California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger--whose radically orange hair may indicate he is being slowly poisoned by nefarious forces secretly putting arsenic in the bottled water he is drinking in mass quantities--called on Hispanic immigrants to turn off their Spanish language televisions and radio stations so they can learn English faster.
In a related story the governor is changing his name to Arnie Smith, to promote a total English-assimilation program he is sponsoring in the legislature. Maria Shriver, First Lady of the Golden State and professional broadcaster and a Kennedy to boot, will change her name to Mary Smith, stating that "Maria is a name that held me back in school from learning my native tongue. I am glad to be rid of it"
The SF Chronicle now takes over, in an article on the gov's remarks at a forum in San Jose (which is Saint Joseph in English, by the way), or "San Josie" as we former locals call it:
"You've got to turn off the Spanish television set" and avoid Spanish-language television, books and newspapers, the Republican governor said Wednesday night at the annual convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
"You're just forced to speak English, and that just makes you learn the language faster," Schwarzenegger said.
"I know this sounds odd and this is the politically incorrect thing to say, and I'm going to get myself in trouble," he said, noting that he rarely spoke German and was forced to learn English when he emigrated from Austria.
Schwarzenegger was responding to a question about how Hispanic students can improve academically. Many journalists for Spanish-language organizations in the audience were surprised by the remarks.
"I'm sitting shaking my head not believing that someone would be so naive and out of it that he would say something like that," said Alex Nogales, president and chief executive of the National Hispanic Media Coalition.
Hispanic immigrants need Spanish-language media to stay informed and "function in this society," Nogales said.
Schwarzenegger has garnered more Hispanic support than most Republican governors in the past two elections, despite some seemingly anti-immigration blunders รข€” such as praising the Minutemen border militia group on a talk radio show.
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One thing is certain: Spanish language media will not go away--and the US-based sponsors of the radio music shows and tele-novellas will not stop buying commercial time on Univision. Plus, I predict retail businesses in California and Oregon will not stop hiring bilingual employees in order to cater to Hispanic customers--whatever their legal status--to buy their products and be tied into the usurious rates that their company credit cards will charge them.
Money is the real language of this world economy. That's why the people from Mexico and other Latin American nations have come here in the first place. And, yes, as a monolingual English guy I feel comfortable with what Arnold said--although I recognize my bias here.
It's just that the amount of German language programs available to Arnold in his assimulation phase thirty-five years ago was probably very small so going cold turkey on German was probably a lot easier than cuting oneself off from a language spoken by tens of millions just off shore and on our borders.
Meanwhile, find out what's in that bottled water before we all start looking like Carrot Top!
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