Edwin R. Jusino | PRSSA UPR Mayaguez
On my last column I wrote about the myth about “English Only” as being a part of the requirements to become a state. Recently I read a document titled: The Price of Admission: Causes, Effects and Patterns of Conditions Imposed on States Entering the Union, from the American Journal of Legal History. Nowhere it is mentioned the issue of language, as being a factor of acceptance.
The document makes reference to the debate that occurred when considering the Louisiana Territory into statehood. Many of the same questions came when considering Louisiana for statehood. The question about loyalty, language, and customs was also brought up, just as it has been on Puerto Rico. Louisiana also had to suffer through imposed territorial governors, just like Puerto Rico did. Actually, Louisiana also went through a debate of English as the official language, and the issue about American Common Law, and the old Spanish and French legal systems. Interestingly, President Jefferson, one of our founding fathers, “believed in the necessity of legal uniformity as a strand in the web of national unity” and also made reference to the importance of a common language.
In the end a compromise was reached between the federal government and the French speaking dominated territorial legislature. The legal systems were both used, but for governmental affairs English was to be used. In the case of Puerto Rico, both Spanish and English are official languages, and English is used in both local and federal branches of the government offices. Louisiana today uses Creole in certain local parishes but also uses English in the State government.
Puerto Rico’s culture and political systems were adopted from the United States. In many ways we are more similar to the United States, than to any other Latin-American country. Our system of law, economic system, and government programs, even at a sports level, all have been adopted from the United States. An example of the latter is that before 1920, Puerto Rico was a soccer country, but after the 1920’s Puerto Rico has become a baseball, basketball nation. It is only recently that Puerto Rico’s soccer programs have begun to make any significant advancement in the Caribbean Football Union and CONCACAF rankings. Important to comment that nowhere in the list of requirements does it talk about sports and the inability to have national teams representing Puerto Rico as a separate sports entity. That topic I’ll leave for another column.
When we discuss cultural matters, a look at the cultural diversity of each individual State, we can see there is no such thing as a homogenous “American” culture. When you think of Louisiana, you cannot say that they have a similar culture to they’re next door neighbors of Texas, nor can you say that California is the same as New York. Looking at the list provided in the article of the American Legal Journal of History, we find that there is no mention of changing one’s culture to become a part of the United States.
A look at the list of requirements presented by the ALJH, we can see the Puerto Rico meets each and every single one of the requirements for statehood and more.
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