Nathaly Vasquez ENGL. 11000
11/23/2022 India Choquette

Language and Accent Discrimination Toward Latina/o Immigrant Students in New York Public Schools.

Dear immigrant Latino/a student,

I was once where you are right now. I once, too, had to walk into a building with many new faces, I felt so small in such a big building. I hope teachers are helping you as much as they were helping me when I arrived. However, just like every other Immigrant student you’ve had to go through some struggles and perhaps you’ve suffered bullying only because your family wanted a better future for you. I had to suffer bullying throughout my first years of middle school. I arrived to the USA when I was 9 years old, I started school just 2 months after I came here. Fifth grade wasn’t easy, although, just like me, there were many immigrant students in a bilingual classroom, there were many American-Hispanic students who didn’t understand what it was like to immigrate to a new place and leave a culture behind. Just weeks into my fifth grade I started to get bullied. Most of the time I didn’t understand what the kids would say to me because the basic English I learned wasn’t enough to understand their fluent language so I would just walk away and they called me weak because I couldn’t talk back, but of course that wasn’t the case I just couldn’t understand them. I felt very weak though, I didn’t know what to say back I didn’t know how to respond and I was very afraid to speak to an adult about this. I used to think maybe it’ll go away someday but it never did until I had the courage to speak to who is now one of my most favorite teachers of all the teachers I’ve had since I came here, I told her everything that was going on and we had a meeting with my parents and the girl’s parents. At the meeting my parents came, who didn’t speak not one bit of English and neither did I the basic English I had learned I could barely really understand what my principal and counselor were saying at the meeting. At this point I was really nervous because I thought they were going to blame me for everything that I had done because I also thought that I was the one to blame for everything but that’s not true, no child ever should feel like they are to blame for something like this especially the children that were brought here by their parents and it wasn’t their decision to come here, either way it’s a good thing to be here that’s what I thought in my mind when I was at the meeting. I remember back in my country I used to be one of the popular girls not because I was a mean girl or anything like that just because I was really social and my friends really liked me but here it was different I was treated like I was different but I could see in everyone’s faces- especially those Hispanic American children that were born here but their parents migrated- I could see it on their face I could see the way this they spoke and every sentence they would use a Spanish word in between for example they would say “I love your backpack esta muy Bonita” So I really didn’t understand what was the problem about me not speaking English , clearly they all knew and understood Spanish so I was really upset that they didn’t want to understand me. After the meeting everything went well, I didn’t get in trouble and the girls only got a warning which kind of did make me upset because it didn’t feel like they only should have gotten a warning perhaps they should Have gotten some sort of suspension but again my guilt came back and I felt like I was the one to blame so I thought just a warning was fine. Weeks went by and the girls wouldn’t really bully me anymore at least not at school. Every day when I went home I would receive messages from them asking them for my homework and if I had understood it and I felt like we were friends at least they would say “hey friend do you mind giving me the math homework for today?” and I did I sent it every night and it wasn’t just math homework it was science, English etc. either way, it felt good to do it only because I thought I was doing the good thing I thought I was just making friends. But I was wrong after sending them the homework a couple hours went by and it was night time still not bedtime but I went to my room and I would have my free alone time. During that time my “friends” would text me again but they no longer would be asking for the homework they would tell me how ugly I looked in school today and how ugly my shirt was and how ugly my sneakers were they would make fun of me how I only played with the boys and that I couldn’t play with the girls during recess. I was so confused because I thought they were my friends but little did I know that they were cyber bullying me at this point. Cyberbullying is no joke it really isn’t, it brought myself esteem so low at such a young age I don’t think it should even be a thing amongst schools, but people still do it and it makes me so sad that it mostly happens to students that were like me new and who didn’t know anyone here, who didn’t know the way around their school who had to use the map around the school because I didn’t know where I was going and I would be made fun for that. Don’t worry though, I did have a couple of friends in school I had to actually their names were Stephanie and Sarai. They would actually defend me against my bullies. Every time the bullies would text me they would text them back and say what I wanted to say they would translate in Spanish to English for me and text it for me. I got nervous again about speaking about this to an adult because I didn’t want to feel like a burden to them I didn’t want to feel like they had to make another meeting just for me I felt like that wasn’t fair for them so I didn’t say anything. I stayed quiet once again for months. Until 5th grade ended after that I got a new phone it wasn’t anything too fancy like they had because my parents had just started working but it’s OK I wasn’t so sad about it because my cousin who had actually been born here had the same phone as me. She was actually one of the most popular girls in her school, currently she is one year younger than me but I really wanted to go to 4th grade with her but sadly they bumped me up and I started in 5th grade just like I said. When 6th grade came around I had new rooms and a new teacher at least just for English this teacher did not speak Spanish like my older one I was super scared I was so nervous was going to get bullied now more than ever because I wouldn’t be able to understand the teacher so I asked my old teacher and my counselor to meet with me and they did and I told them about my teacher problem how I felt like I was going to get bullied again like in the past because of this teacher and I wouldn’t be able to understand her, so they told me to go back to my normal English class and they gave me three months to learn a little more English. At this point I had already learned a lot of English from when I started 5th grade until the middle of 6th grade, I had learned a lot actually I spoke it very fluently and I didn’t have a heavy accent like most immigrants just like now I sound normal or at least what most people call normal. At some point I grew courage to speak to my former English teacher and tell her that I was getting cyber bullied every day when I got home so she checked my phone and she saw all the mean and rude things and pictures my friends send to me, she would see the rude comments that they would make of me and she got really mad so she made another meeting with My counselor, the principal, her and the bullies with me and my parents And their parents as well. This meeting went better than last time their parents were really upset at the fact that they were doing this because they wouldn’t like it if their child was being bullied so they apologized both the girls and the parents to me and my parents. The girls got in school suspension for two weeks and they had to do all their homework with extra homework from every class. I felt a little happy because they also got their phones taken away so it meant that they couldn’t threaten me or be mean to me anymore through their phones.
My point here is that if you ever go through something like this or your friends or someone you know even a family member to not be scared to speak up about it especially to adults who you can trust and who you know that can help you. Also don’t be ashamed of where you came from Or how you came here just be happy that you are here and that you are able to complete all your wishes and dreams alongside your parents and family members. I hope this inspired you to be a better student and a better person in life and to be kind and help others who can’t speak up for themselves.

Wishing my best, Nathaly Vasquez

Works Cited

Vasquez, Nathaly. Language and Accent Discrimination Toward Latina/o Immigrant Students in New York Public Schools. 20 November 2022