According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2004 there were more
than 41 million Hispanics living in the United States, out of a
total population (then) of 294 million. This is nearly one-seventh
of the population, and growing. The Hispanic population is growing
three times faster than the population as a whole, and accounts for
roughly half of all new population growth. This includes at least
500,000+ illegal immigrants each year from Mexico and Latin
America. Today, Hispanics make up 35% of California, 28% of
Arizona, 23% of Nevada, 43% of New Mexico, 20% of Colorado, 35% of
Texas, 20% of Florida, 16% of New York, 15% of New Jersey, and 14%
of Illinois.
Whatever other consequences, good or bad, these population and
immigration trends foretell, one consequence is undeniable and
already happening: the United States is becoming a de facto
bilingual nation. What started as a left-wing political movement to
bring bilingual education to the schools and bilingual services to
government agencies, has now become a part of everyday commercial
life in the country as a whole. Mainstream corporate America
routinely offers Spanish-language services. And there is a growing
business sector expressly dedicated to the Spanish-speaking
community. Given the underlying demographic realities, this trend
will continue.
A story reported this week on Fox News illustrates where this
trend is heading. A Dallas-based pizza chain, Pizza Patron,
announced in December that it would accept pesos, as well as U.S.
currency, at its 60 restaurants across the country. Despite
widespread outrage and opposition to its original announcement, the
company has decided to adopt this policy permanently. The company,
which is dedicated to serving the Hispanic community and requires
all store managers to be bilingual, obviously made the economic
calculation that pursuing the “Latino customer” (in the words of
the CEO) was in its financial best interest. More and more
companies will make the same calculation. Given the large and
growing size of the Hispanic population in this country, the result
will be the ongoing bilingualization of America.
One might ask, so what? After all, aren’t there Italian, and
Greek, and Indian, and [fill in the blank] restaurants and
businesses in the United States dedicated to serving those
communities? Of course there are, but none that (as far as I know)
have declared it their official policy to accept the currency of
the mother country. Moreover, when the issue of bilingualism is
raised in this country, we are talking about only one other
language besides English — Spanish. This is a direct function of
the size of the Spanish-speaking population in the U.S.
A person who doesn’t think the Pizza Patron story significant
might also note that there are numerous countries in the world that
teach their children English and accept American dollars in their
stores. True. But this is the result of the enormous political,
economic, and cultural power of the United States since World War
II (and Great Britain before then). What does it say about our
country that our own businesses now are accepting the currency of
foreign countries? I confess that I do not see this as a salutary
development.
The critical question, it seems to me, is whether we are
becoming a truly “bilingual” nation, or a nation made up of two
largely separate linguistic communities. Is the fact the corporate
America now tells customers to “press 1 for English” and “press 2
for Spanish” bringing us closer together, or driving us further
apart? Our future as a nation depends on the answer.
