Not Much Hope Of Success For PNP Language Proposal

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Not Much Hope Of Success For NPP Language Proposal

April 23rd, 2002
Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press.
All rights reserved.

SAN JUAN – History tells us that it would be unlikely that the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) would consider the proposal to elevate English and Spanish —the island’s official languages— to a constitutional rank, according to academic Carmelo Delgado Cintron, who has studied the language issue for years.

Cintron joined critics who rejected New Progressive Party (NPP) President Carlos Pesquera’s proposal.

"I do not think it is practical to stipulate in our Constitution that both languages are our official languages, since that does not correspond with our social reality," Cintron said.

He also pointed out that the PDP and former Gov. Luis Muñoz Marin understood that it was not convenient to elevate to a constitutional rank the flag, the anthem, and the official language, Spanish at that time, because several bills regarding the Spanish language were approved and later vetoed by then Acting Gov. Manuel Perez in 1944 and 1945.

Cintron also explained that in the same year the Legislative Assembly overruled the governor’s veto in 1945, and the bills were presented before President Harry S. Truman, only to be vetoed again.

Cintron indicated that the most recent effort to elevate the Spanish language to constitutional rank was in 1991, when then Gov. Rafael Hernandez Colon proposed a referendum in which his proposal was totally rejected.

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