Language Rift in ‘All-America City’

Hailed in March as an “All-America City” for its success in assimilating a huge influx of Asian immigrants, Monterey Park is now being wracked by an issue that City Council members say is splitting the community along racial lines.

For months, a group has been collecting names on a petition in an effort to put a measure on the April ballot that would declare English the official language of the city. Petitions with more than 3,300 signatures, about 1,000 more than needed to qualify the measure for the ballot, were to be submitted to the city clerk Tuesday.

Four of the five City Council members oppose the English initiative, and recently another group, the Coalition for Harmony in Monterey Park, has begun pushing a rival measure that would denounce the English language initiative as a threat to constitutional rights.

Frank Arcuri, who has led the campaign for the English-language initiative, said the measure is symbolic. It would not forbid anyone to use a foreign language. But, he said, it would make newcomers aware of the importance of learning English and send a message to the City Council that residents are upset about foreign language signs in the city’s business district.

The action stems from opposition to the increasing domination of the city by Chinese restaurants, Asian banks and small shops advertising wares in Chinese, he said.

‘We live in a Chinatown,” Arcuri declared in an interview Tuesday. “We don’t live in an All-America city. Immigrants are welcome, but they must realize that English is the language we use.”

The proposed initiative declares: “English is the language that we use in Monterey Park when we want everyone to understand our ideas. This is what unites us as Americans, even though some of our citizens speak other languages. Let us make English our official language as a symbol of this unity.”

The population of Monterey Park, estimated at 85% Anglo in the 1960s, is now 40% Asian, mostly immigrants from Taiwan and Hong Kong, according to Mayor Rudy Peralta. The remainder of the population of 58,000 is estimated at 37% Latino, 22% Anglo and 1% black.

Peralta said organizers of the English-language proposal are exploiting a resentment against the use of Chinese characters in business signs that have transformed the city’s appearance.

Several months ago, the City Council adopted an ordinance that requires businesses to include the Roman alphabet or Arabic numbers in their signs, but does not limit the use of Chinese characters or any other language.

The sign controversy has pitted Chinese merchants, who argue against restrictions on free expression, against longtime residents, who say that signs in Chinese make them feel like aliens in their own hometown.

The English initiative was endorsed Tuesday by former Sen. S. I. Hayakawa, who founded U.S. English, a Washington-based group that is working nationwide for the primacy of English. Hayakawa is also honorary chairman of the California English Campaign, which is planning to circulate petitions next year for a statewide vote in November on an English language initiative.

Gerda Bikales, executive director of U.S. English, said five states--Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Nebraska and Virginia--have adopted measures declaring English their official language. Several measures are pending in Congress, she said.

English-language ordinances have been adopted by city councils in Alameda and Fillmore, but Monterey Park would be the first city in California to put the measure to a vote of the people, according to Stanley Diamond, chairman of the California English Campaign.

If the initiative has the required number of verified signatures, the City Council will have the option of adopting it or putting it before voters at the next election. Peralta said adoption is unlikely because of the overwhelming opposition on the council, which heard arguments from both sides at its regular meeting Tuesday night.

“If we want a civil war of the likes you have never seen before, pitting neighbor against neighbor, immigrant against immigrant, race against race, then vote for English only,” Michael Eng, co-chairman of the coalition, warned the overflow crowd of more than 200 in the council chambers.

“Immigrants are welcome here, but they must realize that English is the language that we use in America,” Arcuri told the meeting after presenting his petitions. “Our city has bent over backwards long enough to accommodate our new immigrants. We now say enough is enough,”

Peralta said earlier Tuesday that the measure is divisive and is seen as an attack on Asians and Latinos.

“They are trying to bring out the worst in people,” agreed Councilman David Almada, who said the campaign has racist overtones.

The coalition has suggested that the council offer voters a rival measure that would state: “Although we recognize that English is our common language in Monterey Park, we believe that making English the official language of our city would lead to violations of our constitutional rights.”

Barry Hatch, a teacher who formulated the English initiative with Arcuri, said the measure is not racist, but is intended to bring the community together through the use of a common language.

Chen said that those who advocate such measures are making “a wrong assumption--that (immigrants) aren’t willing to learn English.” In fact, she said, the problem in Monterey Park is not a shortage of people anxious to learn English, but a shortage of funds to hire teachers and train tutors for them.