National Public Radio’s All Things Considered spoke with Ilan Stavans, Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture, about Spanglish being acknowledged in the 2014 edition of the Royal Spanish Academy’s dictionary (under the entry “Espanglish”). He noted that Latinos have held onto their native language --or at least a version of it-- much more effectively than other immigrant groups retained their native tongues, partly because they can easily keep in touch with where they came from.
"Latinos are not losing the Spanish language, but they are not keeping it in a pure form. And this impure form is a language that has been around for over 150 years,” he said. "For someone who is Latino and lives in San Antonio or in New York City for that matter or in Chicago, it's very easy [to keep in touch with the home country]. It's very cheap as well. And so we are a very movable population. We never really cut the umbilical cord."