Does Tim Kaine’s Spanish matter? No, until it does.
By Victor Landa, NewsTaco
Tim Kaine spoke Spanish and will continue to speak Spanish because he can. Read into it what you will.
Does it matter?
Yes, until it doesn’t. And no, until it does.
So why is it that so many in the U.S. Latino community – writers, and activists, and thinkers, and teachers, and reporters, and Facebookers and Twitter-ers – spark a reaction when politicos of national stature utter so much as a greeting en español?
I remember hearing presidential candidate Michael Dukakis fumble through some line in Spanish from the pulpit of San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, Texas. I remember being upset. Not at the Spanish, I couldn’t care less about that. It bothered me that a politician was politicking from a pulpit. That’s been my attitude about political Spanish, I think there are important things to talk about, the language is secondary. It’s the context that matters.
Tim Kaine took the microphone at what amounted to a political engagement party, at a venue in Miami, Florida, where Spanish is not uncommon, and spoke a few words of what is for practical purposes a lingua franca of the time and place. In that context Spanish mattered as a bridge of commonality.
[pullquote]Hillary’s approval is in the 70’s among Latinos, Spanish isn’t going to move the needle.[/pullquote]Does Spanish fit like that everywhere?
No, and there’s no need to belabor the obvious.
Will Spanish translate to more votes for the Clinton/Kaine ticket?
Thirteen million, at least, Latinos are expected to vote in November. That means there are at least thirteen million opinions about Spanish from the stump. We’re not going to settle the matter here, or anywhere else. Roll out the experts and all you have is another set of opinions – studied maybe, but an opinion nonetheless. Hillary’s approval is in the 70’s among Latinos, Spanish isn’t going to move the needle.
So what does Spanish do?
For those who care, it’ll make them care more. For those who don’t it’ll do nothing.
That’s the overarching transaction, no matter how you parse it, there’s no absolute answer.
So why bother with it?
Because we love to. Because it’s interesting. Because we have opinions on the matter. And because we love our opinions.
Here’s mine, for what it’s worth: I’m not impressed by Kaine’s Spanish, but I am interested in why he speaks it. To hear him tell it, he was a Catholic missionary in Honduras where he taught young men the basics of carpentry and welding, in exchange they taught him Spanish. That’s a profound transaction. Think what you will of his politics, his Spanish was earned and to me when he uses it, it’s legitimate.
Will it affect my vote? No, but it’ll make me want to sit with him for a while, to talk a bit, in Spanish.
[Photo by tvnewsbadge/Flickr]
