Continuation of Bilingual ESPN Anchor Alfredo Lomeli: Undocumented in America and Gaining Citizenship [Part I] [INTERVIEW]

Bilingual ESPN anchor Alfredo Lomeli sat with Latin Post about arriving to the United States as a 6-year-old child, and about gaining his citizenship just last month. He shared his thoughts on acculturation, identity, immigration, and learning and mastering the English language.

"I grew up speaking Spanish at home, that's the reason that I'm fluent in both languages now. It was Spanish, Spanish, Spanish at home, and English, English, English at school ... so when you're young, you pick up things so quickly. My brother and I ended up learning English in about five months, we were completely fluent."

Lomeli admitted that he sometimes exaggerates, said in response to a mention in San Antonio Magazine that said that he'd learned English in just three months.

"The process was just so quick because even after the first half of the first school year we were already speaking English ... we were no longer lost ... we understood and we were bilingual. It's a beautiful thing to be a kid, and have the ability to be exposed to a new culture and suck it up like a sponge. It's not that my brother and I are incredibly smart, it's just that when you're a kid it just comes natural."

When Lomeli would leave school as a boy, he'd return home to his mother and would share words that he'd learned that day; passing on knowledge while utilizing repetition to memorize it. He shared the definitions of words with his mother, and the multiple functions of words, such as dear. Lomeli's parents didn't speak English when they came to the United States and for many years afterward. In fact, Lomeli and his brother learned English, in part, from a Polish neighbor named Ms. Murray who was married to a Hispanic man, who spoke Spanish, though she didn't know the language.

"She was our little angel, she was our Polish grandmother. Our actual grandmothers didn't live with us too often. She's the one who taught my mom English. And our dad... she tried to teach him English. He had a harder time than my mother did. So, she was the one who helped my mom and my dad... and of course, us. When we were little, we got to practice a lot with her."

Lomeli's father now speaks English, though he doesn't use it for his business, largely because everyone speaks Spanish in San Antonio, like in Miami, so speaking English isn't a necessity. Lomeli's father's need to speak English wasn't as pressing for him as it was for Lomeli as a child, who was set back a year when he first arrived to school in the States, but was later moved forward when he proved himself not only capable, but advanced. In Mexico, he attended a private school, where he was already doing multiplication tables; something that isn't taught to American students until students are in the third grade. By the time he was in high school, he had developed a strong sense of self, gained a command of two languages, and participation in theater and sports.

"I've loved sports always, I just wasn't very good," Lomeli said with a clever grin. He revealed, in spite of his lack of sports-oriented coordination, he ran track, played tennis and played basketball -- naming basketball as his favorite sport. And, while he lacked coordination when it came to sports, he was well-coordinated on stage.

"I was going get the role in the middle school play ... and in the high school play and that helped me develop the confidence that I have today. I never put too much pressure on myself, and when I was in theater in high school, I got the opportunity to do a commercial for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce," Lomeli said, thinking fondly of the memory. "I had one line... and that one line was, 'Voy a triunfar el doble,' which means... I will triumph twice as much. Funny, it was a commercial about getting all type of kids... Hispanic kids, American kids... to learn two languages because of the benefits you get in this country from being bilingual. So, there were eight of us, and each of us had one line, and my line was 'I will triumph twice as much as you... because I speak two languages.' And, I'll always remember that because it was so amazing that I was just 13."

"Now, being 28, I think about that. Wow, it's so true. A lot of opportunities that I'd had, and the opportunities that I have now is because others think, 'Wow, this guy... he's bilingual.' So, working with ESPN Deportes, for example, we get so many English-speaking celebrities and athletes that come in... and they just know anytime they're going to be doing something with an English-speaking celebrity, I'm going to be the one doing the interview. Because I can do the interview in English and translate it back in Spanish. And, I have a handle on both languages in a way that not many people have. I realize how blessed I am that we came at such a young age, and how important it is to dominate both English and Spanish because it opens up doors."

Master of two languages and holding firm grip on confidence gained from an ability to hold his own in a conversation or during performance paired well with an inherent charm and attractiveness; it made Lomeli a natural fit for stage and screen performances. The young actor, music and host once did public service announcements for the Texas Runaway Youth hotline, confessing to being a bit of a bad boy in his heyday.

"Sometimes I'd run away, get beat up near railroad tracks... cause I was a bad kid," said Lomeli, whose friends fondly refer to as Freddy. "I did that, and I was able to handle national and international product integration with a couple of shows. It was great. You know, I always loved being on set, and it was a great experience."

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