So what you're saying is basically that you're afraid that too many people who come from other cultures and too many people who speak other languages will move to your country. And how is that not racist?
When you talk about your fear of cultural assimilation, losing your language, and losing your ethnic identity because you will have to associate with more people from another culture how are you any different from Americans who say that they are afraid of Mexican immigration because of the influence of the Spanish language and the impact on American culture?
Why is it ok for people from Puerto Rico to say something like this, but it's not ok for someone from Kansas to complain about how Latin American immigration is changing their community?
The idea that people in Puerto Rico are going to stop speaking Spanish once it's a state and no longer a territory doesn't really make much sense. Half of my family moved from Spain (via Mexico) to northern New Mexico over 350 years ago and we STILL SPEAK SPANISH.
It has nothing to do with racism at all or people moving to the island. People can move there now, and there are a lot of people moving there all the time. It is not that. I'm fine with people moving to the island, most of us are. What I'm talking about is that Puerto Rico, if a state, would become part of the American 'meting pot' which, as someone else has pointed out, tends to homogenization. It is not racism to fear for the loss of ones cultural identity. Nor does worry about the island becoming a state mean that I don't embrace people of any and every culture, ethnicity, etc. moving to the island. I'm scratching my head trying to figure out where you are getting that I ever said this.
As others have pointed out, it will most likely not happen. As I read more and more articles, it seems unlikely that Puerto Rico will become a state, but please stop accusing me of being racist for caring about my people's cultural survival. Anyone who knows me on a personal level knows that I'm not racist at all and that I embrace multiculturalism. You are obviously not reading my posts, and if you are, you are reading way more into them than what is there in the words as written.
I wasn't even talking about immigration to the island. Where are you getting this stuff? There is a large population of people from other areas of Latin America already on the island. That is a wonderful thing. I think it enriches the island.
And, as far as the worry about culture loss and language loss not being a concern...You've obviously never been to Louisianna, where the Cajun French language and the Louisianna Creole languages are now minority languages heading toward endangered status. You've obviously never been to Brittany where Breton continues to decline in the face of French Nationalist policy, or Scotland where the Gaelic language speakers now represent about only 1% of the population, or even Ireland, where Irish is now used daily by a shrinking minority of people in the Gaeltachts. Look at the many Germanic languages that are slowly disappearing because of national policies. Have you ever heard of languages like Allemanisch, Frisian, Romansch, Arromanian? How about Tlingit, Haida, Apache, etc. All of which are declining or near defunct due to either national policies or assimilation.
It is pretty well established that immigrants' descendants, by about the 3rd generation, cease (in the majority) to use the language of their ancestors in most contexts and after the 3rd generation, most do not have any working knowledge of the language at all. That is my concern. Not people moving to the island and enriching it with their own cultures. It is about what statehood and the very likely consequent assimilation would mean.
