Parenting & Family Quote by Geraldo Rivera

There’s a small, almost self-owning humility in Geraldo Rivera admitting his kids “speak it better than me.” It’s a parent brag disguised as a confession, and it lands because it reverses the usual immigrant-family storyline: the children aren’t losing the old language, they’re lapping the parent. Rivera frames Spanish not as a relic but as an active household policy, something you do daily, imperfectly, and still successfully.

The intent reads practical and cultural at once. On the surface, he’s describing a parenting choice: speak Spanish at home to pass it on. Underneath, he’s signaling belonging in a country where Spanish is perpetually politicized - treated as both ubiquitous and suspect, a marker of community and a target for “assimilation” anxiety. By acknowledging his own imperfect fluency, Rivera sidesteps performative authenticity. He doesn’t posture as a flawless native speaker; he positions himself as someone reclaiming, maintaining, or strengthening a tie that might have been frayed by growing up in English-dominant America.

As a journalist and TV personality, Rivera’s public identity has long moved through mainstream media spaces where bilingualism can be read as either asset or provocation. The line functions as quiet advocacy: language transmission is possible, even if you’re not “perfect.” The kids “better than me” twist is the punchline and the point - cultural inheritance isn’t static, it can upgrade. In a media ecosystem that loves either/or narratives about identity, Rivera offers a messier, more believable one: pride without purity tests.