Two Speeches at Once

I watched the State of the Union Address on TV, and heard it twice. My host mom and I sat down together to watch the speech. It was a Spanish news channel, so as Obama began each sentence I would hear English, followed shortly afterward by the newscaster’s Spanish translation. It was a bit chaotic in my mind, naturally hearing the English, as well as trying to listen to the Spanish.

That hour of listening to both languages, and feeling uncertain that I had heard anything clearly, isn’t completely untrue of my normal daily experience. My host mom is bilingual, but speaks in Spanish in the house. Her three daughters are bilingual as well, but speak in English when I am around. I reply in the language I am spoken too, often finding myself listening to and speaking the two languages practically at once. The dynamic changes when visitors come to the house. They have a cousin, who spends half his time here, and half his time in Mexico, but speaks Spanish. They have two cousins who are bilingual but prefer Spanish. There is their nephew who is a tile artist and works with youth on the Yaqui Reservation, who is also bilingual. Yesterday he brought over some books of local photographers, knowing I like photography. He switched between English and Spanish as he spoke both to me and my host mom.

So as I sat there yesterday, listening to the two speeches at once, I thought I might better understand life here on the border. Like the words in the speech, the border as I have experienced it so far is a mixture of worlds overlapping. Tomorrow I will do my first desert hike with No More Deaths, and perhaps another overlapping world will be added to that mixture---one of hot desert sun, migrant trails, rattlesnakes, border patrol, and the water stands we will be refilling.