Lincoln Diaz-Balart demands Spanish language be protected.

Politics: This deserves a seperate post from the same meeting of La Raza because I haven't seen this in the local Sun-Sentinel or Miami Herald. I wonder if they are protecting him.

The group backs bills to protect credit card users and make it easier for foreign-born workers to send remittances back home. The group also supports stronger assessment and accountability provisions when Congress updates the No Child Left Behind education bill, and it opposes efforts to make English the "official" language of the United States. Speaking to delegates during lunch yesterday, Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Florida Republican and a Cuban immigrant, urged them to help preserve Spanish. "It is important that we emphasize the Spanish language and that we keep the Spanish language, and that we transmit that emphasis to our children and our grandchildren," he said.

Remember La Raza opposes assimilation from a memo passed out last year.

Now to La Raza's concerns. Among them, in the e-mail I'm looking at, the La Raza staffer warns: “while it doesn’t overtly mention assimilation, it is very strong on the patriotism and traditional american values language in a way which is potentially dangerous to our communities.” So, "patriotism and [A]merican values"—by which I'll assume they mean, say, learning English and knowing basic history—are “potentially dangerous” to Hispanics?

I wonder now if Diaz-Balart is on the same wavelength.