“Good afternoon, California. My name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio…”. He present by the Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny, final Sunday on the Super Bowl halftime, a show of Hispanic satisfaction, a vindication of America past borders and the Monroe doctrine, has precipitated huge irritation in President Donald Trump and all the Maga motion for its use of Spanish and Boricua, the dialect of Puerto Rico. The ultra-conservative Fox community spoke of “cultural shock” and “linguistic barriers” for not singing in English. Until Trump’s second presidency, the United States had not had English as an official language. In actual life, past xenophobia, as occurs in nearly all international locations on the earth, the existence of various languages enriches international locations, not weakens them.
The concept {that a} sturdy State can solely have one language started to prevail after the French Revolution and has turn into an obsession of the right-wing individuals in half the world, together with Spain. Starting within the 18th century and with extra depth because the nineteenth century, with the consolidation of some European States, nationwide languages progressively grew to become imposed, in some circumstances, equivalent to in France, in an amazing method. The historian Graham Robb dedicates a chapter of The discovery of France, an essay on the society and historical past of France, to the languages that disappeared on this nation as a result of efforts of Abbot Grégoire after the Revolution. He thought-about that “without national language, there could not be a nation” and made it his nearly divine mission to “exterminate the patois”, regional dialects.
In complete, Robb places the variety of languages, dialects and subdialects that have been as soon as spoken in France at 55. Many have fallen by the wayside. In 1977, Shuadit or Judeo-Provençal, a dialect of Occitan, grew to become extinct, surviving centuries of persecution, however not globalization. In Italy, the place it’s stated that Dante’s language didn’t prevail till the arrival of public tv, the small island of Burano tries to maintain alive Buranello, a dialect of Venetian, which is in flip a dialect of Italian. On the English Channel island of Jersey, they wish to protect Jerseyese, a variant of Anglo-Norman, as soon as spoken all through England and being swallowed up by English.
Abbé Grégoire—and Donald Trump—couldn’t be extra flawed: a language doesn’t kind a nation. Linguistic variety is among the nice riches of a rustic as a result of every language builds a means of and describing the world, every phrase incorporates its personal historical past. The historian Eduardo Manzano Moreno explains it very effectively in numerous Spain: “A single language has never been spoken in the Iberian Peninsula throughout history.” “Compared to neighboring countries such as France, Germany or Italy, Spain has preserved a unique linguistic wealth, which coexists with the global projection that has allowed Spanish to rub shoulders with other universal languages,” he continues.
Spanish has been a part of the historical past of the United States since even earlier than its beginning as a nation, 250 years in the past. “The United States cannot be understood without Spanish. This is an incontestable fact. Historically, it reached what is today North American territory before English,” wrote Eduardo Lago on this newspaper in 2025 when Trump imposed English because the official language.
Additionally, there are the 150 languages spoken by totally different Native American nations. During World War II, the Navajo language (Diné) was used as a code within the Pacific War as a result of the Japanese have been unable to decipher it. In the world of westerns, that American ultranationalists glorify, languages from all around the world have been spoken: Mandarin, Yiddish, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish… which proceed to be a part of the historical past of the United States. The Amish communicate a dialect of German generally known as Pennsylvania Dutch: members of this neighborhood categorical themselves on this language at residence, in cultured German in church, and in English in school. The tradition and each day lifetime of the United States proceed to circulation, with none drawback, in that wealthy and numerous linguistic universe.
An exhibition on the MUVI, an eclectic and enjoyable museum within the Extremaduran city of Villafranca de los Barros, confirmed final summer season the gathering of tintinologist Juan Manuel Manzano Sanfélix, which incorporates albums of the character of Hergé in all of the languages into which it has been translated. Naturally, Tintin is exhibited in Castúo, the Extremaduran variant of Spanish, the place The Castafiore jewels turns into His property is Cataphyore and Target: the Moon transforms into Jabemoha and.
There was the version of The black island in sephardic, La izla preta, or in Romany, Kali Ada; a quantity additionally translated into cadaquesence, a dialect of Catalan spoken on this city, remoted for a very long time: The black illa. It looks like linguistic gibberish, however trying on the covers there isn’t any communication drawback. This fabulous assortment of comics reveals one of many nice riches of any society: its linguistic variety.
Communication, because the 136 translations of Tintin show, goes far past the language by which it’s learn, written, thought, liked or spoken. Hating that totally different languages and dialects are utilized in a State means not having understood something concerning the historical past of your personal nation and, what’s even worse, its future. You need not communicate Spanish or English to grasp Bad Bunny: “Welcome to the calorón”.
https://elpais.com/cultura/2026-02-11/welcome-to-the-calenton-ninguna-nacion-habla-y-piensa-en-una-sola-lengua.html