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Assimilation is not always a good thing. I'm glad my Korean-American friend's parents didn't assimilate their culinary tastes when they cooked us up batches of delicious Kimchi, leaving me contentedly stuffed for the rest of the day.
I'm glad that a group of Indian students at my university eschewed baseball for their native cricket, even though I am a die-hard baseball fan, it was enjoyable to learn a different sport.
I'm also glad that some readers support the Bonanza's Spanish-language page and didn't totally assimilate their culture for our own.
Don't get me wrong - I understand that a firm foundation in English is essential for education and commerce in the U.S. I don't deny the need for residents to have a firm grasp of our language.
On the same token, I think that our judgment should be reciprocal. American communities abroad are served by English-speaking newspapers, though few Americans would accuse them of not assimilating. Just do an online search for any major foreign city, followed by "English-speaking newspaper" and see how many you come up with.
But when a paper in an American community adds a Spanish-speaking element, locals go up in arms.
They disregard the fact that the homes they live in and the services they expect demand labor supplied by the Hispanic community. They forget that some Anglo-Americans won't do the work that Hispanics will for the same pay.
Mostly though, they forget that it's just nice to have a slice of familiarity in life.
Maybe the people who demonized the Spanish page never ordered a burger in another country, or stayed in a village hut instead of a large Americanized hotel. Maybe when they go to work in another country they strictly speak that nation's language and follow its customs, though I doubt that's true.
A bit of comfort is nice for everyone. Especially the worker who may have struggled with their English all week, dealing with clients and the demands of an English-only American workplace. Maybe it's nice for them to unwind with a drink or dish popular with their culture and read a page in the Bonanza written in the language they are most comfortable with.
Is it wrong for someone to not totally assimilate? To not take the paper with a beer on their front porch, gazing out at their 2.5 children and Golden Retriever playing in their fenced-in yard?
Last I knew America was great for its diversity. Great for a Danish (Holland) in the morning, a couple of tacos (Mexico) at lunchtime and tortellini (Italy) for dinner. Add on that fortune cookie (China) for dessert and wash it all down with coffee (Saudi Arabia), voila (France), you've got an All-American day.
So where is the difference, why are readers coming down so hard on an attempt to reach out to the Spanish-speaking community? Americans loved that Sandy Koufax took a day off from the 1965 World Series to observe Yom Kippur. We love when Al Pacino's Michael Corleone turns to Robert Duvall's Tom Hagen in "The Godfather" to tell him that he and his associate are going to speak in Italian. They even love Dirk Nowitzki, the German-born Dallas Mavericks NBA player that speaks English on par with most 4-year-olds. Where is the furor over these people's non-assimilation into society? Why the distaste for a Spanish-language page?
It's silly to begrudge a paper for making members of a community feel welcome. It's silly to get angry because the paper is, as it has been so aptly put in the last few weeks, building a bridge.
Incline's residents are changing, they aren't all American-born anglo-Americans anymore. They're changing, and if you want to preserve the fabric of this town, bind all of the strands together.
By bringing in Spanish-speaking readers, the Bonanza is uniting instead of ostracizing, allowing a segment of the population into the paper, into the community. What better way to help them assimilate?
Kyle Magin recently came from Michigan to be a reporter at the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza.
I'm glad that a group of Indian students at my university eschewed baseball for their native cricket, even though I am a die-hard baseball fan, it was enjoyable to learn a different sport.
I'm also glad that some readers support the Bonanza's Spanish-language page and didn't totally assimilate their culture for our own.
Don't get me wrong - I understand that a firm foundation in English is essential for education and commerce in the U.S. I don't deny the need for residents to have a firm grasp of our language.
On the same token, I think that our judgment should be reciprocal. American communities abroad are served by English-speaking newspapers, though few Americans would accuse them of not assimilating. Just do an online search for any major foreign city, followed by "English-speaking newspaper" and see how many you come up with.
But when a paper in an American community adds a Spanish-speaking element, locals go up in arms.
They disregard the fact that the homes they live in and the services they expect demand labor supplied by the Hispanic community. They forget that some Anglo-Americans won't do the work that Hispanics will for the same pay.
Mostly though, they forget that it's just nice to have a slice of familiarity in life.
Maybe the people who demonized the Spanish page never ordered a burger in another country, or stayed in a village hut instead of a large Americanized hotel. Maybe when they go to work in another country they strictly speak that nation's language and follow its customs, though I doubt that's true.
A bit of comfort is nice for everyone. Especially the worker who may have struggled with their English all week, dealing with clients and the demands of an English-only American workplace. Maybe it's nice for them to unwind with a drink or dish popular with their culture and read a page in the Bonanza written in the language they are most comfortable with.
Is it wrong for someone to not totally assimilate? To not take the paper with a beer on their front porch, gazing out at their 2.5 children and Golden Retriever playing in their fenced-in yard?
Last I knew America was great for its diversity. Great for a Danish (Holland) in the morning, a couple of tacos (Mexico) at lunchtime and tortellini (Italy) for dinner. Add on that fortune cookie (China) for dessert and wash it all down with coffee (Saudi Arabia), voila (France), you've got an All-American day.
So where is the difference, why are readers coming down so hard on an attempt to reach out to the Spanish-speaking community? Americans loved that Sandy Koufax took a day off from the 1965 World Series to observe Yom Kippur. We love when Al Pacino's Michael Corleone turns to Robert Duvall's Tom Hagen in "The Godfather" to tell him that he and his associate are going to speak in Italian. They even love Dirk Nowitzki, the German-born Dallas Mavericks NBA player that speaks English on par with most 4-year-olds. Where is the furor over these people's non-assimilation into society? Why the distaste for a Spanish-language page?
It's silly to begrudge a paper for making members of a community feel welcome. It's silly to get angry because the paper is, as it has been so aptly put in the last few weeks, building a bridge.
Incline's residents are changing, they aren't all American-born anglo-Americans anymore. They're changing, and if you want to preserve the fabric of this town, bind all of the strands together.
By bringing in Spanish-speaking readers, the Bonanza is uniting instead of ostracizing, allowing a segment of the population into the paper, into the community. What better way to help them assimilate?
Kyle Magin recently came from Michigan to be a reporter at the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza.
