ABSTRACT
There has long been an historic, intimate, and controversial link between Puerto Rico’s political status and the question of language (see, for example, Barreto, 2001a, 2001b; Centeno Añeses, 1999; Comisión de Educación, Ciencia y Cultura, 2001; Duany, 2002, 2005; DuBord, 2007; Negrón-Muntaner, 1997; Ortiz-López, 2000; Pousada, 1999; Ramírez González & Torres, 2000; Reyes Benítez, 2000; Rúa, 1992; Simounet-Geigel,
2004; Torres, 2007; Torres González, 2002a, 2002b, 2003; Vélez, 2000; Vidal-Ortiz, 2004; Zentella, 1999). Additionally, scholars have focused on the cultural exchange, including linguistic aspects, that occurs both in the diaspora outside the Island as well as when Puerto Ricans return to the Island from the USA and elsewhere (Barreto, 2000; Flores, 2009; Kerkhof, 2001; Torres, 2007; Zentella, 1990). Flores (2006, p. 119) points out that this cultural flow is not only unidirectional ‘from above’ but also a ‘transnationalism from below.’ Thus in December 2011, when Puerto Rico’s thenGovernor Luis Fortuño announced an upcoming plebiscite on political status for the following November, it was perhaps not surprising, albeit problematic for many, that several months later he would also initiate a project for ‘Las Escuelas del Siglo 21’/Schools of the 21st century to ostensibly guarantee the bilingualism of all Puerto Rican students within 10 years by way of their education in the English language. In addition to establishing English as the language of instruction for the sciences, math, and physical education, a highly controversial move given the historical conflicts over language of instruction on the Island in the first half of the twentieth century, Fortuño’s proposal also included English classes for parents. The Puerto Rico Teachers Association rejected the proposal, not because the association was opposed to bilingual education, but because the proposal specifically supported instruction in English – not bilingual instruction – a move that appeared to revert to a 1997 ‘Proyecto para formar un ciudadano bilingüe’/Project to form a bilingual citizenry which had also caused significant controversy. The complexity of the question of language in the political history between the Island and the USA and the accompanying implications for the plebiscite were also highlighted during simultaneous presidential campaigns in the USA, during which candidates discussed their perspectives on the status of Spanish and English in Puerto Rico.
