A home for the world

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by Pamela White
(letters@boulderweekly.com)

Some people search for reasons to get upset. Imagine getting bent out of shape because of a song. That's what thousands of Americans have done this past week over a Spanish-language version of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

"Nuestro Hymno" is a Spanish translation that strives to be true to the English version of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Released this week, "Nuestro Hymno" has generated a furious backlash among Internet bloggers, becoming the topic of numerous radio talk shows and debates.

"Would the French accept people singing the 'La Marseillaise' in English as a sign of French patriotism? Of course not," said Mark Krikorian, head of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies, which seeks tough immigration controls.

Forget for a moment that the phrase "the 'La Marseillaise'" is redundant. "La" means "the"—duh. Forget that neo-cons like Krikorian most often use the French as an example of what not to do. Forget that there are real problems that require our attention—stuff like impending global climatic doom, the lingering devastation of Hurricane Katrina and a war in which Americans are dying.

Who can possibly be upset by the national anthem being sung in Spanish?

A lot of people, apparently. Their argument tends to go like this: "This is the United States. In the United States, we speak English. If people want to live here, they ought to speak English and quit shoving their Spanish in our faces by messing with our national anthem."

While I agree on with the first statement—this is the United States—the rest of this argument is seriously flawed. At the heart of these sentiments isn't rational concern for the future of the country, but fear, ethnocentrism—and blatant racism.

English isn't the only language spoken by true-blue Americans. There are U.S. neighborhoods in which American citizens speak their ancestral tongues and storefronts advertise their wares in Italian, Yiddish, Polish, Chinese and other languages. The oldest remaining Colorado families are Ute- and Spanish-speaking indigenous families, people who lived in Colorado long before whites. Some moved here when parts of the state belonged to Mexico. The border crossed them; they didn't cross the border. They're every bit as American as you and I.

In fact, the United States doesn't have one official language. A nation of immigrants, it has always been a country where one could expect to hear many different tongues. After all, few Americans are actually "American." Most of us are English, Irish, Scottish, French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Swedish, Hmong, Russian, Serbian, Vietnamese, Spanish, Italian, Czech, Polish, Belgian, Sudanese, Indian, Ukrainian, Greek, Swiss, Rumanian, Chinese and etc. Our tie to this country began with someone getting off a boat—my first non-Native ancestors came ashore at Jamestown in 1610—in search of a better life. Some spoke English; many did not. Most lived humble, hardworking lives, raising children who were American through and through.

Some of our ancestors—notably the Irish and Italian—faced a similar backlash when they arrived. The welcoming land immortalized by the Statue of Liberty wasn't so welcoming for them. Stores carried signs that read, "Irish need not apply" and "No Italians." Strangely, the outcry against Irish and Italian immigrants has died down—despite the fact that many Irish are currently here illegally and many older Italians still speak primarily Italian.

I seriously doubt talk radio would be buzzing if some guy named Finn î Congolaig recorded our national anthem in Irish Gaelic. If anyone bothered to cover that news, we'd probably get some heartwarming story about how there are more Irish in America than in Ireland. So why are Spanish-speaking people being singled out?

Like most immigrants before them, the current wave of Mexican and Latin American immigrants came to the United States—some legally, some illegally—in search of a better life. Like most immigrants, they take whatever jobs they can get and work hard to feed their families. Like most immigrants, they speak a foreign language. But unlike European immigrants, they have brown skin.

Certainly, immigrants should try to learn English. While it isn't our official language, it is our Lingua Franca. When I lived in Denmark, I learned to speak fluent Danish because it was in my own best interests.

Yet, being a patriotic American isn't about speaking English. Unlike France, which was originally a nation of French people, America is about every language, every race, every culture finding peace together and working side by side. Being a patriotic American means remembering that we are a nation of immigrants and humbly protecting our role as a home for the world.

Like Christmas carols and prayers, "The Star-Spangled Banner" becomes more revered when it's sung in more languages. Imagine how stirring it would be if Fourth of July fireworks started with our national anthem being sung in five different languages. Americans should celebrate its being sung in Spanish, not use that fact as an excuse to vent their ethnocentric fears and anti-Latino racism.

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