Letter to the Editor: The U.S. has no official language

Martha Hernandez, left, and Ana Suda in front of a convenience store in Havre, Mont., where they say they were detained by a United States Border Patrol agent for speaking Spanish last year. Photo courtesy ACLU

Dear Editor:

There has been a lot of news stories lately relating to people speaking Spanish in public; the most recent ones being the gas station employee in Illinois, the Burger King manager in Florida, and the story involving a Border Patrol agent in Montana earlier this year.

All these stories usually begin the same way, two people speaking Spanish in public and a bystander overhearing them and criticizing them for speaking Spanish and suspecting them of being here illegally.

The bystanders make it sound like a crime for speaking Spanish in public, and unfortunately this is becoming the norm, especially in the current political climate. What people need to realize is that speaking Spanish, or any other language in public, is not a crime and they should mind their own business. The US population is made up of different people that come from various countries and speak different languages, not to mention Americans who are born here and learn another language growing up.

The US has no official language, English is the de facto language. English is the number one spoken language in the US, and guess which language is the second most spoken language? Spanish! Yeah, you read that right. In addition, according to the Cervantes Institute, Spanish will become the most spoken language in the US by 2050. On the international level, English is the third most spoken language; Chinese is the most spoken language and Spanish is the second most spoken language.

If you're one of those people who believe English should be the only spoken language in public, don't be ignorant. Learn to respect others, regardless of the language they speak, their culture, their race, their religion, etc. America is a melting pot with the population made up of people from all over the world.

Guillermo Vazquez
Downey