por José de lsla
HOUSTON, Texas – Tamaulipas, tucked beneath neighbor Texas, has declared itself Mexico’s first bilingual state. The pronouncement received little attention in U.S. media. But its bellwether importance should not be underestimated.
Tamaulipas has more than 3 million inhabitants. Its major cities are Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad Victoria and Tampico.
The state has chosen to search out new global opportunities — social, economic and technological — by requiring its 320,000 public-school students to learn conversational English.
In February, Gov. Eugenio Hernández declared, “Our efforts are aimed at preparing students for a more competitive world filled with technology and English.”
From Mexico City to the border states of Chihuahua and Nuevo León, Mexico is placing more emphasis on English instruction. Tamaulipas is the biggest experiment. More than 50 percent of U.S.-Mexico trade crosses through Tamaulipas and Texas.
When the program was announced in January, departing U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza, originally from Brownsville, Texas, visited with Hernández and about 1,200 students, teachers, parents and mayors.
The ambassador began his remarks in Spanish, then switched to English, saying, “When I was growing up, we didn’t have a program like this one.”
Mary Lou Támez, a 36-year-old bilingual teacher, suggested Texas should also become a bilingual state.
The remark can be taken either as sober, practical advice or as dry kindling enflaming those fiery political elements stuck in 19th century modes of thinking. (Another social reality: Támez’s mother is from Alabama).
The United States is home to more than 45 million Hispanics, but that doesn’t mean they will retain their language advantage after the first generation. A 2007 U.S. Census report revealed that Spanish is the primary language spoken by 34 million U.S. residents aged 5 or older.
Still, we are the world’s second-largest Spanish-speaking community, after only Mexico and ahead of Colombia, Spain, and Argentina.
Roughly half of all U.S. Spanish speakers also speak English “very well,” according to the Census.
Mexico’s problem is different. One well-placed source, for example, told me that about 80 percent of its medical students don’t pass their English exams, which are a requirement for continuing study. The reasons cited include lack of well-trained teachers, the methodology used and some cultural resistance.
For Mexico today, foreign-language acquisition is a must. As the world’s twelfth largest economy, it loses an estimated 20,000 professionals every year, who leave for opportunities elsewhere. To draw jobs, its professional workers must be prepared to deal with technologies and opportunities that often come wrapped in English.
According to Rodolfo Tuiran, assistant secretary of higher education, the brain drain is costing Mexico $7 billion from educational training given to professionals who emigrate.
What Tamaulipas is doing may be a drop in the bucket, but the state recognizes it needs to change things around and gain a strategic advantage. To keep trade goods flowing and increase job stability and growth, it has to address language as an economic and cultural imperative. Significant micro-changes like this can turn things in its favor.
Albert Einstein once made the point, “We cannot solve problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Perhaps it’s not a bad time to re-conceptualize how we in the USA think about land, people and language. There’s no better region to start than along the U.S.-Mexico border. Functionally, it’s already happening. But state governments, who guide and control policy, specialize in a peculiar denial, often provoking cultural tensions. Texas’ small neighbor Tamaulipas is taking a step in the right direction.
[José de la Isla’s latest book, Day Night Life Death Hope, is distributed by The Ford Foundation. He writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service and is author of The Rise of Hispanic Political Power (2003). Contact him by e-mail at: joseisla3@yahoo.com]. ©
