Pablo is Paul, Maria is now Mary

By Juan R. Palomo

Anriss Gazielle. Destiny Marie. Samuel Joseph. Jonathan Michael. Samantha Alexus. Frankie Joseph. Marc Anthony. Ryan Andrews. Nathanial Alan. Gabriella Elianna. Alyssa Lauren. Paul Anthony. Lesly Anahi Rea. Avery Leah.

These are all names found in a recent birth announcements column in the Austin newspaper. Except for the few odd spellings, there is nothing notable about these all-American names. Except that the last names that go with them are Duran, Montoya, Botello, Portillo, Rios, Romero, Velez, Flores, Campos, Marmolejo, Salazar, Vasquez, Alvarado and Gomez.

Out of the 23 births listed to Latino parents, only four had traditional Spanish names. A few years ago, I would have ranted about the Americanization of Latinos in this country, about how parents were eager to ignore the rich and beautiful Spanish names of their parents or grandparents, names I remember from my childhood days in south Texas.

Today I tend to lend a bit more tolerance toward such things, though I still find myself cringing when I hear of another set of Latino parents naming their child Yvette or Kyle. And I still believe we are losing a bit of our soul when we turn our backs on the colorful and meaningful names that were good enough for those who came before us in favor of the sanitized and often meaningless names we see today.

And, perversely, it even gives me some pleasure to see all those names. They tend to undermine the big lie perpetrated by immigration opponents and English-only proponents that this county is in danger of becoming "balkanized," with half of the country speaking English and the other half speaking, thinking and acting in Spanish.

What the name choices demonstrate is what many of us have been arguing for some time: That Latinos in this country have every intention of assimilating, just as every wave of immigrants has since the founding of this country. The assimilation process may appear to be taking a bit longer because of the proximity of our lands of origin (and because immigration from those lands continues to this day), but it's happening. It's simply an ongoing process: As soon as one generation enters the American mainstream, a new generation of Latino immigrants arrives to replace it.

Yes, many of us retain our cultural ties to Mexico, Puerto Rico or wherever we or our parents came from. And yes, many of us take great joy in the music, food and customs from those countries. But the overwhelming majority of children and grandchildren of immigrants will sooner or later be as American as apple pie. Or as Destiny Marie.

I offer my family as an example. My parents, who arrived here illegally from Mexico in 1920, never learned how to speak English. My siblings and I speak mostly Spanish when we're together, although that Spanish is more often than not sprinkled with Spanglish. To the next generation, however, we speak mostly English and when we talk to them in Spanish, they respond in English. And that generation's children look at us blankly when we address them in Spanish. In short, whether we like it or not, the once thoroughly Mexican Palomo clan is being swallowed up by the great (and not-so-grand) melting pot. And this is in deep south Texas, a mere 40 miles from the Mexican border.

The same thing is happening everywhere. Listen to the complaints of an executive of one of the Spanish-language U.S. TV networks: "You've got mom and dad watching the telenovelas (Latino soap operas) and the kids in another room watching Moesha and Married with Children and Seinfeld."

Robert Bellah, the noted UC-Berkeley sociologist, recently told a group of religion scholars that the U.S. English movement is "a joke" because it does not take into consideration the fact that most Latino immigrants tend to forget Spanish by the time the third generation comes along. He expressed similar disdain for those forecasting a dreary future for America as a result of a perceived increased emphasis on multiculturalism.

"Not only are we exposed from infancy to a monoculture, we are exposed to it monolingually," he said. "The cultural power of American English is overwhelming and no language, except under the most unusual circumstances, has ever been able to withstand it."

Politically, the attempts in the 1970s to create separate, race-based political parties are long dead and today are nothing more than archival curiosities for historians. Even the historical hold on Latinos by the Democratic Party is coming to an end as assimilated Latinos find a more comfortable home in the GOP.

So where is the danger? There is none, and the sooner the English-only and the anti-immigrant and anti-bilingual-education and anti-multiculturalism crowds get over their xenophobia, the sooner we all can move toward solving some of our truly pressing problems.

Juan R. Palomo, a member of the USA TODAY board of contributors, is managing editor of The Salt Journal in San Marcos, Texas. He can be reached at www.thesalt--journal.com.

To comment

If you would like to comment on editorials, columns or other topics in USA TODAY, or on any subjects important to you: Send e-mail for letters to the editor only to editor@usatoday.com. Please include address and daytime phone numbers so letters may be verified. Letters and articles submitted to USA TODAY may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.

• Go to Opinion front page

Front page, News, Sports, Money, Life, Weather, Marketplace

©COPYRIGHT 1998 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.