Qué es esto: A Texas debate in Spanish?

It's a common refrain among many Hispanics in the Southwest: We didn't cross the border; the border crossed us.

It slips from the lips of descendants of families that were living here 150 years ago when half of Mexico suddenly became the United States with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Thus, from early on in its history, America was peopled with Spanish speakers.

They quickly discovered, however, that succeeding here meant communicating in English.

Today, it seems, many Americans are discovering that succeeding here now means communicating in Spanish.

As the Hispanic population continues to grow rapidly across the country, a concerted effort is being made to reach out to them in their own language.

The latest example is tonight's Texas gubernatorial debate in Dallas. The two main Democratic candidates, Tony Sanchez and Dan Morales, have agreed to one debate in English and one in Spanish. To be broadcast statewide on public television, it's the first major political debate in the US to be held in Spanish. And it certainly won't be the last, experts say.

"Here in the US, Spanish is increasingly becoming a language not only of the home, but of our politics and of our economic system," says F. Chris Garcia, a political science professor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. "Bilingualism is becoming extremely important to the way our public business is conducted.... In the future, it's going to be commonplace."

Indeed, candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore made history when both stumped in Spanish in the last presidential campaign. Then, in May, Mr. Bush gave the first presidential radio address in Spanish. And realizing the importance of the language, the current Texas governor, Rick Perry, spent part of his summer attending Spanish classes in Mexico.

But this trend goes beyond politics. For instance, last week, 36 elementary- and middle-school children faced off in New Mexico's Spanish Spelling Bee - the only one of its kind in the nation. Fourth-grader Micah Turner - who isn't Hispanic - underscored the state's strong commitment to bilingual education when he took fifth place. He's among the 75 percent of New Mexican-school children who participate in bilingual education.

Fisher-Price this month unveiled a collection of toys based on the No. 1 preschool show on TV, Dora the Explorer, which chronicles the adventures of a 7-year-old bilingual Hispanic girl. The company is marketing the Spanish- and English-speaking doll to all ethnicities.

Across the country, Hispanics make up about 12 percent of the population. But in Texas and California, it is more than a third of the population. Their buying - and political - power is greedily sought after. But, for many years, their vote was hard to get.

That's slowly starting to change. The US Census Bureau reported this week that the number of Hispanic voters rose nationwide from 4.9 million in 1996 to more than 5.9 million in 2000. However, turnout among registered Hispanics remained at 28 percent nationwide.

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