Court Rulings Could Force Change in Puerto Rico
Dateline: 07/24/00Might the Spanish-speaking residents of Puerto Rico start playing a bigger role in U.S. politics, even casting votes for the president of the United States?
| Puerto Rican Spanish:
As might be expected, Puerto Rico has its unique version of Spanish. Although Puerto Ricans can communicate readily with other hispanohablantes from throughout the world, they have some distinctive vocabulary (not all of it slang) as well as their own accent. For starters, Puerto Ricans commonly refer to themselves as borinqueños and their homeland as Borinquen, after the word used in the indigenous Taino language. Taino contributed a number of words to Puerto Rican Spanish, among them batey (a yard area), mime (small fly), cabuya (fishing line) and nataio (brothers). Incidentally, among the English words that have come to us from Taino through Spanish (although not necessarily by way of Puerto Rico) are "hurricane" and "barbecue." Probably the most distinctive feature of Puerto Rican pronunciation is that s often isn't pronounced or is slightly aspirated, kind of like the English "h." Although this feature isn't unique to Puerto Rico, it can make the spoken language a bit difficult to understand at first. Está, for example, is pronounced almost like etá. Also on About:
Here are some sites worth checking for more about Puerto Rico:
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Don't expect anything to change in time for this year's election. But a pair of federal court decisions last week makes clear, in the words of a recent Associated Press article, that "things cannot stay as they are in this island of 4 million Spanish speakers."
Officially known as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, the commonwealth is something of a hybrid of territory and state. Its residents are U.S. citizens and subject to nearly all U.S. laws. But residents don't pay federal income taxes, have no vote in Congress, and can't vote in presidential elections (although both the Republicans and Democrats send Puerto Rican delegates to their national conventions). In a few areas, such as the sporting of Olympics teams, Puerto Rico acts like an independent nation.
Over the years, language has been a key issue in the ongoing debate over the island's political future. According to Ethnologue, only about 3 percent of the commonwealth's residents have English as a first language, while nearly all the rest speak Spanish. Puerto Ricans have been divided over whether the commonwealth should pursue full statehood status, declare independence, or maintain the status quo. Language has been far from the only issue involved, although it has been raised by some opponents of statehood, who fear that becoming one of the United States would leader to wider use of English. It's an understandable concern, and some opponents of statehood in the U.S. Congress have also raised questions about the possibility of linguistic disunity if Puetro Rico were to become the 51st state. Referendums have failed to settle the issue, as no one position has gained majority support. The current commonwealth leader, Gov. Pedro Rossello, favors statehood.
Although they didn't involve language issues, two court decisions last week, neither of which received widespread publicity, could change the tone of the debate. Both focused on the unique relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States.
In the first ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Salvador Casellas ruled that the federal death penalty does not apply to crimes in Puerto Rico as long as the territory doesn't have the right to vote in federal elections. "It shocks the conscience" that a government would attempt to impose such a penalty against people "who are denied the right to participate directly or indirectly in the government that enacts and authorities the imposition of such punishment."
In the second ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Jaime Piers ruled that it was "unconstitutional and unconscionable" and "a form of slavery" to deny Puerto Ricans the vote.
Both cases are expected to be appealed. If the second ruling, in particular, were upheld, it could force Congress to more seriously consider the options of statehood or independence.
If statehood were granted — a move that would probably take years — it would change the linguistic map of the United States. At the very least, it would intensify the debate over what legal status, if any, Spanish should have as the second language of the nation.
