Senator pushes bill for the Spanish is the main language of P.Rico – Terra Peru

The veteran Puerto Rican Senator Antonio Fas Alzamora calls for an extra boost to the House of Representatives to approve a project of his that would formalize the Spanish as the primary language of the Caribbean island, which has just concluded the Seventh International Congress of the Spanish Language .

“The project seeks to eliminate the word ‘either’ and give supremacy to Spanish for this is the official language, and English remains as the second official language of Puerto Rico,” he said Efe lawmaker of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Fas Alzamora made the appeal to the House to approve Senate Bill 1177 would declare in authorship-of its Spanish as the first official language of the island and repeal the Act 1 January 28, 1993, he signed the then governor Pedro Rossello’s New Progressive Party annexationist.

The statute approved by Rossello states that English and Spanish are “either” the official languages ​​of Puerto Rico, allowing any of them to be used in official documents and sometimes Anglo-Saxon replace the Castilian language.

However, Spanish is the most widely used in this former Spanish colony, which in 1991 received from Spain’s Prince of Asturias Literature Prize for his defense of Spanish, after approval on the island of a law that formalized that language as the only.

Traditionally, the sector of the island annexationist advocates favor the English, while the independence supports the primacy of Spanish.

The draft Fas Alzamora would use English when necessary, necessary or more convenient, in all documents or communications whose content is technical, professional, commercial, industrial or educational.

For the legislator, the use of English has created problems between citizens and some government agencies that provide services to people, because, according to him, 80% of Puerto Ricans do not speak the English, which is most frequently used in technical issues, including banking and the economy.

“What happens is that one has to deal with the reality of a people and an official language is that the government uses to communicate with the people for their services and needs” said Fas Alzamora Efe.

The legislator emphasized that the official language is “the language with which people communicate with their government and the government with the people,” so “should always be in a language that all citizens understand, and Puerto Rico that it is the Spanish. ”

The senator added that defend the Spanish as the first official language of Puerto Rico “it is not a rejection of English, but a protection of our language as an essential part of our Puerto Rican national identity.”

“Spanish is our mother tongue and the base of our culture. We have to defend and promote our vernacular that identifies us as a people. We can not allow another language move the Spanish and he used interchangeably, “he said.

The PDP legislator calls for maintaining the current status of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to the US, conferring US citizenship to Puerto Ricans and enforces federal laws and foreign policy, but gives great autonomy to manage internal affairs and sovereignty granted in areas such as sports.

Senate Bill 1177, which declared Spanish as their first official language on the island and relegates English to second language was approved by that chamber in September 2015.