From: nyt@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.culture.caribbean
Date: 22 Dec 92 14:22 PST
Subject: Edit'l:In Defense of Spanish/ed-lp
Nf-ID: #N:FVT7VB8w165w@nyxfer.uucp:-688410609:000:6192
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!nyt    Dec 22 14:22:00 1992


Subject: Edit'l:In Defense of Spanish/ed-lp
From: nyxfer!nyt (NY Transfer News)


Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit

From el diario/La Prensa 12/21/92

Translated and edited by Toby Mailman. "el diario/La Prensa" is 
a Spanish language newspaper published in New York City.


A New Cultural Order for Puerto Rico? 

            The Defense of Spanish: The Battle Begins
                     byline Edgardo Martinez

The New Progressive Party (PNP) in Puerto Rico will take power
next week, or to be exact, on January 2, 1993. During the past
electoral campaign, those supporting statehood promised that they
would carry out reforms in many orders. Some of those changes are
directly or indirectly related to the question of culture. One of
the most heavily emphasized changes was the annulment of the law
which makes Spanish the country's only official language, and the
reinstatement of the old law which North Americans imposed in
1902, four years after the invasion. 

The triumph of the PNP was solid, and new legislative leaders are
already anticipating that the annulment of the Spanish law will be
the first legislation to be approved in January. But already the
first winds of protest and oppositon have begun to blow, and what
is coming will be a virtual storm. The following is the prelude.

The law which declared Spanish to be the official language of
Puerto Rico was signed by Governor Rafael Hernandez Colon last
April 5. This was the fruit of years of efforts by various
intellectual and cultural groups to have acknowledged what was
more than obvious: that Spanish is the natural language of Puerto
Ricans, who think, speak and feel in that language; that it is a
fallacy to say that Puerto Rico is a bilingual country when studies
show that such a condition does not exist among its population. In
fact, after the Spanish law was signed, a study was published
which concluded that some 60% of the Puerto Rican population
cannot speak English.

The news of the Spanish law went around the world. In Washington
it upset some; in the Spanish world it provoked admiration. In
fact, shortly afterward, the government of Spain announced that it
would confer the "Prince of Asturias" rize on the Puerto Rican
people for reaffirming its culture and identity through the
official recognition of its language.

But none of this pleased the PNP, which is lookig for a way to
make Puerto Rico a state of the United States union. They raled
against the law; they said it was an attempt to separate Puerto
Rico from the United States, which would affect the allocation of
federal funds, that Puerto Ricans are North American citizens and
have to know English, etc. When the draft became law, they swore
that they would annul it when they came to power and that English
would once again become the official language along with Spanish.

The promised will be carried out, they say. And the reaction has
not been long in coming.

In an editorial published last week, the newspaper ABC from Madrid
described Governor-elect Pedro Rossello's promised as "mindless"
cultural "aggression" and pointed out that the PNP "couldn't
begin" its mandate "in a stupider and more frivolous way."

Already, yesterday [Dec. 20], statements of discontent and
disagreement began arriving here [el diario/La Prensa] via news
agencies. "Defenders of Spanish Willing to Fight Against PNP," was
the headline which the Spanish agency EFE put on one of its
dispatches transmitted from San Juan. Professor Pedro Juan Rua, of
the group Accion Nacional Pro Defensa del Vernaculo [National
Action in Defense of the Vernacular], and the representative of
the Popular Democratic Party, Hector Lopez Galarza, who was the
author of the Spanish law, made it known that they would fight
against the annulment of the law.

Rua said the elimination of the Spanish law would constitute "a
step backward" because, according to him, it would take away from
the country a "legal shield" against the growing threat of the
"English Only" movement in the United States. Rua did not hesitate
to say that [the growth of the "English Only" movement] was made
patent by the election of Bill Clinton as President of the United
States, "since as governor of Kansas, Clinton approved laws in
favor of `English Only.'" 

Our dear friend Awilda Palau, who for years wrote a weekly column
for el diario/La Prensa, also let it be known, and no less
importantly, since she was one of the main promoters declaring our
vernacular the official language. Palau confirmed that she will
look for the path of consensus for this thorny problem and that
she will propose to Rossello that he not alter the Spanish law,
but that he present laws which stipulate adding the use of English
when necessary.

"Everything in Spanish and when it is necessary, also in English,
but there should never be the use of both languages
indiscriminately, as the 1902 law stipulated, which was so fought
against," said the intellectual, adding "To annul the Spanish law
would be like annuling themselves."

But the changes which the PNP has announced which will effect the
cultural life of the island don't stop there. A reform is
anticipated in the law which governs the University of Puerto Rico
-- traditionally a bastion of opposition and cultural
reaffirmation -- in order to be able to have more direct control
over the institution and thus make it respond better to the
policies of the pro-statehood government.

There are other questions. What are the plans for the celebration
of the 500 Anniversary of the Discovery of Puerto Rico? What will
be the policy in regard to the Instituto de Cultura
Puertorriquena, which, under previous PNP governmentshas seen its
autonomy violated? Why did the PNP legislators in the Senate
eliminate the cultural commission?

And maybe the most important of all the questions: How will the
Rossello-Romero Barcelo government confront the opposition of a
patriotic people who are ready to struggle not to be dishonored?

We'll see this all begin on January 2, 1993. (edlp 12/21/92)
 
 

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