One Day I'll Tell You the Things I've Seen/ Santiago Vaquera-Vasquez Public Event

Where am I going?

A dónde voy?

Home. A mi home.

There are borders everywhere. There are borders across countries, cultures, communities, and even across individuals. The world lives amongst an ideology that integration is a crime. No, I am not discussing race, but I am discussing identity. Even in the United States alone exists Chinatowns, social borders amongst major cities, schools, and cultures.

Santiago Vaquera-Vasquez's book and speech protested that we determine our own borders. Vaquera’s speech involved the constant message of interconnectedness. Vaquera used comical insertions from his own books as well as other texts to convey his issue: the integration of Hispanic and American cultures. In today’s society, culture and socioeconomic status are both viewed as separate topics. Society positions “borders” around the two topics of culture and socioeconomic status; Spanish and English should remain on their own. Despite society’s thinking, Vasquez, the Chicano descendent, proposed that the once mocked language of Spanglish (a combination of Spanish and English) should be established as an entity that is respected and accepted. Using witty and clever remarks, Vasquez used an example of his own autobiographical experiences. He used an example of his own teachings; Vasquez would regularly be disciplined for using Spanglish. Vasquez uses Spanglish in his lectures (as mentioned in his speech), especially in his Mexican history studies, as a way to both connect his students to Hispanic culture and as a means to promote that the mixture of Spanglish is “okay”. Spanglish is meant to integrate both American and Hispanic cultures together. Spanglish is meant to represent the new generation, as stated by Vasquez. Vasquez would continue making assertions of literature and of powerful humans who use Spanglish as a means to connect both worlds, to eradicate the imaginary border among societies. The world can even use Spanglish as a lesson, a lesson that demonstrates that the people always manage to connect despite braggadocio on this planet. Yes, there exists issues with borders among the globe, especially between the United States and Mexico. Vasquez’s speech reflected that the world should look at the positives of the integration of cultures instead of the negatives.

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