Home > Departments > Quotable

Kenji Nimura

Quotable

Send LALA quotable comments about language from recent media clips.

 “I was asleep before.  Before, there was no sun for me.  Now I feel más despierta.  I know what street I’m standing on.  And I can look for the name of the street I’m going to.” 

—Julia Rodriguez, on learning to read by taking classes at the Centro Latino for Literacy, quoted in The Los Angeles Times Oct. 20, 2009.

“I think that the ability to speak Spanish or to speak to people in their own language, whatever it is, gives people a sense that it’s their government, and that government is there to work with them.”

—Ana Guerrero, Chief of Staff for L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti, as quoted in the publicceo.com Oct. 12 regarding L.A. city officials attempting to reach out to their Latino constituents by polishing their Spanish-speaking skills.

“That’s more important than speaking the language, because that’s something that you could only gain by living somewhere else. I mean, you can learn a language from textbooks, but being bicultural, you cannot do that unless you’ve lived elsewhere.”

—Kenji Nimura, interpreter for the Dodgers (Japanese and Spanish), from PRI’s The World Oct. 12 radio broadcast.

"I've worked in Latin television before and they've said, 'You don't speak enough Spanish,' 'You sound funny when you speak Spanish,' I am Latina, and there are tons of kids that are like me. Being fluent in Spanish doesn't make you more Latina than me. I feel like if I portray myself any other way, then I am neglecting those kids that are just like me, that feel so lost in all this -- who wonder, 'Where do I fall in this Latin spectrum?' "

—Melissa "Crash" Barrera, host of “Chica Talk,” quoted in The Los Angeles Times  Oct. 4.

Send your own Quotables, with sources and dates, to lalamag@international.ucla.edu.

Date Posted: 11/2/2009