La Idoma de Nuestros Antepasados, Los Nuevo Mejicanos

Was it "Spanglish"? Was it the queens Spanish? Was it a Mexican Spanish? This is my second post on the language of our New Mexican forefathers.

The Spanish my grandfathers spoke had very few English words, one here and there, but not many. By the time my mother came around there were several as New Mexicans struggled to incorporate names for things that had not been around during the Spanish and Mexican era's. And the Spanish was different from the Spanish spoken elsewhere. Ruben Cobos in his book A dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish probably says it best. That it was "a language made up of archaic sixteenth and seventeenth century Spanish, Mexican Indian words, mostly from the Nahuatl and some Rio Grand Indian words."

I remember using the word areoplano for airplane, nickle for nickel, and many other words. I clearly remember the old air mail stamps and the wording por avion.... I thought the words were French. By the mid 50's and early 60's it had turned to Spanglish for sure. And now even the Spanglish has more English words than Spanish. And a good percentage of the Hispano population of New Mexico do not even speak the language.

For the most part the Spanish spoken today is a version brought by Mexican immigrants who have arrived here since the 1950's. The language of our New Mexican forefathers is almost gone. It is not taught anywhere and is spoken only here and there. Just ask yourself when was the last time you heard the term "reals" as in cuatro reals used. Ask yourself if you know the meaning of the term real when used as a monetary term in previous years in New Mexico.