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Hello, my name is Raymon of the Castle. It used to be Ramón Rosalio Gregorio Macias Del Castillo but all of that has changed now that English will soon become the national official language. Please don’t call me Ray.
Language is but a mere utterance of organized sounds as human groups communicate with each other about each other’s perceived needs. I recollect in 1989 when English became the official language in the State of Colorado. It won overwhelming support even by those who had been victimized by acculturation. Institutions have a force that penetrates even the strongest of resistors. Spanglish became the vernacular as many Spanish speaking communities made the transition from one language to another.
The Latino communities in the United States of América will soon be left with nostalgia about what was once a thriving language. Pseudo morticians are preparing for the biggest velorio ever as despedidas about the loss of the Spanish language are being written while flores de todos colores to place over the headstone are being grown in indigenous pueblos. The time to say goodbye has arrived. An inscription on the headstone will read “¡No Se Puede!”
Government employees slipping away for lunches in downtown Denver’s multicultural milieu will be downright confused about what to order. They now live in a country where salsa, the number one condiment replacing catsup, will be losing its picante flavor. Bottles will soon read “gravy.” Salsa bravo will be watered down. Sweat no longer will drip down from foreheads to the tips of noses for those who indulge in chips and salsa at their favorite Mexican restaurant.
The name of the state where you reside will be changed to “Red” and your Denver Broncos will soon become the Denver Ponies. Get ready to order “donkies” at your local Taco Juan’s. You will no longer be able to Tango at un baile; you’ll have to resort to the tangle as you untangle your dance steps.
As I wrote in “Are you Linguistically Handicapped,” in Tales from a Michoacano:
Do you ever feel embarrassed to pronounce
a Spanish word that way that it supposed
to be pronounced?
Is there a tinge of fear whenever you pronounce
your name correctly?
If you have answered yes to any of these questions
then you are either partially
or full linguistically handicapped.
Even if you are linguistically handicapped and cannot pronounce a Spanish word the way that it is supposed to be pronounced or even if can’t trill your “r’s” when you secretly order burritos at Taco Bell’s, don’t succumb to the pressures of those who pretend to be language imperialists.
Making English the official unofficial language of the United States of América is just another legislative attack in the cultural wars as fear encapsulates the souls of White América, forcing them to place blinders over their eyes believing that this will obliterate all that is different.
The inevitable occurred in the halls of justice in Washington D.C. as the democratic process squelched another human right.
According to Dr. José Calderón in Language Loyalties: A Source Book on the Official English Controversy, “The campaign for Official English coincides historically with a period of massive immigration.” That phenomenon certainly fits this period in history as massive immigration has taken place over the last quarter of a century. The newest billboards in town bespeak of a xenophobic attitude that is predominating all of the gossip circles.
Purification rites are useless when human beings have a need to meet their needs. Language will seep out of any closet no matter how many locks are placed on the front doors. You cannot stop human beings from uttering sounds when the impulse to survive is at stake.
Sterilization usually occurs when cultural purists feel threatened. At stake are generally issues of power and control. Delusional thinking has a magical way of forming stereotypical images in the minds of those who have benefited from current social arrangements.
The time for a language velorio seems fitting. Pull out the white shroud and pull it over the many bodies that are now just skeletons whose spirits have died from the lack of cultural nurturance. Invite los musicos to write corridos about a time in history when the fear of a human mosaic was so fanatical that human beings were forced to speak English Only.
El velorio should be in Spanish only, sprinkled with iconoclastic Nahautl dichos. Just remember: “Never once did our ancestors shout, “Nahautl Only.”
Ramón Del Castillo, Ph.D. is an Independent Journalist.
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