Tierra de libres

This I don't get:

Washington - President Bush has never been shy about speaking Spanish in public, and he is known to love all kinds of music: country, folk and even Tex-Mex-style rock. But one thing you will not find on his iPod: "Nuestro Himno," the new Spanish version of the U.S. national anthem that was released on Friday as part of the growing immigrants' rights movement.

Asked at a news briefing in the Rose Garden on Friday whether he believed the anthem would have the same value in Spanish as it did in English, Bush said flatly, "No, I don't."

"And I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English," Bush said. "And they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English."

The last remarks there have no bearing on the issue. Whether or not US citizens should all learn English and know how to sing the national anthem in English, it's perfectly OK to have a Spanish version. It's the land of the free, isn't it? So people can sing the thing every which way they want. And having a Spanish version is a way for Spanish-speaking US citizens to embrace the anthem to their bosoms. It may not be the only way, but it's a way. In any case, as the report here goes on to say:

This is not the first time the national anthem has been translated. The Library of Congress offers another Spanish version, "La Bandera de las Estrellas," translated in 1919 for the U.S. Bureau of Education, as well as several German songsheets of uncertain age celebrating "das Banner mit Sternen."

Stuart Elliott has more along the same lines, including a version in Yiddish. As he says:

Translating the Star Spangled Banner into other languages - whether Spanish, Navajo, or Yiddish - is not un-patriotic. It is part of the process of self-Americanization.