How cosmopolitan is New York City? Apparently more languages are spoken in London, but New York is still the multicultural mecca. To what degree do communities of different cultures that live and work geographically close to one another in the Big Apple actually communicate with each other? In this essay, I take a closer look at the dimensions and limitations of New York as the “world capital” and “melting pot.” I also explore to what extent coexistence in New York leads to unity or divisions, and the role that language plays in that process. Furthermore, I discuss whether we can understand other countries through the immigrants that represent them among our population here.
English as a lingua franca facilitates communication, yet not everyone here speaks English. And, as is obvious to translators and interpreters, the concepts and shades of meaning of other languages, not to mention the cultural experiences of those who speak them, are often lost when foreign-language speakers switch to English.
Being fluent in Spanish has been a great asset to me, and having lived for an extended period in Latin America has proven just as valuable for understanding my Spanish-speaking neighbors. But these credentials don’t necessarily give me a passport to live the Latin American experience in New York City. Although knowing that language improves my access to the respective cultures, many Latinos prefer to speak to me in English over Spanish, which in some cases is a barrier to communication. There is complex etiquette regarding when to use the language of non-native English speakers. In some cases, a higher standard will actually prevail for gringos speaking Spanish in New York than would apply to them speaking Spanish in Latin America, since the Spanish speaker can often change over to English here.
Chinese culture in New York is even more inscrutable to outsiders. Most everybody in New York eats at Chinese restaurants. But even those who shop in Chinatown every week and have thereby gained substantial knowledge of Chinese grocery items and cuisine will find the Chinese communities of our city impenetrable without thorough knowledge of Mandarin or Cantonese and having lived in Asia. Learning one of these languages, of course, could easily be a 10-year project, so just how close are we in fact to the experiences of Chinese New Yorkers as residents of our metropolis without their languages? What part of their country do they come from? What language do they speak? What social strata do they represent in their home country?
Although I do not know Chinese, my knowledge of Latin America, Spanish, and the Latin American cultures of New York City has taught me the answers to some of the same questions above as they pertain to Latinos, in and of themselves a vast and diverse group. For example, I know that after implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), there was a major influx of Mexican campesinos to New York City, mainly from the state of Puebla in south-central Mexico. I know that the Colombians who live in New York, who are a substantial population, especially in Queens, stand out with a large contingent from the urban middle class in Colombia. Traditionally, the Dominicans in New York City have predominantly come from the north of that country, and only more recently did generalized immigration from the rest of the country occur. Many Ecuadorians have immigrated to New York City in recent decades, most of whom come from the southern provinces of Azuay and Cañar. In my experience, most are villagers but say they are from the city of Cuenca.
We take information of this kind for granted about people from backgrounds similar to our own, but it can help us connect with our neighbors and colleagues. Natives of the respective linguistic backgrounds will be well aware of these and many more details.
The activism that I have done on the issue of the free trade agreements between the United States and Latin America has greatly contributed to my familiarity with the Latino communities in New York City. Like any political organizing, this effort has been an arduous process. But it has taught me a lot. It has led me to believe that understanding our multifaceted city is a monumental task, an endeavor longer than life. An obvious hurdle that I have faced at times is the mistrust among some Latino activists vis-à-vis gringos.
But I understand now that this is just one of many divisions, and being a gringo doesn’t make me special. One archetypal division that exists within the Latin subcontinent and is perhaps felt more acutely in New York is that between the Caribbean and the mainland. But divisions within the Colombian community and divisions within the Dominican community are notorious – not to speak of the rifts between the first and second generations, between those who prefer Spanish and those who prefer English within the Latino communities.
This brings me to another rift: that between the adopted country and the country left behind. Manhattan’s Chinatown, as I understand it, is a country of its own. As immigrants inevitably distance themselves from their homelands, both geographically and mentally, their culture adapts, even if they never actually assimilate to “American culture.” Their culture transforms into a new culture distinct to New York City, a subculture that does not exist in their home country.
Since Dutch speakers usually cannot tell that I’m a non-native, they almost always speak to me in Dutch and treat me like an insider. This allows me to more directly share their experiences, but they also lead a lifestyle that is intrinsically linked to the U.S. When I speak to Dutch and Germans in the U.S. in their own languages, I often feel like they are allowing me to partake in their adventure, since they usually live in this country for excitement and for professional development as opposed to out of economic or political necessity.
My experience has been that bilingualism is a myth, which suggests that having a foot in both worlds is virtually impossible. It appears that as Latin American immigrants gain command of the English language, their fluency in Spanish deteriorates. The few who maintain a level of proficiency close to perfection virtually never have native command of English. I can think of perhaps one or two truly bilingual individuals that I have met in my lifetime – at least as far as I knew both of their languages. There are those who use Spanglish, but that can be considered as much a weakness as a strength. Speakers of this hybrid appear to draw on vocabulary from one language because they lack it in the other. In the end, Spanglish will never rival the refinement and precision of Spanish or English.
Of course when it comes to different cultures understanding one another, there is an even more fundamental issue than language: the willingness to accept other cultures and ethnicities at all. Despite our country and especially our city having a rich tradition of immigration that persists to this day, we also have a legacy of racial, ethnic, and sectarian intolerance and violence. One doesn’t have to dig too deep into our past to find examples. Let alone the South’s hooded Klansmen, New York City abounds with examples of police violence against African-Americans, Africans, and Latinos. Two recent examples of many are the cases of Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell. There are also more than enough examples of hate crimes against Jews and Chinese. The case of Ali Kamara, a Black Muslim from Liberia, attacked for racial motives on Staten Island on the election night of our first African American president, aptly captures this duality of diversity and bigotry. The intolerance of Islam by American fundamentalist religious groups has led to repression and discrimination of Muslims here at home, not to mention that it’s driving our wars in the Middle East and has been shaping our image abroad, particularly under the Bush administration.
When I have spoken to Canadians about New York’s so-called melting pot, they have insisted that Toronto and Montréal are both more authentic melting pots than ours, since the varied cultures of those cities interact much more, and the Canadians receive immigrants with open arms. In the U.S., we do not have real integration. I have found it hard to refute this argument. Nonetheless, I see beauty in the autonomy of our city’s cultures. There is something fascinating about the fact that Salsa artists and New Yorkers Héctor Lavoe and Henri Fiol – veritable heroes in much of Latin America and the Caribbean – at least until recently went unnoticed to most New Yorkers. Some say that Salsa was born in New York.
To me, Salsa in New York and the culture behind it that created it represent one of the many cities that co-inhabit Gotham while largely remaining strangers to one another, almost as though the lack of communication in this case foments culture. We are fortunate to live in a city where such disparate realities can coexist. Yet, I believe that it couldn’t hurt for us, as New Yorkers and as Americans, to recognize that there are cultures and realities that are not present within the boundaries of our city or our country. Just because we have such a wide spectrum of cultures here does not mean that there is no other world beyond New York or the U.S. And, as I said, I don’t believe that any New Yorker is capable of experiencing the cultures of every ethnicity present in the city in their entirety. We as linguists ought to be the first to understand that.
Originally published in The Gotham Translator.
Leonard Morin 