I am a woman of Latin American heritage who was born and raised in the United States of America. For most of my life l have been working through many layers of language liberation and oppression.
MY STORY
My parents’ first language was Spanish. My mom was the first generation born in the United States. Both her parents came to the United States from Mexico as young adults, fleeing the devastation after the Mexican revolution. My father grew up in Puerto Rico and migrated to the United States as a young adult. I was born in the 1960s in Detroit, Michigan, USA.
My parents made a decision that many U.S. immigrants and first-generation people make, which was to make their home an English-speaking home and not teach their children Spanish. They wanted to help us assimilate into the dominant English-speaking culture of the United States. Doing this meant that my sisters and I wouldn’t have accents or be targeted by language oppression in the way that my father was. It also meant that I couldn’t speak with my beloved grandparents who spoke minimal English. I spoke minimal Spanish, just enough to answer the phone when they called or ask for some milk or juice.
In spite of the language barriers I loved spending time with my abuelos (grandparents), and we used a mixture of our limited second language skills and a lot of pantomime to communicate. When I got to high school, I made a decision to reclaim Spanish so I could write letters to my abuela, who lived in Michigan (USA). My beloved abuela died while I was in high school.
I kept learning Spanish, eventually majoring in it in college. This was a big step and one that changed my life in many ways. Being in college opened the doors to much of my heritage and history. It connected me with information about the history of Latin America, colonization, and my people. It allowed me to be connected and have relationships with so many more people, my people.
It’s also true that Spanish is a language of colonization and was imposed on some of my people. I continue to discharge on my Native heritage and face what has been lost through the imposition of Spanish in both Mexico and Puerto Rico.
I had a chance to study in Spain for a summer while in college—yet another layer of learning about some of my roots. Another step in my language journey was receiving a fellowship to work in Costa Rica for a year, where I got to push my Spanish language skills forward even further. I got my first taste of a powerful RC direction from my sister Nanci, who introduced me to RC around that time. We were in the Miami airport waiting for my flight to Costa Rica. I was scared of not knowing enough Spanish, making mistakes, and looking stupid in a professional setting. I remember sitting with my sister as she gave me the direction, “I love making mistakes,” in a delighted tone of voice. I remember repeating it over and over, both at the airport and that entire year.
LANGUAGE LIBERATION IN OUT RC COMMUNITY
I’ve shared my story because I think it is important to understand why I would want my RC Community to be more accessible to Spanish-speaking people and why there needs to be an active language liberation team in Oregon (USA). Spanish is Oregon’s most spoken language next to English, with roughly nine percent of our state speaking Spanish in the home.
Our RC Community (in Portland, Oregon), like many around the United States, has been pretty [quite] white and exclusively English speaking. Also, the Latinos/as in our RC Community have all been fluent English speakers.
Most of the Latinos/as in our Region are bilingual in both English and Spanish, but many do not wish to participate on an interpretation team for reasons that are complex and unique to each person’s experience. It is important not to assume that because a person’s first language is Spanish, and they are bilingual, they want to interpret or are good at it. Many people whose first language is Spanish carry lots of hurts around speaking and interpreting Spanish as a direct result of racism and language oppression. The job also requires a level of fluency, confidence, and attention that isn’t for everyone.
My husband is a Mexican immigrant who speaks Spanish. He is learning English and is getting closer to being fluent. I taught him RC one-on-one for several years. Eventually we found our way to a fundamentals class. Because the class was taught in English, I interpreted for him. During the class we used practices that are used by RC worldwide, such as twenty minutes of talk and then one minute of attention and silence.
Building our Spanish-speaking community
Our fundamentals class continued as a mixed fundamentals and ongoing class, and we started to build our Spanish-speaking community within the RC Community. We teach our Spanish-speaking friends RC and invite some of them to the bilingual ongoing and fundamentals class. Our class is now primarily Latino/a, and fully bilingual. We have two to three interpreters who rotate that job throughout the class.
When it was time for our 2015 Area workshop, our Area Reference Person fully supported having it be bilingual. I organized the other Spanish-speaking Co-Counselors (who are white) to interpret. There were four of us. It was a success and a “first” for our Area. The two newer Spanish-speaking Co-Counselors attended and loved their first RC workshop, one that was fully accessible to them.
What has worked best
We have found it works best to have “up-front” interpretation. This has been agreed to and supported by our Area Reference Person. Up- front interpretation slows down the rhythm of the workshop and allows everyone time to absorb the information and be aware of any feelings that come up. Workshop leaders and participants agree that the slower pace allows them time to think and process, but it does cut down on the amount of content a leader can communicate. Our interpreter team is also able to do whisper interpretation (the interpreter whispers while the leader is speaking).
The interpreter team meets before a workshop along with the Spanish-speaking Co-Counselors who need interpretation. This has helped the team and the Spanish-speaking Co-Counselors be connected, get closer, and build our relationships, and it helps make the workshops a more welcoming space for the Spanish speakers. It’s also an opportunity to share some language liberation theory, talk through our plan for the workshop, and discharge together.
Our interpreter team of eight people now functions state-wide. Whenever possible, we use technology, primarily Google “hangouts,” to enable interpreters who don’t live in the Portland area to participate in our meetings.
We always evaluate a workshop after it is over. We gather feedback from everyone on the team and from the Spanish-speaking Co-Counselors via e-mail and a Google document. We ask what went well and what we could improve. These evaluations, especially in the first few years when we were all new and learning this from zero, have helped us figure out how to make this work go well.
I have to say, I am now quite comfortable making mistakes of all kinds, including mistakes speaking Spanish.
An RC Spanish-English glossary
One of the interpreters comes from an RC Community in California (USA) that has had longer and deeper language liberation experience. She knew about an RC Spanish-English glossary and got us a copy. The glossary has been helpful because most members of our team are not native Spanish speakers. We continue to add to and enrich the glossary as we increase our language skills and knowledge. We have created templates in Spanish for workshop agendas, job lists, and so on. All these tools and resources are available in a Google folder that is accessible to the interpreters and all Oregon RC leaders. We want these tools and resources to be readily accessible to any RC leader in our state and not just reside in my head or in the heads of the interpreters. I hope this will make it easier for others to step into my role of language liberation leader in the future. One of my goals in writing this article has been to share these resources so that all RC Communities know about what we’ve learned. Area Reference Persons are welcome to contact me for access to these tools and resources: ritaj65@yahoo.com.
A support team
Another vital part of this work is having support. I have had an organizer. Also, at each workshop there is a support team for interpreters and another for the Spanish speakers. As we’ve deepened the work, our interpreter support team has become a treasured part of it. It is a good contradiction [to distress] that we don’t do this on our own [alone]. We have seasoned members who enjoy being on the team and have excellent attention. Knowing we have support team members who “know the ropes” [are experienced] and know how interpretation works has made each workshop go better.
RC Literature
A recent Present Time article encouraged Co-Counselors to share how RC literature supports their Co-Counseling and re-emergence. For me, RC literature has been fundamental. I am grateful that there are excellent booklets and articles about interpreting, and I have used and shared them with the team. The literature and the experienced interpreters’ knowledge has guided us every step of the way. Articles by Xabi Odriozola, International Commonality Reference Person for Languages and Interpreting, have been essential for learning about language liberation.
Before every workshop that is interpreted, the organizer sends an e-mail to all participants with links to two articles: one on language liberation for Native English speakers and the other on the “minute of silence.” Everyone attending such workshops needs to be thinking about language liberation and oppression. The Heritage journals [journals about Native liberation] have also been useful. From them I have learned more about the intersection of language liberation and Native liberation and about discharging on the loss of language and on assimilation and genocide.
Challenges
I would not want to gloss over the difficulties and challenges. One is that we do not always have enough resource to support language liberation in places where it is needed. For example, the two active Spanish speakers are men, and our interpreters are primarily female. This means that men’s liberation support groups and workshops aren’t interpreted most of the time. Because the men have some knowledge of English, leaders have used the one minute of attention every twenty minutes for the Spanish speakers, and minute of silence, to help these events go better.
Another difficulty arose when white English-speaking Co-Counselors formed a monthly support group to discharge on learning Spanish. This happened without consulting me and at the same time when I was struggling to get the support I needed to organize and lead language liberation. Our Spanish-speaking Co-Counselors (who are working class and learning English) were not getting RC Community support to help them discharge on learning English. It wouldn’t have occurred to them to even ask for it. The resource devoted to white Co-Counselors learning Spanish was restimulating for me and other Latinos/as. Their group dissolved after I explained that we needed to prioritize resource for Spanish speakers and language liberation.
While it is important that English speakers learn other languages and use sessions to discharge on it, I do not believe it makes sense to invest the RC Community’s resource in that learning. I think we should focus our Community resource on People of the Global Majority, particularly working-class people.
Overall, my Community and Region have embraced this focus with support and love.
INTERSECTION WITH OTHER RC GOALS
Language liberation intersects with and supports the RC goals of stopping climate change, eliminating racism, and supporting Native leadership. In the Americas people of the Global South are the most impacted by climate change. Many Global South leaders are fighting to protect the environment. Some people are migrating northward due to the impacts of climate change (among other reasons). RC Communities in the United States need to be thinking about how to be more accessible and welcoming to migrants, many of whom are Native. Language liberation work as well as work on racism, genocide, and Native liberation are essential for ensuring that all people have access to the vital healing tool and resource of RC for liberation.