Education
Spanish Is Fading Across Generations. These Latino Parents Are Working to Keep It Alive
Nearly 3 in 10 Chicagoans identify as Hispanic or Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But as the Latino population grows, keeping the Spanish language alive takes effort for the new generations of Latinx parents.
Nationally, the share of Latinos who speak Spanish at home declined from 78% in 2000 to 68% in 2024, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. The decline has been particularly pronounced among U.S.-born Latinos, as English becomes increasingly dominant across generations.
For some Chicago parents, those numbers are prompting a more intentional effort to make Spanish part of their children’s everyday lives. It’s not simply about teaching a second language. It’s about family, culture, identity and making sure a connection to the language isn’t lost from one generation to the next.
Angie Maciel-Wright said Spanish isn’t something she and her husband, Jeremy Wright, want their children to learn only in a classroom.
“I want our children to be able to communicate with my family in Mexico and wherever else they are,” Maciel-Wright said. “I thought that was extremely important. We visit our Mexican family at least three to four times a year, and selfishly, I also didn’t want to be that stereotype of that American family that has a ‘no sabo kid’ and everyone talks crap.”
WTTW News visited the family in their bilingual playroom in Brighton Park. Wright was raised in Mississippi and didn’t grow up speaking Spanish; he has learned to speak it with their boys.
“It was very challenging, especially when Sebastian, the first one, was younger,” Wright said. “I first started with reading to him every night in Spanish. So, I would, like, reeducate myself and learn words here and there. … Because he was a baby, there was no judgement coming back, so I could practice on him and I could mess up. It was OK.”
Keeping Spanish alive from one generation to the next can be challenging.
Kim Potowski is a linguist at the University of Illinois Chicago who studies bilingualism and heritage languages.
“We do see that immigrants come, for example, and they’re monolingual in Spanish,” Potowski said. “Their children are typically bilingual in English and Spanish — the English is typically stronger. And then the grandchildren, sometimes they speak it, sometimes they only understand it, sometimes there’s nothing. So, in that sense, yes, there’s a loss.”
Potowski said she has spent more than 25 years asking her students whether they want their future children to speak Spanish. Nearly everyone raises their hand.
Then she asks: How is that going to happen?
Previous generations often spoke Spanish because it was the language their parents used at home. But for children growing up in the United States, English can quickly become the stronger language. Potowski has created opportunities for students to experience Spanish outside the classroom.
Since 2013, she has run the Heritage Speaker Oaxaca program, taking students to Mexico for an immersive experience designed to strengthen their Spanish and connection to the language. Potowski said maintaining a heritage language requires more than simply wanting it to survive: Children need meaningful opportunities to use it.
“Think of the metaphor of a plant,” Potowski said. “If you’ve got a plant that’s sitting there and say, ‘I really want that plant to grow,’ that’s nice, but if you’re not giving it sun and water, it’s not gonna grow. … Linguists call it input. Input is language that is directed to the person who’s learning. You need input in that language. You need sun and you need water.”
One of the challenges, Potowski said, is the pressure parents can feel to prioritize English. She believes people should have strong English skills to participate in American society. But she questions why that has to mean other languages disappear. Potowski said parents sometimes worry that exposing their children to too much Spanish will slow their English development or cause them to have an accent.
For families trying to pass Spanish to their children, the language isn’t limited to what happens inside the home. It can happen through bilingual books, Spanish-language story time, playgroups, school, grandparents, family members and community organizations.
For Maciel-Wright, creating that kind of space is part of the effort. She opened La Casa Playroom so children could play and be around Spanish. Since WTTW News’ visit, La Casa Playroom closed its physical location. The organization is still bringing families together through pop-up events.
“What I’ve been hearing from moms that come here,” Maciel-Wright said, “it’s either they speak broken Spanish, so they feel uncomfortable teaching their children Spanish because they don’t want to teach them the wrong Spanish or incorrect grammar. Others say they wanted their child to speak Spanish, but they grew up in a predominantly English household, so they never learned it.”
The Census Bureau estimates that 29.7% of Chicago’s population identifies as Hispanic or Latino. Overall, 35.4% of Chicago residents ages 5 and older speak a language other than English at home. But the future of Spanish in the city won’t be determined by demographics alone. It will also depend on what families choose to do with the language.
For parents like Maciel-Wright, speaking Spanish with her kids is an intentional choice, one that connects her children to relatives and her Mexican culture.
For Potowski, it is a reminder that language loss isn’t inevitable. Children can learn strong English and still become confident Spanish speakers. The challenge is making sure they have the opportunity.
And for parents learning along the way, Wright said there’s no perfect time to start.
“I started when I was 26, it’s never too late,” Wright said. “… This is a lifelong journey. My proficiency in Spanish is still increasing, I’m still trying to learn every day, and I get to learn as my kids learn, which is pretty cool.”
