Many European countries are fascinated with minorities from the United States. They still see this country as a world power and they covet that power...I was approached by a professor once at the Sorbonne in Paris and asked about racism in this country, and when I reflected on racism on the streets of Paris - you know, I'd be considered an Arab there -well, she didn't want to address that...It just goes to show it was easier for Europeans to study racism in the United States than it is from within the belly of the beast.
Ana CastilloThereโs something insupportable about being pissed with the one person on this planet that sends your adrenaline flowing to remind you that youโre alive. Itโs almost like weโre mad because weโve been shocked out of our usual comatose state of being by feeling something for someone, for ourselves, for just a moment.
Ana CastilloI'm obviously an American citizen. My parents are American citizens. But I'm not looked at as an American.
Ana CastilloWe were doing the same thing. We will never have "a" Chicano English or Spanish because of regional differences. But I think that because of our bilingual history, we'll always be speaking a special kind of English and Spanish. What we do have to do is fight for the right to use those two languages in the way that it serves us. Nuevo-mexicanos have done it very well for hundreds of years, inventing words where they don't have them. I think the future of our language is where we claim our bilingualism for its utility.
Ana Castillo