How to Tame a Wild Tongue

What are some characteristics that make a person's culture or ethnicity special?  The language, food, literature right?  The two main characteristics that most people remember about a culture is the language and the food though.  If someone was to ask, "What do you know about people who are French?" the answer would most likely be, "They speak French and eat snails."  The same is true of every culture, but is it true that all cultures and their languages are treated with respect in the United States by everyone?
Immigrants that come to the United States come because they want a piece of the American Dream not just for themselves but for their children and future generations.  However, they were not warned of the challenges they would face by coming to the United States.  It is not just financial struggle but emotional and psychological as well.  By coming to the US, they are leaving everything that they know and everyone they love behind.  So they must learn to adapt into the new country somehow, which is called assimilation.  But is complete assimilation always possible?  No right?  Most immigrants that come to the United States want to keep some parts of their culture alive either through the food or even teaching their children the language of their homeland.  Having their children know their "home" tongue is usually something to be proud of but that's usually only for children that are born in the United States.  Here is where the issue comes to light.  What about the children that are born in the home country and brought to the United States with their parents?
Upon arrival to the United States, immigrants start to experience their first issues with being in a new place.  They start to get the feeling that they do not belong, which is usually because they cannot speak English well, they do not have a job, etc.  As a result of those feelings, they try their best to adapt and  become one with the dominant culture sometimes disregarding their own.  They even do the same with their children so they do not experience being judged by their peers if they are in school.  There was a mother in "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" that told her child "I want you to speak English" and was mortified that her child did it like a Mexican.   I understand a parent's want to do this because my mother experienced the same issue with my sister.  In the Philippines, English is taught as a major subject.  My sister left the Philippines at the age of 5 and only received some schooling for English but received a little bit from my parents.  When she arrived to the United States and started going to school, she came home one day with a note for my mom telling her that my sister's teacher wants to meet with her.  At the meeting the teacher told my mom that she needs to stop talking to my sister in Tagalog, which is one of the main languages of the Philippines, because she needs to learn English more than her own language.  For my sister's sake at school my mom did just that, but it got to the point that my sister forgot how to speak Tagalog for years and she had to relearn it from the Filipino movies.  The fact that the teacher told my mom this and it was done to the point that my sister forgot her home language completely makes me feel angry as well as sad.  Tagalog is the language of her home country and is a component of her identity as a Filipino.  How can it be taken away so easily like that?
So to answer the question asked before, is it true that all cultures are treated with respect in the United States by everyone, it is NO.  English is seen as the language of greatest importance in the US.  It is almost as if the other languages are seen as inferior.  According to Gloria Anzaldua, "Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity.  If one cannot take pride in their language, they cannot take pride in themselves."  This as a result leads to low self-esteem.  There are those in the United States that see other people as inferior based on their culture and race.  An example would be Anglo people looking down on those of Latino/a descent because of the stereotypes.  The language Chicano Spanish is even looked down on by those of Latino/a descent as well since it is seen as a poor Spanish.  It is seen as that despite the fact that it is a living language that is always evolving.  The fact that the language is always changing and even creating new types of languages fascinates me and makes me want to learn more.  It makes me upset that people are seeing it as a poor form of Spanish and that it is used by those that are not the "real Chicano/a." I feel that in order for them to feel comfortable in speaking their language they need to know that they are not being judged because of it but instead be told that their language is interesting.  I think that judgement is what creates fear and anxiety when trying to speak their home language.  At the same time I also feel that Chicanas/os must take pride in where they came from and the language.  I feel like the ability to resolved this issue comes from both sides through the understanding of others and a raise in self-esteem by the people themselves.