Arizona woman off ballot after high court agrees her English isn't good enough
A woman trying to run for the San Luis, Arizona, City Council will not appear on the ballot after the Arizona Supreme Court upheld a ruling that her English was not good enough.
Alejandrina Cabrera has been locked in a political battle regarding her proficiency of the English language. But her story is more than a local election dispute, with possibly widespread implications in a country that prides itself as a melting pot.
In the border town of San Luis, 87% of residents speak a language other than English in their home, and 98.7% are of Hispanic origin, according to 2010 U.S. census data. Most of the people there, by all accounts, speak both English and Spanish.
“I think my English is good enough to hold public office in San Luis, Arizona,” Cabrera told CNN en Español in an interview conducted in Spanish.
“I am not going to help (at the White House). I will be helping here.”
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