Power, Policy, Profit: The Spanish Language in the United States

Abstract

Over the past several decades, the Spanish language has been considered secondary to English, specifically in the United States. However, this paper argues that Spanish is one of the primary languages in the country because it is the second most spoken language, despite efforts to maintain a monolingual nation. Due to the impact of capitalism, if one’s first language is not English, they are separated and viewed as inferior in society. After providing background on the history of Spanish in the United States, this paper explores the impact of power, Americanization, education and cheap work on the Spanish language with data from various articles and the United States Census. Spanish continues to be a primary language in the United States, even with capitalism constantly attempting to exploit the language and those who speak it.