GOP presidential candidates to debate in Spanish
But one candidate won't be there: Tom Tancredo.
That's not much of a surprise. Tancredo, who is considered a longshot candidate at best, has made his opposition to immigration his leading issue, often by encouraging xenophobia. Go visit his campaign website, and (as of this morning) you'll be greeted with graphic images of the dirty work of violent Central American gangs — and the implication that Tancredo's policies will protect us from them. Never mind that the vast majority of illegal aliens in the U.S. are nonviolent Mexicans looking for work.
Tancredo had this to say in turning down the invitation from Univision: "It is the law that to become a naturalized citizen of this country you must have knowledge and understanding of English, including a basic ability to read, write, and speak the language. So what may I ask are our presidential candidates doing participating in a Spanish speaking debate? Pandering comes to mind." Never mind that not all Spanish-speaking U.S. citizens became citizens through naturalization. Nor that most Univision watchers are at least partially conversant in English — but may well appreciate the opportunity to learn about the campaign in Spanish.
"America has been a melting pot of people from all over the world but it can not survive as a nation if our immigrants do not assimilate," Tancredo also said. Never mind that study after study has shown that second-generation immigrants almost always speak English, and that by the third generation most no longer speak their family's original tongue.
"Spanish debate has no place in a presidential campaign," Tancredo concluded.
As in the Democratic debate held earlier this year, candidates will be required to speak English throughout the debate, and the TV audience will hear the debate in simultaneous interpretation. During the earlier debate, two of the candidates — Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd — would have been happy to speak directly to the Spanish-language audience in its own language but were barred from doing so. But that shouldn't be a problem tonight: None of the GOP candidates speaks Spanish. As far as I've been able to find out, the only major Republican presidential hopeful who speaks a foreign language well is Mitt Romney, and his second language is French.
The debate will be moderated by Jorge Ramos y María Elena Salinas of Noticiero Univision and is to focus on issues of interest to Hispanics. According to Univision, the Democrats' Spanish debate was watched by 4.6 million TV viewers, more than have watched individual English-language debates.
Comments
no he visto una copia de la traducion desde los traductores para comparar las repuestas en espanol con las repuestas en ingles.
This is an interesting debate, and I wish we could talk about it without resorting to fearmongering (on both sides). Not every one who is concerned about the bilingualisation (neologism?) is xenophobic. I love Spanish. I think its use should be encouraged. Nevertheless, the old arguments about 2nd and 3rd generations losing the mother tongue may no longer apply in a country where stores, public facilities, newspapers, magazines radio stations, and television channels in Spanish reduce the need for English acquisition. I submit this as a hypothesis, not as an absolute statement. Human nature can be lazy, and if a person can get away with not having to do something, general that person won’t do it. That being said, viva espanol! (Sorry, never have learned how to write Spanish on a PC.) Thanks for your website.
Paul: That’s an interesting hypothesis, and you may be right. Maybe we’ll know more in another generation.
And I agree with you that not all people concerned about bilingualization are xenophobic. And while this may not be true for all countries, in the U.S. culture I think it’s a good thing to have a unifying language, and there’s something wrong if it is possible to graduate from high school without being able to use English. On the other hand, many of those who are objecting the loudest about the use of Spanish are appealing to xenophobia, in my opinion. And while I agree that we need secure borders and all that, I find some of the attidues I hear during the debate about illegal immigration a bit disturbing. I wish there were an easy answer to the problems, but you’re right that there’s lot of polarization and it’s hard to discuss these issues without resorting to name-calling.