On September 4, the 1st Circuit ruled that an appeal on the bilingual ballot issue fails, for procedural reasons. Therefore, the ruling of the U.S. District Court remains, and Puerto Rico must print this year’s ballots (and future ballots) in English as well as Spanish. After the U.S. District Court had ordered bilingual ballots (instead of ballots printed only in Spanish) one member of the Puerto Rico Election Commission had filed an appeal with the 1st Circuit. But, the 1st Circuit said that one member doesn’t have the authority to file an appeal all by himself. Thanks to Rosemary Rodriguez for this news. Diffenderfer v Cruz-Maldonado, 08-2107.
I’m ashamed that this had to be taken to court. Puerto Rico has too many English speaking citizens for this to be an issue at all.
This is another attempt by the pro-statehood party, which has never achieved a majority of votes, to bring statehood against the wish of the majority of puerto ricans. Puerto Rico is a spanish speaking nation, it is absurd to have bilingual ballots when Puerto Rico is not an inmigrant nation like the United States is and when the American population is less than 2% (There are more americans living in France than in Puerto Rico). This issue reminds Puerto Ricans about their lack of sovereignty, about their colonial relationship with the US and about their military colonial past which lasted almost 50 years when the US tried to imposed a cultural assimilation and failed (1898- 1951). The Governor of Puerto Rico went to the United Nations this summer to denouce this colonial relationship that humiliates all puerto ricans in the 21st century(see BBC news “Puerto Rico in Independence bid” http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7445615.stm )
Sincerely,
Rosa Rivera from San Juan, Puerto Rico
As one of the attorneys who participated in the case, representing Electoral Commissioner Nelson Rosario of the Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico Party, I can tell you that the population in Puerto Rico that doesn’t speak or read Spanish is about 14%, according to the 2000 Census.
The issue here is not statehood, but fairness. The important thing is that every voter can vote by him or herself.
The PPR supports the bilingual ballot just like it supported the “vote by phone” system that was used as a pilot program for the Democratic primary last June.
Although the issue of Puerto Rico’s political status is important and must be resolved, you can’t just link every single issue with the issue of status.
Puerto Rico is not a nation. Puerto Rico is part of a nation called the United States. It has been part of the USA for more than 100 years and has greatly benefited from that association. In the mainland USA Puerto Ricans fight for equitable treatment from the English speaking majority. It is disgusting that Puerto Ricans will not treat the English speaking minority on the island that same equitable treatment.