The Strange Career of Bilingual Education in Texas, 1836-1981 (review)

Bilingual education is a hotly contested topic today, particularly since the publication of Huntington's essay, "The Hispanic Challenge" in 2004.¹ Huntington deplored the rise of bilingualism among Mexican immigrants, arguing that it threatens America's political ethos and cultural identity. Blanton presents a portrait of bilingualism to which Huntington and his critics might not have been privy—the history of bilingual education in Texas. Indeed, Blanton notes "that historians have yet to document the story of American bilingual education" and that his purpose is "to fill this void" (3). The Strange Career of Bilingual Education is probably the first historical study, albeit limited to Texas, of bilingualism and education.

Currently, bilingualism is associated with Latin American immigrants and the communities that they form across the nation. However, as Blanton documents, the nineteenth-century history of bilingualism in Texas embraced Germans, Czechs, and Tejanos, or longtime Mexican settlers, and other immigrant groups. Moreover, bilingualism in education was not considered an un-American or potentially disruptive force and was practiced in formal and informal settings. Blanton refers to this era as a "rich historical past" (5). It was not until the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with the rise of Progressive education, that bilingualism became un-American and so became targeted for elimination.

The rise of Mexican immigration and settlement in the early twentieth-century made racial segregation in various forms the order of the day. The tradition of bilingual education was soon replaced by segregated schooling guided by the precept "English Only" to eradicate Spanish and bilingualism. Blanton points out that segregated schooling was founded upon principles that stood diametrically opposed to bilingualism.

However, the story that Blanton presents deals only with events north of the border and dismisses the economic ties between the United States and Mexico that developed soon after the end of the Civil War. U.S. capitalist enterprises took control of the Mexican economy and employed Mexican labor to work the most modern and important economic operations. Segregation of Mexican labor by American companies operating in Mexico and calls for a Mexico in America's image appeared widely and paralleled the writing of the British concerning their colonies. The demise of bilingualism may not be purely the consequence of national policy but may have been strongly influenced by the colonial-like domination exerted over Mexico by American companies.

Blanton tells much more. Bilingualism made a reappearance with the Cold War, new language theories, and particularly the civil rights era of the 1960s and political struggles of the Chicano generation. Bilingual education was restored and continues in Texas (albeit in compromised form). However, across the United States, bilingual education is becoming a relic of history, although in the daily life of Latino communities bilingualism is on the rise. Credit an immigration spurred by NAFTA and free trade for that trend.