{"id":13104,"date":"2023-08-05T16:25:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-05T16:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13104"},"modified":"2023-08-10T19:33:11","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T19:33:11","slug":"just-saying-hola-isnt-enough-how-do-latino-voters-feel-when-candidates-speak-spanish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13104","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Just saying hola isn\u2019t enough.\u2019 How do Latino voters feel when candidates speak Spanish?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by<\/em> Melissa Gomez<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Beto O\u2019Rourke stepped up on a red cooler so the crowd packed inside Taqueria Arandas could see him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPrimero, buenos d\u00edas<\/em>,\u201d he began, greeting people. He thanked the family that owns the restaurant and launched his pitch: \u201cNecesitamos un pa\u00eds en que cualquier persona [pueda] participar con su voz y su voto en su democrac\u00eda<\/em>.\u201d \u201cWe need a country where anybody can participate in their democracy with their voice and their vote.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The audience cheered, clapped and leaned in close to listen to the former Texas congressman<\/a>, one of several 2020 Democratic candidates speaking at least some Spanish on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg<\/a>, who knows seven languages to varying degrees, has spoken Spanish at his events, as has Sen. Cory Booker<\/a> of New Jersey. Former Housing Secretary Juli\u00e1n Castro<\/a> uses Spanish for emphasis, for example ending a message to the president with \u201cYa basta<\/em>\u201d \u2014 \u201cEnough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But does a candidate speaking Spanish make a difference to voters who know the language? The answer can be as nuanced as the Latino electorate, which is often mischaracterized as a monolithic voting bloc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing more powerful than somebody saying, \u2018I\u2019m fighting for you,\u2019 without the use of a translator,\u201d said Edgar Flores, a state assemblyman whose east Las Vegas district is nearly 70% Latino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flores, who is bilingual, hosts events for constituents in Spanish and English, and believes using the second-most spoken language in the U.S. is extremely effective in reaching voters, especially in Nevada, one of the country\u2019s most diverse states. But that does not translate as the sole means to winning the Latino vote, he and others caution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you come to the community, just saying \u2018hola<\/em>\u2019 isn\u2019t enough,\u201d Flores said. \u201cThey need to know what issues you stand for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The role of Spanish in this year\u2019s election cycle is likely to bubble up again during the Democratic primary debate in Houston on Thursday, which will be co-hosted by Spanish-language network Univision and simulcast with live translation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a debate co-hosted by Telemundo in June, O\u2019Rourke, Castro and Booker spoke a bit of Spanish, at times with wavering pronunciations and grammar, leading some critics to accuse them of \u201cHispandering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andy Hernandez, who led Latino outreach during President Clinton\u2019s 1996 reelection campaign, disagreed. When people discount Spanish in English settings, they\u2019re saying the Latino vote is less important, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no different than going to an Iowa State Fair and eating a corn dog,\u201d he said. \u201cIs that pandering? I don\u2019t consider it pandering. Now, are they going to win the Latino vote just on that? Of course not.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latino voters could be a major force in 2020, when they are expected to surpass African Americans to become the largest minority voting bloc, according to the Pew Research Center; an estimated 32 million Hispanic voters, a Pew category that includes Latinos and some non-Latinos, will account for more than 13% of all Americans eligible to cast a ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Clark County, home to Las Vegas and about two-thirds of Nevada\u2019s population, nearly 1 in 4 people speak Spanish at home. Nevada falls third on the 2020 primary calendar<\/a>, after Iowa and New Hampshire, which are both overwhelmingly white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a campaign and the first Latino test you have is Nevada \u2026 then it makes sense to want to reach a Spanish-speaking population because it\u2019s still a dominant portion of the electorate,\u201d said Andres Ramirez, a Las Vegas-based political consultant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maria Luisa Escobar, a housekeeper at the Venetian hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, said she respects politicians who speak her first language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI like that they are open to other cultures,\u201d the 51-year-old said in Spanish, which she and her co-workers mostly speak at work. Many of them are citizens, she said, but are hesitant to participate in English-dominant settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen it comes time to vote, there are times when they feel like they can\u2019t, because they don\u2019t understand,\u201d Escobar said, \u201cso it\u2019s important that the information is in Spanish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A candidate\u2019s language ability, however, isn\u2019t as important to Latino voters as their stances on issues, polls have shown. Latino voters rated the ability to speak Spanish ninth \u2014 last \u2014 in what they were looking for, a June UnidosUS poll found. Most said they wanted a candidate who values diversity and brings people together. A Univision poll after the June debate found 53% of respondents said a candidate speaking Spanish was a motivation to vote for them; 35% said it didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Las Vegas resident Wendy Losada, hearing Spanish at the debate was a sign of acknowledgment. \u201cI was very excited that he did that,\u201d she said of O\u2019Rourke, the first to answer a question in Spanish. \u201cI was like, \u2018Thank you, thank you, thank you very much,\u2019\u201d said Losada, 50.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hector Fong Jr.\u2019s first thought when candidates speak Spanish is that they\u2019re pandering. But the 21-year-old said older Spanish speakers like his relatives would benefit from events in their first language, a thought shared by many of the dozen bilingual voters The Times interviewed in Las Vegas. Older Spanish speakers are less likely to say they understand English \u201cvery well\u201d than younger generations, according to the Census Bureau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have t\u00edas<\/em>\u201d \u2014 aunts \u2014 \u201c…who want to get active,\u201d said Fong, a political science student. \u201cThey want to be active in the community; they don\u2019t want to just vote or not vote. They care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the Nevadans interviewed said holding an event in Spanish, especially when Latinos face attacks for speaking the language in public settings, would send a powerful message. Even offering translations could be seen as a rejection of the racist rhetoric that speaking Spanish is unAmerican, they suggested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a town hall in Nevada in March, California Sen. Kamala Harris<\/a>\u2019 campaign offered headsets<\/a> for real-time translations in Spanish. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren<\/a>brought a translator for a roundtable event hosted by a Nevada immigration advocacy group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was really refreshing,\u201d said Leo Murrieta, director of Make the Road Nevada. Murrieta, whose immigrant advocacy group holds its meetings in Spanish with English translation, said he appreciates candidates who learn the language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But \u201cif you can\u2019t tell me in Spanish what you\u2019re going to do to lower drug prices for my parents, let\u2019s just stick to English and let the translators do what they do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most fluent of the candidates and least likely to use a translator appears to be O\u2019Rourke, who grew up learning Spanish in the border town of El Paso and was given the Spanish nickname \u201cBeto\u201d as a child. As a city councilman in his hometown, O\u2019Rourke hosted town halls in Spanish and English for the largely bilingual community, his campaign said. It is not uncommon for O\u2019Rourke, who is Irish American, to pepper Spanish words into speeches wherever he goes on the campaign trail, including at a house party in front of a mostly white crowd in New Hampshire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Castro, the only Latino vying for the Democratic nomination, does not speak Spanish fluently, but he has focused part of his campaign on Latinos. His first campaign stop was in Puerto Rico, a bilingual U.S. territory, and he was the first to release a comprehensive immigration plan. In talking about his plan, he often speaks about his grandmother, who came to the U.S. from Mexico at age 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Castro has spoken about how Latinos who have lived in this country for decades were punished or looked down on for speaking Spanish. \u201cIn my family, like a lot of other families, the residue of that, the impact of that, is that there are many folks whose Spanish is not that great,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julian Castro is practicing his Spanish, and tells @kasie<\/a> why he didn’t grow up speaking the language: “In my grandparents’ time… Spanish was looked down upon. You were not allowed to speak it. People, I think, internalized this oppression…” pic.twitter.com\/MLJHq1jCKU<\/a><\/p>\u2014 Kasie DC (@KasieDC) July 1, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote>