I just saw a report on TV about the rush by politicians to learn Spanish. This article, Politicians Can’t Use Lame Spanish, covers the topic well. Some key points:
The group has one legitimate point in its argument against Spanish; some politicians mistakenly think a few phrases will ensure victory on Election Day. Mujica is right when he says, “this strategy will fail if it is a simple ploy to get more Hispanic votes.”
Politicians, both Republican and Democrat, are going to have to show an understanding and appreciation of Hispanic people and their issues in order to get their votes.
Take President Bush, who has a rudimentary knowledge of the Spanish language due to exposure to it while growing up in Midland, Texas, and because some Hispanics have married into the Bush family (don’t forget that the next generation’s George Bush — middle initial P. — is of half Mexican descent).
President Bush shows it off by doing a version of his weekly radio address in Spanish, using Spanish phrases when appropriate during his public speeches and maintaining a Spanish-language version of his Web site to promote his general accomplishments.
But it is not swaying Hispanic voters. A recent poll showed 13 percent of respondents believe Hispanic issues have benefited from Bush’s leadership, and Bush would get no larger a percentage of the Hispanic vote now than he did in 2000 — 34 percent.
The president’s command of Spanish actually exposes him to ridicule among some Hispanics, since what he actually says is not what he always means.
Jorge Ramos, news anchor for the Spanish language Univision television network, wrote in his memoir “No Borders” that Bush spoke Spanish in “sentences (that) contained serious grammatical mistakes, often combined English and Spanish, and when he found himself in a tight spot, he immediately reverted to English.”
In short, Spanish is a double-edged sword for a politician. Refusing to learn the language makes one look narrow-minded. But limiting oneself to a few choice phrases without learning about the people as a whole can make one sound like a buffoon.