Spanglish

Estoy segura que todo el mundo ya sabe que mi especialidad primaria en la universidad es espanol.

I don't identify as "Mexican" because I'm not, my family are mestizos, but not from the territory currently known as Mexico, they are from the territy formally known as Mexico, we are a mezcla of indigenous blood and somehow, some way, our last name became Garcia. Self-identifying as a Chicana, I take pride in the languages that I speak. Those languages right now are English and Spanglish. I don't feel comfortable saying that I am a Spanish speaker and I probably never will, but that won't stop me from speaking it.

Today en class, we had to hold a soccer ball and say what our insecurities were. I said, "Hola, me llamo Renae, soy de San Jose y soy Chicana, a veces, solamente cuando yo hablo espanol, no cuando yo hablo ingles pero, a veces tengo verguenza porque no puedo hablar con fluidez, no estoy timida en ingles pero en espanol, estoy muy timida."

One Mexican girl and one Columbian girl said that they were ashamed at the fact that English is seeping into their command of Spanish and that they thought Spanglish was ugly.

This was comical to me, because I think my Spanglish is beautiful, and my reason is because of the total opposite, I am proud that Spanish is seeping into my English. So I may not sound the most professional or sophisticated when I say, "Como like...", but, I adore my Spanglish because Spanglish describes my experience in this country.