Speaking In Tongues

ON SUNDAY, 100,000 PEOPLE RALLIED IN SAN JUAN TO send a message that needed no translation: they wanted to keep a 1991 law that made Espanol -- and Espanol only -- Puerto Rico's official language. But the next day, the Puerto Rican legislature passed a bill making both Spanish and English official languages in the U.S. commonwealth. Later, Governor Pedro Rossello signed the measure, saying, "Now we have two hymns, two flags, two languages."

The language issue is linked by some Puerto Ricans to the campaign to make the island America's 51st state. Rossello is pro-statehood, and so is a majority of the legislature. Carlos Romero-Barcelo, Puerto Rico's resident commissioner in the U.S. House of Representatives, has only limited voting rights in that body, and he calls the new law a step toward full representation. Says Romero: "We in Puerto Rico want to be viewed as citizens."