We have always been majority English/minority Spanish in language, with Spanish being perfectly acceptable until recently. A third of our country was Spanish speaking, place names etc are still Spanish derived.
Most of us came from immigrant families where it is highly likely the first generation did not speak English and in many cases, didn’t want to. That led to ethnic enclaves where signage was in Chinese or Yiddish, for example and they had their own language newspapers.
The reality is, if you want to get ahead, you need English, but in the meantime you need a job, at least she found a waitress who could help right?