old school Ciuapilli Blogging

this is an few weeks old pilli with a foot many moons ago. enjoy and comment.

Mari

ya what she say...

Why I Love the English Only Pushers

Ah, yes. The irony of some English-only fanatic going red in the face in the middle of Arizona - a state with a Spanish name. I love it.

I also love the English-only zealots because they are proving without question that the so-called "debate" about "illegal immigration" has been neither a debate nor about illegal immigration. It has been a good old-fashioned hate-mongering racist attack on Latinos, period.

Why would I love something like that? Four reasons.

1. The hatred comes from fear, and the fear comes from our very real, very impressive numbers. It's just like when the media complained and moaned and wailed about feminism and horrors of free women, right before women's equality became more or less a given in our society. We are witnessing the convulsive death throes of the old power establishment in the United States. We are literally witnessing their self-destruction. Yes, it's ugly. Yes, it's stupid. Yes, it expresses itself through scapegoating and senseless racism. But remember where it's coming from, and remember where we're actually going. We are becoming once more a Latin American nation, end of story. We are becoming once more a nation that realizes "Colorado" "Nevada" "California" and "Viva Las Vegas" are Spanish words. The racist fools can whine all they want, but it won't change a damn thing. Cheers.

2. The Republicans are catering to the far-right racist fringe on this issue, at a huge cost they don't seem to comprehend in a nation where salsa outsells ketchup. The false smile they've put on with regards to "minorities" is quickly slipping back into what it really was and always will be - the bubba-toothed snarl of hatred. Goodbye, inroads into the Latino voter world. Goodbye, power. Goodbye, White House. Goodbye, Republicans. They've taken their feet out of their mouths, only to shoot themselves in them with Dick Cheney's pelet gun. It's almost as much fun to watch as Mexican wrestling.

3. Those who scream "English only" are almost always the same people who speak the language with the least mastery of it. They also lack any grasp of history, current events or - hell, I'll just say it - a brain. By standing proudly for ignorance and monolingualism in a global economy and environment that requires education and multilingualism to succeed, they might as well have a finger up the nose and another up the ass. They look that stupid. Norway has seven official languages. Every Canadian must learn at least two languages. The isolationist hubris that leads the nose-pickers to BRAG about their monolingualism is hilarious. "Look, Ma, I'm a dumbass and durn proud of it!"

4. When Miami, a city that in many ways is a microcosm for what is happening and will happen in the nation at large (they're about 25 years ahead of everyone else), passed legislation REQUIRING all business to be conducted in English only, the reaction among bilingual people was...to speak English less. That's right. It's human nature. Tell someone they "can't" speak a language, they're bound to go surly teenager on you and speak it LOUDER than BEFORE. Miami is the only city in the US so far where you hear more Spanish than English on the street - even though everyone is perfectly capable of speaking English. By the very DEMAND from the racist right that we stop speaking Spanish (because it scares them terribly, even though they use Spanish themselves every time they say words like "Las Vegas" and "Florida") they are all but guaranteeing a Spanish-speaking future for the United States. Gracias, dipshits. You are building your own coffin. I love you for taking the time to do that. It leaves me more time to read People en Espanol.

posted by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez @ 4:28 PM

snakes

snakes on a plane!