I am my Language! Stories of Identity in Spanish-Speaking Communities in Florida, USA

For a long time, for many people, speaking Spanish in the United States was an intimate practice, confined to the family sphere; today, it is also a political and resistant act. In Florida, United States, Spanish is not just spoken: it is negotiated, transformed, and at times, questioned. Not because the desire to belong, or the enduring search for identity have changed, but because the context in which that identity is shaped has grown more diverse and challenging. In an era marked by debates over immigration, education, and citizenship, language has often become a site of struggle: between what is accepted, what is corrected, and what is silenced. Amid these tensions, Spanish-speaking communities are frequently reduced to labels: imperfect bilinguals, “accented” speakers, fragmented identities. But language is not an error to be corrected: it is memory, resistance, and affirmation. In I Am My Language! Stories of Identity in Spanish-Speaking Communities in Florida, U.S., we hear the voices of Gracia, José Aníbal, Antonia, and Martín. Through their stories, we explore how language not only reflects who they are, but also connects them to their roots, their family histories, and the cultures carried in their memory, revealing what it means to belong across generations, territories, and languages.
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Produced by the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program
University of Florida
PO Box 115215
oral.history.ufl.edu
352-392-7168
[email protected]