Interpretations of a Bilingual Life

About a month ago my husband and I decided to watch a foreign flick. It’s one of our favorite things to do together. This time the movie that was delivered (Netflix) was La misma luna. Apparently, I added it to my queue. I didn’t know what to expect. The summary mentioned that it was about Mexican immigrants in the US. Sounds almost like a cliche right. I’ve seen several movies with the same theme, so I wasn’t too excited about it, but I thought who knows.

We had been watching the movie for about 20 minutes when I noticed how many questions Marcus kept asking me like “Whats a huerco?” There a few other words or phrases he asked about like “ya mero” or “ni modo.” He proceeded to comment on how he thought it was interesting that we hadn’t heard any English, yet. Thats when I actually turned to him and said, “You know what? I hadn’t even noticed.” I realized then that all the other Spanish-language films we had watched, mostly from Spain, I instantly would adjust my ear a little to the Spanish accent, the Spanish sayings, and the tone of the language. It felt really good to listen to a Spanish that was mine. One that my ear didn’t have to adjust to. One that I was familiar with. One that I didn’t even know I was missing. One that I didn’t even know had trained my ear to be familar with AND this is very important you see because of the huge disconnect I feel as a bilingual and bicultual individual living in the US, but still not part of the majority. I’m in the middle somewhere.

So, now I wonder how many times have I rejected MY Spanish because it wasn’t hmm “good enough” without realizing that it is MY Spanish that makes me who I am….bilingual & bicultural.