Se Habla Espanol Summary

In “Se Habla Espanol” the author, executive communication’s director for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Tanya Maria Barrientos, explains the struggles of a Latina who does not speak Spanish fluently. Barrientos has two main audiences who she is addressing. The first audience is mainstream America, such as her classmates and other people born in America that she desired to fit in with. She is trying to help them gain a better cultural understanding by exposing them to her personal views. The second audience is other immigrant descendants facing similar situations. She longs for others to be aware that they are not alone be sharing her emotionally impactful story. Most readers with darker completions can relate to her statement, “For most of my childhood I liked being the brown girl who defied expectations” (646). People of all nationalities have certain stereotypes perceived based on their appearance; this is an example of an individual over coming their stereotype. The broader audience would be those from other similar cultural backgrounds who have endured the same experiences. The speaker let go of her Spanish heritage at the age of three when she moved to …show more content…
To further explain the purpose, at a young age she would take it as a compliment when people would tell her she did not seem Latina. When she became older, she desired to be accepted by her original culture. It was not only her individual mindset change but something far greater. If she had grown up in Guatemala where she was born, she would have always have a strong desire to be accepted by her original culture. In America, being surrounded by a variety of different cultures and having parents strive for her to forget her past, clouded her true cultural pride when she was growing up. This shows the mental progression and maturity she achieved as she learned from events in