Spanish in the New World

One of the urgent issues that engages us in our time is the question of immigration. But this is not a new concern since it is an action that has been practiced since the dawn of humanity. It is through the great migrations of people that languages are developed and spread and cultures are established. In the lands of the western hemisphere, known at various times to Europeans as the New World, many different people groups occupied the vast regions of land stretching from Alaska to Patagonia. They developed many languages, dialects and civilizations throughout the centuries. In the course of their history many of these people underwent great changes in language and customs due to the natural movement they suffered in times of extreme climatic conditions as well as the less natural occurences of invasions and war. However, no conditions proved to be as critically invasive and permanent as the intrusion made by the Europeans when they came to conquer and settle all of the land. This age of discovery and conquest began in the year 1492 when a man, who always signed his name as Cristóbal Colón (Christopher Columbus in English), would gain favor with the royal house of Spain and be given the opportunity to realize his enterprise of discovery. It is at this moment in history that Spain daringly breaks out unto the world stage and begins to establish the first true global empire. It would be an entire century later that England sets up a settlement of its own in the New World at Jamestown. This sixteenth century of practically unrivaled control over the conquest of new lands insured that Spanish would be the dominant language spoken throughout these newly discovered territories. In the following century with the gradual decline of Spain's power, England and France vied for control over the lands of the northern hemisphere. With England exerting itself and taking control of North America a new force would encompass the hemisphere overshadowing the lands to the south and thus it has been ever since. All of these changes and upheavals have been in part due to the constant emigration of people from one part of the world to another. This constant shifting of populations has now in our day brought great numbers of immigrants from Spanish America to Anglo America theatening, among other things, to establish Spanish as the second predominant language in the North. This, for the most part, is not a welcomed turn of events and has met with great opposition in the halls of congress. Why should this be the overwhelming sentiment? That's the next issue to address in the next post.
Hasta entonces,
Ed