Los Angeles: Hablan espa ñol at City Hall

[Harold Schiffman]

 Forwarded From: edling at lists.sis.utsa.edu


Los Angeles Times



Hablan español at City Hall



It's Monday afternoon at City Hall, and Councilwoman Jan Perry is
sneaking an hour between meetings to read a novel by Isabel Allende,
the prolific Chilean writer. In the original Spanish.

"¿Almohada?" she asks her tutor in the middle of a sentence.

"Pillow," Oscar Szmuch responds.

Perry hired Szmuch a year ago. He has helped her learn Spanish well
enough to converse with native speakers.

Nearly 40% of Los Angeles County residents older than age 5 speak
Spanish at home -- about 3.7 million people, according to 2006
estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau. Until recently, however, only a
handful of City Council members were bilingual.

Now, council President Eric Garcetti gives almost all of his news
conferences bilingually. City Controller Laura Chick and City Atty.
Rocky Delgadillo, who is Latino, have participated in Spanish-language
immersion programs in Mexico. Perry started holding her news
conferences in Spanish and English a few years ago. Her office issues
most of its public documents in both languages.

Although far from fluent, Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who represents
parts of the Westside and the San Fernando Valley, increasingly uses
Spanish in official business.



Full story:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-spanish14apr14,1,7340091.story



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