Not cool, responders. Yes, let's ignore the humiliation of these two women and instead hone in on their need for a translator.

Guys, it's story time.

My parents had high school level English when they came to the U.S. Now, how on earth could they have this ability, this wet dream of immigrant bashers? Because they lived in Lima, they had a good income, and they were university educated. That meant they had their pick of English schools, money for classes, and experience in study. And why was my mom even able meet my father in Lima in the first place, when her family is from the Ayacucho area? Because her mother came from family with enough money to fund my grandmother's move to Lima.

Basically, one of the reasons I'm even typing this sentence is because my ancestry has a hella lot of privilege.

Now, let's compare this experience to someone who has a third or fourth grade education, has been working all of their life and has finally made it into the U.S. The first thing you do is get a job. Maslow's, everyone. Physiological comforts come first. Then we can move onto where you're comfortable enough to do stuff (and have enough disposable income and time) like go to an English school. (An uncle and aunt who came to the U.S. around the time spent their first ten years or so building a business, and then started to go to an English school. I think I made another bootstrap-type come.)

I've been speaking Spanish all of my life. It's my first language. However, I am far more fluent in English because I fucking use it more often. I can barely write a sentence in Spanish, and reading more than a paragraph can make my head swim. So, would I use an interpretor to give a statement? Fucking yes. I can express myself in English more readily and I know/hope that my interpreter can translate most of the nuances into Spanish. I don't trust myself to do the same.