Se Habla English
Almost 50 percent of U.S.-Born hispanics prefer english, and that's just the way it should be.
By Ruben Navarrette, Jr.

When it comes to language, a lot of Hispanics become so emotional that they can’t think clearly.

For instance, they sometimes let the fact that they were once upon a time discouraged from speaking Spanish—even to the point of being punished in school—fuel their support of bilingual education for the students of today. They’ve also been known to make fellow Hispanics who don’t speak Spanish feel as if they aren’t Hispanic enough.

I know this from experience. When the time came to take the E.L.T. (Ethnic Litmus Test), I flunked the verbal—the section dealing with language. As a second- generation Mexican American, I speak English. What I don’t speak well—at least not as well as many of my fellow Hispanics would like—is Spanish.

For that, I offer no apologies. This is the United States and this is how it is supposed to be. Assimilation happens.

But if Hispanics are a little weird about language, so are other Americans. Many of the native-born feverishly insist that the United States is an English-speaking country and that anyone who lives here ought to speak, well, you know. And yet they turn a blind eye to the billions of dollars that U.S. companies spend in Spanishlanguage advertising each year in the hopes of grabbing a slice of the nearly $1 trillion that Hispanics have in annual
buying power.

Then there’s the politics. This culture clash and resistance to foreign languages is an important part of the current debate over legal and illegal immigration. The common complaints about porous borders or the number of illegal immigrants or the changing complexion of neighborhoods and towns often gravitate back to the language issue.

Oh, c’mon. You didn’t really believe the line about how the only reason that people are concerned about illegal immigrants is the fact that they’re here illegally. People just say that because they’re afraid that, if they told you what really bothers them, you might hit them with a word that ends in “ism.” Racism. Nativism. Ethnocentrism.

People are just as likely to go ballistic over things that have nothing to do with words like “legal” or "illegal”—such as bilingual ballots and Spanish-language billboards. Or the latest gimmick—companies like Toyota and Procter & Gamble experimenting with Spanish commercials on English television.

It all feeds the perception that Mexican immigrants in particular are arrogantly and defiantly refusing to assimilate. Read: Learn English.

Of course, that’s total nonsense. Despite the fact that we often make it too easy for them to continue speaking only Spanish, many immigrants do want to learn English, if for no other reason than to survive and prosper in the United States. Why else would Englishas- a-second-language classes fill up so quickly? And why else would so many immigrant parents be willing to take up picket signs and take to the streets to pull their children out of bilingual education courses and put them into English-only classes? In fact, the truth is, Hispanics have done such a good job of mastering the assimilation process that many of their children and grandchildren no longer speak Spanish.

In 2002, the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Hispanic Center and Kaiser Family Foundation surveyed 3,000 Hispanics and found that, among the U.S.-born children of Latino immigrants, 46 percent were English dominant, 47 percent were bilingual, and just 7 percent were Spanish dominant.

This impacts how Hispanics get news. According to a 2004 survey by the Pew Hispanic Center, most Hispanics either get their news exclusively from English-language outlets or alternate between English and Spanish. Thirtyone percent get all their news in English, and 44 percent flip back and forth between the two languages. Just 24 percent get all their news in Spanish.

The culture warriors have nothing to worry about. English always wins out in the end.

And, by the way, it has nothing to do with those dumb and divisive “official English” laws, which you can now find in about half of the 50 states. It’s about economics and self-interest and common sense and the irresistible lure of one’s adopted country.

But nor should Hispanics worry much about losing Spanish, even as they acquire English. The dominoes don’t have to fall that way. If parents want their children to preserve their Spanish, they can make an effort to preserve
it at home.

Besides, it’s a new world. It used to be that English was the public language and Spanish the private one. Now, suddenly, Spanish has become a public language.

It’s poetic, really. Here you have all these people convinced that Hispanics are using Spanish to segregate themselves, when actually the exact opposite is true. The more people speak Spanish, the more Spanish is woven into the mainstream.

Who knows? One day, the American narrative might begin like this: “For English, press one. Para español, oprima el número dos.” H

Ruben Navarrette, Jr. is a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune, a nationally syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group and a frequent commentator on National Public Radio.

Only In America
By Dr. Eduardo J. Padrón

Increasing tuition costs and a shortage of financial aid threaten the aspirations of minority students.

his is graduation season, a unique harvest in America. A nation of aspirants, we ask our youngest “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and then nurture our children toward the North Star of a college education.

We are, to this day, a nation of diverse origins. For many who have landed on our shores, going to college probably seemed more distant than the North Star. Nery Queija was a doctor 12 years ago in Cuba, but the journey between two coastlines can erase a lot of history. In May, however, she completed a milestone in her new story. At Miami Dade College’s commencement ceremony, she became Nurse Queija. She will be the only nurse on the hospital floor with an M.D. degree. She will likely be the only balsera as well.

America’s first scholars at Harvard University in 1636 were balseros of a sort themselves. And America’s great tradition of exploration has been reflected in the evolution of its educational system. Once reserved for the landed and wealthy, schools gradually opened their doors as democratic traditions replaced the habits of the old monarchy from another shore. And as the wand of history has guided America from its rural roots to its great cities to the expanse of the information superhighway, we have kept pace by building the world’s most respected and open higher education system. Four thousand institutions of higher learning and more than 20 million students would suggest a healthy body of knowledge.

But something is amiss in higher education, and perhaps, on an even larger stage. A number of key factors are conspiring to reverse the egalitarian ethic that had opened up access throughout much of the 20th century. Soaring college costs and major cutbacks in both federal and state financial aid have had a disproportionate impact on low-income and minority students. Factor in a mysterious growth economy that appears to benefit only isolated segments of the population. Too many are making agonizing cost-of-living choices, eliminating one major need in favor of another. The inevitable result is that higher education has been placed on hold for far too many
eligible students. The Congressional Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance estimated that 2 million qualified low-income students will be closed out of college, including the cost-effective community college route, by the year 2010.

For Hispanics, the narrower opening in higher education’s doorway is an ominous signal. Significant population gains have made Hispanics the largest minority in the nation, but college enrollment has failed to keep pace. In 2000, only 22 percent of college age Hispanics (18-24) were enrolled, compared to 31 percent of African Americans and 39 percent of the white population according to the National Center for Education Statistics and HACU. And Hispanics do not benefit from a tradition of experience in American higher education. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that 40 percent are the first in their families to attend college. The most threatening marker, however, is the most influential: 23 percent of Hispanic adults and 30 percent of Hispanic children live in poverty according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The poor are losing access to college each year.

We have no greater priority than education. From early childhood to graduate programs at our finest universities, learning is the lifeline to a fulfilled life and the backbone of a healthy nation. Only a learned people is capable of choosing cooperation over confrontation, openness and respect instead of fear and contempt.

Nery Queija crossed a treacherous body of water on a raft with a clear purpose in mind. She will make an extraordinary contribution to her community. Let us hope that the doors of opportunity open wide for her children. Any other outcome would be an insult to Nurse Queija’s courage and determination. H

Sources: Hispanic CREO (Council for Reform and Educational Options), U.S. Census 2000 and yearly updates, National Council of La Raza and Hispanic Scholarship Fund

Dr. Eduardo J. Padrón is president of Miami Dade College, the largest institution of higher education in the nation.