Habla jibber-jabber

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				THE
Column Archive				VIRGINIA GAZETTE
				WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
Habla jibber-jabber				March 30, 2005

I’m here to tell you that Armageddon is upon us. I know this because recently the oldest English language paper in the country, our own Virginia Gazette, went mucho loco. Chucking the whole linguistic enchilada on which this country was built, it ruthlessly bade English a grand hasta la vista, baby, and dared to print a column in Spanish. That’s right. Spanish!

As it should be, the reaction to such dithering with tradition met with swift and stinging rebuke in the Last Word. Ralph Romero, the linguist and author of the column, was charged with divisiveness. Gazette editors were castigated for “alienating the majority of readers” and “stepping over the boundaries.” Which boundaries were overstepped was not specified, but that’s beside the point.

Driving right to the core of the issue, readers noted that our money is printed in English, that English is the official language of Virginia and that the bilingual influence of “millions of illegal immigrants” is dividing the nation. Others rightly argued that Americans speak English and that we shouldn’t have columns in the paper that “Americans can or cannot read.” But perhaps the most astute comment was that Spanish is mere “jibber-jabber.”

Well, maybe.

Reading these reactions, I got the impression that Hispanics are about as welcome around here as liberal Democrats and those who oppose toting concealed pistols in day-care centers and the library’s reference rooms.

To begin with, Romero’s column was about as innocuous as they come. He didn’t advocate an attack on American traditions, including the speaking of English. Nor did he urge the sons of Santa Anna to rise up and retake that scrubby wasteland known as Texas, for which we fought an unholy war with the Mexicans. He simply explained the services available at the Olde Towne Medical Center, which is hardly the stuff of revolution.

Nor is Spanish, which is one of the richest, most melodic and expressive languages on the world stage, the real issue. Rather, if we look deeply into ourselves, we shall find that, as a result of our self-imposed insularity and our nationalistic insistence on monolingualism, we have developed an irrational fear of different cultures and the languages that reflect them. As a result, our sense of world history is practically nil, and our ability to speak and understand foreign languages downright pathetic.

Fear and ignorance of things foreign breed hatred and distrust. Logic and understanding go by the boards, to be replaced by nonsensical generalities, such as the notions that all Hispanics are illegal immigrants or that Hispanics refuse to speak English. Would that as many Americans could speak any second language as there are Hispanics who speak English.

As the open invitation on the Statue of Liberty well attests, there are few people in this country whose ancestors didn’t reach these shores speaking languages other than English. Nor should we forget that it was as a result of Spanish foresight that this country was discovered.

Certainly we are currently experiencing a great influx of Spanish-speaking peoples, and many are here illegally. But is this any reason to impugn the motives or deny the rights of Hispanics who have become citizens and hence have every right to be here? Like it or not, they will soon be the largest minority in this melting-pot of ours. As they should, many of them will retain ties to their culture by continuing to speak and read Spanish.

Far from being “jibber-jabber,” Spanish, like Italian, is a language that, by its very sonority, runs the gamut of human emotions with veritable ease. It is one of the few languages that can mellifluously combine hope and despair, love and hate. It is the language of Cervantes and his klutzy, but lovable hero, Don Quijote. It is likewise the language of the psychological intricacies in the novels of the more contemporary Gabriel Garcia Marquez, one of Colombia’s, and our, literary treasures.

In the final analysis, what horror has the Gazette foisted on its readers by including a biweekly column in Spanish? Is there any reason why our local paper shouldn’t extend the same courtesy to Spanish-speaking readers as Lowe’s or Home Depot, whose signs are bilingual, or Food Lion, whose self check-out counters offer customers a choice between voices squawking at them in English or Spanish?

I would like to think that the Williamsburg area is not one in which bigotry finds a home. To that end, I applaud the Gazette for reaching out to our Spanish-speaking fellow citizens, as well as all those who responded positively to this new venture in Saturday’s Last Word.

Bienvenidos Ralph Romero y todos los lectores hispanos a The Virginia Gazette.