Panel debates English only and language rights
By Jason Begay
The Unity News

The move to make English the official language of the United States is a personal issue to every citizen of the country, a panel pointed out yesterday.

Ruben Navarette Jr., a panelist and columnist with the Arizona Republic, said he remembers when his grandfather first came to the United States and decided that his children should not speak Spanish.

"My grandfather said that if you move to this country, you have to speak English," Navarette said.

Navarette made his comments at a 90-minute National Association of Hispanic Journalists panel discussion titled "English Only vs. English Plus: Spreading Debate About Language Rights."

He started out as a supporter of bilingual education, then decided reforms had to be made within that system. "While bilingualism was a good theory, you put a good theory into the meat grinder known as the public education and it comes out as some unrecognizable form of sausage," Navarette said.

One of the things that convinced Navarette that reforms had to be made was that Latino parents he spoke to would say their children weren't learning enough English and still had strong accents. The parents said that when their concerns were raised with educators, they were dismissed.

Alejandra Sotomayor, president of the Tucson Association for Bilingual Education, said that when she was younger, she was in a classroom where only English was spoken. She said that if any of the non-English-speaking students spoke their native language, they would be reprimanded and even spanked. In fact, Sotomayor said, she was spanked for speaking Spanish in front of her teachers.

She said the same system is being proposed under a ballot initiative in Arizona, similar to the one passed by California voters in November, Proposition 227, which virtually eliminated bilingual education in the classroom and mandated a program of English immersion. Prop. 227 also requires teachers to use a native language only when absolutely necessary.

Sotomayor noted that before bilingual education was implemented, Native Americans and Hispanic high school students had the highest dropout rates - 19 percent for Native Americans and 19 percent for Hispanics. She said contrary to what many anti-bilingual education supporters believe, bilingual education is about learning English and making students proficient in that language.

James Crawford, a bilingual education specialist and author of "Hold Your Tongues," said he strongly supported bilingual education and that Prop. 227 was misguided and an attack on immigrants in the state.

"If this program was thoroughly understood, we probably would not be having this debate right now," he said.

Other Unity members said that they are opposed to the idea of making English the official language of the United States, and believe that being multilingual is the only way of keeping one's language and culture.

"If our language goes, our culture goes," said Suzanne Acuna, editor of the Gila River Indian newspaper in Arizona. She said one needs to know English if a person is to survive in the United States, but natives and immigrants should be allowed to keep their first language. "Without our tribal language, we would never know who we are."

While the Gila River prints articles in English, Acuna said she hopes to one day incorporate special sections in the Apache language.

Karen Lam, executive editor of A. Magazine, which is aimed at Asian Americans, said she also believes that the United States is an English-speaking country, but with a multilingual history. "English is an animal of its own. Those who don't have English-language skills often have other language skills."

Lam explained that her Chinese is not strong and her mother's English isn't either, but they can read newspapers to each other.

"My Chinese is so poor, but I am lucky I have both in the same household," Lam said. "I would never give one up for the other as long as I have both available to me."

g from time to time; my grandpa used to let me draw on the walls," he recalls. "It stemmed from there, I guess."

Truth be told, there were some instances throughout the years where Knee-Know wasn't sure if he wanted to remain in the artist realm. As his grade school years segued into middle and high school, the de-emphasis on art in schools made it easy for him to lose focus.

High school became college, and Knee-Know had his sights on studying sports medicine. "But I pretty much decided in my sophomore year that I'd turn [back] towards art," he says. "That's when I regained a lot of that focus."

Some of his professors also encouraged his talent-so he took his paints and never looked back. Knee-Know mostly paints human figures that are in constant motion-running, jumping, dancing, even kneeling in prayer, such as the blue figure he points to first. "This one's named Tonoah; I named it after one of my students that I worked with at the Californian Indian Center, when I was working down in LA," he explains.

The paintings aren't portraits of the namesakes; he names the paintings after the people whose spirit inspired them. Although the figure looks as though it's on bended knee, Knee-Know explains that the image is open to interpretation by whoever looks at it.

"It could be interpreted several ways-it could be offering, prayer, it could be conceived as dancing. Knee-Know's work can also be seen at Hands of Creation, a Native American art gallery (located at Pier 57) that's co-owned by him and several other artists.

Hands Of Creation administrator Roger Niemier says he's seen a definite increase in Native American art interest over the past few years. "Our artwork here is particularly Northwestern Costal-a very unique artform that's not well known across the country."

Hands of Creation has been in business since 1992, and features artwork that represents Native American cultures across the country as well, such as the Plains, Inuit and Eastern regions. All in all, Knee-Know explains that he's simply trying to represent his Native American heritage.

"The beauty in our culture is exemplified in ceremony, dance, and numerous other tribal traditions," says Knee-Know, who belongs to the Nanaimo Band in Vancouver, B.C. "My goal is to convey a message of timeliness. We have danced through generations, just as we dance now, and we will continue to dance hereafter."