Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to re: Porous borders

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Mary Anne — (archived)

The last I read about the puertoricaños and their collective opinion of statehood, it was divided about 1/3 each for independence, statehood and continuation as a commonwealth. Unless one of the first two gets a critical majority, by default its legal status will remain a commonwealth.

Puerto Ricans already hold special citizenship privileges, and hold US passports when they have passports. They don't need to get passports to enter the mainland US, because they're already citizens.

Puerto Ricans who live on the island speak Spanish as their primary, and often their only, language. The Commonwealth's legislature has bounced back and forth between Spanish as the official language and an official Spanish/English bilingualism. If Puerto Rico becomes a state, will the Federal government force the State of Puerto Rico to change their linguistic designation? If so, what happens with all the independence supporters, and other cultural advocates? If not, Spanish will become, de facto, an official US language. (It seems to me that native Hawai'ian is already an official language, because I recall reading that Hawai'i adopted an officially bilingual status a number of years ago.) Are we all prepared for this? It's a discussion that we, as a nation, have avoided having for a long time.

I found this discussion on the issue, an op-ed poll from the Puerto Rico Herald, rather informative.

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