American praise in Spanish

Students have mixed reaction to Spanish version of "The Star Spangled Banner"

By Travis Ball & Natalie Garcia
The Collegian

Does “tierra del libre, hogar del valiente: land of the free, home of the brave” ring as true for Americans?

Last week, British music producer Adam Kidron released a Spanish language version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” which featured artists including Wyclef Jean, Carlos Ponce and Ivy Queen. “Nuestro Himno,” or “Our Song” was written to honor America’s immigrants.

Reaction among Fresno State students varied from outright indignation to strong approval.

“It is offensive,” sophomore graphic design student Hue Hyong said. “Immigrants being here doesn’t affect the economy as much as people make it seem, and for them to take something that represents America and make it their own is not OK.”

Other students don’t agree with Hyong.

“I think its good,” said Kathy Ayala, a freshman liberal studies major. “That’s what this country is all about. Everybody. If you think about it we’re not only one race or culture.”

The song was released as part of the growing immigrant’s rights movement that began as a result of pending immigration reform in Congress.

President Bush openly disapproved of a Spanish version of the national anthem last week at a press conference.

“And I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English,” Bush said. “And they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English.”

Some students echo the president’s sentiment.

“I would say I agree with his statement, because English is our language in the United States,” said Melanie Chouinard, a junior biology major.

She also thinks that adding a Spanish version would just open the door for many more renditions of the song.

“If we created a national anthem for another language we would have to do it for all languages,” she said.

Ricardo Nevarez said the changes are not the best way for Hispanics to show their pride as Americans.

“To be honest, it was created by the founding fathers. It should remain [in] English,” the junior chemistry major said. “There’s some other way to show pride in America: go to school, vote.”

According to the Library of Congress Website, “The Star Spangled Banner” was written in 1812 by Frances Scott Key, and made the national anthem by a Constitutional Amendment in 1931.

According to a CNN.com poll, 80 percent of Americans agree with President Bush and think the national anthem should be sung only in English.

Senior biology major Jose Soto is part of that 80 percent.

“If you move to the country you should respect the language,” Soto said. “I think it should stay in the native language it was written in.”

Mike Bergman, a political science major, said he doesn’t think so.

“English isn’t the official language of America. That’s why we see California ballots in both English and Spanish.” Bergman said. “They put them in Spanish since a large part of the population speaks Spanish.

The same thing happens in the northeast. Their ballots come out in both French and English with the French language influence being so close.”

Juan Espinosa, criminology and political science double major, said the Spanish anthem is an opportunity to show pride of America.

“My take on it is that people are actually taking pride in the United States instead of the countries they come from like Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico,” the senior criminology and political science major said.

Espinosa said he also speaks Spanish, but thinks immigrants need to learn English as well.

“Speak your original language, but you need to learn English to live in this country.”

- MCJ 108 class members contributed to this story.

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