Contact across the Solar System

Speaking Spanish

Cristina then announced "Let us turn to something more pleasant. I've learned that Kalna had learned some Spanish."
She looked at Kalna and asked her "¿Cuándo aprendiste español en tus viajes a la Tierra?" (When did you learn Spanish en your trips to the Earth?)
She checked a smartphone and responded "Lo aprendí en mi segundo viaje." (I learned it in my second trip.)
Cristina translated it, and she continued her questioning of Kalna in Spanish about her Earth experiences. At one point, Kalna protested "Mi español es horrible." (My Spanish is horrible) She laughed nervously.
"Don't be ashamed," said Cristina, "You're actually pretty good."

Cristina asked Ilmuth, and she responded "No hablo español. Yo sólo hablo inglés." (I don't speak Spanish. I only speak English.) "That's about as much Spanish as I know. I learned a little bit more, but I've forgotten most of it. I never became very much of a speaker. Kalna did better than me."
Cristina then tried to get her to speak some more Spanish, without much success.

After that, she announced "I think that I've held the stage for too long. All of you who are with me, now ask away."
Which her entourage did, asking about a wide range of things. They were especially interested in what Kalna and Ilmuth experienced in Los Angeles in their years there.

At one point, Ilmuth said that some people thought that she was Hispanic, and some people considered it odd that it was her "Anglo" friend who was the one who could speak Spanish.

"Did anyone think that you were an illegal immigrant?" asked one of the California people.
"I was careful to have documents on hand. Fake documents, of course. We needed fake documents to get anywhere. That means all of us residents. SSC residents on your planet."

Ilmuth asked "What about you, Cristina?"
"I've gotten a lot of stuff like that. I don't know how many times I've been told to go back to Mexico."
She continued. "But I really have to say that it's not just North Americans who can be racist and bigoted. I've experienced plenty of that among my fellow Latin Americans."
"Like a certain family friend that I know. He once talked about how he worked as a gardener in the States, mowing lawns and trimming shrubs and stuff like that. One time he was relaxing during his work and he overheard some people talk about how lazy Mexicans are. He felt very hurt by that, because he was doing some very exhausting work."
"I talked about some of my own misadventures, but then I said that we shouldn't congratulate ourselves too quickly. Look at what some of us think about Central Americans."
"Then my family friend grumbled about what troublemakers they are, how they were moving in and taking people's jobs and making a mess of the place and stuff like that. Just like what he complained about North Americans saying about Mexicans. That filled me with sadness more than anything else."