Abstract
The movement for English as the official language was not unique to Monterey Park. As early as 1980, voters in Miami, Florida, a city where large numbers of Spanish-speaking Cubans have settled, overwhelmingly approved a law (since reversed) restricting the use of Spanish and Creole. In November 1984, voters in California passed by a 71 to 29 percent margin Proposition 38, an advisory ballot measure recommending that all election materials be printed in English only.¹ Fillmore and Alameda, two small California communities, passed official-English ordinances in early 1985, and several others considered similar actions later on.² But Monterey Park, had