Banish Spanish The story broke June 22 (2005) that Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo is demanding answers from Mayor John Hickenlooper regarding Denver Public Library's Spanish language policies. In a widely circulated letter (see below), Tancredo asks The Hick a dozen questions regarding a planned Spanish-only library, the ongoing purging of English-language books, alleged job discrimination against librarians who don’t speak Spanish, and much more Like most Americans, I am sick and tired of being force-fed all things in Spanish, and being Hispanified and Latinized as part of my everyday experience. The 11th Commandment, “Press 1 for English”, makes me want to push the offender’s Doomsday Button and say Adios! As a European-American who is fluent in Spanish (and English), thanks to our now rapidly disintegrating public school system, I say: Banish Spanish! The truth is, Spanish is a classist, elitist, sexist language reflecting a social structure that has no place in America. Spanish is as un-American as....well, Montezuma. “Non-Hispanic White” is the outrageous, insulting label that U.S. federales now use -- and expect me to adopt -- to define myself, a descendant of our nation’s courageous, hardworking, liberty-loving Anglo-Saxon Protestant Founders. (Descendants of African slaves are being branded “Non-Hispanic” Blacks.) These de-ethnicizing, demeaning, self-canceling Orwellian tags transform us into offbrand Americans with second-string, unCola status in a nation that demands we celebrate diversity while denying ours. Many self-respecting Americans and I will not tolerate being defined by the failures of the Spanish Armada and Conquistadors to conquer and dominate us. No thanks, we’re Yanks. Comprende? We must also reject linguistic colonizers who shackle us with Spanish words, like “Matricular Consular” (mah-tree-coo-lar cone-sue-lar) -- the Republic of Mexico’s phony baloney ID card for illegal aliens. When oh-so-sensitive “NON-Hispanic” sheeple stumble to pronounce these foreign words, their efforts to assert America’s sovereignty are lost in the baaaaaaaaaaa...d translation. As for tribalized Latinos, foreign and domestic, who demand we pronounce their surnames in their “native” language....no problem, if they’ll pronounce my Scottish surname -- Graham -- with the properly trilled “r” (not the Spanish “r”), and hard, breathy “h”. Turnabout is fair play, lads and lassies. Lest we forget, Spanish is one of the great European languages. Claims by cultural Marxists that Spanish has been the indigenous language of “Latinos” since sperm met egg in “Latin” America, and that learning English is genetically impossible or ethnically oppressive, should study up on Montezuma, Columbus and Hernan Cortes. Why would a colonized people want to preserve a language that highlights their defeat and subjugation? No comprendo! Hispanics who rightly claim Spanish as their ancestors’ native language (i.e., they came from the European country of Spain), yet demand European-Americans “go back to Europe” must understand they’ll be on that boat. Duh! As a bilingual American, I appreciate that Spanish and other European romance languages are well suited to express beauty, romance, and intimacy in ways English cannot. Truly, language actively shapes, and reflects, an individual’s and a nation’s world view. Spanish speakers pouring into our nation -- against the will of the majority -- are now encouraged to preserve a language which perpetuates and promotes a world view and social structure at odds with the very foundations of American freedoms, values and culture. As Spanish assumes an increasingly dominant position in the US, aided and abetted by government traitors (spending our money), corporate profiteers, and tax-free open-borders foundations, we English speakers must recognize that Spanish subjugates the "little" people. Spanish blatantly divides society into the superior Patron (Owner/Boss/Nobility) and inferior peon (worker) class, with no middle ground -- no middle class, the beacon of freedom. This basic Top Dog/runt social construct is reflected in the Spanish word for “you” (“Usted”), which is capitalized. One’s self is relegated to the lower case, lower class “yo”, which means “I”. Spanish’s small yo, big Usted (i.e., lowercase “i", capitalized “You”) personifies two-tiered, classist societies of rich/poor, entitled/disenfranchised. (Think Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.) The powerless peon comes, hat in hand, eyes cast to the floor, to respectfully request a favor from his Patron, who controls the world. For the majority in Spanish-speaking nations, the answer of who controls the world is rarely “yo” and typically: Usted. The reverse is true in English, where “I” is capitalized and the other, “you”, is expressed in lower case, championing the power of the individual while reflecting the diminished, secondary status of others...be they presidents, kings/queens, or groups. We terminated the King/subject-serf relationship with American blood shed during our Revolutionary War. No more Thou/Thee, except for God. Indeed, Citizen is the highest title any American can hold. Given English’s explicit I/you hierarchy, is it any wonder that our Founders -- uniquely in all of the world -- perceived and described God-given inalienable INDIVIDUAL rights in our Constitution and Bill of Rights? Not civil (group) rights; not (everyone else’s at our expense) human rights. Individual rights, with a capital I. Beside its caste system, Spanish is also a sexist language, a truth that open-borders internationalist feminists deny, while they demand Americans neuter our few gender-specific words. As an all-American female student of Spanish, I find it pretty hard to wrap my head around a language which assigns genders to pens, pencils, cars, tables and everything else. English’s gender-neutral articles, “the” and “a”, have no Spanish equivalent. Instead, all Spanish nouns are either masculine or feminine, “el” or “la”, and adjectives undergo sex changes to match. Sexist Spanish today permeates our lives, and I insist Gloria Steinem do something, N.O.W! Take Back the Speak, Sister. Has anyone else noticed that Spanish-language activists demand the very patron status they claim to have emigrated to escape? They expect us Americans to become their peons, handing over our nation, money, language and individual liberties. Let these pushy, wannabe patrons work out their pathetic peon complexes in their homelands. Peon envy has no place in America. The bottom line is that Spanish is an elitist, classist, sexist language which could never play a role in shaping or preserving America’s Constitutional Republic, our founding documents, and individual rights. Spanish is intrinsically suited to dictatorships and inequitable social status. Reality is that in Spanish-speaking societies, the majority languishes in linguistic lockdown. In stark contrast, American English is the language of liberty and individual empowerment for all. Americans must reject efforts to impose Spanish upon us, for Spanish per se threatens the greatness of our Republic, our individual rights, and our hard-won social, political and economic structures. Those seeking to yoke us with Spanish must be treated as dangerous, colonizing culture vultures who would destroy us. Shake off those Spanish shackles... Banish Spanish. © 2005 Terry Graham is an American Citizen who was brutally assaulted last year by a Mexican national at an Immigration Forum held in Denver by First Data/Western Union. She has filed a civil lawsuit against her attacker and the event sponsors, and is seeking donations to
help pay for her legal costs. She can be reached at teegra22@yahoo.com This article may be reproduced as is with proper and author contact information. Any other use without Terry Graham’ s express, written permission violates copyright law.
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