Anti-immigrant feeling has some Spanish speakers wary

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

These days, the 62year-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. “When you speak Spanish, they automatically judge you thinking you don’t speak English, and that is a huge ignorant idea.”

Being multilingual in the U.S. brings advantages such as job opportunities and social connections. But 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 of a Border Patrol agent in Montana questioning people for speaking Spanish.

It’s not just Spanish; native speakers of Arabic, Farsi and many Asian and Indian tongues have long had to make the personal choice of when to stray from English. But some Latinos in particular feel that the Trump administration’s harsh rhetoric and tougher policies toward immigrants from Mexico and Central America have helped turn unwelcome glances into open hostility.

“The bottom line is anti-immigrant sentiment is now a part of mainstream discourse. It is not only present in barrooms, in the heartland — it is present at press briefings in Washington,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

For many, speaking Spanish isn’t an option but a necessity to communicate with immigrant parents, grandparents or friends who don’t know English — or know enough to get by but feel more comfortable in their own language. For others, it is a choice — sometimes deliberate, and sometimes the barely conscious tug of a language they’ve always known.

Chris Carlson / Associated Press Lilly Mucarsel, a native of Ecuador who lives in California, finds herself reverting to English when she is out in public to prove that she knows the language.