A Texas state Senator demanded that an immigrant rights activist speak English not his native Spanish at a legislative hearing this week, sparking a debate over the use of Spanish in public.

State Senator Chris Harris leveled his pen at an activist testifying against a bill on immigration and told him it was “insulting” that Antonlin Aguirre of the Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition spoke in Spanish through an interpreter.

As part of his remarks, Aguirre said he came to the United States in 1988, at which time Harris interrupted and said. “Did I understand him correctly, that he has been here since 1988?”

When the interpreter replied that was true, Harris shot back “Why isn’t he speaking in English, then?”

Aguirre attempted to respond in English. The translator said Spanish is Aguirre’s “first language” and he preferred to deliver his testimony in Spanish, since it is “his first time delivering testimony.”

“It is insulting to us, it is very insulting,” Harris said. “If he knows English, he needs to be speaking in English.”

Several people in the room booed Harris’ remarks, while others appeared to agree, with one woman heard to say, “yes!.”

The debate has rekindled a decades-old debate over whether it is proper to speak Spanish in Texas, which was once a part of Mexico and before that a part of the Spanish Empire, according to Jaime Martinez of the Cesar Chavez Legacy Foundation in San Antonio. The foundation offers English classes to immigrants. Read more.

See: Reuters