I’ve generally heard positive input from non-Spanish speaking people who’ve lived in predominantly Latino areas about how hospitable and hardworking they were and that they always liked to get together. However, I have also heard from others (albeit a minority of ppl) who say they make a lot of noise through gatherings and music, and some don’t speak much English, which makes themselves feel kinda like a foreigner in their country for not knowing how to speak Spanish.
Curious to see others’ inputs on this who’ve always lived in such areas of town?
Comments
Oh me!
I learned Spanish haha. Well kinda . There were kids from Mexico in 3 diff houses on my neighborhood. I basically learned enough to play and tried to teach them English too.
My mom was a nurse and the woman from Mexico would mainly keep to themselves. It wasn’t until one of the husband of a wife knocked on our house door asking my mom to stitch up her husband after a would and my mom did. Then removed the stitches later. Then they always said hi after lol
In Massachusetts there are cities with mostly Spanish speakers. I am often in 2 of them.
They are hard working and warm and while we each don’t speak each other’s language often, it usually ends up in laughter. My supermarket hires a lot of non-English speakers and I go to a lot of “spanish” restaurants/juice bar/pupuserias.
Loud music? Lots of people that are racist/anti-immigrant like to complain about music that is different than what they like.
Best neighbors I’ve ever had. Friendly, outgoing, hardworking, love to laugh, and they just want to share their favorite bits of their culture with curious people.
Learning even a few words and phrases unlocks a ton of neighborhood DLC – so I do recommend some Duolingo.
But I’ve never felt like a foreigner. In fact, I never feel more proud to be American than seeing the blending of cultures right in my own backyard. Google Translate helps cut through the fat of translation issues.
I grew up in predominantly spanish-speaking neighborhoods. I learned Spanish. My mom never learned Spanish, but she never had any issues with the neighbors because of it. It was fine. Our neighborhoods were always lively. People have family parties, there’s usually music. People hang out in their front yards, so there are always people around.
I grew up in an area with a high percentage of Mexican and Hmong immigrants. The worst part was the Mexican girls at elementary school felt like a clique and my awkward self with no Spanish vocabulary was not welcome. That only felt like a problem because I didn’t understand that they were just taking comfortably together. They both always had the best food at birthday parties and it was easy to find Christmas tamales.
I learned Spanish 🤷♂️
I learned enough Spanish to be able to get simple ideas across. Neighbors would also learn enough English to do the same.
When my youngest was little and didn’t talk much her favorite person was the neighbors mom who we called Nana (her first name). It was such an adorable relationship. Nana would always ask for my kid and then just give massive grandma love to her before telling me my husband is too skinny. Pretty much the whole extended family lived by us and it felt like such a community.
Awesome. I’m asian and it’s a similar experience minus religion stuff.
Doing this now. Coming up on 2 years. Everyone is friendly but I should really learn more than a few words of Spanish.
I’ll let you know when I finish eating.
It’s fine. My coworkers are majority Hispanic and they occasionally have conversations in Spanish that I don’t understand. It doesn’t bother me at all. I’ve been learning but I’m not nearly good enough to have a conversation yet.
Ppl in stores would assume I spoke Spanish and I knew enough to get by with some nods and smiles. Ppl were generally nice and yes some had loud parties outside (probably more a result of small apartments than anything else, but the stereotype among my bf’s Puerto Rican family is that Mexicans are the loudest, although I gotta say that we also have parties in the yard occasionally too). The block I lived on with the wildest parties was predominantly black, one year the 4th of July block party got broken up by about 200 cops…
One of my uncles lives in a town that’s predominantly hispanic, and the community there is fantastic. He’s very close with a lot of his hispanic neighbors, we’ve met several of them and they were very welcoming and friendly.
I live in a town that has a high spanish speaking population and since I grew up around it, its just something Ive become used to.
In the summer, hearing the music from my neighbors is nothing new and they usually stop/ quiet down just before sunset, also expecting silence all the time during the summer or holidays is unrealistic.
Even if they dont know english well, most know basic words or have a family member that does speak better english then them.
Nicest ppl ever. Love to have celebrations. They are loud. Get invited and just enjoy the culture
Fantastic. Great food in every restaurant, plus pig slaughter and spit roast on Sundays.
I’m white and have almost always been treated much kinder and with more respect by Mexican and Hispanic people than by other white Americans. This was especially true in the military. Thanks SSG Antuñez and SGT Alvarado for lookin out!
I like it a lot. My neighborhood is affordable AND it has nice restaurants, bakeries and fresh produce. I know enough Spanish to get by. I don’t mind the loud music occasionally.
I have a really good Mexican friend. Luckily her English is probably better than mine. We often joke about how I am the idiot that took Latin in high school.
Great experiences! The kids who lived downstairs often came to our place in the afternoons for a while. Occasionally I could get them to teach me Spanish but mostly we worked on English…they didn’t want to speak Spanish…its been 15 years and I still hear from them and run into them in the neighborhood sometimes. One is studying to be a phys. Assistant.
Another family moved back to Bolivia some years back and we get the occasional news. I used to babysit for the kids sometimes. Oh wow, just realized that was 20 years ago.
It’s a bit isolating if you don’t know the language. I also feel the racial tension beneath a lot of interaction but that’s everywhere you go in LA.
my family complained a lot about noise and the gatherings but I don’t mind. I actually like Mariachi and I envy all of my neighbors make an effort to connect with family.
I’m currently learning Spanish because I want connect with my neighbors and people in general.
I am white and speak minimal Spanish (less than conversational, enough to get by in semi-touristy areas) and lived in a predominantly Latino area for many years (mostly, but not exclusively Mexican).
I am / was raised Catholic, and that actually helped because on some Holy Days of Obligation or certain feast days, a couple of the families would have mass in their yards. The priest spoke English, so I would make small talk with him if I saw him. I think they were always Marian days (Solemnity of Immacculate Conception, Annunciation, Solemnity of the Assumption, Visitation?!?)
They would have LOUD parties, but they were always over by 1am and only on Friday or Saturday. That only kind of sucked when my husband worked Saturday mornings for a bit, but mostly, it was fine.
Everyone in the neighborhood would go to each of the parties. Except we were never invited, but they always made us a plate 🤣 which we loved. I feel like being nice to the priest may have been what started this. We always got lots of tamales, asada, flan, homemade juices (guava, watermelon), and generous portions!!
Both of my parents, who are divorced and visited at different times, each made aquaintances with older folks in the neighborhood. Old dudes smoking in the garage for a minute of peace and old ladies comparing notes about grown kids are universal.
Very friendly and hardworking. But the guy 1 block over and half a block down would blast what sounded like Spanish lyrics polka music played with multiple accordians until 2 a.m. on the weekends.
I basically became like Miklo haha
I am a non-Spanish speaking Latina (I learned enough in high school to not insult native speakers by saying I really speak it). I grew up on the east coast but now I live in Arizona. My neighborhood is mostly white, with a few Latinos around. My neighbors are mostly quiet unless they party. Then I hear that stupid mariachi type music, banda I think my husband said. If it gets too loud to where I can hear it inside, I blast metal in retaliation. If it is not that bad, I ignore it. I hear a lot of Spanish spoken around me but most know English and will pivot if needed.
I feel like there is a mix of hard works and not just like with all races here. The ones that are not native I feel like are hungry, while the ones that are born here sometimes feel entitled.
I lived in a predominantly Latin American immigrant neighborhood in the Bronx and I’ve spent a lot of time with my visiting my wife’s Mexican-American family and most of them live on the West Side of Chicago or in Cicero. It can feel odd at first hearing everyone speak Spanish, but you get used to it after some time. Most people will speak at least some English, so you won’t feel completely lost.
When I first moved to Los Angeles, I lived in a Spanish speaking area and loved it. The people were friendly and the food in the area was fantastic! I think the area was about 95% Spanish speaking, so people in the area automatically assumed I spoke it as well. I always had to tell them that I didn’t understand. I’d move back in a heartbeat if housing prices weren’t so crazy.
The abuelas in my neighborhood knew I was vegetarian and started making special batches of tamales for just me without lard. ❤️
Get yourself invited to the parties and learn a bit of Spanish; you’ll meet the best people.
I lived in Doña Ana County, NM, where a majority of households report speaking a non-English language at home. About 75% of my immediate neighbors spoke primarily Spanish. Their English was better than my Spanish.
Some stores had signage exclusively in Spanish, but I was never inconvenienced. I thought it was funny how store/restaurant staff would switch to English when I (very white) would approach.
Never felt out-of-place.
My neighbors have parties later into the night almost every night (10pm?) in the summer. You can hear the music if you’re outside, but not really if you’re in the house. The windows and walls keep 99% of the noise out, unless I’m standing by the door closest to their house. It’s not a big deal. Other than that we say hi when we’re outside like all my neighbors.
Also, everyone either asks me if I speak Spanish or just assumes I do when I’m in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood. I only stayed there for a few months so I didn’t pickup much. I probably could’ve learned enough broken Spanglish to communicate.
In my neighborhood, only the grandparents don’t speak English.
I like fireworks, so my neighbors are cool to me!
Ostracized. Definitely felt like you were the outsider.
It was an interesting perspective because you learned first hand how minorities feel in predominantly white areas.
I haven’t lived in predominantly Latino areas, but I worked a job for six years where I was the only white guy. All my coworkers were either Mexican or Tongan. I have never worked so hard in my life just trying to keep up, because those guys did not let up from dawn until dusk. Hardest and most dedicated workers I have ever seen.
I’m in apartments so there’s not a ton of neighbor interaction, but they’re always super nice to me and sometimes offer me food at our shared pool space if someone’s having a birthday or something. Overall good experience I guess? I’ve never really thought about it tbh. Most of them don’t speak great English, but I know a little Spanish so it hasn’t been a big barrier.
Spanish isn’t a difficult language to learn and the kindness+amazing food makes it worth the occasional 4-year-old’s birthday party that goes hard until 3am.
It’s freaking great. I don’t speak Spanish very well but I’m getting better. And I don’t know whose complaining about gatherings because if you’re cool with your neighbors you are always invited and they always insist you take food home. 🤤 The Spanish speakers who are newer to the U.S. appreciate working on their English with me while I work on my Spanish with them. And the Spanish speakers who have been in the US for a generation or more are patient with me when I stumble when trying to speak Spanish with them and even appreciate that I’m even trying.
When I moved into my Spanish speaking neighborhood and they embraced me as part of the neighborhood it made me feel like I was home. I haven’t felt that way since I moved away from my giant Finnish/Romani family.
not me, but my dad grew up in a part of East LA that’s very predominantly Mexican-American. (One of my coworkers is a Mexican-American from a predominantly white part of LA and when I told him where my dad grew up, he said “he’s more Mexican than me!”) Almost all of his friends growing up were Chicano. I think he overall really liked it and felt pretty included. When he was in high school his best friend and his best friend’s brother proclaimed him to be an honorary Mexican, something he was very proud of, lol.
My dad did not speak Spanish except for swear words or random slang. Some of it he passed on to me, like I call things troche y moche all the time.
Finally, a question targeted to me. I love it here. Our local restaurants are great. Still holding the mild line between price and quantity on the menu. The neighborhood is nice, we have a lot of murals and statues the rest of town doesn’t have. A lot of family vibes in an otherwise bad part of town. This neighborhood cares about family and protecting them. I’ve never had issues after 10 years leaving my car unlocked most nights – that would never fly in other local neighborhoods.
I’m a person of part-Hispanic ancestry who doesn’t speak Spanish, but lives in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood on Chicago’s northside. The reason for my not speaking the language, is my grandpa arrived here from Jalisco, Mexico in 1915, a time when using one’s ‘native tongue’ in America was discouraged. Therefore, when he grew up and married, he never taught Spanish to his kids, who in turn, did not teach it to theirs. In this way, our language was ‘lost’.
My mom (raised in the city, the suburbs, and even for a time in Indiana farm country) came to the neighborhood I currently live in, as a young woman of 18, to work as an au pair for an Irish family. At the time, she was a ‘rare bird’, as most people working as household help (maids, cooks, childcare providers) were African-American. People seeing her olive complexion and dark hair believed her to be Italian (yea, even with the surname Martinez lol!)
Mom loved the neighborhood, and made it her permanent residence after she moved on from domestic work to office jobs (she eventually became a bookkeeper). But a funny thing happened over the years: the once mostly white area became more and more diverse, eventually including a large population of folks who’d emigrated from Michoacan….and Jalisco! Though neither mom nor I spoke Spanish, we nevertheless felt very comfortable around people with whom we shared some cultural touchstones.
Today I own a house that has bilingual, Mexican-American neighbors on both sides. Though I’ve never directly mentioned my ancestry, I’m pretty sure they guessed it, as I was quickly welcomed into their fold (my husband too, as they likely interpreted his Greek looks as being Hispanic) , Just a month after we moved in, we were invited to a family party down the block. When we had to refuse due to a prior commitment, someone rushed over with plates of food so we could at least have a ‘taste’ of the celebration!
I grew up around Mexicans and Salvadorans. Neighbors, friends, food, music, traditions. All were heavily influenced by Latinos. My natural English accent has a lot of Chicano influences, to the point when I was in university, folks from across the US (many from South and East but with not many Latinos where they grew up) would say I sound like I could speak Spanish.
Growing up, I could NOT speak Spanish 😂 I knew words etc, but not until the last few years of my life I started becoming more confident in my Spanish skills. Often speaking to vendors on the street or if folks need help. You kind of need to know Spanish at least basics to get by in my part of LA.
Loud Weekend nights with music blasting. The Panadero man making his nightly rounds. The Elotero. The weekend Guatamalan Churasco with tripa and longaniza. The Mexican tacos al pastor and my favorite de trompa. The Salvadoran pupusas and nuegados. There is no escaping the lasting impact Mexican and Central American cultures had on my life.
For me, this is everyday life. When im somewhere with no Latinos (Mexicans, Salvadorans, other Central Americans) it sometimes feels unfamiliar tbh. I ended up going to East Coast for a bit and surrounded myself with Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, and they also felt at home 😂 for me.
Although I am Black and Eastern Indonesian, I feel Latinidad is a major part of my cultural influences. I’m not Latino. But the Latinos i grew up with are major influences on my day to day here in LA and whenever I am not in LA.
Living in a mostly Spanish speaking neighborhood feels like stepping into a vibrant world you might not speak the language but the energy speaks for itself.
Not sure how someone can live in an area where it’s common to hear a language spoken every day and not be able to pick up some of it. Makes that whole “immersion” part of learning a foreign language a little sus, doesn’t it.
I live in a majority Honduran community in New Orleans, it’s amazing. I have multiple Honduran grocery stores, restaurants, and more within just a couple blocks.
The access to delicious, affordable food, good neighbors who are community minded, and, yes, often loud and poppin parties is why I love it here.
I’m Creole, but I did grow up speaking Spanish, so there is no language barrier or problem communicating. Hondurans are very similar to Louisianians culturally, so I think they fit in well here, after all, if you bring good music, food, and vibes, New Orleans will have you.
I live in like a 80% Hispanic population. They’re fine, it’s annoying when they have lived here for like 50 years and still don’t speak English so I have to like figure out what they’re trying to say but meh, it’s mildly irritating at worst. Food is good, parties are fun. I’ve noticed most of them generally aren’t huge fans of illegal immigration which I find slightly odd but whatever. I eventually married one, it’s been over a decade and we have 3 kids together. It’s sometimes strange to go places with her because the older generation are often like openly racist or something and when I’m with my wife and kids will just stare at me for uncomfortable seconds until I start starting back. Sometimes they’ll just stare at my kids. It’s not just an older generation thing, young to middle aged men will sometimes do the same, but definitely way more common with the older folks. I get called Chinito a LOT, even though I’m not Chinese, it’s mildly offensive but whatever I’m used to it. A lot of my best friends here are obviously Mexican…it’s surprising how often I hear the N word dropped so casually. My friends generally don’t but younger people like younger cousins, nephews, etc you’ll just hear it left and right at parties. Our cultures share a love for beer and bomb food so I’ve introduced many of my friends to my cultures food which they love. They’re fun people, hard working, sometimes pretty racist, and seem to want to speak Spanish to you even if you tell them you don’t speak it. Thank god my wife is fluent. My experiences are as an adult, raising a family here, I didn’t grow up in a predominately Mexican city.
I lived next to a backyard quince venue. It was fine until they wouldn’t stop the tejano music at midnight. I could not sleep with the horns. I also got sexually harassed very explicitly in Spanish when I’d come home from working late by drunks on the stoops. I learned Spanish while living there and I grew to really dislike my neighbors as I heard how racist they were to anyone not from the specific area of the specific country they were from. Very very loud neighborhood for no reason other than the people like to make noise, radios, loud cars, motorcycles, random yelling etc. My roommate grew up in a similar community and said it felt like home. I grew up near the woods and was happy when I moved.
Not knowing Spanish is not a permanent condition. It’s remediable. And Spanish-speaking neighbors (plus Duolingo) will teach you.
I’ll trade quiet for safe, cooperative, generous, forgiving, indulgent of eccentricity, hospitable, etc.
My grandparents were Italian immigrants and lived in a dying Italian neighborhood. If you were looking at my elementary school the Italian neighborhood was behind you. If you went to the left hat where all the black kids lived. If you took a right that was where all the Latino kids lived. Being that the Italian and Latino cultures and languages are very similar and just us having that dealing with immigrant family members the Latino kids kind of adopted me. My best friend was from Colombia. I was the last Italian kid in that school and one of only 2 white kids.
It was good. Got to eat cool foods I wouldn’t have gotten to try otherwise. Their families were nice. I dod find out I can’t sleep in water beds because I kept falling out of bed when I would sleep at her house.
I would agree with everything that you said. They are more often than not incredibly hospitable and some of the most hard-working people you will ever come across. They also make a hell of a lot of noise during a party and especially the older ones may speak little to no English. It’s just part of the neighborhood so it is what it is. They might keep you awake past the hour that you would prefer but you’re probably going to get a beer and some of the best food you’ve ever eaten if you stop by. Stick around long enough and you might get hitched haha
I am married to a Dominican and we lived for years in a majority Latino neighborhood (mostly Puerto Rican, Dominican, Ecuadorean, and a few Mexican). I speak Spanish reasonably well, but my kids do not although they understand some, My oldest daughter still lives in the neighborhood. We had the best neighbors ever. Everyone watches out for each other. Parties can sometimes be loud but for the most part people are respectful.
It was fine. Yeah, there were some loud parties, but at least it’s people being happy and celebrating. I’d rather hear my neighbors listening to music and laughing than hearing arguing, ya know? And then I don’t feel like I’m a nuisance when I’m blasting my own music while in some sort of ADHD fueled cleaning/organizing hyper focus. My neighbors always minded their business and I minded my own, I have no problem with that. Plus, when I was a weird goth middle and high schooler, the cholas were actually nice to me. Straight up, “Ay, are you a rocker foo” kinda shit.
Dad moved us into a predominantly Hispanic high school when i was 15. Got jumped 5 times the first year. Finally found some kids who would stand up with/for me but started doing meth and herion with them. Moved back to the suburbs and lived with some freinds the second I graduated, got clean, and got a job.
0/10. Do not recommend
Pandora swore up and down that they weren’t using geographical demographics in its algorithm, but damned if after we moved here, our formerly Celtic rock stations started playing mariachi.
Love the smell of tortillas on the afternoon breeze. I grew up in the Valley, so it feels very homely to me. And the taco trucks are amazing.
It was jarring at first just because I went to get money orders and things and the office literally had to hunt down an employee that spoke English. That was weird. It was also weird hearing Spanish more than I heard English. It was also weird that even the credit card machines are in Spanish in most places in my area, not English by default. Which is fine. I’m used to it now. It was just odd coming from the south.
But yes, my neighbors are loud. I’ve had to call the cops a few times because they were blaring music for hours. From like 9 am to 1 am when is finally call. I know they’re Hispanic because it’s in Spanish and often mariachi stuff. At like 80 decibles by the time I was at my door through 2 yards (I have a big yard and so do they) and through the door.
The other ones also have a lot of gatherings and sometimes partly block my drive way which is pretty annoying. and they let their kids scream outside for hours (the high pitched SHRILLS) but that’s could just be a house thing? And every time they’re outside I find stuff in my yard. Even a chair at one point. Along with the music.
I also don’t like my neighbors (who happen to be Hispanic but this is not a Hispanic thing per say) 1 puts their dog out and let’s it bark for hours. It’ll be quiet eventually and as soon as I open my door they start barking which was AWFUL for my dog when he was healing from an amputation because it makes him excited (he doesn’t bark back).
Another has a dog that gets out regularly that they still haven’t bothered to chip or collar. They also don’t speak English or even notice when she’s gone until a neighbor brings her home. My stepfamily also had a dog they didn’t seek treatment for that was showing neurological disorder suntil she couldn’t move which was awful to me. They loved her like crazy but I don’t think, culturally, the animal care carries down quite the same BUT that’s generally with the older generations. Which I also think is multinational for the most part.
I lived in apartments mostly previously- a few houses- but these kids are awful about it. BUT overall, not bad. They could just be inconsiderate people and that’s common throughout a lot of races 🤷♀️. The people at my apartment pool were the worst too. So it’s really an everyone thing I guess.
Because my step mom is also Hispanic and her family is EXTREMELY respectful. My 2 worst neighbors just happen to be Hispanic 🤷♀️. But I’m pretty sure all my neighbors are so 🤣. But I will say all the Asian families from my side have always been very reserved even as children. We are taught to be so. But that’s also the Asian cultural norm.
The families are hardworking. They don’t reach out a lot. But we wave at each other sometimes. The crime rate is low.
I’m annoyed I have better tacos in my old cities (I’ve lived in a few states). I promise I’m still talking authentic tacos too.
Im also otherwise sad about the lack of food diversity but that’s because we’re over 50% Hispanic here so that tracks even with neighbor issues. So it makes sense if the people that are the majority I have more issues with I guess
I also have an issue with my Caucasian neighbor because I’m pretty sure she killed her snake. She’s anti education and her kids are behind because of it. Shes also super paranoid. And she also told me that women should totally get the death penalty for abortions and she’d be okay with it because it wouldn’t affect her. And I think that’s weird.
Can’t complain! I will say that there’s a bit of friction sometimes. You might go to a store and get a clerk who doesn’t speak much English (once I had trouble buying booze because she didn’t understand my license was in MM/DD/YYYY instead of DD/MM/YYYY). However, it’s never been a problem. And I’m sure they deal with the same thing everywhere else. But everyone’s been kind since as long as I can remember.
Funny thing is, I live in a predominantly Spanish-speaking area, and the biggest offenders on the “blasting loud music and having rowdy gatherings” front are the white folks next door with the aboveground pool.
It’s loud, like all the time. Day, night, holiday, tidal wave, whatever. Somebody is always yelling about something or engaging in an hour long video-call at full volume or honking in the middle of the street for minutes at a time. Never quiet.
Never had issues. They’ve always been nice and friendly to me.