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(WEST PALM BEACH, FL) — Seventh-grade Spanish class was the first time Alex Del Dago sat down with the intention of learning his father’s native language. Although simplistic, this class served as the gateway for meaningful communication with his grandma, whom he calls abuela, who only speaks Spanish.

His abuela tells him that she’s glad he learned the language and that his ability to speak Spanish has improved their relationship.  

“I knew that if I didn’t put in the work or put in the practice to learn it, I may never be, never be able to actually have like a real substantial conversation with her,” Del Dago said.

According to the Pew Research Center, “Hispanic identity fades across generations,” with less and less people with Hispanic heritage identifying as being Hispanic. Similarly, the more generations a family has been in the United States, the less likely they are to teach their children Spanish. But some Gen-Z Latino-Americans are reclaiming their culture via language, learning it later on in life, such as Del Dago.  

From 7th grade through college, Del Dago studied Spanish through courses at school. His dad was born in Cuba and immigrated to the United States when he was 4 years old, along with his younger brother and parents. The family left Cuba during the Freedom Flights of the late 60s and early 70s. 

Del Dago’s dad had a difficult time learning English without a program for non-native speakers and he didn’t feel like his son fit in with the other students in class, which influenced his decision to speak to Del Dago exclusively in English.

“At the time [my parents] decided it would be better just to raise me speaking English because they thought it would be easier for me to fit in and adjust and make friends quickly,” Del Dago said.

This isn’t unusual either. With each generation, the number of Hispanic heritage parents who speak to their children in Spanish decreases. Seventy-one percent of U.S.- born second-generation Latino parents speak to their children in Spanish and fewer than half of all third- or higher-generation Latino parents do, according to the Pew Research Center.

“One of the main proponents of allowing children or creating more dual language programs is Dr. Kim Potoski, and she has found no evidence that just growing up in these bilingual settings will take away from your ability to speak English. On the contrary — It helps you,” Anel Brandl, a professor at Florida State University who teaches Spanish to students with Hispanic heritage, said.

Mia Hernandez is a former student of Brandl’s and has a similar upbringing to Del Dago. Her dad is also from Cuba. Growing up, her parents worried that teaching her Spanish would hinder her ability to speak English, although Brandl says that recent research has disproven that.

Hernandez recently graduated from Florida State University with a minor in Spanish. Now she’s fluent in a language she barely spoke growing up.  

“I feel a lot closer to my Cuban heritage now that I speak Spanish than before when I almost completely rejected it in favor of learning English so that I could fit in with my English-speaking American friends,” Hernandez said. 

Just like Del Dago, learning Spanish transformed her relationships with her family members.

“I think the difference has just been getting to know my grandmother a lot more and about her life growing up in Cuba,” Hernandez said.

She emphasizes that you don’t need to speak Spanish in order to feel connected to your culture.

“I don’t think that it’s something that there should be any guilt or shame around not learning, but I think it’s also up to us to figure out how to move forward, as Cuban Americans, deciding how we want to raise our children, and so whether we want to teach our children Spanish, we want to teach them about maybe the culture and the food,” she said.

Now, Hernandez is training to teach Spanish speakers abroad English, and Del Dago is getting his Ph.D. in art history, focusing on queer Latin artists. Both have worked to connect to their familial heritage through the power of language.

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(CHARLESTON, WV) — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice on Friday signed a bill that bans nearly all abortions in the state, days after legislators approved the ban. This makes West Virginia the second state to pass an abortion ban after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

“I said from the beginning that if WV legislators brought me a bill that protected life and included reasonable and logical exceptions I would sign it, and that’s what I did today,” Justice said in a tweet.

Known as HB 302, the bill approved by state legislators on Tuesday prohibits the procedure at virtually every stage of pregnancy.

There are exceptions to the ban; one is an ectopic pregnancy, which is when a fertilized egg implants and grows outside of the uterus.

Physicians who perform unlawful abortions could lose their license to practice medicine and face criminal charges.

Additionally, the bill states that miscarriages and stillbirths are not considered abortions.

The Women’s Health Center of West Virginia had already halted abortion services after the bill was passed by the state legislature.

The bill passed both chambers last week, but returned to the House for a vote after an amendment by the Senate stripped a section of the bill that would see doctors imprisoned for up to 10 years if they perform abortions outside of the exceptions.

The Senate also changed the bill’s exceptions for rape and incest. In the House-backed version, rape and incest were excluded from the ban until about 14 weeks’ gestation and as long as a report is filed with a “qualified law enforcement officer.” In the Senate, the exceptions are until eight weeks’ gestation.

The bill passed by legislators requires physicians to report any abortions they perform to the commissioner of the state’s Bureau for Public Health within 15 days, including a justification for why the care was provided.

On July 25, the state legislature was initially called into a special session to consider Justice’s proposal to reduce personal income tax rates.

But that morning, as lawmakers were gaveling in, Justice amended the call and said he would also be asking lawmakers “to clarify and modernize the abortion-related laws currently existing as part of the West Virginia Code.”

“From the moment the Supreme Court announced their decision in Dobbs, I said that I would not hesitate to call a Special Session once I heard from our Legislative leaders that they had done their due diligence and were ready to act,” Justice said in a statement. “As I have said many times, I very proudly stand for life, and I believe that every human life is a miracle worth protecting.”

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(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Fiona is taking aim on the Caribbean and is set to bring heavy rain and possible flash flooding and mudslides to Puerto Rico.

A tropical storm watch has been issued for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where there are heavy rains and gusty winds on Friday.

The heavy rain will continue this weekend with the threat of flash flooding and mudslides lingering.

Most of Puerto Rico could see 3 to 6 inches of rain, but the mountains could see 6 to 10 inches.

Widespread power outages are possible across Puerto Rico.

By Sunday night into Monday early morning, Fiona will approach the Dominican Republic where it could make landfall as a strong tropical storm.

Fiona’s winds are expected to approach 70 mph, which is considered a strong tropical storm (a category 1 hurricane begins at 74 mph).

Up to 15 inches of rain could hit the island of Hispaniola and flash flooding and mudslides are possible.

After moving over the high mountains of Hispaniola, the storm will weaken as it reemerges in the Atlantic Ocean near Turks and Caicos.

It is too early to tell if Fiona will have any impact on the mainland United States.

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(NEW YORK) — Sept. 15 marks the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month in the United States. For many across the country, this is a way to celebrate Latino culture for a few weeks with food, music and festivals.

Daily, Latinos in the U.S. are reminded that they are different — whether it’s because of their different skin tones or the accents in their names — so for many, getting a month to celebrate their culture seems like both an understatement and an overcorrection.

“We are Latino every day, we’re here every day, our communities exist every day, we care about our jobs and education every single day,” said Geraldo Cadava, the director of the Latino and Latina Studies Program at Northwestern University.

“These are just facts of life and facts of the United States, and we are a really important part of what it means to be American,” Cadava said.

But there is still much work to be done in how Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated and welcomed in the U.S., and how it clashes with the complexities the community faces day to day.

Experts like Stephen Pitti, the founding director of Yale’s Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity and Transnational Migration said that when it comes to educating Americans on the heritage of the Hispanic community, having a month is simply not enough to educate people on Hispanic background, history, and even the terms used when labeling Latinos.

“This label, ‘Hispanic,’ it’s complicated,” said Pitti. “It’s one that offers sometimes to bring people together. But we would make a major mistake if we don’t think hard together about the ways in which this category also can lead to the profound, very damaging exclusions, which don’t recognize the complexities of our communities, and the real different needs and demands of different sorts of people in our communities in the 21st century.”

Historians, like Pitti, said some members of the Latino community don’t necessarily use the term “Hispanic” because it can be offensive to some Latinos.

Pitti explained that the term “raises up the idea that these groups are united by some common Spanish past, and it eliminates from view the fact that so many of these communities are in communities that trace their histories to much more complicated, often bloody stories and pasts.”

Pitti said that even the name of the month itself, Hispanic Heritage Month, is something that can be worked on, since it doesn’t seem to fully represent all groups of Latinos.

“People have long said that the very name, Hispanic Heritage Month, both eliminates the complexity of these communities and also downplays the political thinking and the kind of cultural priorities of people in these communities,” Pitti said.

With different life experiences, cultures and histories, some Latinos prefer to use their demonym as a way to identify themselves and their place of origin.

Whether Hispanics come from the islands of the Caribbean or the grounds of South America, they each share one thing in common: their language.

For example, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Guatemalans, Central Americans and Dominicans are all Latinos and speak Spanish — even though they are from completely different parts of the world.

“I think that one of the roles of people in our communities, particularly leaders in our communities, has to always work on identifying the ways in which these terms, these categories, are exclusionary, and always look towards better language and better approaches that are more inclusionary than exclusionary,” Pitti said.

And with the elections slowly approaching, many politicians often use the month as a way to secure the Latino vote. The often-trendy celebration is usually used as a marketing technique for politicians and presidential candidates alike to favor Latino voters. As of 2019, there were over 60 million Latinos in the U.S., according to the Pew Research Center. An estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that in 2060, this number could nearly double, reaching over 111 million. This year, Latinos are the largest minority.

“I see why Hispanic Heritage Month is a good opportunity for politicians to make their appeal to Latinos,” Cadava said. “It comes just a month before the election, so it’s when people’s minds are already focused on outreach and campaigns and voting and things like that. So, that makes sense, but the downside is that it often makes Latinos feel like, ‘You don’t care about anything but our vote for four years and then all of a sudden you come around a couple months before the election and expect us to support you.'”

“What I wish is that politicians didn’t see Latinos only as voters, that they understood us as Americans who are integral to the U.S., and have been for a long time,” Cadava added. “And I wish that in some ways there weren’t a need for something like Hispanic Heritage Month because we would be recognized, every day, all year long, every year.”

Hispanic Heritage Month started in 1968 as an idea from politicians, leaders and activists to recognize Latinos and their roots.

It started as a week-long activity under President Lyndon Johnson. The celebration was later expanded into a 30-day period, from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. Hispanic Heritage month became Public Law (100-402) on Aug. 17, 1988 and since then has been celebrated every year.

“I think the idea is that if you can acknowledge us during one month you can recognize us as one group of Americans, but not as Americans, you know? And so I just wish that we were considered integral Americans from the beginning and that we didn’t have to be ‘other’ by creating a month for us,” Cadava said.

Both educators said that while many so-called Hispanics prefer to call themselves Latinos or Latinxs — because of the inclusivity of the term — the celebratory month is still a great opportunity to shed light on the ongoing issues the Latino community faces every day.

“I’m waiting for this moment when Americans broadly come to think of Latino history as American history at large, and therefore every day becomes a celebration of Latino history because that is American history,” Cadava said.

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