A few weeks ago, as I was scrolling through my Facebook feed, I encountered a video by Remezcla regarding the question of whether Latinos living in the U.S. should speak Spanish. A majority of the participants responded by agreeing with the premise of the question, they insisted that it was part of staying true to one’s “roots” to speak Spanish in a foreign land.

However, given the general conversation encompassing race in America at the moment; in particular, Latino racial identity in the era of Trump, I became concerned with a larger question than whether or not speaking Spanish in the U.S. is a matter of staying true to one’s roots or a buffer to complete assimilation.

Much of what the DREAMER movement has been able to accomplish is due in large part to their ability to speak English, thus able to engage with the American political system in a meaningful way. I may disagree with their tactics from time to time, but I recognize that DREAMER's efforts have not been in vain due to this valuable trait; speaking English.

Complete assimilation may sound harsh to those arguing to stay true to one’s roots; but if our parent(s) voted with their feet to come to a land in which English is predominantly spoken, and every generation of immigrants found a way to embrace the English language, why should Latinos be the exception?

It’s true, language assimilation is far more difficult given the geographical proximity of Latin American countries to the U.S. or the advances in technology that now put us in virtual and constant communication with relatives abroad.

Nonetheless, whenever I visit Mexico, my family expects me to engage with my relatives in Spanish. It is even frowned upon to speak English with my relatives. Even, if at times, my relatives understand what I am trying to say.

Now, let me shred a common misconception about first-generation Latino immigrants; I have yet to meet a first generation immigrant who doesn't to learn how to speak English. In many instances, when one visits an immigrant's home he or she can find cassettes and DVDs of Ingles Sin Barreras (English Without Barriers), a prominent English training program which usually costs around $120.00.

More often, it's immigrant activists who make the argument that asking first-generation immigrants to speak English is culturally/racially insensitive rather than immigrants themselves. This, of course, serves to the detriment of first-generation immigrants who, like the DREAMERs, could benefit politically from being encouraged to learn English and completely assimilate in America.

As a proud bilingual American, I do not think I could ever judge someone for not speaking Spanish in the U.S. English is a difficult language to learn.

To me, Spanish is an intimate language, that unless you have an intimate connection with me, I really would not feel at ease opening that part of myself to you. It is not something I do for mere a multiculturalism sake.

Growing up in Southwest Houston, I grew up surrounded, mainly, by first-generation Latin American immigrants. All of which spoke Spanish and English differently than I did. For them, the importance of their children speaking Spanish emerged more as a concern for their children to be aware of their identity as the children of immigrants than an attempt to warn their children against assimilation. Speaking Spanish for a significant portion of these first-generation immigrants represents the threshold to understand their immigrant experience; it's what binds them to other immigrants from across Latin America. In the land of the free, it is not seen as a buffer against assimilation.

Although I am fluent in both English and Spanish, I don't speak either language with the stereotypical accent that one would expect of a Mexican-American. I owe my fluidity in Spanish to over two decades of sitting in Spanish Pentecostal church pews, listening to preachers from Colombia, Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador.

My Spanish is divorced from accent. Meanwhile, my English represents what happens when you combine Texas twang with the vernacular of an inner city boy. Given that this subject is more complicated than people think, I ask my fellow Latin-American brothers and sisters: is this really a hill you are willing to die on in the era of Trump? Are you willing to be seen as buffering assimilation for a language that most of us will not use in any permanent capacity? I am not.