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Speaker 1: Loka Toa Radio is a radiophonic.

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Speaker 2: Novela, which is just a very extra way of saying

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Speaker 2: a podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Fio safm and.

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Speaker 2: I am Mala. Minos.

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Speaker 1: Loka Tora Radio is your freemast favorite podcast hosted by

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Speaker 1: us Mala and Riosas.

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Speaker 2: We're two ig friends turned podcast partners, breaking down pop culture, feminism,

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Speaker 2: sexual wellness, and offering fresh takes on trending topics through

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Speaker 2: nuanced interviews with up and coming LATINX creatives.

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Speaker 1: Known as Las Loka TOAs, Las Mammy Submit and Bullshit

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Speaker 1: Aborgas next Door and Las Borgas. We've been podcasting independently

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Speaker 1: since twenty sixteen, and we're bringing our radiophonic novela to

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Speaker 1: the Mike Utura Network to continue sharing stories from the

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Speaker 1: LATINX community.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Loka Tora Radio Season seven. Take us to

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Speaker 2: your network.

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Speaker 1: Ola Motives. Welcome back to another capitolo of Loka Tora Radio.

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Speaker 1: I'm Diosa and I am Mala. You're tuning in to

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Speaker 1: Capitolo CentOS Centa No. One sixty one.

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Speaker 3: Last time on Loca Tora Radio, we talked in depth

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Speaker 3: about Nosabo kids and the history of language violence in

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Speaker 3: the United States.

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Speaker 1: Remember to leave a review of Lokata Radio on Apple Podcast.

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Speaker 1: Subscribe to Lokata wherever you listen and share with a

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Speaker 1: friend or your prima.

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Speaker 3: Follow both Viosa and I across socials and follow at

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Speaker 3: Loka Tora Underscore Radio all over social media and find

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Speaker 3: us on TikTok.

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Speaker 1: You can also visit our website lokatraradio dot com and

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Speaker 1: subscribe to our newsletter besitos. So today we are joined

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Speaker 1: by the founders of Spanish Sempina. After reading and hearing

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Speaker 1: so many different perspectives about Latinos, LATINX folks and our

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Speaker 1: relationship to the Spanish language, we wanted to connect with

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Speaker 1: Spanish Sempina.

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Speaker 3: The folks at Spanish Scene Bena have intentionally created a

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Speaker 3: space to share resources, experiences, ask questions, and support one

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Speaker 3: another in their journeys to reclaiming the Spanish language.

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Speaker 1: All right, Loka more is well. Without further ado, we

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Speaker 1: have Jackie Rodriguez and Wendy Ramidez, founders of Spanish Saint Bena,

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Speaker 1: joining us today at look at Dora Radio.

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Speaker 3: Welcome, Hi, thank you so much, Hello, Hello, thank you

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Speaker 3: for joining us. This is a super special episode and

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Speaker 3: It's kind of a follow up to a conversation we've

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Speaker 3: been having here at look At Radio about Spanish and

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Speaker 3: language loss and nosabo kids and poshos. So thank you

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Speaker 3: for joining us to provide your expertise.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, we're looking forward to continuing the conversation.

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Speaker 1: So just to get us started, I would love for

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Speaker 1: both of you to introduce yourselves, tell us a little

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Speaker 1: bit about you.

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Speaker 5: Well, first of all, I'm so excited. I'm a big

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Speaker 5: fan of both of you, and so Motels gracias. Thank

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Speaker 5: you for the invitation and for having these conversations. My

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Speaker 5: name is what Devamide is. I'm born and raised in Eastela.

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Speaker 5: I you know, I grew up speaking Spanish, but I

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Speaker 5: lost it when I was in high school and then

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Speaker 5: I studied in Mexico City when I was in college,

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Speaker 5: and I just felt like a complete like I wasn't

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Speaker 5: smart pretty much. But all through my life I'm like,

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Speaker 5: I'm going to learn and I'm going to like just

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Speaker 5: continue at it. And I did and it just like

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Speaker 5: opened up so many doors for me. I said, I

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Speaker 5: want to do this for my community. So that's a

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Speaker 5: little bit about me. Just some other stuff, like my

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Speaker 5: family is from Alalo, and I'm Adan Sante. I love

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Speaker 5: like to celebrate art and culture and all of that.

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Speaker 5: So that's just you know, and I'm married, and I

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Speaker 5: live in Monteo or Monapello you want to call it.

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Speaker 5: And I have two puppies. Well that's a little bit

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Speaker 5: about me. And then I have the amazing pleasure and

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Speaker 5: I feel blessed to be working with you know, one

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Speaker 5: of my friends, good friends who understands and we just yeah,

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Speaker 5: so that's Jackie.

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Speaker 4: Hey, Yeah, I feel like one of those people like Collins,

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Speaker 4: like longtime listener, first time color. I love it, big fight,

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Speaker 4: big fans. So thank you for the platform and inviting us,

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Speaker 4: because continuing this conversation is important, especially with our generation.

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Speaker 4: We're the ones breaking these generational traumas and reclaiming and

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Speaker 4: so just changing the perspective and that narrative. So I'm

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Speaker 4: excited to be able to do that with y'all. My

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Speaker 4: name is Jackie. I'm the co founder and creative director

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Speaker 4: for Spanish Synatana. I come from a background of working

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Speaker 4: direct with the community, like on the ground for community

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Speaker 4: engagement and communications, and so growing up, my Spanish was

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Speaker 4: very conversational. I was watching novellas with my ideas singing

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Speaker 4: Selena and just learning in that way. But when I

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Speaker 4: got into my professional career and having to speak on

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Speaker 4: another level, speak about some of these policies that were

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Speaker 4: coming down and how they would affect immigrant families, like

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Speaker 4: the Selena lyrics weren't helping me anymore. And I realized

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Speaker 4: that's when I started having more insecurity and feeling more

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Speaker 4: like that bocha creeping up. And so during that time,

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Speaker 4: Wendy came up to me and was just explaining her

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Speaker 4: dream of Spanish nam Benn as she did the interviews

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Speaker 4: where she interviewed Latina people to ask them basically what

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Speaker 4: their relationship was with Spanish and realizing that we all

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Speaker 4: had a common thread of shame and feeling judge. So

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Speaker 4: she had this vision of creating this school and she

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Speaker 4: was already doing private classes and I loved it. I

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Speaker 4: was the target audience. I was the bocha wanting to learn,

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Speaker 4: to be a resource to community, to connect with the family.

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Speaker 4: So we just hit the ground. I quit my nonprofit job,

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Speaker 4: rested for a week, and then called her and said, Okay,

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Speaker 4: you're ready, And here we are four years later. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: still still growing, still building, amazing.

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Speaker 3: So this is Spanish. Saint Bana is your full time gig.

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Speaker 3: It's your full time work.

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Speaker 4: My dream job, full time.

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Speaker 3: Did you ever think that you're self describing as a

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Speaker 3: pocha right? Did you ever think that you would end

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Speaker 3: up like running a school for reclaiming the Spanish language

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Speaker 3: and teaching Spanish to other poltoals out there?

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Speaker 4: Never even now, Like when I try to explain to

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Speaker 4: my family because I already have to explain remote working

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Speaker 4: and zoom, and they're just like, what are you doing

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Speaker 4: in your room? I'm like, I promise I'm working, and

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Speaker 4: so just getting past that hurdle and now being like,

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Speaker 4: we have a Spanish school, you don't even speak good Spanish,

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Speaker 4: Like I'm not a teacher.

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Speaker 1: I love the way the family will always humble us

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Speaker 1: and find a way to drag us even when we're

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Speaker 1: doing incredible work. I want to go back to what

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Speaker 1: you said about shame, you know, feeling shame for maybe

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Speaker 1: not speaking quote properly or well enough. And I feel

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Speaker 1: like for Latinos LATINX people, like, shame is something we

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Speaker 1: carry so deeply, whether that be with language, sex and sexuality, gender, Like,

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Speaker 1: there are so many ways we're taught and we learn

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Speaker 1: to feel shame. So I love that it's in the

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Speaker 1: title of your organization. So can you tell us more

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Speaker 1: about this modality of shifting the mindset from shame to empowered.

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Speaker 5: Yes, I mean, well, you know, fenna in Spanish means

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Speaker 5: many different things as well. So fenna is like shame,

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Speaker 5: which it is a big part of the work that

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Speaker 5: we do, but it also means pain, you know, and

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Speaker 5: you you use terms like vala like it's worth it, right,

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Speaker 5: And so I think that's a little bit of like

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Speaker 5: our philosophy or kind of what I told our students

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Speaker 5: today is we're all learning together, we're all like here

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Speaker 5: to support one another, and you're gonna feel the fenna,

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Speaker 5: You're gonna feel the shame, and but you just gotta

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Speaker 5: do it. Anyways. And Jackie, I want to say, was

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Speaker 5: like one of the people that I first interviewed, and

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Speaker 5: she didn't really have benna. She was just like, I'm

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Speaker 5: gonna try. I don't care if I make mistakes and

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Speaker 5: this and that, and so that's it's just awesome to

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Speaker 5: see that. But I think you're so right. And one

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Speaker 5: of the things that we do or that we have

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Speaker 5: these discussions around these other issues where we in our kura,

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Speaker 5: we have beenna, like you mentioned, whether it is about

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Speaker 5: you know, sexuality, identity, every I mean, money, everything, everything.

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Speaker 5: There's like there's guilt in fenna, and so we always

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Speaker 5: joke because we say we always everything we do is

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Speaker 5: see Fenna. You know, like we're gonna go south on Fenna.

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Speaker 5: You know we're gonna we're gonna eat bena, you know, like,

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Speaker 5: and it's just it's a fun. It's a way to

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Speaker 5: just shift, like you said, your mindset from this spenna

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Speaker 5: that you might have or pain that you're carrying into.

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Speaker 5: How do you how can you enjoy it, have fun,

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Speaker 5: make you know, enjoy the pass.

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Speaker 1: I love that because when you said see Fenna in

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Speaker 1: that way, it also reminded me of like kind of

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Speaker 1: being like a Seine ruenza, Like just do it, Just

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Speaker 1: do it seeing Fanna, you know, be a Seine duenza

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Speaker 1: practice you're Spanish, I mean, and you can say that

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Speaker 1: for practically anything when it comes to latinos, right, just

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Speaker 1: do it like se fena.

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Speaker 3: Just do it like no one's watching, Like no one's

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Speaker 3: gonna gossip about you. It'll be okay, It's gonna be okay.

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Speaker 3: Have you guys been seeing all the like conversation on

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Speaker 3: Instagram recently around Bosa's viral real and all the comments

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Speaker 3: I'm sure you guys have seen because people have tagged you, right, Yeah, we.

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Speaker 4: Definitely had students specifically tag us, and they were it

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Speaker 4: was really because they were thinking us for our platform

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Speaker 4: and for the space we've created, and so it's always

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Speaker 4: validating getting getting that feedback from the students recognizing that,

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Speaker 4: and I think that's one of the things like talking

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Speaker 4: about the ben as what makes us different from like

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Speaker 4: the other apps, or taking you know, taking a class

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Speaker 4: because it's not just like it's like, let's talk about

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Speaker 4: your relationship with Spanish. Let's talk about the pain, you know,

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Speaker 4: your family history, and then once we get through that,

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Speaker 4: then we realize there's some healing, some unpacking to do,

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Speaker 4: and then it goes into learning grammar. But if you're

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Speaker 4: not having a safe space to unpack this, there's there's

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Speaker 4: no point in starting to dig into the grammar. It's

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Speaker 4: not going to stick in. Those emotional blocks are very

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Speaker 4: real when it comes to language.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that you said that, because you know,

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Speaker 1: I've been having a conversation with my dad about how

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Speaker 1: he was very strict and intense with Spanish, and I've

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Speaker 1: shared that throughout our time here at Lokata, but he

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Speaker 1: was so strict to the point where I didn't want

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Speaker 1: to speak at all. I was already very introverted, but

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Speaker 1: it made me this very quiet kid because if I

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Speaker 1: didn't know the word for something in Spanish, sabiyak meva regagne.

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Speaker 1: And he tells me now like, oh, you should be

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Speaker 1: thinking me because your Spanish is so good, and I

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Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I do, thank you for you know,

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Speaker 1: teaching me Spanish. I could have done without the trauma, though,

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Speaker 1: and he goes, no, I would do it all over again.

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Speaker 1: And so for him, it's still like valia lapina, because

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Speaker 1: you learned and it didn't matter that it was I

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Speaker 1: was tough on you or I I was mean to

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Speaker 1: you or whatever. Like you learned and my mission was accomplished.

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Speaker 1: And so I love that because even I'm a Spanish,

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Speaker 1: you know, fluent Spanish speaker, but I have my own

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Speaker 1: like relationship with the like Spanish and how I need

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Speaker 1: to unpack it with myself, which I do with my therapist,

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Speaker 1: but you know, like we all have. I feel like

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Speaker 1: this this journey that we're on, even speaking this quote

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Speaker 1: native language.

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Speaker 5: You know, that's I mean, that's what it is. And

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Speaker 5: I think that we all have different stories. Is like

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Speaker 5: I can relate to you because my mom also wanted

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Speaker 5: us to learn. But I think we also have the

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Speaker 5: stories where it was just survival, you know, like just

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Speaker 5: how do you people are coming here, and a lot

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Speaker 5: of people, at least in my generation, probably the older generations,

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Speaker 5: it was like learn English, be fluent in English. That's

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Speaker 5: why you're going to get ahead. That's how you know,

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Speaker 5: and the system, the schools, everything like it. I'm glad

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Speaker 5: to see something changing, but it's always the system. And

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Speaker 5: I love the way that you said you could say

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Speaker 5: like this native like quote native language, because it's not

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Speaker 5: just Spanish, and I want to make that a point.

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Speaker 5: You know, it's like all languages and this idea, but

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Speaker 5: it's a language that you feel connected to, that's part

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Speaker 5: of your culture, your gudura, and and so yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 5: I'm always amazed because when I travel, I see different

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Speaker 5: communities where they're trying to reclaim and maintain the language

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Speaker 5: and they're losing it for the same reason that the

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Speaker 5: generations here have lost it, you know, the discrimination and

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Speaker 5: so other languages like indigenous languages in Mexico, Like we've

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Speaker 5: talked to like Mayann people. I just came back from

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Speaker 5: like Tapagena in Colombia where there's a you know, community

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Speaker 5: still speaking Bantu, and it's just the same stories. It's

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Speaker 5: like once you started going to the city, people started

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Speaker 5: discriminating against you and you lose part of a language

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Speaker 5: that is part of your culture.

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Speaker 3: I'm super curious about how you guys describe the type

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Speaker 3: of Spanish that you guys are are teaching and speaking

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Speaker 3: in your Spanish sint bana classes, because I'm kind of imagining,

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Speaker 3: like you have students who are maybe different generations. Maybe

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Speaker 3: some are first, some are second, some are third gen

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Speaker 3: some are of Mexican descent, some are Salvadoran or Guatemalan,

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Speaker 3: so all you know, all these different people groups speak

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Speaker 3: different types of Spanish. So I'm really curious about, like

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Speaker 3: the type of Spanish that that you guys are working

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Speaker 3: with in Spanish seeing ben On and how you would

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Speaker 3: describe it.

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Speaker 4: I think that's the best part. We're a big melting

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Speaker 4: pot our core team. We have wend You, Salvana, we

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Speaker 4: have Colombian and Dominicana, and then what's great about the

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Speaker 4: program is when students enroll in the program and start

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Speaker 4: to build their confidence. Wendy's really great about finding people's

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Speaker 4: strengths and magic, and so she developed a cool program

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Speaker 4: for alumni to be able to re enroll as facilitators.

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Speaker 4: And so we have facilitators in Puerto Rico, we have

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Speaker 4: all over so you can really find what level. We

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Speaker 4: give you autonomy to decide what level you feel comfortable

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Speaker 4: in and kind of challenge yourself. Or maybe it's just

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Speaker 4: a day you feel just burnt out and you don't

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Speaker 4: want to challenge, you want to go down a level.

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Speaker 4: You have the flexibility to go up and down levels.

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Speaker 4: But a lot of times you find a core group

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Speaker 4: that's like every Wednesday, or you find that Dominican facilitator

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Speaker 4: on two days and you just find your group. And

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Speaker 4: that also is a really good way to practice. We're

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Speaker 4: in different slings and the practice group itself, since they're virtual,

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Speaker 4: we have people all over the country joining and practicing together.

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Speaker 4: We have students from Japan. Last night we had a

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Speaker 4: student in Canada. So it's really cool having such a

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Speaker 4: diverse group of students and team to kind of mix

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Speaker 4: that all together.

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Speaker 3: That's super cool. I love how you guys are international,

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Speaker 3: You're all over the place. That is amazing. Congratulations, thank you,

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Speaker 3: thank you.

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Speaker 6: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: I mean I think like for me, I've always been

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Speaker 5: fascinated and I love like my previous job, I would

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Speaker 5: travel all through Latin America and I love learning the

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Speaker 5: differences between the regions and the language. And it's funny though,

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Speaker 5: because one of the things that I tell our students

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Speaker 5: is like people from Mexico could go to like Cuba

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Speaker 5: and not understand, you know, like my mom from Missa Vadod,

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Speaker 5: Like we just came back from the city my husband's

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Speaker 5: family in Colombia, and she doesn't speak English, Like my

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Speaker 5: mom doesn't speak English, she only speaks Spanish. But she

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Speaker 5: could only understand like eighty percent of what they said.

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Speaker 5: You know, there's words, and I already knew those words

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Speaker 5: because I'm in the you know. But I'm always curious

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Speaker 5: to learn. And that's what I tell our students to do,

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Speaker 5: is to come with that curiosity to learn if you want,

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Speaker 5: even if your family background is part of this land

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Speaker 5: before it was you know, before it was the US,

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Speaker 5: when it was Mexico and you've been here for generations,

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Speaker 5: or whether you're from Kariba, like what are you interested

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Speaker 5: in learning? Like you what piques your interests, your attention,

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Speaker 5: and that's what we encourage people to do as a

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Speaker 5: way of learning.

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Speaker 3: Love it. Yeah, the Spanish can be so different place

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Speaker 3: to place.

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Speaker 1: Even within the same country m h.

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Speaker 3: Honestly, like the first time I ever went to Boston,

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Speaker 3: they were speaking English and I couldn't understand them, Like

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Speaker 3: it happens.

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Speaker 5: With English, right, and you you know it's And that's

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Speaker 5: another thing I always point out to people is like

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Speaker 5: even in English, even in the US, like when you

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Speaker 5: go to different places, and so that's also true for

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Speaker 5: the US in speaking Spanish in different neighborhoods, you know,

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Speaker 5: like if we're talking about New York versus you know,

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Speaker 5: people in La and so it is. I think our

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Speaker 5: approach is that the Spanish that we teach, it's like

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Speaker 5: it's there to communicate, to connect, to support, it's how

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Speaker 5: you use it. And yes, there's always these terms of like, oh,

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Speaker 5: your Spanish is broken, right, like if it's I it's

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Speaker 5: an object, that's an object, right. And then there's people

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Speaker 5: that are like, oh, don't speak Spanglish. You know, Spanglish

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Speaker 5: is not correct Spanish. But my point of view, is

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Speaker 5: language evolved the way that we do, and the Spanglish

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Speaker 5: is part of our identity as well, and so definitely

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Speaker 5: use it to communicate, but be curious about what's other

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Speaker 5: ways that you say it in other different you know,

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Speaker 5: parts of in other countries.

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Speaker 3: And Spanglish does have some like grammar rules, like it's

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Speaker 3: not just every other word translated into Spanish.

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Speaker 1: As much as Hollywood wants to think that's what it

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Speaker 1: sounds like, that's not what it sounds.

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Speaker 3: Like exactly, like it's it son, Like I wish that

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Speaker 3: we had sort of this, like we were more cognizant

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Speaker 3: of this as kind of like a dialect to create

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Speaker 3: like a site. It's like a crealization, you know what

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Speaker 3: I mean of these languages because like like Yosa just said, Hollywood,

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Speaker 3: we watch a Netflix series that will go un named,

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Speaker 3: but let's say a Netflix series, and you can write

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Speaker 3: away tell that the Spanglish is off. We can hear

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Speaker 3: it because it's not following like the rules of how

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Speaker 3: we speak that language.

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Speaker 1: I love to I want to go back to what

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Speaker 1: you said, Wendy, because you know you're describing like this,

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Speaker 1: like this conversational type of Spanish or spanguish. You're just

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Speaker 1: acknowledging there's different ways to speak. And I love that

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Speaker 1: because I feel like, in typical I'm just thinking back

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Speaker 1: to like high school, right when you're in a span

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Speaker 1: I took like quote native Spanish classes in high school

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Speaker 1: and and it was very much rigid. They're teaching you Castellano, right,

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Speaker 1: they're teaching you from real academia, this Spanna, and those

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Speaker 1: are like the rules that you're following. But what you're

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Speaker 1: describing is a very different teaching modality that I think

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Speaker 1: is so wonderful and so beautiful because we're not out

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Speaker 1: there in Spain, like that's not the type of Spanish

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Speaker 1: we're speaking. You know, we're speaking a very specific depending

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Speaker 1: on your region if you're in the US, right, a

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Speaker 1: very specific type of Spanish or Spanglish. So I love

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Speaker 1: that you're also adapting to the way language adapts, which

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Speaker 1: is what we talk about all the time here. And

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Speaker 1: I feel like as a quote very broad community where

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Speaker 1: we harp and we get stuck on like Spanish, should

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Speaker 1: people be speaking Spanish and like the term LATINX And

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Speaker 1: I feel like what's rooted in that is just this

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Speaker 1: very like rigid, not willing to evolve philosophy like way

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Speaker 1: of thinking.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think that it's like, yeah, not everyone

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Speaker 5: should speak Spanish, and Spanish is also like a colonizer language,

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Speaker 5: you know, European language. But I think, you know, the

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Speaker 5: more people you can communicate, the more that you can

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Speaker 5: connect when it's part of your identity. I just want

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Speaker 5: people to know that it's never too late to learn.

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Speaker 5: I'm just the I love learning right now. I'm learning

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Speaker 5: Portuguese and I'm having so much fun, and I just think, like,

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Speaker 5: why don't you know, let's embrace I want to I

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Speaker 5: would love to learn now too, Like I that's kind

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Speaker 5: of another language, but yeah, let's That's how I feel.

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Speaker 5: But of course, the shaming that goes on when people

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Speaker 5: don't speak Spanish or just all these different layers like

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Speaker 5: that has to do with just unpacking where you're at,

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Speaker 5: where you want to be and how to get there

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Speaker 5: is part of It's part of the process that we

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Speaker 5: want to help people support, you know, we want to

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Speaker 5: support people.

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Speaker 3: And Spanish seining Fana. You guys are remote, you're on zoom,

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Speaker 3: you're international, but you guys also do in person events

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Speaker 3: and get togethers and stuff in the Greater La area, right.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, we actually hit a lot of the major cities,

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Speaker 4: so we have a good poor group of people in

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Speaker 4: La in the Bay. We do a lot of meet

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Speaker 4: ups in New York, New Jersey, so we have like

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Speaker 4: little ambassadors, our students that have been with us for

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Speaker 4: a while in Chicago, and so it's really a lot

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Speaker 4: of people just looking to have that community. Especially in

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Speaker 4: the summer of twenty twenty in the pandemic, it was

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Speaker 4: a big spike and enrollment and the wait list because

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Speaker 4: we're isolated, we're at home, they have more time and

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Speaker 4: they feel even more isolated from maybe their kulthuna or space.

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Speaker 4: Is really coold practice, and so it was great to

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Speaker 4: have that virtual space. But we are also this year

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Speaker 4: and last year we've been doing more traveling as well.

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Speaker 4: We did a volunteer trip to Puerto Rico and we

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Speaker 4: invited our facilitators to come. We're doing a week long

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Speaker 4: trip in Mexico City with our students next month. So

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Speaker 4: we're really incorporating like emmersion cultural experiences now. So I'm

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Speaker 4: looking forward to that shift in the program a little bit.

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Speaker 3: That sounds super fun, because isn't it. There is a

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Speaker 3: key aspect of learning a new language is immersion, right,

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Speaker 3: So it sounds like you try to incorporate that experience

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Speaker 3: with your students.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely, And I think it's just another way to

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Speaker 4: go back to it's not just the language, like one.

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Speaker 4: Really highlighting that language doesn't make you anymore or less

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Speaker 4: than Like if it's Spanish, if it's not any Spanish,

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Speaker 4: if it's Spanglish, you are who you are already. You're

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Speaker 4: already whatever you want to identify as. And that same

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Speaker 4: goes with the pronouns LATINX and Latina, Like, no one's

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Speaker 4: forcing you to use a program, like you just identify

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Speaker 4: who you want. We want to respect that. It's same

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Speaker 4: with learning. If it's not the grammar classes, if it's cooking,

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Speaker 4: if it's dancing, if it's coming on a trip and

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Speaker 4: learning how to order true GROLs in Spanish, like, whatever

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Speaker 4: it is, we want to meet you there, so we

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Speaker 4: do book clubs. It's I didn't go to college, I

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Speaker 4: don't have that academic mindset. So for me, this program

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Speaker 4: is something I love because it's hands on. It's finding

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Speaker 4: people where they're at, and that's what makes it a

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Speaker 4: little bit different. Just validating us where we're are. Where

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Speaker 4: we are.

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Speaker 3: Love it.

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Speaker 1: I love that. That's so beautiful. So how can our

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Speaker 1: listeners learn more? How can they get connected with you

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00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:15,080
Speaker 1: if they're interested in rolling or learning more about your services.

432
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:18,200
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're just wrapping up our spring enrollment right now,

433
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:20,840
Speaker 4: so it's going to be open to the end of

434
00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:24,040
Speaker 4: the week. We're really excited about the new group joining us.

435
00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:28,200
Speaker 4: But you can visit Spanish snthena dot com. It's si

436
00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:32,560
Speaker 4: n pe n A seint Bena and that's our same

437
00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:34,720
Speaker 4: handle on social media all across the board.

438
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,680
Speaker 3: Beautiful Spanish sint Benna. Check it out. You guys, take

439
00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:41,359
Speaker 3: a class, go on a hike, go on a trip.

440
00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:43,159
Speaker 3: I like, I know you guys, you guys have been

441
00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:45,159
Speaker 3: hitting me up for a little bit about doing a class,

442
00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:47,760
Speaker 3: and I need to take a class, I really do.

443
00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:49,439
Speaker 3: Maybe this is the year I'm going to work on

444
00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:50,119
Speaker 3: my Spanish.

445
00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:54,119
Speaker 4: I know you're getting into your more like interviews and

446
00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:57,640
Speaker 4: things like that. So we have reporters, we have radio hosts.

447
00:23:57,680 --> 00:24:00,439
Speaker 4: We have all kinds of really cool people in our program.

448
00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:04,400
Speaker 4: They're so like yesterday Orientation we met some doctors, a biologists,

449
00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:08,000
Speaker 4: someone that works for NASA. Everyone's coming through so We're

450
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:08,919
Speaker 4: here when you're ready.

451
00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:12,120
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, thank you to so much for coming

452
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:14,280
Speaker 3: on the show and for everything that you're doing with

453
00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:16,920
Speaker 3: Spanish set Bena and for the community.

454
00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:17,760
Speaker 5: Thank you so much.

455
00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:23,240
Speaker 1: So thanks again to Jackie and Wendy for joining us

456
00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:27,080
Speaker 1: and talking about their organizations Spanish Saint Bena. So last time,

457
00:24:27,359 --> 00:24:32,399
Speaker 1: we asked our listeners to submit testimonials voice memos about

458
00:24:32,440 --> 00:24:36,639
Speaker 1: their experience with the Spanish language and being unsabokid, and

459
00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:38,520
Speaker 1: so we're going to hear from the remaining of our

460
00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:41,760
Speaker 1: listeners today and we want to thank them again for submitting,

461
00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:43,800
Speaker 1: for taking the time, for sharing a little bit about

462
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:45,920
Speaker 1: their history and their family history with us.

463
00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:50,560
Speaker 3: So first up, we're going to hear from Maria Lena Altani.

464
00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:54,000
Speaker 3: She grew up in San Francisco, and Maria Lena shares

465
00:24:54,040 --> 00:24:57,040
Speaker 3: her family's history with language violence and how that has

466
00:24:57,040 --> 00:24:57,720
Speaker 3: affected her.

467
00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:02,159
Speaker 7: Yeah, I had never heard the term Sabo kids before

468
00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:05,960
Speaker 7: y'all brought it up. Had just identified as a lifelong Pocha.

469
00:25:06,280 --> 00:25:10,359
Speaker 7: The reason oh I identify as Chicana. My mom is

470
00:25:10,359 --> 00:25:15,399
Speaker 7: a Chicana second generation. Her parents were both born in

471
00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:20,960
Speaker 7: Maco and migrated. Immigration laws were almost non existing then

472
00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:26,200
Speaker 7: their parents migrated in the twenties, late twenties, early thirties,

473
00:25:26,359 --> 00:25:30,960
Speaker 7: and they grew up in Merced, California and El Paso, Texas, respectively,

474
00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:34,480
Speaker 7: and they were both beaten in schools for speaking Spanish,

475
00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:35,919
Speaker 7: and this was deeply.

476
00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:36,520
Speaker 2: Traumatic for them.

477
00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:40,800
Speaker 7: And my mom and her siblings grew up in Merced, California,

478
00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:44,959
Speaker 7: in the Central Valley, and there were race rights at

479
00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:48,720
Speaker 7: their schools, and it was still legal to beat kids

480
00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:53,560
Speaker 7: for speaking Spanish, even in a very largely Spanish speaking community.

481
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:58,360
Speaker 7: And even though my parents my grandparents both had jobs

482
00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:02,560
Speaker 7: white collar jobs that utilized the Spanish fluency, they felt

483
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:06,280
Speaker 7: enormous pressure to assimilate and that led them to speak

484
00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:09,480
Speaker 7: primarily English to their children because, as I said, there

485
00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:11,560
Speaker 7: were still race rights that my mom's high school in

486
00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:15,280
Speaker 7: the sixties when she was growing up, and it was

487
00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:19,600
Speaker 7: still legal for them to be beaten. So my primas

488
00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:21,679
Speaker 7: and sister and I have just picked up Spanish on

489
00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:22,120
Speaker 7: our own.

490
00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:24,440
Speaker 3: My prima, who's a.

491
00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:29,440
Speaker 7: Doctor at UCLA, has trained in medical Spanish, but she's

492
00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:32,520
Speaker 7: Afro Latina and so people won't speak Spanish to her,

493
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:34,879
Speaker 7: even though she's the most fluent in our family.

494
00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:38,040
Speaker 1: Eighties. It also shares that her great grandparents moved to

495
00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:42,000
Speaker 1: the Midwest in the early nineteen hundreds. Her grandparents chose

496
00:26:42,080 --> 00:26:44,560
Speaker 1: not to teach their children Spanish because of the violence

497
00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:46,080
Speaker 1: that they witnessed.

498
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:47,120
Speaker 8: At the Sunna of.

499
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:56,199
Speaker 9: Immigrants from Mexico who moved to the Midwest in the

500
00:26:56,240 --> 00:27:02,280
Speaker 9: early nineteen hundreds. So my great grandparents and my grandparents

501
00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:05,200
Speaker 9: were born in the US, but some other older siblings

502
00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:11,520
Speaker 9: were born in Mexico, and my family comes from some

503
00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:17,280
Speaker 9: of the families who lived in rural Illinois to work

504
00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:20,000
Speaker 9: on railroads. They grew up in these communities on the

505
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:28,800
Speaker 9: railroads and lived in box cars and very much assimilated.

506
00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:33,280
Speaker 9: My grandparents didn't teach any of their nine children Spanish

507
00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:36,520
Speaker 9: because the story goes they saw the way that their

508
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:41,359
Speaker 9: siblings were mistreated and abused in schools for speaking Spanish

509
00:27:41,480 --> 00:27:44,280
Speaker 9: or for having accents, and so they didn't want that

510
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:47,639
Speaker 9: for any of their children. And so my father doesn't

511
00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:51,199
Speaker 9: know Spanish. I was never taught Spanish. And I just

512
00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:56,760
Speaker 9: want to shout out to every other descendant of immigrants

513
00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:02,080
Speaker 9: in the rural Midwest who have de assimilated and who

514
00:28:02,119 --> 00:28:06,719
Speaker 9: I've lost culture due to the violence of assimilation. It

515
00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:09,800
Speaker 9: was very lonely and strange existence for me, and one

516
00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:10,960
Speaker 9: that I'm still passing out.

517
00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:15,679
Speaker 3: Alissa Gonzalez Gastaanieva, whose family immigrated in the nineteen sixties,

518
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:19,800
Speaker 3: tells us about the internalized racism she witnessed from her auilita.

519
00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:23,320
Speaker 10: I am half Peruvian on my dad's side and half

520
00:28:23,359 --> 00:28:29,080
Speaker 10: white on my mom's side. My dad's family immigrated here

521
00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:32,520
Speaker 10: from Peru in the nineteen sixties, and now that I'm

522
00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:36,480
Speaker 10: an adult and I understand the landscape of what America

523
00:28:36,640 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 10: was like in the nineteen sixties, it makes total sense

524
00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:43,120
Speaker 10: why my family assimilated as.

525
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:43,800
Speaker 3: Hard as they did.

526
00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:48,560
Speaker 10: Every time I go to speak Spanish with somebody, especially

527
00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:51,520
Speaker 10: if they're a native Spanish speaker, I kind of freeze

528
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:54,920
Speaker 10: up in my body. Still now I'm almost forty, and

529
00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:58,840
Speaker 10: they still do this. I get nervous because, and I

530
00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:02,600
Speaker 10: know it's a lot of teasing and lighthearted joking, but

531
00:29:04,120 --> 00:29:08,040
Speaker 10: I feel insecure about my accent. I feel insecure, oh am,

532
00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:13,000
Speaker 10: I using the right verb tense, like even vocabulary just

533
00:29:13,080 --> 00:29:18,280
Speaker 10: kind of my mind blanks on certain words, and it

534
00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:22,640
Speaker 10: just kind of further keeps me from my culture and connection,

535
00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:25,960
Speaker 10: and I feel isolated A lot.

536
00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:29,960
Speaker 1: May Ramidez lives in Massachusetts but originally from Montabello. Shout

537
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:33,880
Speaker 1: out on one side, she's a fourth generation Californio and

538
00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:35,080
Speaker 1: she tells us about.

539
00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:41,840
Speaker 8: That my great grandparents migrated from Wahaca, Mexico to escape

540
00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:45,960
Speaker 8: the revolution and settled in that area that's now the

541
00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:52,320
Speaker 8: Ala County Jail in downtown La. My grandpa, my great uncles,

542
00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:56,760
Speaker 8: and great aunt went to school at Macy Street School

543
00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:01,600
Speaker 8: and where it was English only education, and where they

544
00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:06,480
Speaker 8: would the teachers would actually you know, incentivize the parents

545
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:10,320
Speaker 8: to also learn English by kind of bribing them with

546
00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:14,400
Speaker 8: credits to purchase at the store, you know, if they

547
00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:17,560
Speaker 8: would take English lessons at the school or you know,

548
00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:21,239
Speaker 8: and then they would let the children bathe in the

549
00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:25,240
Speaker 8: swimming pool that they had there only if the parents

550
00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:29,400
Speaker 8: practice English and you know, with their children.

551
00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:33,800
Speaker 3: And finally we hear from Kay Lopez of Latinas Borderosas.

552
00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:36,960
Speaker 3: Kay shares her experience growing up in Texas.

553
00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:42,000
Speaker 6: I do speak seventy percent Spanish and the twenty five

554
00:30:42,080 --> 00:30:47,320
Speaker 6: percent is very choppy, but it's been something that I

555
00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:52,120
Speaker 6: have now as a thirty year old, have embraced and

556
00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:57,280
Speaker 6: I'm trying to improve every day and challenging myself to

557
00:30:57,560 --> 00:31:03,719
Speaker 6: complete sentences in full Spanish. But growing up in Texas,

558
00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:09,040
Speaker 6: it was really confusing because at home I was only

559
00:31:09,080 --> 00:31:14,240
Speaker 6: allowed to speak Spanish, but then I was consuming English

560
00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:17,080
Speaker 6: content on TV and on the radio.

561
00:31:18,200 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 3: And then when I.

562
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:23,560
Speaker 6: Would go to school, I was too advanced for ESL,

563
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:29,680
Speaker 6: so I was placed in full English classes, and there

564
00:31:30,720 --> 00:31:35,440
Speaker 6: is when I quickly realized that it was not okay

565
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:39,880
Speaker 6: to speak Spanish. The teachers would put us in time

566
00:31:39,920 --> 00:31:43,120
Speaker 6: out if we spoke Spanish. I remember this one particular

567
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:47,720
Speaker 6: time I was talking to my friend who is Beduana,

568
00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:50,160
Speaker 6: and I don't know what, I don't remember what we

569
00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:54,000
Speaker 6: were saying to one another. We were like in third

570
00:31:54,040 --> 00:32:01,040
Speaker 6: grade maybe, and the teacher overheard us told us it

571
00:32:01,160 --> 00:32:04,280
Speaker 6: was not okay to speak Spanish because the other kids

572
00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:07,280
Speaker 6: were gonna think that we were talking about them, or

573
00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:09,920
Speaker 6: that we were cheating because no one understood what we

574
00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:13,680
Speaker 6: were saying. So I remember being put in time out,

575
00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:17,480
Speaker 6: like literally time out, sitting in a corner of a classroom.

576
00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:22,640
Speaker 6: I don't know for how long for speaking Spanish. And

577
00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:27,719
Speaker 6: then if I was caught speaking Spanish again, which I was,

578
00:32:28,160 --> 00:32:31,000
Speaker 6: I was put in time out during recess and time

579
00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:35,920
Speaker 6: out was literally standing against a wall, facing a wall

580
00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:39,240
Speaker 6: the whole time.

581
00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:44,080
Speaker 1: Thank you all for sharing your testimonials. Thank you to

582
00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:47,320
Speaker 1: our listeners for tuning in to another episode of look

583
00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:50,200
Speaker 1: at Otter Radio for learning about the history of language

584
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:54,360
Speaker 1: violence with us, for learning about also the solutions Spanish

585
00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:57,600
Speaker 1: seeing bena. If Spanish is important to you, it's an

586
00:32:57,680 --> 00:33:00,480
Speaker 1: important part of your culture to preserve. There are sources

587
00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:04,360
Speaker 1: out there for you to connect to reclaim, like Spanish seintpena.

588
00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:06,920
Speaker 1: Let us know what you thought of this episode, and

589
00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:10,400
Speaker 1: we also invite you to leave a speak pipe voice

590
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:12,840
Speaker 1: memo on our website at look at radio dot com

591
00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:14,920
Speaker 1: and you may be included in a future episode.

592
00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:18,440
Speaker 3: Make sure that you're subscribed to lok at radio wherever

593
00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:21,520
Speaker 3: you listen, share with the Prima, Share this episode with

594
00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:24,000
Speaker 3: your favorite chat they just might need it. Thank you

595
00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:28,120
Speaker 3: for tuning in to another episode.

596
00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:31,680
Speaker 1: Look at Our Radio is a production of look at

597
00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:35,920
Speaker 1: That Our Productions in partnership with Iheart's Michael Dura podcast network.

598
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:40,440
Speaker 3: For more podcasts, listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

599
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:43,000
Speaker 3: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

600
00:33:47,200 --> 00:34:01,680
Speaker 11: Befos look at Radio a radiophonic novelast by Mala Munios.

601
00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:02,680
Speaker 1: And THEOSSAF Fan.

602
00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:47,200
Speaker 2: Take us to your network

603
00:34:50,239 --> 00:34:50,439
Speaker 4: Sho