Responses to NPR podcast on language and assimilation

I listened to an NPR podcast Luke sent me, involving the "Race Card Project" and language and assimilation. Here are some of my thoughts:

• It's an interesting turn when she says "more American...whatever that means" -- at 1:22 - and then goes on to explain what she thinks/knows they meant. She knows what it means -- it means speaking only English or English without an accent, and I'm not sure why she makes it sound like she doesn't.
• "Language of the new homeland, where in America that means English" - I wish they'd be a little more critical here, because an older language of Ft. Worth Texas is Spanish, so in this case you could actually claim that the (a) language of the homeland is Spanish.
• I'd also like to hear more about the labels "hispanic" and "latino" in the podcast. Both of those words were created by people outside of those groups, and because of this, among other reasons, I don't like them...but I realize that many people identify as such.  There's enough effort from outside the groups to create groups in order to control or marginalize them -- let's not use this kind of motivation to self-identify.  On the other hand, the label "chicano" was created from within the Mexican American group as part of the liberation movement in the U.S in the 60s.
• I can definitely empathize with the "internalized criticism" and her saying "I'm not Mexican, my parents are."   I wish she would elaborate on her reflections of this statement now, as "making amends for a deep wound."  Does she mean the wound of not being able to identify?
• I'd agree with this statement, except for "my dad's chicano, not me" - it's really hard to own any of this because being Mexican sucks in this country right now (and has for a while).
• She said her "whole family has regret around not learning Spanish" -- I wonder if this is true for my family. I certainly do regret not speaking more Spanish with my grandpa.
• I wonder why she can't master the language as an academic?  (Those are the interviewer's words, but I don't think they're correct -- more like why she hasn't decided to.)  I wish they'd talk more about her struggle (if there was one) to learn Spanish - does she want to? What gets in her way?
• I recently seen the answer to this question for myself clearly -- that internalized racism and racism were the factors getting in the way of me learning Spanish. Since finding this out, and with the support from others, it's been a little easier to speak it and feel more comfortable doing so lately.
• It was really touching when she answered "what do you lose when you lose your language? home, relationship" - that's definitely true. "Family" is what I'd say.
• Most of all - it's cool to see someone else's experiences that are similar to mine represented in big media. It's going to be a growing topic as more and more latinos/Latin Americans come to and are born in the U.S.