I went out this weekend to get my tourist on. I took a cooking class in the quarter with a bunch of people from Minnesota. It was funny to watch them choke on semi spicy jambalaya. They all looked pretty hung over so it’ll probably help them sweat out the poison.
Anyway, the instructor gave us her opinion on the Latinos coming to New Orleans to do the rebuilding work. It was along the lines of, “If they come to this country they should learn the language.” Usually this doesn’t bother me. I can understand why people think this. Usually they don’t know that Latinos are following the normal trend of three generations of language competency.
But in this instance it is the Latinos who are rebuilding this city. The reason why the few houses that are livable have been repaired is b/c of these Latinos. So when they aren’t busy working 10 to 15 hour days in horrible heat and humidity I guess they are supposed to be taking ESL classes. That would be nice if the fucking contractors and homeowners who they work for would pay them. Then they could maybe afford to take the classes.
So besides that pissing me off, and I won’t even get into how lazy the people who live here are compared to the Latino day laborers, she had just described her family history.

Apparently they were some of the first Acadians to come down to Louisiana. So her family has been down here at least since the late 1700’s. She then talked about how her grandma never learned English and you could tell she thought it was charming. Her ancestors lived here when the Spanish held Louisiana and when the Americans bought it. But they still spoke French. They didn’t learn the language or assimilate to either of the dominant societies.

The obvious dichotomy of standards for her family and the standard for Latinos was what bothered me. Why is it okay for her family to not have learned any of the languages of the nations they lived in except for French? Why, when her grandmother lived here her entire life, should she not learn English but the Latinos who showed up to help rebuild should. She probably would have said this had nothing to do with race but when it comes down to it the new immigrant groups are being held to a completely different standard. The only real difference between these two groups of immigrants is race. The attempts of Latinos to form a better life are held to only be deserved contingent on their ability to first learn a language. Her ancestor’s flight was romantic even though they stubbornly refused to assimilate. Both groups are Catholics, both want to build a better life for their families, and both groups were not proficient in English when they first arrived. What is different about these groups besides race? That the Cajuns were here before the U.S. bought Louisiana doesn’t work if you apply the same standard to the Mexicans who lived in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. I find it hard to believe that race isn’t the basis for the difference in treatment.

When this happened I was in this class full of tourists. I started to argue with her. Then I stopped and let it lie. I was angry but I swallowed it. My rational was, “Why should I make everyone else feel as uncomfortable as I feel now.” Some may have agreed with her but others might not have. Maybe I should have, these tourists are all going to eat at restaurants that are run behind the scenes by Latinos and stay in hotel rooms that are cleaned by Latinos. They should realize where their privilege comes from. But if they don't stay and spend money or go home and say they had a bad vacation it won't help the people here, and that's why I'm here.