What’s wrong with Español?
Last week a social media user posted an incident that caused some controversy among Holtville residents and people who live around the Carrot Capital.
According to what I’ve read a young lady dared to publicly criticize a bunch of teenagers for speaking a language different from the unofficial language of our beloved nation.
The kids were coming from football practice (real football, better known in this country as soccer) when the woman in question approached the boys and asked them if they were from the area.
Of course, the boys told the young monolingual lady. They were locals.
I guess her next step was to waste a call to the Border Patrol in order to put them back to their country, right?
The verbal exchange did not stop there as the woman demanded the kids speak the language brought by the British centuries ago.
As expected, the young woman got a rude response from the teenagers.
This incident brought them to the attention of social media groups on both sides of the border. The majority of users blasted the adult for her perceived racist, xenophobic remarks while some defended her under the logic of forcing the students speak English.
While it is true the language brought by the British centuries ago is widely used in our country in the course of dayto-day business, the reality is that, individually, Americans and visitors from overseas have the right to communicate with each other in whatever manner they desire.
A private conversation in an unfamiliar tongue is none our business and doesn’t require intervention. If we can’t respect that, we shouldn’t be surprised at getting some unpleasant comments in return.
Yes, English is the dominant language in the United States (although it has NEVER been federally designated the official language), and thus it’s fairly essential to prosperity in this country. Nevertheless, our growing global economy should push us learn other languages.
Despite living in a state that home to a great number of persons of Chinese or Japanese descent, very few of us attempt to learn those languages. Individuals of those ethnics origins have been forced (practically speaking) to acquire another language in order to conduct their business. This has made them better educated. The same is true of persons of Middle Eastern descent and others.
Trying to make U.S. residents use English exclusively is as unproductive as limiting everyone to using only one hand or one leg.
The incident in Holtville is a symptom of a greater social ill. Similar incidents have occurred all over the county, inflamed by anti-immigrant and xenophobic rhetoric that was spouted by a certain presidential candidate about three years ago.
That seed has been planted and irrigated, and today has grown to unprecedented levels affecting and dividing our nation.