughters of migrant farm workers and spoke very limited English. This was back in the day when immigrant kids were placed in classrooms depending on their language skills, not their age (we didn’t really do bilingual ed back then) so at ten, I had classmates ranging from nine to sixteen years old. No kidding, sixteen. She had been placed in kindergarten at ten when she came to the US. I’ve always wondered what happened to her; I’m assuming she didn’t finish school because who wants to stay in high school into their mid-twenties? I spent time at their homes, which were often one-bedroom apartments for families of five or more. My friend had her own room—it was a closet. And not a walk-in closet. And they said it was better than they had in Mexico. Obviously, Mexico has all levels of income, just like the United States, but many who came to the US we...