Some Spanish speakers wary amid anti-immigrant sentiment

PHOENIX — Until recently, Lilly Mucarsel has spoken Spanish just about everywhere since arriving in the United States from Ecuador three decades ago. She raised three daughters who also speak Spanish and are passing on the tradition to her American-born grandchildren.

These days, the 62-year-old Southern Californian finds herself shifting to English when she attends a baseball game or goes to a restaurant with her husband to prove that yes, she knows that language too, and to avoid the nasty looks she gets while conversing in her native tongue.

“I notice more now with this current government that people are more impatient and there’s more of a lack of understanding,” said Mucarsel, of Anaheim, Calif.

“When you speak Spanish, they automatically judge you thinking you don’t speak English, and that is a huge ignorant idea.”

Speaking something other than English in some public places also can risk drawing unwanted attention, as evidenced recently by widely viewed videos of a rant by a New York lawyer against restaurant workers and a Border Patrol agent in Montana questioning people for speaking Spanish.

In that May 16 encounter, the agent told Ana Suda and her friend he wanted to see their IDs because he overheard them conversing in Spanish, and he deemed that suspiciously rare in her hometown of Havre, about 30 miles from the Canadian border. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said the episode is under review, but noted that agents have broad discretion to question people.