We all know Gloria Estefan and her love for her tierra. Gloria has tried to keep her Cuban flame burning over the years and she´s openly proud of her heritage. Gloria is one of the good examples of an immigrant who came to the US as a baby and set the platform for many Latin singing counterparts. Gloria speaks very good Spanish and in one of her interviews on a Spanish network she said that when she was growing up, her mother and grandmother hicieron hincapié (put their foot down) so that she would learn it properly.
But that´s not the case with many Latin-descendants in Miami, which in the late 50´s with the Cuban revolution sheltered nearly a quarter of a million Cuban exiles back then. Miami is becoming less and less Spanish-speaking nowadays, because new generations of Latinos are not learning proper Spanish to be in the business industry. They suffer from “incomplete acquisition”, which is enough language skills to ask abuela for a galleta but not to conduct business. Some companies hire language services to help them solidify their Latino employees´ gapped language skills. Coral Way Bilingual K-8 Center is the oldest and most extensive Spanish-English education program. Its mission include to bridge the gap in the “middle generation” of immigrant families who never mastered Spanish themselves and now want to make sure their children do.

It´s estimated that almost 20,000 students are enrolled in some sort of bilingual program. Though the “English-only” movement still remains in certain parts of Florida and southern states there´s a growing trend of getting Spanish back on track.

As we talked about Gloria Estefan previously, watch her Mi Tierra video, a duet with Marc Anthony in a concert in the Bahamas. Enjoy!