In my California-born and bred Mexican-American family, the sentiment that speaking Spanish is un-American has stuck around for generations. In my family, we pronounce our last name the Anglo way, TELL-ez, instead of the Spanish way, TAY-es. It’s partially why I didn’t grow up speaking Spanish. My mom, who is bilingual, didn’t want my brothers or me to have an accent. And my dad couldn’t have taught me – he spoke only English in his house growing up.