Gov. Bill Richardson has still not agreed to a debate with Republican challenger John Dendahl, so here is Dendahl’s stance on whether the state is officially bilingual, taken from his Web site. It was originally published in the Albuquerque Journal on May 6, 2006.
N. M. Constitution Backs Bilingual — To a Point
By John Dendahl
“Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez needs remedial training in
“Along with the many audacious claims of ‘rights’ for the flood of migrants illegally in the United States, the reconquerors have written something they purport to be our national anthem in Spanish. Chávez reportedly thinks this is terrific.
“In a confused moment, Chávez also got singing confused with hand signs. ‘Friday night, at the tricentennial ball, there was a lovely Native American who gave a rendition of the national anthem in Native American sign language,’ he said. ‘I thought it was beautiful.’
“Signing the meaning of a song is not singing some attempt at translation.
“Even the master panderer, Gov. Bill Richardson, agreed with President Bush that the
“Chávez’s response to that is what revealed his ignorance of history. One report had it, ‘In fact,’ he pointed out, ‘
“To the contrary,
“I wrote a column about this in late 2003. Much of what follows is repeated on account of its having again become an important topic of public discussion.
“Take Article XX, Section 12, which required (note past tense) that ‘…all laws passed by the legislature shall be published in both the English and Spanish languages …’ Sounds pretty bilingual to me. However, the first 11 words of that section are, ‘For the first twenty years after this constitution goes into effect …’
“Thus, the constitutional requirement for bilingual publication of laws expired in 1932, nearly 75 years ago. The sole remaining bilingual publication requirement applies to proposed constitutional amendments, which must be published in Spanish but only in each county where a newspaper is published in Spanish.
“Another section frequently used to confuse is Article XII, Section 8, requiring the Legislature to provide for training teachers in ‘both the English and Spanish languages.’ However, the section also explains that the purpose of bilingual training of teachers is ‘to qualify them to teach Spanish-speaking pupils and students.’
“Section 8 further obligates the Legislature to ‘provide means and methods to facilitate the teaching of the English language and other branches of learning to (Spanish-speaking) pupils and students.’
“Perhaps the blockbuster — one I’d bet is violated daily in public schools throughout the state — is found in Article XXI, the Compact with the United States.
“Section 4 reads, ‘Provision shall be made for the establishment and maintenance of a system of public schools which shall be open to all the children of the state and free from sectarian control, and said schools shall always be conducted in English.’ Not Spanish and not any other language(s).
“For centuries, people have been arriving in the
“Fluency in more than one language is much to be admired, but English is the lingua franca of the