America 23: Spanish

America has no official language, but in some parts of the country you could be forgiven for thinking that Spanish, not English, deserves the title. It is a very strange feeling to walk into a shop in a Spanish-speaking neighbourhood and find yourself unable to communicate except by a vague series of hand gestures and words you hope are common enough to pierce the language barrier. The experience is deeply alienating. Imagine what it must be like to feel that all the time, to be constantly confronted by your alien-ness and considered illegal by the place you call home.