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"Buenos días, chicos!" called out Ms. Ramirez, as Mateo's class entered their 6th grade Spanish class. As kids shuffled to their seats, Ms. Ramirez wrote a prompt on the board: "Share something you did this weekend—en español."

When it was Mateo’s turn, he stood and said confidently,
"Yo fui pa’ la bodega y  me comí un chimi --"  The class erupted in laughter.

"That’s not how you say it!" his classmate, Camila, snickerered.
"'It’s ‘fui a la tienda,’ not ‘pa’ la bodega,'" she mocks, mimicking his accent.

Even Ms. Ramirez chuckled and moved on quickly. Mateo’s cheeks started to burn, and he slumped in his seat, humiliated.

At the end of the day, Mateo takes the long route home. His headphones are in, but his mind replays the moment over and over. 

He stops at the corner to help an older Dominican woman who’s confused by a construction detour. "Mijo, gracias. Tú eres un ángel," she says with relief.

At the bodega, he chats with the owner, Don Felipe, about last night's Mets game in Spanish. "Tú sí sabes, Mateo. Tú hablas como la gente de verdad," Don Felipe laughs.

Mateo catches the bus outside, and as he boards, he helps a mother and her daughter translate their MetroCard issue to the bus driver. The driver nods at Mateo and says, "We need more kids like you."

When Mateo arrived home, his parents were in the kitchen preparing dinner. 

"Mami, Papi, ¿mi español es malo?" Mateo asked his parents. 

"¿Qué pasó, mi amor?" his mother asks. He tells them about school, about Camila, the laughter, the teacher not saying anything.

"Mateo, you speak like us, like your grandparents, like Don Felipe. That is real, Dominican Spanish.That’s part of who we are."

His mom adds,

"Did you know Juan Soto speaks like us?" Mateo's dad asked him."The way you talk is how he spoke growing up in Santo Domingo. And look at him now!" Mateo started to feel better.

During dinner, Mateo's parents talked about how the Dominican Republic was one of the first places in the Americas colonized by Spain, and how Dominican Spanish was a mix of centuries of African, Taino, and Spanish influence.

Mateo's mom said "We fought for our independence and have been been through a lot, but we’ve always held onto our way of speaking. Our words are our story."

Mateo's dad added, "Your grandparents grew up during a time when people were told to be ashamed of how they spoke. But they never changed, and neither should you."

Mateo soaked it all in.