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Article published In: Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 12:4 (2013) ► pp.583–605

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H.R. 2499 Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2010

Language policy and the Burton Amendment

 | Saint Joseph’s UniversityPhiladelphia PA
Published online: 31 January 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.12.4.05she
In 2010, the U.S. House of Representatives passed The Puerto Rico Democracy Act, a bill that ostensibly focused on the authorization of a plebiscite on the Island’s future political status in relationship to the United States. Nevertheless, the final text included language policy on (a) ballot language, (b) official language legislation, and (c) language ideologies favoring English as the “language of opportunity ”. Using CDA, this paper examines the House discussion of the bill on April 29, 2010, as found in the Congressional Record Proceedings and Debates of the 111th Congress. The paper focuses on how the discussion of the bill shifted from political status issues to the inclusion of language policies to be imposed on the Island, the role of the Burton Amendment in shaping these policies, and the ways in which the construction of identity with and through language was both promoted and erased on the House floor.
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Barreto, Amílcar Antonio
2016. American Identity, Congress, and the Puerto Rico Statehood Debate. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 16:1 ► pp. 100 ff. DOI logo
Shenk, Elaine
2015. El engañolyel cuco: metaphors in the nexus between language and status in Puerto Rico. Language and Intercultural Communication 15:3 ► pp. 324 ff. DOI logo

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