Read more: http://thepointsguy.com/2015/12/visit-these-small-towns-in-mexico/#ixzz3xFD3kiQX
I wasn’t craving cherries much, but I just wanted to support my people.
“Hold on, I’m gonna’ go get me some cherries.” I said to my friend, and then approached the cherry-stand, and in Spanish said to the woman, “4 Crates, please.”
The woman looked down to face her daughter, which was when I realized that the woman didn’t speak Spanish, so her daughter was her translator.
Immediately, judging by the sound I identified that the tongue they spoke was Nahuatl, either that or something very similar.
Suddenly a Caucasian guy wearing a Hawaiian t-shirt & sun glasses, he approached, and in a heavy-accent he said to the woman in Spanish, “Give me 2 crates, and I hope you’ve got change for a 100, otherwise no deal.”
The woman looked down, but her daughter was having trouble translating the entire thing, so I pulled out some change, and said to the guy, “I don’t think they understand Spanish too well, but it’s cool. I got you. Here!”
The guy seemed very puzzled, took my money, and handed me his 100, and while he began to snicker & nod his head, he said, “Unbelievable: You learn these people’s language to try to communicate with them, and then come to realize they don’t even speak their own language. What the hell do they speak then!”
So I say to the guy, “They are NOT Hispanics, Spanish is NOT their language. They speak a Native American language, which they should since they are Native Americans, and we are in America so we should be speaking their languages.
You didn’t learn their language, nor any of the American languages for that matter. In fact, what you speak is English, and what you learned is Spanish, which are 2 European dialects, so technically you learned 2 languages from your European homeland, so don’t get frustrated because you are in a people’s land and they can’t understand what you say. That’s your fault, and not theirs, since you came to their land, and not the other way around.”
The guy takes a step back, and says, “Hey, don’t attack me, sir. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
So I said, “I wasn’t attacking you, nor did I raise my voice, or use any hurtful words. I simply educated you because you seem very misinformed.”
“I thought they were Mexican?” He awed.
“They are Mexican, and so am I.” I smiled.
“I thought Mexicans spoke Spanish?” He said.
“Some of us do, but not all of us. And just because we speak it, it doesn’t mean that it’s our language, it just means that we were colonized by Spanish speaking Europeans, just like Native Americans from the U.S. are colonized by English-speaking Europeans, and that’s why Natives in this country speak English.
All of the original people from this continent: Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Peru, Guatemala, and the rest of us who you consider to be immigrant foreigners, we’re actually Native Americans, meanwhile the immigrant foreigner is you.” I explained gently, and smiled too so he won’t take it as an attack.
“That’s just very disrespectful to call me an immigrant foreigner, more so coming from someone who looks illegal. I’m an American.” He growled.
“Well, now imagine how we feel knowing that we are indigenous to the continent, yet you people come from Europe, call yourselves Americans, as if you’re the Natives, and then you depict us as the immigrants. Whenever the world thinks of immigrants and whenever the media shows immigration problems, it depicts & shows me and my people as the immigrants. Native Americans are depicted as immigrants, meanwhile European descendants, like you, as Americans. What’s is going on?
You’re not an American, you’re just a European who happened to be born in America, meanwhile these people here are the actual Americans.”
He displays an angry face, looks away from me, hands the woman some money, grabs his cherries, and says, “Excuse me!” and then goes on his way.
“Take care, dude, thanks for the chat.” I smiled, waving goodbye.
Finally I grabbed my crates of cherries, and in Nahuatl I said to the woman, “Quezqui inin quen tlazoti?” Her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped, and then her daughter giggled and in Spanish said to me, “20”.
I handed the woman the money for the 4 crates of cherries, and then she says in her poorly-spoken Spanish, “Gracias, muchacho.”
I looked into her eyes, and said, “Tlazocamati ye niauh ma xi pactinemi.”
Her face quickly brightened up, and she displayed a huge smile.
I looked at her daughter, winked at her, and then she shed this huge smile, one of the most beautiful ones I’ve ever seen in my life!
My people, man… I love them!
Post by Ricardo Ignacio on Facebook via Jaimi Kaurix Rodriguez. Thanks for the share, Jaimi!
Thank you for sharing this with us. Things like this need to be placed on billboards all across this nation and the translation of words spoken given as an incentive for all of us to learn the language of the Natives of this land. Even though my people were trading with the Natives before Columbus got lost and stumbled upon this land, I do not know the language nor do I know the language of my great grandmother which is Cherokee! I would love to learn these languages and teach them to others so that we honor and respect those whose land has been usurped by all of us!