Assimilation to the mainstream brings with it a type of American Spanish that is less distinct, more anemic. Localisms tend to disappear in favor of a more neutral parlance. This happens, in part, as a result of media consumption: radio and especially television, with their impulse to create a Latino identity that comes about from mixing elements. In the hope of enlarging their audience, Univision and Telemundo regularly default to a mishmash — what we Mexicans call a revoltijo. By trying not to alienate audiences, these networks produce shows with an Español that is a sum of many parts. The result is tame, feeble, uninspiring.

But las apariencias engañan — don’t be deceived by appearances. As mainstream American Spanish becomes the standard, vulnerable varieties of it lose ground. In the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico, there is a dialect that has been spoken for over 400 years, allowing scholars like me to appreciate a lexicon that is closer to medieval Spanish than anything else used in the world. But its last breath is approaching. Also under threat is Ladino, the language of Sephardic Jews, brought to Los Angeles, Seattle and elsewhere by immigrants from the Ottoman Empire in the 1880s. Nostalgia alone doesn’t keep a language alive.

American Spanish is biodiverse, and‌ because of that‌, it should be appreciated as a national resource, not scorned as a hindrance. The Español we use not only includes the syncopated rhythms of cities like New York, Miami, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles, as well as countless rural areas; it is also exported all over the world through tourism, Latin music, sports and streaming services. Language is free, and it travels unimpeded across borders. The polyphony of American Spanish is beautiful. We need to protect it. We also need to value it as an asset.

In spite of this richness, the United States suffers from what feels like an incurable flaw: a foreign language allergy. One out of five households in the country communicates in a second language, and after Spanish, the most frequently spoken are, in order, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Arabic. But Spanish is spoken by more people than those four combined. It is estimated that in 2060, there will be 111 million Spanish speakers in the United States. That is more than twice the population of Colombia.