Mixtco-speaking immigrants struggle to make a life near Othello

These immigrants from Mexico don't speak Spanish or English and have a very hard time here. Their American born children learn English and some Spanish and even have a hard time speaking with them. - - Donna Poisl

By MELISSA SÁNCHEZ, Yakima Herald-Republic

OTHELLO, Wash. -- In a bleak housing project west of this small rural town, the Mexican farm workers living here murmur to each other in a dialect many of them don't want their children to learn.

It's called Mixteco, one of the dozens of dialects spoken by Latin America's indigenous people. For these immigrants, Spanish is a second language. Many don't speak it.

"I want my children to learn Spanish," said Isabel Reyes, a 31-year-old who speaks to them in broken Spanish. "And English. I want them to go to school and get good jobs so they don't have to work in the fields like we do."
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