Spanish dialect unique to portions of Colorado and New Mexico is fading away

Spanish was spoken in the western half of North America since the time of the viceroyalty of New Spain from 1521 to 1821. For three hundred years Spanish was spoken. Even Geronimo was a catholic and Spanish speaker as May Native American tribes, which were treated as subjects of the Spanish King. That’s why schools, churches or misiones were build to integrate them into Spanish culture.

Because of the Black Legend, too. People often forget there was a big empire in this continent way before the French and the English settled. I'm from Chihuahua. They speak a variation of Norteño Spanish. They sound like my family. We are Hispanics, and we should dig more on our forgotten history. ¡Viva el Hispanismo!

I'm Spanish myself, living in California now and I'm so proud of the rich Spanish heritage that was left in the US. Some people tend to forget most of the actual US was once Spain, and the people in those territories spoke Spanish (plus sometimes their local indigenous languages). I even learnt that many of the Apache and other tribes the Americans fought against spoke Spanish and were already Catholic and Spanish citizens that kept a mix of their indigenous culture and Spanish culture alive. Orgulloso de la herencia hispana y de todos los que mantienen este idioma vivo

Spanish is a beautiful language

This sounds so much like the Spanish we speak here in Corpus Christi, Tx....my family has been here since the early to mid 1800's and we never lost our Spanish language 👍

I am a Mexican living in Northern New Mexico, listening to the hispanic elders from here speaking their spanish makes me feel nostalgic, their accent is so melodic and make you feel like you are talking to a long time friend, it is very welcoming. I feel sad this variant of spanish is loosing its strength, I feel honored to at least witness the beauty of this spanish before it disappears.

I am from Spain and I got a deep feeling viewing this piece.

People forget Mexicans didn’t cross the border, the border crossed them.

Qué triste que estos niños pequeños estén perdiendo el idioma de sus abuelos. Soy irlandés ☘️ y me mudé a México hace cinco años y ahora hablo con total fluidez el español, mi quinto idioma después del inglés, francés, alemán e italiano. ¡Aprender idiomas es divertido y hace la vida más interesante!

He is speaking Spanish . You can understand him perfectly 😊

Did you know that Jeronimo, the Apache chief, spoke Spanish and had a good relationship with the Spanish?

My grandparents from Mexico spoke Spanish just like this. When his grama blessed his car, brought me to tears bc my Nana would always bless our cars when we would visit.

Another argument against Puerto Rico statehood. Spanish in the US is older than English, but people think of it as foreign.

It is absolutely understandable Spanish, word by word. I am native Spanish speaker and I do not notice any difference.

As a Spanish speaker, I feel very proud to hear this story and sad that it will soon disappear

I am from Northern New Mexico and My mom didn’t teach me Spanish on purpose, so I wouldn’t be judged as she was; but when I got older and joined the US Navy I met people from Mexico, Columbia, Spain and felt as if a part of me was missing. I later moved to Mexico for 4 years and became fluent. I am the only member of my family from my generation that speaks Spanish 😢

It doesn't have to disappear. Louisiana is working to preserve Cajun and Creole French. You don't need a lot of speakers to preserve a dialect, just enough to pass to the next generation. Don't give up.

My grandma is from costilla and is 82 years old, she is one of the last in my family that speaks this language....I want to learn it before its to late

Estela, elderly lady from Espanola New Mexico would tell you “the chile está quemoso “ y yo le decía “picoso” y ella me corregía “no, quemoso “ español viejo contra español nuevo! En el valle de Espanola la gente está orgullosa de sus ancestros

My daughter's great-grandmother was born in San Antonio, Texas and only spoke Spanish - while she learned English, she refused to speak it outside her house. It was todo lo que le quedaba, she said. Beautiful news story.