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Puerto Rican Statehood Like a bad penny that keeps coming back members of Congress are busy again trying to make Puerto Rico our 51st state. Rep. Jose Serrano, New York Democrat, has introduced H.R. 900, the Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2007. If Congress passes it Puerto Ricans would have to vote for the fourth time in forty years on whether they want their island nation to remain a self-governing U.S. commonwealth, or become a U.S. state. One can be forgiven for wondering why Puerto Ricans should have to go through this costly exercise again, since they have gone to the polls and rejected statehood three times before, the last occurring in 1998. But by far the most important reason to oppose H.R. 900 is that it does not require Spanish-speaking Puerto Rico to adopt English as the language of its government before it is considered for statehood. Should Puerto Rico become the 51st state without adopting English, it is sure to open up a Pandora’s box of language-related evils. Statehood supporters say such concerns are unwarranted because Puerto Rico has made both Spanish and English official languages. But even though most well-educated Puerto Ricans speak English, and English is widely taught in the public schools, the island’s four million residents are still overwhelmingly Spanish-speaking according to the Census. And the default language of Puerto Rico’s day-to-day government operations is Spanish, not English. Unless that changes and Puerto Rico agrees to conduct its government operations in English like all the other fifty states, admitting the Spanish-speaking island to the Union will have an immediate impact on this country. Puerto Rico is likely to demand that the federal government operate in both English and Spanish to accommodate its congressional representatives and its Spanish-speaking citizenry. That will give rise to speeches and debates in Spanish on the floors of Congress with simultaneous translation similar to what we now see at U.N. meetings. The abrupt move toward Canadian-style bilingualism at the federal level will have a ripple affect throughout American society. It will send precisely the wrong message about the need to maintain our national unity in English at a time when the U.S. already is struggling to assimilate a large and rapidly growing Spanish-speaking immigrant population. Politicians, always eager to broker interest group privileges in return for political support, will compete with each other to pose as champions of relatively cheap language entitlements. Meanwhile Spanish dominant enclaves like South Florida and many other parts of the country, will grow larger and isolate an increasingly Spanish-speaking lower class. Over time the social tensions are sure to result in a growing Spanish-English divide and create the kind cultural-political fault lines that are fracturing the unity today of countries like Belgium, Canada, and the Ukraine. As sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset noted, “The histories of bilingual and bicultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy.” One way to avert a shipwreck over language would be for Congress to insist that Puerto Rico adopt English as the language of its government before it could be considered for statehood. Puerto Rican voters also would have to understand that adopting English is a requirement if they voted for statehood. But another solution would be for Congress to pass a constitutional amendment making English the sole official language of the U.S. government. Once ratified by the states, the amendment would end the argument, and with it any danger of a bilingual government. It is clear that one way or another, the American people want to preserve our nation’s historic unity in the English language. If Congress reopens the issue of Puerto Rican statehood, it must confront the issue of language.
K.C. McAlpin is executive director of ProEnglish, a non-profit organization which advocates for official English.
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