A Name and Language 50 Years Later

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Rosa Cavazos and I’m calling from Karn City, Texas.

Welcome, Rosa. What can we do for you?

Well, I just have a little story to share with you.

In 1962, in the town that I was born and raised in, all Mexican-American children in the town of Karn City, we were all segregated into one class in school. And we were told that we were going to be in the zero grade.

Now, most of us were six or seven years old at the time, and as students, we were forbidden from speaking Spanish, and we would get in trouble for speaking Spanish. It was pretty much total immersion for us as we became assimilated into the American way of life. And many of us had Spanish-speaking names.

And the teacher went down row by row and met with all the students. And many of us, she changed our names to either American or English names. She could not pronounce my first name. My first name was Yodula. And she asked if she could change it to Teddy. And I told her no. Then she asked if she could call me by my middle name of Rosa, and I agreed.

So your first name was?

It still is. It’s still the La. But since then, I have gone by Rosa.

Can you spell that name for us?

T as in Tango, E as in Echo, O as in Oscar, D as in Delta, U as in Uniform, L as in Lima, A as in Alpha.

Sounds like you’ve spelled that many times before for people.

Yes, many times.

So you still go by Rosa because of the decision of this one teacher.

Correct.

And how did you feel about being assigned a different name?

Because it was my middle name. I was okay with it. But nobody at home called me by my middle name. They do now because it’s been so many years.

The philosophy being that by Americanizing your names and forcing you to speak English, that you might incorporate into the larger society better.

Correct.

And do you regret that? Did you retain your Spanish-speaking abilities?

Well, interesting that you should ask that. I have. I maintain Spanish and have spoken it all the time. Stationed in Spain for four years. And surprisingly enough, I came back to my hometown after serving in the Air Force for over 37 years. And I am currently the eighth grade Spanish teacher.

Fantastic. It all comes around, doesn’t it?

Yes, I’ve come pretty much full circle.

And so when people from Spanish-speaking heritage come into the school now, what happens?

Well, interestingly enough, we now have English as a second language. There’s classes that are, I believe, being taught bilingually. In my particular class, I couldn’t give them total immersion in Spanish. I would lose them all. So I’m slowly having to, you know, go back to the basics. And the basics are learning how to pronounce the letters in Spanish, learning how to pronounce the numbers in Spanish. So it’s a very slow process.

And, you know, we did have a cultural lesson last week. And I told them, I asked them, okay, this is how it was like speaking Spanish in the past. This is how it was viewed before 1969. And I asked them, you know, how is speaking Spanish currently viewed? So they had to ponder on that. And I gave them the example, well, you’re in a Spanish class. And I also asked them, you know, how will Spanish help you or others in the future? We talked about job opportunities, traveling, being able to communicate in more than one language.

So when kids come to the school now and they speak Spanish as a first language, they find themselves accepted for who and what they are.

Yes. Cultural competence has come a long way around here. And yes, Spanish speaking is allowed, you know, it’s not frowned upon like it used to be.

I’m thinking about one fact that surprises people once they start to study linguistics as a whole, which is that monolingualism, speaking just one language, is actually rather rare. And most of the world speaks more than one language. Americans who are monolingual are unusual.

Yes.

And especially when I had the opportunity to travel the world, especially in Europe, everybody knows at least two languages.

Yeah, at least.

Yeah. So what we’re seeing here is kind of a restoration of the American language scene to what the rest of the world has long been doing, right?

Yes.

Well, Rosa, thank you for calling and sharing these memories. These are really great to hear about and talk about.

Yeah, and it’s interesting the distance that we’ve come in accepting people from other cultures and knowing that they, too, are a part of the larger American fabric.

Yes, it’s about time that we say it’s okay for you to have your own identity and your culture, and we’re going to accept you as you are.

Yeah, be here with us as you are, and we will enjoy living together.

Thank you so much, and I appreciate giving the opportunity to share my story with you.

Of course. Take care.

Thanks, Rosa.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

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