Why did the stopped Mexican man tell the police "I don't speak Spanish"?

Towards the end of the movie The Mule (2018), there is a moment where a Mexican is stopped by police as a suspected drug mule, and tells the police "I don't speak Spanish".

I'm not American and don't know the cultural meaning of this. Could you elaborate on this? Why did he say "I don't speak Spanish"?

To show that there are Mexican Americans who are so American that they don't even know the language of their ancestors?
To debunk some stereotypes that all Mexican Americans speak Spanish and are still more Mexican than American, aka identify as Mexican-first or mostly Mexican?

dialogue the-mule

Best Answer

Spanish is the language of Mexico.

I think you are mistaken that the man stopped is Mexican, which is also an assumption the police are making. While I don't doubt he has Hispanic ancestry, possibly Mexican, it's pretty clear he's born and raised in the USA, in that interaction, and his saying "I don't speak Spanish" is the way the director chose to show that, instead of having him say "I was born and raised in the USA."

He's saying "I don't speak Spanish" because one of the officers spoke to him in Spanish.

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