"Changing French fries to freedom fries didn't work, did it?"

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Jiminy Cricket ... I guess Cali IS different from the rest of the states. I LOVE being a (transplanted) Californian

"Spanglish" California mocks Senate English push

Fri May 19, 2006 7:19 PM ET By Aarthi Sivaraman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A day after the U.S. Senate proposed declaring English the national language, Californians wondered on Friday what all the fuss was about. Most immigrants embrace English, and Spanish exists happily alongside. "I do have my own language but I do feel that if you are here, want a career and a good life, you should embrace English," said Spanish-speaking immigrant and cafe manager Sam Simonian. On the streets of heavily Hispanic Los Angeles, both Latinos and non-Latinos said what is decided on Capitol Hill won't change their plans to learn the language. "If you went to France, you would learn French. This country is built on English so you need to learn it," said Elmira Ross. Seeking to add an amendment to the contentious immigration reform bill, the Senate agreed on Thursday to make English the national language and moments later also adopted a milder alternative calling English the country's "unifying language." Which version ends up in the bill will depend on negotiations with the U.S. House of Representatives. President George W. Bush has long opposed making English the country's national language, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told reporters on Friday, but he did not say where Bush stood on the amendment. Neither proposal would bar the use of Spanish or other languages in government services. In Los Angeles, some saw the Senate move as an overture to conservatives who say immigrants are destroying the American identity, while pro-immigrant activists denounced it as chauvinistic. "It is cultural chauvinism at its best and reactionary nativism at its worst," said Nativo Lopez, president of the Mexican-American Political Association. "It is premised on the false notion that new immigrants cannot be assimilated, which is false. And that has been demonstrated repeatedly in history." Karthick Ramakrishnan, professor of political science at the University of California at Riverside, said the Senate's move likely stirred up controversy where there wasn't any. "It is a highly charged symbolic issue and conservatives care about it more than liberals or even Latino advocates," he said. Ramakrishnan said it might also be a reaction to a Spanish version of "The Star-Spangled Banner," which aired in Hispanic media this month and many Latino activists think backfired. In a place where many of the city names hark back to the Spanish missions, immigration activist Oscar Sanchez said Spanish was simply "embedded in our culture." "Are we going to change the names of cities? What are you going to call San Jose or San Diego or San Francisco, if you look at the rules?" he asked. "Changing French fries to freedom fries didn't work, did it?" (Additional reporting by Mary Milliken)

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