Why is Spanish the official language in Nuevo Mexico and not in Florida?

[Ruggery]

There is no "official" language on the federal level in the United States. Nevertheless, the English Language Unity Act seeks to establish the English language as the de facto language medium. Hence, Spanish can't be official in New Mexico or Florida. It can be recognized on a state level as a bilingual language, but nothing more than that.

So why doesn't the United States make English just official or bilingual like Canada?

[de Burgh II]

So why doesn't the United States make English just official or bilingual like Canada?

Thats because congress seeks to make English the official language in the United States since its origins seeks to maintain its Anglo foundation/roots:

The Constitutional Topics pages at the USConstitution.net site are presented to delve deeper into topics than can be provided on the Glossary Page or in the FAQ pages. This Topic Page concerns an Official Language for the United States. No official language is mentioned or contemplated in the Constitution.

Many people are surprised to learn that the United States has no official language. As one of the major centers of commerce and trade, and a major English-speaking country, many assume that English is the country's official language. But despite efforts over the years, the United States has no official language.

Almost every session of Congress, an amendment to the Constitution is proposed in Congress to adopt English as the official language of the United States. Other efforts have attempted to take the easier route of changing the U.S. Code to make English the official language. As of this writing, the efforts have not been successful.

Here is the text of a proposed amendment. This particular bill was introduced in the House of Representatives as H.J. Res. 16 (107th Congress):

The English language shall be the official language of the United States. As the official language, the English language shall be used for all public acts including every order, resolution, vote, or election, and for all records and judicial proceedings of the Government of the United States and the governments of the several States.

Also introduced in the 107th Congress was this text from H.R. 3333:

The Government of the United States shall preserve and enhance the role of English as the official language of the United States of America. Unless specifically stated in applicable law, no person has a right, entitlement, or claim to have the Government of the United States or any of its officials or representatives act, communicate, perform or provide services, or provide materials in any language other than English. If exceptions are made, that does not create a legal entitlement to additional services in that language or any language other than English.

Often these bills are in response to legislation recognizing non-English languages in public discourse of some kind. H.R. 3333, for example, also explicitly repealed the Bilingual Education Act which authorized funds to educate American students if their native tongue as well as to provide specialized training in the learning of English.

The most recent efforts to promote English as the official language has come as more and more immigration from Spanish-speaking and Eastern nations (such as China and Vietnam) has brought an influx of non-English speakers to the United States. According to the 1990 Census, 13.8 percent of U.S. residents speak some non-English language at home. 2.9 percent, or 6.7 million people, did not speak English at all, or could not speak it well.

https://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_lang.html

[Ruggery]

Thats because congress seeks to make English the official language in the United States since its origins seeks to maintain its Anglo foundation/roots:




https://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_lang.html

Anyway, it is difficult for me to understand why the founders or any of the governments of the USA did not establish English as an official in the whole country, it is as if they also wanted to give other languages ​​besides English.

[de Burgh II]

Anyway, it is difficult for me to understand why the founders or any of the governments of the USA did not establish English as an official in the whole country, it is as if they also wanted to give other languages ​​besides English.

Thats a valid point, I don't know. Thats just how it is in the U.S. when you are brought up in the educational system.

[InfamousAngel99]

That would only be confirming that American racists are stupid.

All racists are stupid, lmao.

[Duffmannn]

There was never a big spanish population in Florida under spanish rule (in fact there was not a big spanish population in any "spanish" state of the USA, like Texas, Arizona, Nevada, or California, except New Mexico and to a certain extent Louisiana). When Florida annexed to the USA, the spanish population fled to Cuba, leaving the state virtually without spanish-speaking population. New Mexico was the opposite, the spanish-speaking population was always the biggest except during some decades in the XX century when the anglo-speakers surpassed them briefly. Until the beginning of the XX century spanish monolinguism was the rule in New Mexico.

Anyways, spanish lenguage is dissapearing in New Mexico between new mexican natives and mexican inmigrants, while the spanish lenguage is booming in Florida, specially in Miami, where it´s de facto the main lenguage.

[Ruggery]

There was never a big spanish population in Florida under spanish rule (in fact there was not a big spanish population in any "spanish" state of the USA, like Texas, Arizona, Nevada, or California, except New Mexico and to a certain extent Louisiana). When Florida annexed to the USA, the spanish population fled to Cuba, leaving the state virtually without spanish-speaking population. New Mexico was the opposite, the spanish-speaking population was always the biggest except during some decades in the XX century when the anglo-speakers surpassed them briefly. Until the beginning of the XX century spanish monolinguism was the rule in New Mexico.

Anyways, spanish lenguage is dissapearing in New Mexico between new mexican natives and mexican inmigrants, while the spanish lenguage is booming in Florida, specially in Miami, where it´s de facto the main lenguage.

Entonces fue Nuevo México el único estado de USA con una mayoría de población española?

[Duffmannn]

Entonces fue Nuevo México el único estado de USA con una mayoría de población española?

"Española" si entendemos como tales a los nuevomexicanos sí. De hecho fue de las zonas más pro-españolas del continente aún después de la independencia, allí no se habla mal de Cortés o los conquistadores como en México (o cualquier otro país hispanoamericano), incluso pusieron la bandera con los colores de España, amarillo y rojo.

Era a pesar de todo un estado desértico-montañoso-continental y poco atractivo para la colonización anglo-estadounidense, además con una población hispana numerosa, otros estados más fértiles y deshabitados fueron neo-colonizados rápidamente (California, Texas, Nevada). Entre la anexión (1848) y pasar a ser un estado (1912) pasaron muchos años porque los anglos desconfiaban de los nuevomexicanos, a pesar de que cumplían con los requisitos de población con holgura para convertirse en un estado, y a pesar de que se les prometió la igualdad de trato durante la conquista. Solo se convirtió en estado cuando se garantizaron una mayoría demográfica anglo en Nuevo México. Y aún así les duró poco, con la inmigración mexicana el estado volvió rápidamente a ser de mayoría hispana, y es de hecho el único estado de mayoría hispana de los Estados Unidos.

[Gota_type_]

Being me from Spain and being conscious about the importance that Spain had in what is now the USA (we owned and named many states and cities, we founded the first city, the first church, and so on), and even knowing that places like California or Florida has been more time part of Spain than the time they have been part of the USA, I say that I am against Spanish language to become coofficial in any state. They should only speak English since the USA was founded as an anglo country with English as only language.

I would not want that for example moroccoan language was coofficial in the south of Spain just because some bereberes were here for some time. So, I can understand that the WASP americans feel invaded if SPanish was oficial in their cities.

[sean]

America doesn't have an "official" language so spics can complain and get everything in Spanish. However, not even assimilated spics in America want Spanish as their official language lel.

Spoiler!