A New Generation of Latin Americans Rediscovers Spanish in the United States
Data from the latest U.S. census confirm that a new generation of Latin Americans is working to consolidate Spanish as one of the languages of the future on a competitive market.
Not too long ago, HBO launched a campaign consisting of 34 spots starring Hispanic immigrants that have recently arrived to the United States along with second and third generation Hispanics who speak English and know only a bit of Spanish (the latter alternate between Spanish and English). This was HBO’s way of resolving a dilemma: how to attract young people who don’t want to watch TV in Spanish because they consider it a language too far from their own world while also bringing in their parents, who generally do not consider HBO among their favorite channels because its programming is in English.
The HBO dilemma will continue, and it should be assessed from other perspectives in the future. Second and third generations of Hispanics have become a growing – and increasingly influential – majority in which bilingualism is growing, though English is still the stronger tongue. This is an urban population born in the United States with a Latin culture that allows it to enjoy either The Simpsons or a Latin American soap opera on Univisión or Telemundo. These Hispanics are the treasured target – the consumer-spectator-reader-user – that U.S. media and announcers are after. This is especially so considering an important fact revealed by the U.S. Census Office: the number of households in which a foreign language (especially Spanish) is spoken in the United States has increased by eight million since 2000.
The fact that marketing strategies to attract audiences are going Latin is evident, and media companies are exploiting the gold mine of this new generation of Latin Americans. Announcers do their best to reach this new public, which feels as comfortable reading and speaking in English as it does in Spanish.
Cable TV channels have also realized how influential this emerging population can be. This has led channels like MTV to replace MTV En Español with MTV Tr3s (known as MTV 3), which aims to attract Hispanic viewers aged 12-34. Its goal is to reach 15 million homes, taking advantage of the fact that even though the new generation of Latin Americans (born in the U.S.A.) speaks English, they are still proud of their heritage and they feel a certain sense of difference based on their Hispanic culture and the use of Spanish.
MTV considers that the Latin American population aged 13-19 will grow by 62%, compared with the 10% increase expected from the rest of the population.
This concern over these recent demographic changes has even led public television to consider the creation of V-me, a television network dedicated to the Latin American population that dwells in the key cities of the United States and which offers a mix of programming for kids and adults with an educational component.
If 'El Quijote' had been published in the XXI century…
If Cervantes had written El Quijote in the XXI century, he may have been able to increase the presence of Spanish on Internet and in the field of science and technology, two areas where Spanish is notably lacking. Currently only about 72 million Hispanics have Internet access (the majority in the United States - 26 million, in Spain – 14.3 million, and in Mexico – 12.2 million), compared to the 295 million English speakers, 110 million Chinese speakers and 33 million French speakers who are online.
In addition, the volume of Spanish language contents on Internet is much lower than it should be based on the number of users who speak this tongue: 4.6% of websites are in Spanish, a ratio of 0.58 pages per Spanish speaking user, which is much lower than other languages such as French (1.23) or German (1.25).
Experts warn that the Spanish language is in grave danger due to the threat of the so-called ‘digital gap,’ which jeopardizes the knowledge society and could pose a threat to economic development. According to the director of the Real Academia Española, Víctor García de la Concha, "Spanish does not have the recognition it deserves within major international organisms as a diplomatic language, not considering the great number of Spanish speakers there are."
A Survivor in a Language Cemetery
U.S. Spanish is no longer a second-rate language. Experts consider that the Spanish language may have a U.S. market niche in the near future. According to Alberto Gómez Font, coordinator of the Fundación del Español Urgente (Fundéu, the Foundation for Urgent Spanish), Spanish has already become important both culturally and economically. "As the Hispanic population develops businesses and founds companies, the Spanish language advances as a cultural language and as an economic asset."
