Zócalo's Connecting California
Is California losing touch with Español?
This may come a surprise, but the Spanish language is on the decline in California. İQue lastima! says Zócalo columnist Joe Mathews. He says losing Spanish means turning our backs on a fundamental part of our state's heritage and identity.
By Joe Mathews • • 4m ListenSpanish was California’s first official language and millions of state residents still speak it. But the numbers are shrinking as fewer immigrants from Latin American countries enter the United States, and those that are here assimilate more with each generation. Zócalo Public Square columnist Joe Mathews says Spanish occupies an important place in California's history, economy and culture, and that we ought to be doing more to make sure that it doesn't disappear like so many other languages spoken by immigrants who came here.
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