Amy Barrientos writes a reflective essay on her struggles as a Non Spanish speaking Latin American woman. Barrientos goes on to explain the typical stereo types she had experienced though out her life including in her childhood and adult education and social acceptance with the Caucasian among many other races and Latin communities including the struggles she faced as a Latin American woman who didn’t clearly speak or understand the Spanish language. She later realizes from a friend that many people from different cultures don’t understand their country’s native languages, not all Italians speak Italian nor all Poles speak Polish.
This article gives us information about the racism and stereo types we perhaps unknowingly give people based on appearance and we set a standard on what they might comprehend from us or what we will comprehend from them. I don’t, however, understand after the extent Barriento’s has gone and continues to go through to understand her Spanish speaking roots and yet to become more fluent in the Spanish language, possibly theirs a lack of a desire to communicate clearly do to the extent of criticism Barrientos received from both sides of the language barrier.
Amy Tan, writes a reflective essay on her perception of the Englishes she uses in her daily life, in her work, and with her own mother whom speaks more of a “broken” type English, Tan feels that in this term itself one may think of the limited English speaker as having perception.
