ENGLISH VS. SPANISH OFFICIAL LANGUAGE FOR LANCASTER? PROPOSAL: COUNCIL MEMBER SPEAKS OUT.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro

Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- Saying she fears an erosion of American values and identity, a Lancaster city councilwoman wants to proclaim English the city's official language.

Councilwoman Sherry Marquez, who was elected in April, said she was offended when she had to pay more money to print her candidate statement on the city's sample ballot in both English and Spanish.

"We are really watching our American values slip away. This has been happening for years," Marquez said. "I think that's why people are grasping at anything that's American."

Marquez said she doesn't have anything against Spanish speakers. Her husband, whose family emigrated from Cuba in the 1920s, speaks Spanish. And Latinos make up about 28 percent of Lancaster's population of nearly 145,000.

But, she said, "I want to keep my roots, and my roots are English. Pushing Spanish is a step backwards."

Approaches queried

The council discussed the issue at its last meeting after an audience member said she went to the local Women, Infants and Children office this year and said she was told she could get an appointment sooner if she spoke Spanish.

WIC is a federally funded health and nutrition program.

"I was very offended," Jessica Rumbaugh, 30, told the council. "I felt like I was a second-class citizen because I didn't speak Spanish."

But WIC officials denied Rumbaugh's account.

"That's not true. When you speak English, it's the opposite. If you speak English, there's more appointments," site supervisor Bernadette Ruiz said in an interview.

"We are justice for all. We don't discriminate with race or nationality."

Rumbaugh, who works at Lancaster Baptist Church where Marquez is also a member and counselor, told the councilwoman about the episode. Marquez said she encouraged her to tell the full council.

The council directed the city staff to research the matter and report back at a meeting next month.

Four out of the five Lancaster council members later expressed tentative support for the idea, while the fifth, Ken Mann, could not be reached.

Officials at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund said the proposal is unnecessary and would be divisive, as it has been in other areas of the country.

"There is no need to make English or any other language the official language of Lancaster," MALDEF President John Trasvina said. "We don't need language laws."

A more constructive approach would be to support federal legislation, as MALDEF is doing, that would provide more resources for adult English-language classes and tax credits for before-and after-work English classes for employees, Trasvina said.

Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, a Los Angeles-based think tank that focuses on Latino issues, said 97 percent of Latino immigrants think it's important for their children to learn English.

"Every time there's large-scale immigration in the area, people start questioning basic values," Pachon said. "They hear Spanish being spoken, and they think that the country is losing their roots by not having English as the language, not realizing these immigrants are speaking their home languages because they haven't learned English yet."

Thirty states have made English their official language, including California in 1986. Since 1981, there have been several attempts by congressional lawmakers to pass legislation that would make English the national official language, according to ProEnglish, an Arlington, Va.-based group that supports English as the official language.

At the local government level, more than 100 cities and counties have adopted similar measures, said Tim Schultz, director of government relations at Washington, D.C.-based U.S. English.

Schultz said having English as the official language is not anti-Latino or anti-immigrant.

"These things are happening in places with high-immigrant and low-immigrant populations," Schultz said.

"It's not just a response to illegal immigration. People think that generally as a country, we ought to have a language in common."

Press '1' for English

Lancaster Councilman Ron Smith envisions the city conducting business only in English unless otherwise mandated by federal or state law or in case of public safety emergencies.

Smith said there were errors in the city's Spanish translation of his candidate statement, and he cites the financial burden of providing services to illegal immigrants.

"I think the influx of illegal aliens that we have are Spanish-speaking, and everything you do to make it easier to become a safe-harbor city makes you more of a safe harbor," Smith said.

Councilman Ed Sileo said Rumbaugh's recollection of the WIC experience did not sit well with him.

"There shouldn't be a discrepancy in service whether they speak English or Spanish. To be discriminated against because they speak English, it just goes against my grain," Sileo said.

Mayor R. Rex Parris said he wants to have a full discussion and hear what other people think, but said, "it sounds reasonable."

Marquez said she had been thinking about the issue long before last Tuesday's meeting. She said she is annoyed that she has to press "1" for English and resents it when announcements in mall stores are in Spanish.

Marquez said she had to pay more than $2,000 for English- and Spanish-language versions of her candidate statement, a federal Voting Rights Act requirement.

Under federal law, ballots must be translated if more than 10,000 people or more than 5 percent of the voting population -- or 3 percent under California law -- are not proficient in English, based on census data.

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