Tejanos

In the Washington Post article I quoted below, San Antonio (Tx) Congressman Charlie Gonzalez was quoted on his own difficulties with the Spanish language.

He is the son of the late, legendary representative Henry Gonzalez, who was the son of Mexican immigrants who did not speak much English. Henry Gonzalez spoke beautiful Spanish, as well as English, according to his son.

“Dad was just horrified as my Spanish deteriorated,” Charlie Gonzalez says.

“People expect if your name is Gonzalez that you can speak Spanish. It’s always going to be a source of kidding.”

He can laugh about it. The voters in Gonzalez’s majority-Hispanic district in San Antonio understand. The Spanish of their grandchildren is disappearing, too. This is what happens. They’ve elected Gonzalez five times. “This is a shared experience,” the congressman says. “The degree of proficiency in Spanish varies from generation to generation.”

It’s been raining back in Charlie Gonzales’ home town. San Antonio is sometimes said to be the most Mexican city in the United States, and it is, though sometimes you hear almost as much English as you would in Cancún or San Miguel del Allende. In the Alamo City, it seems that Mexican immigrants (and their descendants) struggle mightily to maintain their Mexican-ness, one way or another…

Leo Garza, © Express-News.net

Leo Garza’s ‘Nacho Guarache’ embodies the humble everyman, serving as a foil for the events of the day. He was named ‘Nacho’ after a favorite elderly relative of Garza’s and ‘Guarache’ because Garza thought it would be fun to hear people struggle to pronounce the word.