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Jose Rivera was born in East-Harlem, also know as Spanish Harlem or El Barrio, and he chooses to live there now with his wife and three children. As a hobby, he is the webmaster for www.east-harlem.com, a website dedicated to preserving and promoting the Hispanic cultural identity of El Barrio.

To many in the neighborhood, Jose Rivera is a model Puerto Rican living in New York-a successful businessman who adores and keeps his cultural roots alive.

Every Sunday he attends the Spanish language mass at St. Cecelia's, but he goes alone.

"I specifically decided to not teach my kids Spanish," Rivera said while eating his favorite after-church breakfast, a bacon egg and cheese sandwich from McDonalds. "When I was young I had a really hard time learning to read in English because my first language was Spanish. I did not want the same thing to happen to them."

Rivera is not alone. Many other first and second generation Puerto Ricans who live in New York have consciously decided to teach their children only English. They feel two languages can confuse a child early in their education, which will hold them back later in life. Moreover, they do not want their children outcast by mainstream American culture because of a heavy Hispanic accent. Conversely, other Puerto Ricans who live in New York feel language is an important anchor to their cultural identity and being bilingual fosters success in the modern business world.

"Many people base decisions to not teach their children another language because of their own personal experiences, if they had troubles in school growing up for example." said Federico Subervi, who chairs the Communications Studies department at Pace University. Subervi was born in Puerto Rico and moved to the United States when he was six months old. He was taught both languages as a toddler. He moved back to Puerto Rico when he was seven years old and spoke mostly Spanish until he came to the United State for college. "In other parts of the world, though, it's normal for children to be raised with two, three, even four languages."

Angelina Carrasquillo understands the importance of language in culture. She was born in Puerto Rico and moved to New York when she was nine months old. She works as an administrative assistant at El Museo del Barrio, a museum dedicated to Puerto Rican, Caribbean, and Latin American art. She uses both English and Spanish to communicate everyday. But, she too chose to teach her two sons-one is 17 the other 13-- English only.

"The younger one wishes I had taught him Spanish," Carrasquillo said. "But it was so hard for me in school. I wanted the boys to have an edge getting the good jobs."

Subervi said this outlook frustrates him because in today's world, with the North American Free Trade Agreement taking shape and the Latin American markets opening up, it is a valuable skill to be bilingual. But, he said he does understand the perspective that Carrasquillo and Rivera expressed because American culture has stigmatized people with Latino accents and has assigned negative stereotypes to them. Even so, he said, without the language, Puerto Ricans miss out on many important aspects of their culture like the music, poetry and literature. "Translations are okay, but they don't capture the essence of the people," Subervi said.

East Harlem artist James De La Vega agrees with Subervi and said he prefers to read poetry written in Spanish. "There are ways to express emotion in Spanish that English can't even begin to capture," he said.

De La Vega said he experienced difficulties learning to read and encountered negative stereotypes because of his accent early in life, but he is glad his mother made sure to teach him both languages. He was born in East Harlem and his first language was Spanish. He was awarded a scholarship to study at the prestigious York Preparatory School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

"When I first went to the school, the kids would make fun of me because of my accent," De La Vega said. "It was frustrating at the time, but I ended up working hard and graduating valedictorian of my class. I'm happy that I kept both languages because I do believe that Spanish is an important part of the Puerto Rican identity and culture."

Preserving the culture is of utmost importance to many Puerto Ricans who live in East Harlem. On any given day salsa music echoes off worn tenement walls, patriotic banners hang from fire escapes and old men roll down the streets on bicycles adorn with Puerto Rican flags.

"We must represent," said Julio Nieves, a doorman on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Nieves was born in Puerto Rico but moved to East Harlem when he was a year old. He was brought up to speak only Spanish in the home and feels it helped him maintain the family values associated with life in Puerto Rico. He chose to teach his children Spanish because a strong sense of family structure strengthens their identity as Puerto Ricans.

"Here, in the US, it's all about the individual," Nieves said. "But because we speak Spanish in the home, it teaches my kids to address their elders with respect. It shows them the importance of their culture. It gets dug into their heart."

Nieves' son Jason, 21, said his grandmother only speaks to him in Spanish. He is not as fluent as he would like to be because "out in the world" he doesn't use it all the time, but he is glad his grandmother keeps him involved with his roots. He said most of the time the women keep the language alive.

Nieves backs up his son's perspective and said because the language is focused around the home, women do play a major role especially in the food they cook. The real Puerto Ricans are not the ones eating at McDonalds or "eating pasta and lasagna, they prefer arroz con gandules."

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