I haven’t spoken with my parents for a couple of weeks now (different time schedules, diffent countries); however, I’m sure they’re going to freak out when I tell them I’m pleased with the referendum passing. And they’ll freak for that very reason: they can’t grasp that English is not “God’s One and Only True Believer’s Language & Only the Godless Heathen Shall Be Cursed to Speaketh Another.”
Actually, I don’t think it could do such a thing.
By the way, what’s the situation regarding statehood vs. other options in Guam?
No chance. Guam has a little under 160,000 people, and is only 209 square miles.
It would be awefully hard to make a compelling argument for statehood for a place that is less than 1/5 the size of Rhode Island and has 1/3 the population of Wyoming.
Underline added. What does this mean? It’s required in school? That would be okay I suppose, but I can’t imagine it would be permissible to generally mandate someone learn a particular language?
So, it appears to me that a resident of the territories is eligible. I’m wondering how much howling would be done by the usual suspects around the country if one such territorial resident were to attempt a presidential run.
Which would be really remarkable: Somebody could be elected to the office of President of the United States, but wouldn’t actually be able to cast a vote for himself(?).
The constitution has been changed before. It certainly wouldn’t be easy, but it’s possible. The “not easy” part is why I think they’ll do what they did last time.
Puerto Rico has two official languages, Spanish and English. Spanish is everyone’s primary language on the island (barring an occasional immigrant, I’d guess). English is taught as a required, second language in both public and private schools. Thus, the vast majority of Puerto Ricans may not be fluent in English but have some understanding of it. This combined with the current trend of making more and more things available in both English and Spanish in the rest of the US means that Puerto Ricans probably won’t have to improve their Spanish unless they plan to move to the mainland somewhere outside of where Spanish is common. Being a US state might provide an incentive for more English on the island, but probably not much.
In other words, most people won’t have a reason to change, thus it will make little or not difference.
The only time I’m aware that someone is required to learn English in the US is if they’re seeking to become a naturalized citizen. Even then, perfect English isn’t required, just a reasonable level of comprehension.
However, PR and the US mainland are in the same immigration zone and the requirements for visiting, living, and working in PR are exactly the same as they are in Kentucky or Massachusetts. Lots of Puerto Ricans take advantage of this and come to work on the mainland, but when I was down in PR I saw very few white bread anglophones outside of San Juan.
How many non-US citizens go through the hassle to get an immigrant visa for the US and decide to settle in PR? Are there a lot of Mexican and Salvadorian immigrants in PR?
I believe this is true. I know a guy who became a US citizen a few years ago and his English grammar is not terribly good. He has a lot of difficulty using singular and plural nouns correctly (picking the wrong grammatical number, or getting an irregular plural wrong), but he can be understood and can understand others. Apparently that was good enough for citizenship.