<div>All,</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I recently forwarded the following item, thinking it was recent I thought I saw today's date on it </div>
<div>somewhere, but it turns out to be 10 years old! Sorry for misleading anyone.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>HS<br><br></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Harold F. Schiffman</b> <<a href="mailto:haroldfs@ccat.sas.upenn.edu">haroldfs@ccat.sas.upenn.edu</a>><br>Date: Feb 13, 2008 10:35 AM<br>
Subject: California: The Reply, It Turned Out, Was Bilingual: No<br>To: Language Policy-List <<a href="mailto:lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu">lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu</a>><br><br><br>June 5, 1998<br>The Reply, It Turned Out, Was Bilingual: No<br>
By DON TERRY<br><br>English can still be a riddle to 60-year-old Rosario Gomez, even after<br>three decades here in a house with red and yellow roses in the front yard<br>on Chicago Street. But her two adult children, both of whom were born in<br>
Los Angeles and enrolled in bilingual education classes in grade school,<br>have good jobs, bright futures and are literate and fluent in English and<br>Spanish.<br><br>That, Mrs. Gomez explained, is why her family voted ''no'' in Tuesday's<br>
primary election here on Proposition 227, the nationally watched<br>initiative that will dismantle 30 years of bilingual education in<br>California. The measure easily passed with 61 percent of the vote. But<br>despite pre-election polls suggesting it would also carry a majority of<br>
Hispanic voters, fewer than 4 in 10 Hispanic Californians who voted<br>favored the proposition in the end, after a blitz against the measure by<br>almost every elected Hispanic official in the state. Still, in more than<br>
two dozen interviews on the largely Hispanic east side of Los Angeles,<br>even some of those who voted ''no,'' like Mrs. Gomez's daughter, Elva<br>Osorio, expressed deep concern about the state of bilingual education.<br>
<br>''When I was in school, bilingual education was much better than it is<br>now,'' Mrs. Osorio said. ''I voted 'no,' but I knew it was going to lose,<br>because a lot of people are upset that their kids don't know how to speak<br>
English and they're in the fifth grade.'' Getting Hispanic Californians<br>like the Gomez family to vote ''yes'' was a priority for Ron Unz, a<br>conservative Republican and the main sponsor and financial backer of the<br>
measure, which will essentially eliminate bilingual education in the state<br>if it survives court challenges. His campaign spent a lot of time and<br>energy wooing Hispanic voters, hoping to avoid the racially charged<br>
atmosphere that surrounded earlier ballot initiative drives in California,<br>on subjects like affirmative action.<br><br>Yet, despite those efforts, words like ''racism,'' ''prejudice'' and<br>
''discrimination'' often came up in interviews after Tuesday's balloting.<br>''I believe it is racism towards us,'' said Rito Mateos, a 32-year-old<br>gardener, who voted ''no.'' ''This is a threat to the community. It's not<br>
going to stop here.'' Mrs. Gomez said she knew of no one on her block who<br>had voted supported the measure. ''I think it passed because a lot of<br>American people are tired of us,'' she said.<br>
<br>No matter how they voted, the Hispanic parents, telephone operators,<br>construction workers and others interviewed agreed on one issue: for<br>immigrant children, whether they are from Mexico or Vietnam, the key to<br>
unlocking the treasures of the United States is to learn English as<br>quickly as possible. ''I voted 'no,' but it was hard for me to make up my<br>mind,'' said Gloria Luna, 65, whose great-grandmother was ''born in this<br>
state when it was Mexico.''<br><br>Mrs. Luna said she decided to vote against the measure because so many<br>educators opposed it, saying its provision to provide non-English<br>speaking-public school children with only one year of intensive language<br>
training before sending them into mainstream classes would do more harm<br>than good. ''It is so important for Hispanics to learn English,'' Mrs.<br>Luna said, ''but one year is much too fast.''<br>
<br>Like Mrs. Gomez and Mr. Mateos, Mrs. Luna said she suspected that<br>prejudice, not pedagogy, was at the root of the campaign to eliminate<br>bilingual education. ''I think a lot of people who voted don't know<br>
anything about education,'' Mrs. Luna said. Steve Feria, 44, agreed with<br>Mrs. Luna, up to a point. A flight instructor, Mr. Feria was working in<br>his family's wallet stand on Olvera Street when he took time to talk about<br>
the initiative. He said anyone with the slightest knowledge of education<br>would have voted supported Proposition 227 -- as he did.<br><br>''I honestly believe, the only way to learn English is to be immersed in<br>
it,'' said Mr. Feria, who did not take part in bilingual classes when he<br>was in school. ''I wouldn't have a job as a flight instructor if I didn't<br>have the proper English skills.'' Mr. Feria said the teachers and<br>
politicians who opposed the measure did so because they were afraid they<br>would lose their money and influence if bilingual education was<br>eliminated. ''It's all a money grab,'' Mr. Feria said. ''We do our kids a<br>
disfavor by putting them in bilingual education.''<br><br>As she walked through Olvera Street near downtown, Mirian Luis, 22, a<br>paralegal's assistant, said she voted ''no'' because her nieces and<br>
nephews were doing well in bilingual education programs. ''It's a joke,''<br>Ms. Luis said of the proposition. ''I mean, how are the kids going to<br>learn?'' A few miles away, on Cesar E. Chavez Avenue, George Ramos was<br>
hanging orange and yellow fliers, balloons and a Mexican flag advertising<br>his travel business. He voted ''yes'' on Proposition 226, because, he<br>said, ''This is a America.''<br><br>''Everyone is supposed to speak English,'' Mr. Ramos said. ''If you go to<br>
France, you don't ask for bilingual education. If you go to China, you can<br>not request bilingual education. They will kick you out of there.'' At El<br>Mercado, a warehouse-like complex of shops and restaurants not far from<br>
Chavez Avenue, Manuel Romero, a retired General Motors worker, said he<br>voted for the proposition because there were not enough qualified teachers<br>to staff bilingual education programs adequately.<br><br>In fact, the state Department of Education said it was 20,000 bilingual<br>
education teachers short of what it needed. The state said there were 1.4<br>million public school pupils with limited English skills in California.<br>Thirty percent of those students are in bilingual classes. ''If we had<br>
quality teachers,'' Mr. Romero said, ''it would be O.K.'' Jerry and Diana<br>Ontiveros voted ''no.'' They grew up in a largely white neighborhood in<br>Whittier and attended Roman Catholic schools before going to college and<br>
getting married. They did not take part in bilingual programs. They were<br>surrounded by English speakers everywhere they went, which is not the case<br>for many immigrant children who often live in segregated and isolated<br>
neighborhoods.<br><br>''I've been assimilated into the mainstream culture all of my life,'' Mr.<br>Ontiveros said. ''Others haven't had the opportunities I've had and that's<br>why I support bilingual education.'' Ramon Moreno, a 30-year-old teacher's<br>
assistant, said he voted for the proposition. ''I felt like maybe<br>bilingual education is like a handicap or something,'' Mr. Moreno said.<br>''It gives the kids too much leeway not to learn.'' Maria Tovar said she<br>
voted for Proposition 227, but by mistake.<br><br>Ms. Tovar said she supported bilingual education and thought that a<br>''yes'' vote meant saving it. When she came to the United States 25 years<br>ago at the age of 14, Ms. Tovar said, she did not speak or understand<br>
English and struggled in school to learn without a bilingual program.<br>Several of her classmates were not as determined, she said, and they<br>dropped out, never learning the language. ''It was very, very tough,'' she<br>
said, ''trying to learn English without bilingual education.''<br><br><a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06E2DD113BF936A35755C0A96E958260&scp=9&sq=wooing+hispanics&st=nyt" target="_blank">http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06E2DD113BF936A35755C0A96E958260&scp=9&sq=wooing+hispanics&st=nyt</a><br>
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<br></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br>Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br>Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>
University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br>
<a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------