STORM2K

I was having a discussion with a friend of mine last nite and we got to the topic of spanish language in the US and made me think is the Spanish influence in the US just in certain areas or isn't it exactly categorized by area or state?

It's spoken all over the U.S, but South Florida I've been told it's spoken very widely.

Practically everywhere in the US.

My wife sometimes speaks 'Spanglish' with her Dad and his family, who came from Mexico. They switch back and forth between Spanish and English during a conversation. I think that happens a fair amount in Texas and the other border states. I believe away from Florida and the border, outside of areas that have migrant farm workers, Spanish is fairly rare outside of the cities.

Getting back to my wife's family, people from Mexico that came here legally, followed the rules, and became US citizens generally assimilate pretty quickly, and on my wife's mother's side, third and fourth generation Americans of Mexican ancestry, most can't speak Spanish.

All the southwest of the US was once part of Mexico along with Texas. Many people in the area didn't cross the border but the opposite, the border crossed them. New York has a ver large population of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, along with other Spanish-speaking people from several countries in Latin America. New Jersey has a large population of Cubans that left the island during the first years of Castro's regime. It also has a lot of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. Florida has a mix of everyone, but in South Florida Cubans dominate! After Castro's arrise to power in 1959, several waves of immigration toward Florida allowed Miami to evolve into a metropolitan city in which almost every high-ranking official (major, senator, congressperson) is Cuban. You can say that Cubans like politics a lot.

Moreover, Cubans are the only persons that if they touch US ground they become instantly residents and if they want, citizens. The law "dry feet, wet feet" enacted during the Clinton administration allows any Cuban to become residents just by touching US land. This is because Cuba's current political situation. I think it's not far, because I have seen many countries in the Caribbean and Latin America that its people are even more poor and suffering more and they are turn away when they reach the US.

When I looked at that map I saw Mississippi at 1.4% and immediately questioned the number. Then I saw the date 2000.

In a good portion of the US. We have many Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican and Dominican Republic immigrants in our country. I hear a lot of Spanish spoken here in NJ.

Right here in Lakeland Fl we have Spanish speaking people. The make up of the local school where I am the crossing guard is at least 35% Hispanic, 25 % white and 40% black going by what I see when the kids leave school in the afternoons. I even have Hispanic neighbors that live several houses down from me. When I moved to this street, there were no Blacks, and no Hispanics in the neighborhood.

I hear Spanish all over the place. You can't even call a business these days without hearing Spanish as well.

we don't really hear Spanish too much up here in Canada, but being the most cosmopolitan big city that Toronto prides itself as, if you take a walk downtown for 10 minutes and just listen, you will hear languages of all sorts being spoken by people. It astonishes me sometimes. Toronto has a huge Asian population as well, and they talk different dialects of Mandarin and similiar type languages, im not even sure.

but being such a multi-cultural society, you hear various european languages as well, and french of course. Most of the people i know apart from english talk at least another language. I have a friend from Poland that speaks fluent Polish. Freinds origianlly from Quebec that speaks fluent French. Co-worker from Russia that speaks fluent Russian. and so on and so on. I used to work with a lady from South America (Argentina) and she spoke fluent spanish, she taught me a lot (ok, minds out of the gutter people) haha but seriously our first spanish word i know from her.. arranita (spider) haha dont ask me why. i used to know this other guy from Venezuela i think he was...also spanish speaking.

I know this isnt even the topic , since you asked about spanish in US, but i had to share, plus i know you for a lonng lonnng time Mark, so i know i can get away with this

-justin-

Spanish widely spoken in Texas and states that border Mexico. As Ed Mahmoud pointed out, Hispanics who are more than second generation do not speak Spanish. Texas has many Hispanics who are third and more generation, which are referred as Tejanos. You see a lot of them in San Antonio, Corpus Christi, East Texas, and small towns. Many of these Hispanics are married into German and Czech families. I have many friends who are part Hispanic.

Dionne wrote:When I looked at that map I saw Mississippi at 1.4% and immediately questioned the number. Then I saw the date 2000.

If I recall, there is a Hispanic population in St. Bernard Parish.

Ptarmigan wrote:As Ed Mahmoud pointed out, Hispanics who are more than second generation do not speak Spanish.

Unfortunately many Hispanic come to the US and when they learn English, Spanish is forgotten through the generations. Fortunately we Cubans are different. I know a lot of Cuban-Americans that are third and fourth generations that their first language was Spanish and then English. I'm always very proud of my roots and Spanish will always be my native language and when I have kids, they will learn Spanish. Today Hispanics are the largest minority in the US, which means that if you know English and Spanish, you have a better chance of getting good jobs.

I also know a lot of Cubans that came during the first years of Castro's regime to the US and they still don't speak English. I don't recommend this but I understand that many Cubans believed that their stay in the US would just be temporary. Fidel is still there and these Cubans are still here. Like I said before, I'm very proud of being Cuban and Spanish is a beautiful language that will always flow out of mouth. At the same time, I'm very proud of being an American and I will never be able to pay back to the US everything this country has offered me.

I'd say it is slowly becoming the dominate language in parts of the SW US.

An enormous amount of people speak it up here. Strangely, only about half of them are Hispanic. Spanish classes are very popular in my area.

If you go to New York City,the spanish speaking people are way up in number.In fact,only people from Puerto Rico account for over 1.8 millon in the city alone.Also thousands of Cubans,Dominicans,Mexicans,Venezuelans,Argentinians,Brazilians and Centralamericans also live in the city.

Was in San Diego last month and in the community near the Mexican border, San Ysidro, you rarely hear English spoken among the predominately Mexican population there.

Here in SE Virginia there are a great many Spanish speaking people. Some come from Mexico and many others come from Puerto Rico or other areas in the Carribean. I might add that all speak at least some English.

Wow, I'm learning Spanish in China

Great to see you back, Mark!!

Anyways, where I am, Spanish is widely spoken. I'm learning a little Spanish Language myself.

Gee, Spanish is widely spoken here in Philadelphia as well as parts of NJ that I go to.