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In 1991, the Puerto Rican government abolished bilingualism, claiming that “Spanish only” was necessary to protect the culture from North American influences. A few years later bilingualism was restored and English was promoted in public schools. This revised edition of The Politics of Language in Puerto Rico is updated with an emphasis on the dual arenas where the language controversy played out—Puerto Rico and the United States Congress—and includes new data on the connections between language and conflicting notions of American identity. This book shows that officials in both San Juan and Washington, along with English-first groups, used these language laws as weapons in the battle over U.S.-Puerto Rican relations and the volatile debate over statehood.
This book contends that there is a fundamental logic underlying the participation of non-elites in the nationalist enterprise. In order to understand this logic we must cast aside the standard myopia ingrained in most Rational Choice analysis.
"A [book] rich in detail and analysis, which anyone wanting to understand the language debate in Puerto Rico will find essential."--Arlene Davila, Syracuse University This is the first book in English to analyze the controversial language policies passed by the Puerto Rican government in the 1990s. It is also the first to explore the connections between language and cultural identity and politics on the Caribbean island. Shortly after the U.S. invasion of Puerto Rico in 1898, both English and Spanish became official languages of the territory. In 1991, the Puerto Rican government abolished bilingualism, claiming that "Spanish only" was necessary to protect the culture from North American inf...
"This book highlights a political struggle engaged in by Puerto Ricans which raises attention regarding the inconsistencies between the United States as a democratic society and its treatment of a nation that continues to be colonized."--James Jennings, Tufts University In this analysis of the dispute over the U.S. Navy's bombing range in Vieques, Puerto Rico, Amilcar Barreto looks at the political fallout from the accidental killing of a civilian in 1999, including its impact on Puerto Rican nationalism and ethnic mobilization. In so doing, he finds in the Vieques crisis a metaphor for a larger set of Puerto Rican crises and conflicts. Barreto sets the scene for understanding why Vieques ha...
The election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States has opened a new chapter in the country’s long and often tortured history of inter-racial and inter-ethnic relations. Many relished in the inauguration of the country’s first African American president — an event foreseen by another White House aspirant, Senator Robert Kennedy, four decades earlier. What could have only been categorized as a dream in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education was now a reality. Some dared to contemplate a post-racial America. Still, soon after Obama’s election a small but persistent faction questioned his eligibility to hold office; they insisted that Obama was foreign-born. Follow...
The Impact of Natural Disasters on Systemic Political and Social Inequities in the U.S. examines how natural disasters impact social inequality in the United States. The contributors cover topics such as criminal justice, demographics, economics, history, political science, and sociology to show how effects of natural disasters vary by social and economic class in the United States. This volumestudies social and political mechanisms in disaster response and relief that enable natural disasters to worsen inequalities in America and offers potential solutions.
The idea for this volume arose out of a need for a treatment of the interplay between language and ethnonationalism within both formal and nonformal educational settings. In no way intended to be exhaustive in scope, the contents give the reader a critical overview of issues related to language, cultural identity formation, and ethnonationalism. The chapters within this work deal with the effects of different language groups with differing amounts of power within society coming into contact with one another, and provide insight into how language is both utilized by and affected by processes such as colonialism, post-colonialism, acculturation, and ethnonationalism. Language is central to culture—indeed houses cultural understandings and allows generational transfer of key aspects of a group’s heritage.
This volume analyzes how enduring democracy amid longstanding inequality engendered inclusionary reform in contemporary Latin America.
At the end of the nineteenth century the United States swiftly occupied a string of small islands dotting the Caribbean and Western Pacific, from Puerto Rico and Cuba to Hawaii and the Philippines. Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State reveals how this experiment in direct territorial rule subtly but profoundly shaped U.S. policy and practice—both abroad and, crucially, at home. Edited by Alfred W. McCoy and Francisco A. Scarano, the essays in this volume show how the challenge of ruling such far-flung territories strained the U.S. state to its limits, creating both the need and the opportunity for bold social experiments not yet possible within the United St...
The current world economy is interconnected; however, due to recent economic crises, trade deficits, and nationalist movements, there is a political trend of economic nationalism that is taking root in countries around the world. As such, global economies around the world are decreasing their international trade and introducing import tariffs and economic protectionism. International Firms’ Economic Nationalism and Trade Policies in the Globalization Era provides a comprehensive understanding of the recent rise of economic nationalism in the context of the hyper-connected global economy by providing strategies and country-specific solutions for domestic and international firms. Covering how multinational corporations can overcome the protectionist sentiments while reinventing their corporate social responsibility models, it showcases how economic nationalism and globalization can successfully coexist. This publication is ideally designed for business leaders, economists, professionals, policymakers, researchers, and academicians.