A recent BBC article picked up on a gaffe U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made while trying to appeal to Latino voters in this year’s upcoming election. In fact, many news outlets ran the story, noting that it fits into a tradition of presidents or presidential candidates embarrassing themselves before the largest minority group in the United States.
When asked by a Cuban-American radio host what his favorite fruits were, Romney unwittingly listed one in particular that is a slang term among Cubans for a woman’s body part. While no doubt more than a few people got a laugh out of it, the exchange also points to a timely question: When it comes to courting votes among minority groups, where is the line between offensive or patronizing, versus respectful and genuine?
Although Romney wasn’t intentionally trying to make a joke or be crude, the issue of what seems appropriate often comes down to how genuine the person comes across. When George W. Bush spoke to Latino voters in Spanish, most did not take offense to his decidedly Texan accent in part because it was in line with his Texan accent in English, which got plenty of mockery as it was.
In Obama’s case, the “yes, we can” line has been well received as translated into Spanish. As it turns out, the phrase didn’t originate with Obama during the 2008 race for the presidency, but rather with Cesar Chavez nearly 50 years before. With a history as a community organizer, and perhaps because he is a minority himself, Obama has mostly come across as genuine in his efforts to reach out to the Latino community.
Getting back to business
Anyone who has visited a Spanish-speaking country was likely able to spot the tourists from the U.S. just by the way their accent sounded (and depending on who you are, might have felt comfort in their shared awkwardness.) Many tourists from any country have felt the hesitation in speaking a foreign language, not wanting to embarrass themselves but also not wanting to seem rude or cold. While news items such as this one don’t necessarily help that self-awareness, they do potentially provide an opportunity for us to collectively laugh at ourselves, and then get back to the business of communicating.
In that regard, both presidential candidates deserve to be recognized for at least trying to connect with Latino voters in several ways. Sitting down for an interview on Univision, for example, the most popular television network among the Latino community, is not in itself patronizing or offensive. Romney’s self-tanner, however, might have crossed the line for some.
Are you a Hispanic living in US? How do you feel when a candidate try to reach out to your community by speaking in Spanish?
