Should I take offense? Que piensa?

Many of you know that one of my life-long goals is to be able to speak Spanish completely fluently.  Yeah, it's a modest goal compared to what so many others have been able to achieve in their lives, but still, it's one of my top personal goals, and I'm having fun working at it.

Actually, I'm getting pretty close, maybe 70 - 80%, but I still have a ways to go.  (As a side note, my daughter is now very good with her Spanish skills - better than I am in grammar and vocabulary at least -and we converse and text in Spanish all the time.  That's fun -- and about the only way I can get her to answer me! ;-)

I was fortunate to attend a rather progressive public school system in upstate New York where I began studying Spanish is sixth grade.  And I continued to study on through my first year in college.

I was also fortunate that my family set up a private exchange through my Dad's work at GE with a Mexican family in Mexico City.  Their kids stayed with us over the years and my brothers and I each spent a summer with them down there.

And then there was the formative summer I spent in San Jose, Costa Rica, working for a missionary.  That's a whole other story in of itself (i.e. how it started my eventual falling away from the religion), but I did get pretty good with my Spanish.

So I should have been able to achieve my goal of total fluency long before now.  But yeah, we get sidetracked in adult life, don't we?  Well, so what, it's now been a steady onward progress over the past five years or so.

A great assistance in my effort to improve my Spanish is the Hispanic population's tendency in general, at least in my experience, to be very patient with those of us who attempt to speak Spanish.  I've ended up saying some rather comical things in my attempts.  Like "How are you sitting down?" instead of "How are you feeling?"  But my Latino friends just laugh, graciously correct me, and genuinely appreciate that I at least try. 

Contrast that with my experience at attempting French. I am sure there are exceptions, and I do not wish to promote unwarranted stereotypes, but I think it's pretty safe to say that the French are less tolerant of those who imperfectly attempt speaking their language.

So, with that all said, you maybe can better understand why I listen to Spanish radio while driving around town.  We have about five such stations here in the Baltimore / Washington DC area.

I have found this to be a great way to improve my Spanish skills.

One of my favorites is listening to the morning news program, "Calentando la Manana" (Warming up the Morning), on Radio America, 1540AM based out of Wheaton, MD.  I really like the host of the program, Alejandro Carrasco.  He not only is very intelligent and an excellent interviewer, but he has succeeded in establishing himself as a good representative and yes, leader, of the growing Latino community here in the DC/Balt region.

And I also like him because he enunciates very well, and that makes it much easier for me to understand him.  I understand that he is from Colombia, and that many of the on-air personalities of the Hispanic world are from that western equatorial region of South America.  Their accent is a easily understood throughout the Spanish-speaking world, much like many of the American on-air personalities have traditionally been from the MidWest. (eg. Tom Brokaw, Jane Pauley, David Letterman, etc.)

So, with that said, let me relate what I heard on the "Calentando la Manana" show recently.  There was an ad for legal services that ended with the tag, ". . . Es Roberto, no es Robert.  Es un latino."  Translated that says, "His name is Roberto, not Robert.  He's Latino."

Hmmm, granted the station's audience is almost exclusively the Latino community.  And granted, it has been a solid tradition in our American history for minority and immigrant communities to rely on their own members for strength.  I mean, we see it in the growing Korean immigrant communities. And yes, we even have religious groups, like evangelical Christians, marketing their services among each other via custom telephone books and directories.

But I really have not been comfortable with such advertising.  I mean, advertising that one's business speaks Spanish is one thing, but something about blatantly saying in an ad that your name is "Roberto and not Robert" seems offensive to me, especially now in the 21st Century.

I mean, what about the many North American lawyers who advertise on the same station who also are fluent in Spanish.  Is the lawyer Roberto saying that just because he is Latino that he can represent the community better than Robert?

What would be the reaction to an ad on the English-speaking newsstation WTOP that said: "My name is Jack White, not Juan Blanco . . ."

So yes, I think Alejandro (again, for whom I have great respect) and his team should consider having "el abogado Roberto" revise his ad.

But ok, yes, maybe I am being too narrow-minded about this.  What do you think?  I open to being convinced that I am blind to a certain perspective.  I welcome comments below.

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