A POEMA TO RECORDAR WHEN ESPAÑOL WAS PROHIBIDO

(Those of us who still remember when speaking Spanish was prohibited (and punished) in the schools will relate to this old poem that was originally published in El Portavoz, the MEChA newsletter at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1984. It was later reprinted locally in Dr. G.F. McHale-Scully's El Rocinante in the Feb, 19, 1991 edition, more than 20 years ago. Note how every other line is in either Spanish or English, making it, in effect, bilingual.)

ESTIMADO MISTER

By Juan Montoya

The school is yours

La lengua nuestra

And still you insist on English

Para niños y maestra

Speaking in Spanish, you say

Nos volvera analfabetos

But even Oxford's won't show you

Como se gana el respeto

Mexican, Cuban, Hispanic

No ve valor en ninguna

But we can function in both

Y Ud. solamente en una

You've never witnessed a child

Comprendiendo una lección

When you use his mother tongue

En vez de la del sajón

Your paperwork and degrees

Dis'que es persona educada

Maybe that's why you come up

Con tan chulas pendejadas

c/s