The tiny city of San Luis, Arizona, at the far Southwest corner of the state rarely finds itself talked about in the news. Therefore, many there are undoubtedly surprised by the national attention being brought recently to the town’s local city council elections. This is because last week, an Arizona judge ruled that San Luis resident Alejandrina Cabrera was prohibited from running for a seat on the council. According to state law, any candidate running for office in Arizona must be able to proficiently speak and write in English. And even though the population of San Luis is 89.13 percent Hispanic and even though Cabrera does speak some English, her status as a primary Spanish speaker precludes her from holding public office in this state.
As of this year, 28 of the 50 states have adopted English as their official language. Arizona made the move to do so in 2006, after an overwhelming 74 percent of voters approved a ballot initiative on the subject. However, there is as yet no national language for the country as a whole. This may indeed change as a national “English-only” movement is picking up steam.
According to U.S. English, an organization leading the charge in this country to get English established as the nation’s single official language, a common national language will serve to unite the U.S. population. The organization hopes that eventually all official government business will be conducted in English, all official documents will be written in English, and all public ceremonies and meetings will be held in English. Not only will this move unify the nation’s populace, U.S. English argues, but it will also “empower” immigrants, and reduce poverty among non-English speakers.
However, for the detractors of this movement, it is hard to imagine how someone like Alejandrina Cabrera is “empowered” by English-only laws. In fact, opponents of the movement argue that just as Cabrera has been disenfranchised in San Luis, many more non-English speakers across the country will be similarly disenfranchised should the government move to an English-only system of operation. Not only will this population not be able to run for office, but many will not even be able to vote. In addition, things like applying for driver’s licenses or passports, reading new pieces of legislation and observing the president’s State of the Union address could become increasingly problematic.
For many the English-only movement symbolizes a larger wave of anti-immigrant and anti-Latino sentiment in this country. These critics argue that this movement has much less to do with English, which is clearly already the predominant language in this country, than it does with Spanish, which many apparently fear to be growing increasingly important. As director of legislative affairs for the National Council of La Raza Raúl González argues, “The message of these bills is not ‘I want you to encourage you to learn English,’ it’s ‘I don’t want to hear someone speaking Spanish.’”
This is the third in a series of articles on Latino immigration and precipitating cultural tension in the U.S. Read additional parts here: part 1, part 2, part 4, part 5.
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