Essay 4430

A few more comments responding to Alberto J. Ferrer’s perspective posted under The Big Tent at AdAge.com (see Essay 4426), followed by a brief MultiCultClassics reply…

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“I complain because I believe the encroachment of Spanish is a direct threat to our nation’s social unity and cultural heritage.”

Am I the only person overwhelmed by the irony of this coming from a resident of San Francisco, a Spanish-named city founded by the Spanish in 1776? Perhaps I’m mistaken in thinking the cultural heritage of the single most populous state in the US somehow precedes its annexation to the US in 1848… but I don’t think so. —D. Luria, El Cajon, CA

D. Luria:

California has been English-speaking longer than it was Spanish-speaking. Yeah, we kept a few of the place names -- they were pretty. Big deal. If it were still part of Mexico (or Spain) do you think it would still be the world’s 7th largest economy? Neither Spain nor Mexico built the Golden Gate Bridge, Silicon Valley or Hollywood.

This is an English-speaking country. All other immigrants learned to speak English and accepted that the USA is an English-speaking country. We never had to “press one” for the Persians, Chinese or Poles. We hear a lot about Hispanic “pride.” Time to let advertisers know that we unhyphenated Americans have a lot of “pride” too. —Mary Jessel, San Francisco, CA

Anyways, the issue isn’t going to go away. The history of most bi-lingual countries isn’t particularly inspiring. —Mary Jessel, San Francisco, CA

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The comments from Mary Jessel are not surprising—and definitely not original—to folks in the advertising industry. Although let’s hope Jessel isn’t a member of our exclusive business, as there are already enough examples of biased thinking polluting the ad waters.

As a public service, here’s the stereotypical rebuttal:

One wonders how Jesselish people react when visiting San Francisco’s famous Chinatown. Bet there are strong opinions regarding the city’s GLBT community too. Jesselish people are also cautioned to avoid the Polish, German, Swedish, Russian, Korean, Jewish, Italian and other ethnic and cultural areas across the nation.

Plus, related commentary on this country would be incomplete without noting its original inhabitants did not speak English—you know, the Native Americans.

Of course, such observations are lost on Jesselish people, who are probably too busy drafting petitions to print English-only renditions of “E Pluribus Unum.”