Yet 23 states have adopted measures restricting the public use of minority languages. During last year's regular session of the General Assembly in Maryland, laws that would have required all government business statewide and in Baltimore County to be conducted in English were defeated.
An English-only mandate not only hampers effective communication but, according to the written opinion of the Arizona Supreme Court, it also "chills First Amendment rights."
Stephen Montoya, the lawyer who represented legislators and state employees in Arizona seeking to overturn one such law, called it racist. "The only individuals in Arizona who don't speak English fluently, or not at all, are people of color," he said. "I see this as a way to keep them out of the political process."
To legislate against Spanish is to marginalize the largest minority group in this country. The United States contains the fifth-largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, estimated at about 32 million. Spanish is the third-most-spoken language on the planet, with 400 million to 480 million speakers.
As for the assertions that these "foreigners" don't want to learn English, considering the waiting list of immigrants clamoring for classes, that can't be true.
Moreover, learning a foreign language takes time. Please, let's give them a chance.
Language is a beautiful resource, a bridge to other cultures and new ways of thinking. It's also constantly in flux; a language that doesn't change dies.
If we stymie the process, the best we can hope for might be the unearthing of American English by future archeologists studying a dead culture.
Deborah Whitford is a writer, a student of Spanish and a courtroom clerk in Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix. Her e-mail is jwhitf6364@cox.net.
