English Plus vs. English Only

By Wilfredo Santos Rivera

English is the official language of the United States. Everyone accepts it as
a fact. It has been so as a custom of the land. However, in many state legislatures, laws have been passed declaring English the official language of the state. Now the Congress of the United States is considering several proposals that would make English the official language of the United States.

This issue is more complicated and political than what it seems to be. Language is intimately related to culture.

Our history, customs, traditions and beliefs are expressed through our language. we as a nation are proud of the English language.

I am by training and by choice an English teacher. I have read the Old English epic poem Beowolf in the original. I have also read Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Shadespeare's plays and peoms. They have given me great pleasure. More pleasure I believe than monolinguals that have been limited to reading translations of the originals.

I have also read the Spanish epic poem El Cid, Cervantes' novel, Don Quijote, and many Spanish and Latin-American writers works in the original Spanish language. The Spanish language is the language of many cultures. English is also the language of many cultures.

Having established a distinct advantage of being bilingual, I can safely assert that there is no advantage of being monolingual.

The English Only, U.S. English, English As Official Language issue is not new. It has been part of an on-going effort by mainly Republicans to abolish Civil Rights provisions that were guaranteed in the Bilingual Voting Requirements of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. They have also sought and continue to seek the termination of Bilingual Education Programs by repealing The Bilingual Education Act (2OU S.C. 3281 et seq.).

The reasoning of the English Only advocates defy logic and, I believe intentionally misconstrue the purpose of the Voting Rights Act and the Bilingual Education Act in an attempt to disfranchise non-English speaking citizens and residents the right to a meaningful education.

Retrograde English Only legislation locally (HB 2054 OK) and nationally proposed legislation (HR 1005, HR 123, HR 739, S. 356, H. Con. Res.6) are uninspiring examples of legislation that divides our nation.

Finally, the issue is not that our school children in the United States should learn English. One hundred percent of the children of immigrants have always learnt English. Hispanics are no different. On the contrary, most gorget their native language and when they reach high school are asked to learn a foreign language. by that time language skills have greatly diminished.

As far as the immigrant adults are concerned, my mother never learnt English, but she paid taxes all her life and was always a responsible citizen. Today's proposed legislation would have disfranchised her as a punishment for not learning English.

Forunately our responsible political leadership has held this anti-immigrant, anti-American legislation in check. Nevertheless, we must not let our guard down and we must increase our vigilance state by state. Ultimately we will have to stop Proposition 187 and English Only laws in the Supreme Court. Justice will prevail.