Maria Muriel moved to the United States from Peru during one of the toughest times in a kid's life,

Puberty. To make matters more complicated, she had to learn to maneuver a new language.

And we know how tricky that can be.

Maria had moved to Miami, probably the city with the highest concentration of Spanish speakers in the

US, but even there she learned to be afraid to stand out. She will never forget the day,

a girl got angry with her in the middle of class.

Reff was short for Ref UG, and it was used as a derogatory term for immigrants who had recently

arrived. The majority of Miamians are Latinos, but assimilated generations ago. So some of them

used this term to put down those who had just arrived and perhaps didn't speak English yet.

She was a difficult and sad moment for me.

Fear of that word would change Maria's relationship with her culture forever.

Welcome to the Duolingo Spanish podcast. I'm your host, Martina Castro.

Each episode we bring you fascinating first-person stories from Spanish speakers around the world.

The storytellers will be using intermediate Spanish, and I'll be chiming in for context in English.

But these are not language lessons. They're real life lessons through language.

When Maria was growing up in Peru, her parents were always trying to save money.

One day, Maria's dad was robbed.

It was the last straw. The family decided they needed to leave and find better opportunities.

It was a nerve-wracking moment for the whole family, and Maria was the only one who spoke English.

Back in Peru, since she was five years old, she had studied English at her all-girls' Catholic school.

They learned the language by singing songs.

When Maria turned 10, her teacher, Miss Bertha, had the class listen to music in English through headphones.

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