Growing up in a Mexican neighborhood in Texas and having attended a predominantly Mexican school, where everyone spoke English or a version of Tex-Mex, which was more Tex than Mex, no one gave any thought as to why Mexicans did not speak Spanish.
Later, living in East Los Angeles in the early 1960s, I encountered the same situation. Except there was no Tex-Mex, and everyone seemed to speak English. I met my first wife, Esperanza, at the Lido Ballroom on the Long Beach Pike, just south of Los Angeles. The Lido was a well-known ballroom in the heart of the amusement zone, drawing a mostly Latino audience from Los Angeles. This was before Long Beach became “Little Mexico.” At that time, it was filled with mostly elderly Caucasian people driving around town on golf carts. Esperanza spoke English and only a few words of Spanish. She had grown up in San Antonio, Texas, but spoke only Spanish at home, never at school or on the street. Esperanza’s mother told me that she encouraged the children to speak English to avoid being ridiculed at school.
Today, there are millions of Latinos in the United States who cannot speak Spanish. While my family’s experience reflects patterns common among Mexican Americans, similar stories can be found in other Latino communities, such as Puerto Rican and Cuban families, who also faced pressure to abandon Spanish due to discrimination and societal expectations. To understand why many Latinos stopped speaking Spanish in the US, it is necessary to look back to the 1800s. When states such as California, Arizona, and New Mexico, which made up much of the western United States, became part of the country, discrimination against Mexicans became widespread.
After the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe, the US agreed that Mexicans who remained would be considered US citizens and would retain their lands. However, just a few years later, states like California rewrote land laws, forcing Mexican landowners to reclaim their property in court. This process was lengthy, often forcing landowners to sell their land to pay accumulated court fees.
These early acts of exclusion and the targeting of Mexicans created an environment in which their culture and language were viewed with suspicion or as inferior. As discrimination increased, speaking Spanish became associated with social disadvantage, setting the precedent for later generations to distance themselves from the language in order to avoid prejudice. This pattern of bias laid the foundation for language loss among Latinos in the United States.
Despite these historical trends, research highlights additional factors in language loss among Latinos, revealing a complex interplay of policy, societal attitudes, and generational change. Scholars such as Richard Alba, Rubén G. Rumbaut, and Alejandro Portes have documented that linguistic assimilation is strongly shaped by US educational and governmental policies. For decades, most public schools in the United States enforced English-only instruction, with punitive measures for using other languages. Children caught speaking Spanish could face detention, corporal punishment, or public shaming, reinforcing the stigma associated with the language.
The Bilingual Education Act of 1968 marked a turning point by providing some support for native-language instruction, but its implementation varied widely and was often underfunded. In 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act shifted the focus back to English proficiency, further marginalizing bilingual education programs. As a result, many Latino children received little formal support for maintaining their heritage language at school.
Sociological research, including studies by the Pew Research Center, finds that while nearly all first-generation Latino immigrants speak Spanish at home, this number drops to about 73% in the second generation, and to just 17% by the third generation. The rapid pace of language loss is not unique to Latinos; similar patterns have been documented among Italian, Polish, and German immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
More recently, research also shows that Asian immigrant communities, such as Vietnamese and Korean Americans, experience comparable shifts to English across generations, reflecting the ongoing impact of assimilation pressures faced by many groups. However, some scholars argue that anti-Latino discrimination and persistent stereotypes have made the pressure to assimilate even more acute for Spanish speakers. At the same time, there are important exceptions to this overall trend.
For example, some Latino communities, such as recent immigrant enclaves in cities like Miami and San Antonio, have found ways to maintain Spanish across several generations, often supported by strong local Spanish-language media, community organizations, and frequent ties to countries of origin.
Multigenerational families who live close together or within neighborhoods with many Spanish speakers also have higher rates of language retention. These examples show that, while language loss is widespread, it is not inevitable when families and communities are able to actively sustain Spanish in their daily lives.
According to the Pew Research Center, a growing number of Latino families in the United States are adopting English as their primary language, with 71 percent of Latinos ages 5 and older speaking English proficiently as of 2024. This shift is influenced by socioeconomic factors, including the belief that English fluency is important for professional success.
Research also suggests that intermarriage with non-Spanish-speaking partners and the absence of Spanish-language community institutions accelerate the shift to English. These findings indicate that language loss is not only a response to direct discrimination but also to structural and cultural forces embedded in American society, making the retention of Spanish across generations a significant challenge.
Families and communities who wish to sustain Spanish can take steps such as making time for regular conversations in Spanish at home, participating in cultural celebrations that prioritize the language, and encouraging children to read Spanish books or watch Spanish-language media.
Forming or joining community groups, bilingual playgroups, or heritage language classes can also offer a supportive environment for practice and connection. These strategies help create opportunities for meaningful language use and can strengthen inter-generational ties.
The political situation in Mexico during the early 1900s led many Mexicans to migrate north, which benefited US employers by providing a cheap labor force. Despite employer demand, most European Americans were not welcoming. Mexicans were banned from white establishments, subjected to lynching, and faced segregation not only in neighborhoods but also in schools. Speaking Spanish was associated with being uneducated and lazy, though this prejudice did not extend to Spaniards who were perceived as white.
According to the Library of Congress, during the Great Depression, hostility toward Latinos increased as many European Americans accused Mexicans of taking jobs—a perception that still exists in some parts of society today. Around two million Latinos were forcibly deported to Mexico during this period, 60% of whom were US citizens. This history serves as a warning that such practices can recur, as anyone who appeared Mexican risked deportation, regardless of citizenship.
According to Iliana Yamileth Rodriguez, discrimination against Spanish-speaking communities contributed to a decline in the use of the Spanish language among Mexican Americans, as many families chose not to speak Spanish at home or teach it to their children to avoid negative attention.
Even in more recent times, some parents focused so intensely on learning English to avoid discrimination that they neglected to pass on Spanish to their children. For instance, a family member who had lived in California for a long time advised relatives not to teach their children Spanish, insisting that English was essential. I recall my aunt saying, “I just didn’t want my kids to struggle as I did. At school, if you spoke Spanish, you got in trouble or laughed at. I wanted them to fit in and do well.” Many parents avoided teaching their children Spanish to protect them from the discrimination they had faced.
Today, attitudes toward Spanish and bilingualism in the United States are beginning to shift, especially in diverse urban areas. There is growing appreciation for the benefits of speaking more than one language, and programs promoting Spanish-English bilingualism are spreading in public schools.
For instance, in New York City, the Department of Education has expanded dual-language Spanish-English programs to more than 120 schools as of 2023, serving tens of thousands of students. Similarly, districts in Los Angeles and Miami have seen rising enrollment in bilingual programs, reflecting broader demographic changes and a recognition of the value of bilingualism.
The American Councils Research Center has conducted studies on dual language immersion programs in the United States, including a 2021 survey. While enrollment in Spanish dual-language programs has shown growth, some communities still hold negative stereotypes, and Spanish speakers may experience bias or face pressure to assimilate.
Despite these obstacles, younger generations are increasingly reclaiming Spanish as an important part of their cultural identity, suggesting that the legacy of language loss is now being challenged by efforts to celebrate and maintain Spanish in everyday life.
Looking ahead, many experts predict that Spanish will remain widely spoken in the United States. According to research by Ruy Manrique and Ted Mouw, the continued use of Spanish among U.S.-born Latinos is strongly influenced by the extent of Spanish use in their metropolitan and neighborhood communities. This suggests that strong community networks and environments where Spanish is commonly used can help retain the language among new generations.
