Gracias to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Mark Tice, a commissioner of neighboring Chambers County, for providing a valuable learning experience about many things, not the least of which is what it means to be an American.

Hidalgo is a naturalized U.S. citizen. She speaks English and Spanish as if they are her first languages. Her language skills were on display March 25 as she gave a public safety update about the Deer Park chemical fire in both languages, with an American Sign Language interpreter translating to ASL.

Tice objected to Hidalgo's Spanish-speaking, posting on social media: "English this is not Mexico," and calling her "a joke." Those comments resulted in a backlash that boomeranged across the nation.

What can be learned from this?

One positive takeaway is that delivering her emergency message in both languages was much better than if Hidalgo had spoken only English. About a third of Harris County residents speak primarily Spanish at home. It doesn't mean they don't speak English. But it strongly suggests that hearing the instructions in Spanish was valuable to them during that crisis. 

Tice was narrow-mindedly correct that this isn't Mexico. Texas hasn't been Mexico since 1836. But Spanish has been spoken in Texas longer than English. And several native American languages have been spoken longer.

No language has a claim on Texas — or the United States, for that matter. Contrary to a mistaken but prevalent assumption, English is not the country's official language. That's something it has in common with Spanish.

This is the American dream 

We thank Tice for the opportunity to remind ourselves as a state, a nation and a well-meaning neighbor to Mexico that Mexico is only one of 20 countries where Spanish is the primary language. Hidalgo's country of origin, Colombia, is another.

Hidalgo, contrary to what Tice said, is no joke. She is, if anything, an example to this nation of immigrants of the American dream. She's a Stanford University graduate, the first woman and first Hispanic elected to her position in Harris County, and only 28 years old.

Tice is an example of what could be better about America. He jumped to conclusions based on biases shared by many Americans — biases that make America less great. More than one news account of Tice's comments cited a 2018 Pew Research Center survey in which 22 percent of Latinos reported being criticized in the previous year for speaking Spanish in public. Twenty percent reported being told to go back to their home country — never mind that the U.S.-born are already there.

One final lesson we owe to Tice is that people can learn from their mistakes and make themselves better. Tice took an important step in that direction by apologizing "to Judge Hidalgo, the citizens of my county, and most importantly the entire Hispanic community for hastily acting out with transgression on social media."

Too little, too late?

We all will be the judge of that. And we should search our souls before deciding whether Tice is beyond redemption. He had both the nerve and the humility to seek it, saying:

"I can only hope, in time, that my actions can be forgiven."

If we can do that, America will be the greater for it and we will have left it a better place for our children.




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