ABSTRACT
The paradox of Spanish is evident in the explosion of official English and anti-bilingual education laws at the state level in the places with the largest Spanish-speaking populations and during the periods with the greatest growth in Latinx populations. This chapter explores this paradox by examining the use of Spanish in political discourse. It discusses language policies toward Spanish in the United States and focuses on the broader political and cultural contexts in which these policies find traction. The chapter provides an overview of the ways in which language policies have shifted with the political winds in the history of the United States. It considers the implication of these policies for language rights in the workplace and the way language attitudes toward Spanish in the United States are shaped by language academies, focusing on two recent debates involving North American linguists and the Real Academia Espanola.
