Hispanics and Spanish speaking communities have been living in the western portion of the United States for a little under five hundred years. Their culture and language has existed and flourished in this country for a very long time now and only in more recent history have they coexisted with Anglos and English Speaking communities. In fact, the western half of America has been English-only, through enforcing English-Only laws that have kept the English language the dominant form of communication, for about the last one hundred and fifty years. Actually, even for decades after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, when the southwestern portion of the United States was transferred to America from Mexico, all of the southwestern and most of the western states had bilingual constitutions and institutions that were conducted out in English and Spanish for their Anglo and Hispanic populations, as instructed by the treaty.
pase con mí debajo del dividir
My intentions though are not to promote illegal immigration smuggling or spread blame over the past on any one; but rather to understand the historical, present, and future demographics of Hispanics and Spanish speaking communities in this country. I know this sounds a bit radical but it is now time for American society to realize and accept the cultural and linguistic rights and heritage Hispanics and Spanish-speaking communities have here in this country. We should do what was originally planned, in the beginning with the Guadalupe Treaty, and that is make laws that create a bilingual society for the two groups, in English and in Spanish, in government, in education, and in jobs so that everyone who is a member of our society can participate more equitably in its resources. Furthermore, as Hispanic and Spanish speaking populations in this country continue to increase faster than any other group, as recorded by the US Census Bureau, having a bilingual society will be essential for these peoples as many have roots and families with cultural identities for over 500 years.
The contemporary, American arguments over bilingual education and having a multilingual society really branches out into two main opposing viewpoints. There are the Anglo-Conformists, I agree partially with their philosophy, and then there are the Cultural Pluralists, which whom I agree mostly with. McLemore, Romo and Baker and their academically accredited book on the topic of American sociology , Racial and Ethnic Relations in America, outline simply the two groups and their views.
"Anglo Conformist ideology states that non-Anglo individuals and groups should accept Anglo-American society and conform to its patterns of culture, language, social institution, and social and private life. The ideology of cultural pluralists believe the assumption that the members of every American ethnic group should be free to participate in all of society’s major institutions while simultaneously retaining or elaborating their own ethnic heritage, language, and social institutions."
(McLemore, Romo & Baker)
The resistance among Anglos is enormous for both Conformists and Pluralists to accept Spanish, equal to English, as an official language. Many Americans feel twenty-five percent of the population is not enough to change the national language. But in many places in the first world like Canada, where the population is one quarter French speaking and almost three quarters English speaking (Government of Canada), it is essential in everyday social life to have a bilingually established country by law. Besides, nowhere in the U.S. Constitution is the national language of English only specified.
"One of the obvious stipulations of the Guadalupe Treaty, as mandated by Mexico or she (Mexico) would have never signed it with the U.S." (Flores and Benmayor),
was that the U.S. Government was under immense obligation to protect the cultural and linguistic rights of the Mexican Americans, who found themselves north of the border after the war with Mexico. This was done by constructing
"the constitution of California, the early laws of New Mexico, and the laws and regulations of many other states in the Southwest to be written in English and Spanish"
The treaty also gave Mexican citizens who became newly U.S. Citizens the right to maintain their cultural traditions and practices. The first bilingual schools popped up in the southwest after the war with Mexico but it would be only a few decades later that they would all be shut down, one by one, because many Anglos were outraged over this bilingual idea and believe English was superior to the Spanish language. Moreover, many
"Hispanics in the southwest were sent to inferior ‘Mexican Schools’, as they were called, where they would learn English-only and many would not be allowed to attend Anglo-schools again only until after the famous Brown vs. Board Supreme Court case in 1954" (McLemore, Romo & Baker).
Proponents against Bilingual Education say it is not working, it is wasting the tax dollars of the English proficient, and their arguments do hold some truthfulness. Conformists acknowledge that "Hispanics have the highest high school drop out rates than out of any other group of Americans" (U.S. Census Bureau) and some of the finest universities and institutions in this country have a difficult time adequately fulfilling their required minority enrollment quotas for Hispanics. Lack of English proficiency is the main reason causing lower levels of education and incomes for Latinos according to U.S. English Inc. They also found several credible example in 2000 where there was an academic research study done, which showed that students in bilingual classrooms performed lower on test scores and were worst in English proficiency than their counterpart peers in English-only classes. Bilingual Education classes are failing compared to English-only classes in test scores and grades. For this reason, this is evidence to prove for Conformists that Bilingual Education is indeed not worth the tax money that is being pumped into it.
Conformists argue that bilingual education is worthless as revealed by the lower test scores of those in bilingual education settings versus those in English-only classrooms. Also, the costs incurred with converting the society to becoming completely bilingual would overburden our tax pool and increase the national debt. Both these main arguments made by Conformists are weak. I further respond to Anglo-Conformists saying that you too would do more poorly on a Spanish test given to you in Spanish than a native speaker would do.
Provided that all children are equally taught in both languages, having increased education for all will inadvertently increase our economic potential as a nation. This will create more jobs and business growth for the economy because we will be using our resources more effectively, efficiently, and educationally, due to our increased learning and schooling. Also, this plan will definitely pay itself off greatly in the long run, generating more revenue that will absolutely counterbalance the small increases in the national debt and in higher taxes, because of advancements made in communication and in the opportunities of all people.
The point about Hispanics in bilingual classrooms being less proficient in English than their counterpart peers in English-only classes proves nothing new we do not already know. English is their second language so of course they will not perform as well on these English tests as will the American speakers. The points over the costs of converting our national system into a bilingual one does not hold solid ground neither because our country has already taken many of the necessary steps as far as translating Spanish goes. Look at our nation’s tax forms, government literature, employment applications, ATMs, grocery stores, T.V. and radio stations, billboards, and much more has already been done towards translating the two languages in America.
Pluralists are equally as absurd though when they cling and hold onto the transitional and partial Bilingual Education programs that are really only designed to assimilate children into learning English. There is no academic benefit in learning Spanish in these transitional bilingual classrooms, since
"most of these programs are taught by faculty that speaks English-only"
The students are not here to learn any part of their native language but to makes transitional steps toward learning English.
Lastly, our current Bilingual Education programs are really a failure and they make children more handicapped in their first languages. While really there is only partial evidence that shows there to be true learning and assimilating of the English language by these children through our current programs.
Pluralists respond to me asking what would I do to help children learn English who do not speak Spanish nor English in my proposed plan? I counter by asking them why, do we always have to limit ourselves and do the easiest way possible? I call for all children to learn English and Spanish at the minimum, so we can certainly always better ourselves by incorporating more languages to learn in the education system. Can’t we?
This brings me to the point of having a multilingual society because looking down the road in a hundred years form now, which is really only a blink of the eye in the sight of history, this might be the new situation the nation will be confronted with. For the time of now until the next fifty years though, the progression needs to be made from learning English-only to learning English and Spanish; the issue of multilingualism shall be addressed later on in the future as other ethnic populations increase and become more significant in the United States.
The progressive trend towards becoming a bilingual society is inevitable in the next fifty years. So that everyone in the United States benefits from the transition as fairly and equitably as possible, all school children should be scholarly educated and fluent in both languages by the time of their high school graduations; for their overall success and well being in life.Like many of the advanced societies in Europe and Asia. And as I said in the very beginning of this diary, my ideas of a bilingual state are widely rejected and deemed too radical for the times as of now. But in the near future they will be considered innovative and visionary as Latinos and Spanish speakers communities become a more significant and a very important part in the whole of American society.