Sunday, April 30, 2006

The Star Spangled Banner...in Spanish?

I woke up one morning last week to hear the host of the radio program I typically listen to (WLUP - 97.9) soliciting responses from people on the question of whether the recent Spanish translation of the Star Spangled Banner done by Adam Kidron (a Brit) should be encouraged among Latino immigrants in the country. While I expected the responses to be fairly opposed to the Spanish translation, I couldn't help but notice the xenophobic overtones in the comments. While I do think that the song should be sung in English, the issue didn't bother me nearly as much as it did for some of the callers. However, I wasn't sure if I simply couldn't dismiss the fact that the Loop (a classic rock(think 80's) radio station) has a listenership that mostly consists of working class Chicagoans, who might be more likely to have strong patriotic sentiments. I suppose that the question I'm posing is how one makes the distinction between patriotism and xenophobia?

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