Remembering His Mexican American Heritage, Rooted In Language — And Under A Tree
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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It is Friday, which is when we hear from StoryCorps. Tomas Ybarra-Frausto grew up in the 1940s just outside of San Antonio, Texas. He lived on a ranch that had been in his family for generations. At StoryCorps, he spoke with his friend Antonia about the lessons that came from the land.
TOMAS YBARRA-FRAUSTO: I don't really know too much about the ancestors before my grandparents. I would ask, when did we come here? And my grandfather would always say, (speaking Spanish) - "We've been here forever." They were people of the land.
And the one thing that was instilled was traditions that were related to the land. When I was a little boy, they had a ceremony. The umbilical cord they had taken away when you were born, it was in a little box. It was like a shriveled little black thing. But you got to pick where you wanted that to be buried. And the ranch was pretty desolate and rocky. But in the middle was this beautiful tree, and I pointed to that. So we walked out there - my grandparents and my mother and my dad and the padrinos. And they said, this is a place where you're born, so no matter where you end, this is where you began.
ANTONIA CASTENEDA: Mmm hmm.
YBARRA-FRAUSTO: Before I started first grade, my dad said to me, (speaking Spanish). "You're an American; that's why you speak Spanish." But it wasn't until I went to elementary school where I began really realizing what being a Mexican American was. First day of school, Ms. Moran (ph), my teacher, said, boys and girls, in this class, we're all Americans, and we're all going to learn English. And I raised my hand - Ms. Moran, Ms. Moran, my father says, I'm an American; that's why I speak Spanish. So I got put in the corner.
Later on, I got selected as a language monitor, and you got to wear a big plaque that said language monitor. And what you were supposed to do is to spy when you went out during recess on your classmates if they were speaking in Spanish. And so my dad went to school. And he said, you know, I don't want my kid to be put in the position where he's spying on his friends for speaking the language that belongs to us.
Even though they were very proud of me learning English, he would say, (speaking Spanish). "A person who speaks two languages is worth two times the person who speaks only one." So then I would say, well, I want to learn a hundred so that I'll be worth a hundred times. And he would smile and say, good. But he was very wise 'cause he was telling me is English is your language and Spanish is language, and you love both.
CASTENEDA: You need both. You are both.
YBARRA-FRAUSTO: Right.
Sometimes when I was in New York, you know, I would be sitting there with a book. And all of a sudden, I would think about my tios and tias in San Antonio and Texas. And I could feel, like, my ombligo going down the staircase from my apartment all the way down to that tree because I knew that that's where I'm from.
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INSKEEP: Tomas Ybarra-Frausto speaking with his friend Antonia Castenada in San Antonio, Texas. Their interview will be archived at the Library of Congress.
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