“Se ve, se siente, Francisco está presente.”
— The celebratory chant that resounded at every public papal event this past weekend in Philadelphia

This past weekend was a heady one for Latinos in Philadelphia. Even those who aren’t Catholic marveled at the amount of Spanish they heard spoken in the streets. More importantly, people from the Mayor to columnists and reporters from the legacy news media were attentive to every word Pope Francis uttered in Spanish and translated into English.

There was, in fact, an special pride in hearing Spanish flowing at Independence Hall, the seat of U.S. history, and from the lectern at which Lincoln had delivered one of the best-known speeches of the American Civil War era.

But we cannot let the euphoria of that experience blind us to what has been going on at our state legislature where folks have been discussing House Bill 1506 — which would make English the official language of the commonwealth — and at which Representative Darryl Metcalfe refused to let Philadelphia’s Latina legislator Leslie Acosta —  express her opposition when he unceremoniously unplugged her microphone.

We wrote fully about that incident Sept. 22, but it bears repeating because it illustrates the fundamental disrespect some elected officials show to anybody who speaks Spanish — even a colleague elected to the same governing body.

Metcalfe represents Butler County, a predominantly white county with almost no Latino population. He has, nevertheless, introduced and reintroduced versions of this bill (along with a tremendous number of anti-immigrant bills).

The other Latino state representative from Philadelphia, Ángel Cruz, has presented a counter-bill, HB 666, which proposes that Spanish be made the official language of Pennsylvania. And while that is satisfying in a “gotcha” sort of way, it is also undesirable. Pennsylvania should have no official language designation. None. Because no matter which language would be chosen it would not reflect the variety of populations within the commonwealth for whom English is a second language.

It isn’t just Latinos. In Philadelphia this includes Cambodians, Chinese, Vietnamese and Polish communities. And statewide it includes not only Latinos, but Amish and old order Mennonites whose primary language is a distinctive form of German. The Amish in particular, are a growing population because of a higher than average birth rate. Just like Latinos.

What is truly galling about the attempt to make English the only language in which official forms and information can be issued by the commonwealth is that it is a bald attempt to disenfranchise subsets of voters.

It behooves our state legislators to make alliance with those from other counties. Lancaster County, for example, not only has a growing Latino population but is the heart of the Amish community. Berks, Chester, Lehigh counties — representative governance requires this alliance to stop this bill — and we hope Acosta will lead the way in forging it.