Yanely Marte

10 September 2025                                 The Barrier                                 

My mother is a latina woman who all her life spoke spanish and growing up i learned to understand her spanish and then try to translate it to others so they could understand. I remember this one day where she had a doctor’s appointment and I tagged along with her because she always needed either me or one of my siblings to go with her to these appointments due to the fact that she didn’t speak or understand English. It was a Monday morning and I remember sitting down in the waiting area waiting for my mom to get called.  And as soon as she got called I stood up and followed her. I remember the nurse asking my mom some questions in English but my mom’s face was full of confusion and she didn’t understand a word. I made it my job to translate for my mom and make sure she understands what’s being said to her so her confusion would go away. Therefore I tried my best to translate. There were some words that I had trouble translating from Spanish to English because for some reason I would get stuck and couldn’t think of the word. That was a challenge I used to face often when translating from english to spanish. I remember as I was translating for her I looked over at the nurse and she was giving my mom a certain look as if she was judging my mom because she didn’t speak english. This was something I noticed a lot with people, my mom was easily judged everyday due to the fact that she didn’t speak english. My mom faced a lot of obstacles, being an immigrant and only speaking Spanish in an English dominated country was tough for her. As her daughter I made it my responsibility to help her out whenever she needed the support and made sure no one took advantage of her. And so when the nurse was giving my mom these looks I didn’t like it at all but I decided to bite my tongue and let it go. That was until I noticed that the nurse started treating my mom differently, she started giving her attitude and her whole energy shifted. This was when I started getting upset and my energy shifted as well. That’s when I looked over at the nurse and said “ is there a problem?” and she just stared at me and replied with “ excuse me” and I said “ i noticed how all of a sudden your energy has shifted and your facial expressions”. She then replied “what do you mean?” And I said “ You know exactly what I mean, don’t act clueless all of a sudden. I don’t appreciate you judging my mom and treating her poorly because she doesn’t speak English. If there’s an issue you can leave and I’ll request a new nurse because I don’t feel comfortable with you here.” She then just stared at me in disbelief almost and didn’t say anything as she exited the room. I remember my mom looking at me as if she was concerned and she seemed a little upset at first because she thought I had said something bad that made the nurse want to leave the room. And I remembered explaining to my mom the situation and why I said what I said. She then understood I was only trying to protect her and that’s all I want to do is protect my mom. And from that day on I learned that people are quick to jude and mistreat you just because you don’t speak the same language as them or even if you can’t read the same language. Language barriers play a big role in many people’s lives, especially many immigrants but that shouldn’t be a reason to judge or take advantage of people.