Fillmore’s Language Rule Lifted

Fourteen years after the town made national headlines by declaring English its official language, the resolution--long considered an insult to many Latino residents--disappeared this week.

Hardly anyone noticed.

“This resolution wasn’t going to stay on there through the end of my term, I had decided that a long time ago,” said Mayor Evaristo Barajas, the council’s only Latino member, who was elected in 1996.

“My hope in this is we’ve ended a chapter that wasn’t too pleasant. It took almost 15 years, but we’re ready to go into the 21st century with a clean slate.”

In April 1985, amid political tumult over bilingual education and with an anti-immigration wave sweeping the nation, a divided City Council passed a one-sentence resolution, which stated, simply, that the city recognized English as its official language.

The move was made largely to appease white parents critical of the quality of their children’s educations in public schools, several city leaders said at the time.

As a resolution, the city’s statement had no legal substance or teeth of any kind. Many teachers continued to instruct children in both languages, and limited government documents are still made available in Spanish as well as English.

But symbolically it was an affront to many Latinos. “It split the town, really. No doubt,” said Jim Fauver, a retired schoolteacher. “It hurt a lot of people at the time.”

A wave of panic spread through much of the city’s Latino community in the days following passage of the resolution.

Rumors spread that Mexican immigrants without citizenship would be deported, that Spanish would be banned throughout the city, that Latinos would lose their jobs if they were less than fluent in English, and that their children would be removed from school.

And a year later, California voters passed Proposition 63, a constitutional amendment making English the official language statewide, effectively superseding the Fillmore resolution.

The proposition laid the groundwork for lawmakers to pass English-only legislation. Although it stands today, the amendment has not resulted in any major English-only laws.

Barajas said he has wanted to repeal the city’s resolution since taking office. But it wasn’t until late this past summer--after the neighboring city of Santa Paula, which also is predominantly Latino, became the target of a federal investigation into Latino voting rights--that the climate was ripe for a repeal effort.

*

Ramon Rodriguez, a local Democrat and civil rights activist, fired off a letter to the council in August asking for the repeal. Initially, only Barajas and Councilman Scott Lee spoke in favor of its repeal.

Neither Rodriguez nor the Simi Valley police officer who initially proposed the Fillmore measure in 1985 could be reached Wednesday for comment.

Councilman Roger Campbell, the only current council member who was on the council in 1985, had initially opposed the repeal, saying it would stir up bad feelings for no good reason.

But eventually Campbell changed his position, which he said came after talking with a Latino city planning commissioner, whom Campbell said he holds in high regard.

The commissioner said many of the city’s children felt bitter about the resolution, Campbell said.

“I felt if it was hurting young people . . . why not take it off the books?” Campbell said. “It won’t hurt and it might even help.”

At the council’s Tuesday night meeting, the repeal issue came up without controversy and was approved unanimously without discussion.

News of the repeal had yet to spread through Fillmore High School, where 78% of the student body has a Latino surname.

But Darby Schieferle, who teaches civics, said she is sure her students will be talking about it by Friday when each week’s current events are discussed. Bilingualism is “a big issue with them,” she said.

While many adults in town said Wednesday they had heard about the repeal, others weren’t even aware the resolution existed, including Petra Patricia Garcia, co-owner of Fillmore’s La Fondita Mexican restaurant.

“The majority of people here are Hispanics,” she said in Spanish, taking a quick break before the lunchtime rush. “There’s a lot of people who didn’t know. We don’t read [English newspapers], and we only speak English when we have to.

“I know the official language is English, because this is the USA,” Garcia said. “But they don’t need to say it’s the official language. There’s no reason for an ordinance. It’s quite clear.”

Although most residents interviewed said they favored the repeal, a few voiced dismay.

“This had nothing to do with race,” said Pete Holder, a local crane operator.

“Everybody comes to this country because it’s better than where they’ve been. And it’s built on English. I just think the English language ought to prevail.”