Vanessa Ruiz is a better person than me. While I sometimes cave and Americanize words, like pico, she has managed to say Spanish words in Spanish with their correct pronunciation, even while on air as the news anchor for Phoenix’s 12 News at 10 p.m. After haters contacted her through social media to question the way she pronounced certain words, Ruiz decided to dedicate a special message to them. “Just so you know, I was lucky enough to grow up speaking two languages, and I have lived in other cities in the U.S., South America, and Europe,” she said. “So yes, I do like to pronounce certain things the way they are meant to be pronounced, and I know change can be difficult. But it’s normal and I know over time that everything falls into place.”
OK, so not only did she refuse to apologize, she also told everyone they just had to deal with it. Plus she gave a shout out to la raza in the blog post that accompanied her video: “I actually feel I am paying respect to the way some of Arizona’s first, original settlers intended for some things to be said,” she writes.
It’s not the first time someone has had issues with how someone pronounces words. A KQED piece by Queena Kim tackles the question of how Latino reporters on public radio say their names. “Here’s a question: Why do Latinos, but especially public radio reporters, love to over-pronounce their Spanish, even when they’re speaking in English?” the piece starts before she gets into a conversation with ¡Ask a Mexican!‘s Gustavo Arellano. Though the word over-pronounce is totally wrong (they are just speaking Spanish), the piece does make a good point: If you say one word in French, you’re expected to say it correctly so that you sound cultured.
Look, all we know is that we can’t go around policing other people and how they speak. So, just do you, like Gustavo Almodovar: