Not all latinos hablan espanol

Dear El Gabacho,
I appreciate your trying to be politically correct regarding what to call us olive skinned, primarily from the south of the border and southwest of the midwest. Although, I must remind you that many of us do not speak our native tongue as well as some of you gabachos do. Don't feel bad, we will usually tell you if you have offended us or playfully laugh at you behind your back. We don't always know what to call ourselves either on that crazy census report, so we call each other names like compa, chica, bro, hija, girl, betty, primo and sometimes (when one has done a bad thing) more colorful names that sound much more fun in spanish than in english. Also, I am working on the population growth within our "population" (because many in my extended family are averaging 4 births as opposed to 3).

-Srta AR

Querida Srta AR,

Thank you for bringing up a great point. Not all Latinos speak Spanish. I remember when years ago I met a Latina co-worker and I started speaking Spanish with her until she cut me off, explaining that she didn't speak Spanish. When she was growing up, in the 60's, there was a tremendous fear that Latinos would not integrate or learn English, so her parents purposefully did not speak to her in their native Spanish tongue, and instead, spoke only the English that they knew, relying on the schools and her peers to teach her the rest. Now she only speaks English , albeit with a beautiful Mexican accent, but does not speak her "native" Spanish. I wonder what her padres would think if they knew El Gabacho was speaking only Spanish to his hijo?

Gracias also for bringing up the reproduction rate of your hermanos y hermanas in the US. Latinos average 3 hijos per family while the birth maintenance rate is 1.9, partly contributing to the relative growth of the Latino population in the US.