Justin Delgado is identified as Latin. His parents are Porto -Rickeys and he grew up visiting the island. On 21 -Yuny, with dark hair and eyes, he does not speak Spanish with fluency.
Delgado is one of the thousands of people, usually children or grandchildren of Spanish speakers, who have been called “Child and I do not know”. The term is a game of words, which has its root in the wrong way of saying “I do not know” in Spanish. The correct form is “I don’t know”, of the irregular verb “know”.
Muriel Gallego, an assistant professor of linguistics applied to Spanish at the University of Ohio and a Spanish native speaker, said that “no sabo” began as an insult, but that shame has become more acute identity exams and what a Latin or Latin person does.
“This humiliation for not using appropriate Spanish will change as generations move away from the grandparents or the first generation that became completely monolingual,” he said. “I think most of the humiliation comes from there. Great generations, grandmothers, aunts saying,” Oh, you don’t know. “
The term “I do not know” may have begun as a degrading insult, but many Latin ones change the narrative and use it as a badge of honor. Only Tiktok has more than 67.4 million publications under the term “I do not know the child”. “When they say” I don’t know, “they think it means non -culture,” but this is simply true, “Delgado said.
In fact, according to the Pew Research Center of 2021, “72% of North Hispanic -Americans or older spoke only English at home or spoke very well English, compared to 65% in 2010”.
The experience of each person to learn another language is different and that of Delgado is no exception.
Her mother was born in Puerto Rico and her father’s family was part of the great Migration Porto -Rican in New York City.
Born in Georgia, Delgado moved to Ramstein, Germany, when he was 3 years old because his father was in military service. When his father was active, Delgado spent most of his time with his mother, who only spoke Spanish.
“In that sense, my mother did not know English,” she said. “And at that time, when she was very young, she and I started learning English together. Instead of teaching -ME Full Spanish, he said, “We both have to learn English” because he is alone.
They continued to move until the family landed in Virginia, near Arlington. The diversity of the city prompted him to try to learn Spanish in high school, reinforced by an inspirational trip to Puerto Rico to see his family. “They said, ‘Man, you have to learn Spanish.’
“I needed to connect with my roots,” he said.
Last summer, Delgado completed a practice in Quito, Ecuador. Before going to Ecuador, Delgado said that he and his mother were delighted to have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a Latin culture during the summer and practice his Spanish.
During his stay at Ecuador, Delgado worked with Comciencs, a multimedia organization dedicated to disseminating information on social and environmental problems. He collaborated on video production projects and photographs in La Selva Amazon.
Delgado not only learned skills to promote his professional development, but also immersed in a Latin culture 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Delgado said that his co -workers criticized him a bit for his Spanish, but always from a love perspective.
“I was called” the boy did not know “, and at first I thought,” What face Io? “But then I realized that they did not say it with bad intent because this is who I am,” he said.
Translated by Damaris Pérez Pizarro