Bi-lingual

Let me start this section, giving thanks to the State of Colorado, where my children benefited from a bi-lingual transitional education, when we moved there from Puerto Rico in 1988. Colorado, I will always remember! And in my family we are all very appreciative and obliged for that! I am paying you back by abandoning my Engineering field, and becoming a Candidate to the US Congress. I am hopeful I will be participant in the creation of legislation that would make possible for other immigrants -in many other States- to have the same welcoming, that my family received from you.

Colorado has benefited from a lot of Hispanic immigrants who have moved into many areas of that State. The majority are of Mexican origin, and they do work hard, and for little. Despite their pauperism when setting foot on America; Latinos, Asians, and other immigrants have a strong family bonding and enviable family values. Their work ethic is exemplary as well. If you leave bigotry aside, you would have to admit that they are an asset to America. After all, that is of what we are made of, millions of hardworking immigrants that most of us are, give or take a 200 years.

I do not have much patience with those bigots who say that America should be an English-only language. In Europe -and in particular in Spain, where I grew up, there would be riots if people were not allowed to speak in their vernacular language. In Europe, often the regional language is not the national one.

Only ignorant people would be afraid that other people are able to communicate in more than one language. A bi-lingual person has a real marketable asset, and advantage in an international free-trade society. That is one of the few benefits on the side of the immigrants.

If you invite people to your house, the guests are supposed to honor your rules, of course. And if you invited them, or allowed them to come in, is it not only fair that you treat them with the same respect you treat your family? The same applies to "guest workers" in America.

They often come here to help as farm hands, or other "undesirable" jobs. Labor laws allow employers to pay them less than the minimum wage. From where I stand, that is an infamy that has to be repulsed, and soon. Moreover, the employer is not required to provide any kind of medical coverage to them. Logically, their children do not speak a word of English. Many US citizens feel we owe them nothing. We not even have to offer bi-lingual education to their children. Often we hear: "they are lucky we allow them to work here, because in their countries of origin they would not even have anything to eat".

Do you call yourself a Christian ? If I am a non-believer, and it is not right for me! Imagine for those who call themselves the "righteous" ones, it should be even more intolerable. But, it is not! Immigrant misery -and double standard- is commonplace and tolerated all over the country. Shame on us!

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This is my position on bi-lingual education: "Any State that has a "large" number of individuals of a given ethnicity (immigrants or not), should provide (or at least, do a real fair effort to provide) bi-lingual education for those individuals. Definitely, it is a must to provide bi-lingual education to their children."

How we measure "large"? I am of the opinion that before answering that question, we need to differentiate between two types of languages:

	(a) languages of limited international scope (such as Basque, Italian, Swahili, ...) and
	(b) languages of great international importance in the free-trade society we are fast becoming (such as Chinese, Hindu, Spanish, Japanese, even Portuguese -the language that is spoken in Brazil and that country will have more than 200 million people by 2025 and is bound to become a very important trade partner with the US).

It would only make common sense, that if you have a significant minority of people in your County who speak a type (b) language, it would be smart to invest on keeping that language-knowledge alive and well. More so, if your County/State has either,

	(i) a significant Tourism industry (case of Florida), or
	(ii) hosts industries that are traditional heavy exporters, or
	(iii) is a hub of international commerce (case in point: Miami).

Let's be smart, let's be fair, let's be foresighted, and -above all- let's be compassionate and humane. That is what differentiates us from those beasts in the jungle.

Editor: JX