The 2012 Republican marathon has moved to Puerto Rico as Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are campaigning for the island territory's 20 delegates up for grabs tomorrow. However, Santorum has launched a firestorm by suggesting Puerto Rico can only become a state if they make English their "main language."
Puerto Rico is bilingual and all legal business is done in both English and Spanish, and if they ever become our 51st state, that is unlikely to change. They understand the importance of English, but it doesn't quite match up with their several hundred years of conducting all business, private/public in Spanish.
Santorum has stepped back his comments by recognizing their right to bilingual, but the damage is already done and Romney has already capitalized by agreeing with Louis Fortuno's argument that Puerto Rico has federalism on their side in regards to what emphasis they put on language.
What say you?
P.S. - By the way, this doesn't contradict with Romney's support for English becoming our official language of the land, because such a law would apply to federal matters only and all Puerto Ricans involved in such matters would have to know the language to be involved in the first place.
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