by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
The government may be afraid of political scandals, bad press and low approval ratings, but linguist Otto Santa Ana said the U.S. government has something else on that list: Hispanics.
"If they're afraid of us now, imagine how afraid they will be when we unleash the power of our countercultures," Santa Ana said.
He said the government demonstrated its fear of Hispanics by passing legislation that made English the official language.
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Santa Ana is the associate director of Chicano Studies at the University of California-Los Angeles. He spoke to about 150 people at "The Politics of Language" symposium Thursday in the SUB.
The symposium has presentations, panel discussions, workshops and receptions that feature music, food and poetry.
Erlinda Gonzales-Berry, chairwoman of the Ethnic Studies Program at Oregon State University, will speak today at 10:45 a.m. about heritage language programs. The symposium will last until Saturday in SUB Lobo Rooms A and B.
Santa Ana said immigrants demonstrated the strength of their countercultures when 700,000 people marched in Los Angeles on April 10 to protest legislation that would have stiffened penalties for illegal immigrants and people who help them.
"It was not just Latinos," he said. "There were all people of the world."
The government is afraid of the growing population of Hispanics who want to preserve their culture through the Spanish language, he said.
Student Albert Arocha said that it's important for Hispanics to continue speaking Spanish, because it defines what it means to be Latino.
"Spanish expresses the Latino's mind," he said. "They want English to not just be something we speak, but something we live."
Santa Ana's presentation was titled "English and the Discourse of Fear."
He quoted several supporters of the English-only movement in the Senate, who said English must be the official language because it is quintessential to being a United States citizen.
Student Camelia Carrick said they are wrong for forcing their view of America on people.
"America is supposed to be the land of freedom, so if they speak English, they do, and if they don't, they don't," she said. "They say they want to make English the official language because they say that's who they are - that (speaking Spanish) is who we are. It's part of our world."
Santa Ana said this is not the first time people have been forced out of their culture when they immigrated to the United States.
"Many people who came to the U.S. in the early 19th century gave up their language," he said. "I think that's a grand shame."
Student Travis McKenzie said immigrants' struggle to maintain their identity is a civil rights movement.
"We are the invisible minority who is being forced in the constricts of society to forget who they are," he said. "We're here to fight against that."
The weakness of Hispanics is they are divided into English-only communities and Spanish-only communities, Santa Ana said.
He said the national language should be redefined for the 21st century as American, or Americano, so that it combines all languages.
London English isn't the same as New York English, but both are English, Santa Ana said. Regions of the country can have dialects created by people in them, which may be derivations of Spanish and English, he said.
"It only seems radical because it goes against American social convention," he said. "The only difference between language and dialect is politics."
All languages evolve, and English cannot be preserved in one form over time, Santa Ana said.
"The grammars changed of both the English tongue and the Spanish tongue," he said. "U.S. Latinos speak one language made up of two older tongues."
Americano is the language spoken by Hispanics, he said.
"This is a liberating point of view, because it characterizes better the language we speak," he said.
McKenzie said language is more than words.
"We use language to construct our identity," he said. "Language is a metaphor for culture."
