Spanish Thrives in the U.S. Despite an English-Only Drive
By SIMON ROMEROAUG. 23, 2017
Authorities in parts of the United States have repeatedly argued for curbing the spread of Spanish, like the former Arizona schools chief who said all Spanish-language media should be silenced. A judge pushed back this week against that official’s drive to also ban the state’s Mexican-American studies program, saying the ban was “motivated by racial animus.”
Linguists trace some of the coveted vibrancy that Spanish now enjoys to decisions made well before Spain began colonizing the New World in 1492...
. . . But if the past is a guide, Spanish will continue to evolve and endure.
“In many places in the U.S., English and Spanish are in bed with each other, a contact that is both generative and exciting,” said Junot Díaz, the writer who masterfully explores the immigrant experience in the United States, largely through the travails of his Spanglish-speaking Dominican protagonist, Yunior.
“For many of us,” he went on, “Spanish is our path to love, and as history has proven no one can legislate away love.”
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