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-- THE FIGHT FOR
REGINALDO F. DEL VALLE BILINGUAL CALIFORNIA

REGINALDO F. DEL VALLE was born in 1854 At the end of the Mexican-American War ELECTED AS A CALIFORNIA STATE
in Los Angeles at his family's adobe house, (1846-1848), however, Mexico ceded nearly ASSEMBLYMAN from Los Angeles in 1879,
four years after California became a state of half its territory to the United States, an Del Valle began his freshman term in
the United States. He was the eldest son of area comprising the modern U.S. states of office at the start of 1880.
Ygnacio del Valle (1808- 1880) and Ysabel California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico,
Varela del Valle (1836-1905). His father Utah, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.
The original State Constitution of 1849
came to California in 1825 from the Mexican By the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe
had been abolished and a new one
state of Jalisco; at the time, Alta California Hidalgo which ended the war, all Mexican
written during the previous legislative
was also a state of Mexico, so Ygnacio del citizens who chose to remain in those
term, in 1879. Among other things, the
Valle was simply a Mexican citizen moving areas-and most did-automatically
new Constitution did away with the old
from one state to another. Ysabel Varela was became U.S. citizens. This territorial
Constitution's requirement that "All laws,
born in California, and therefore was also a expansion and the discovery of gold brought
decrees, regulations and provisions,
Mexican citizen. hundreds of thousands of immigrants to
which from their nature require
California from 1848 on, the majority from
publication, shall be published in English
the Eastern and Midwestern states of the
and Spanish." Instead, from now on, all
U.S. Within just a few years, the laws,
government business was to be conducted
culture, and society of California were
entirely in English.
radically transformed.
Among the first business taken up in the
As a result, although his
1880 session were various bills meant.to
parents were not immigrants,
put this new English-only policy into effect,
Reginaldo del Valle lived an
for example Assembly Bill (AB) 184, "An Act
experience similar to that of
to Provide for the Keeping of Accounts in
over half the children born in
the English Language." Opposed to the
California since 2001: that of
abolition of bilingualism in California's
a U.S.-born, English-speaking
government, Del Valle tried to render the
Latino with Spanish-speaking
bill ineffective by amending it to strike
(immigrant) parents. He
out its enacting clause in AB 184. His
grew up bilingual and
motion, however, was voted down.
bicultural, at home
in both Latino and
Atlantic-American
civil society.