Sunday, January 21, 2007

Tom Tancredo opposes politicians speaking Spanish

On Friday, Senator Ken Salazar, D-Colorado, delivered a Spanish-language version of the Democrats’ annual State of the Union preview speech at the Capitol in Washington D.C. According to the Rocky Mountain News this did not strike Representative and Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo as a good thing.
"I must admit to you, the first thing that comes to mind is this is the kind of thing that would happen in a bilingual country - for instance, Canada," Tancredo, R- Colorado., said when told of Salazar's plans.

"I've been saying for a long time, we're fast approaching that status: a bilingual country. I don't think that's a good idea. I think it's something that brings us apart, not together."
According to Tom Tancredo, embracing our diversity and multi-culturism divides us while demonizing Americans not fluent in English brings us together. It is not just immigrants and Democrats Tancredo is attacking here. As the Rocky Mountain News helpfully points out, in attacking those who would speak Spanish as part of the political process Tancredo is fighting some in his own party.
Using Spanish is nothing new in politics. Even Tancredo's Republican Party runs a Spanish-language Web site - www. gop.org/espanol - and Spanish-language television programs to translate the party's message.

6 comments:

QCMediaGhost said...

¿Y, que es su problema con Los Latios? Hasta mañana. Ghost

Dave Barrett said...

qcmediaghost,
I assume your message was directed to Tom Tancredo. You can email him at http://www.tancredo.house.gov/blog/blog.shtml

QCMediaGhost said...

Then you don't speak Spanish! No surprise; you're only worldly from the mouth down. Lo siento, Ghost.

Dave Barrett said...

Huh,
I know enough Spanish to know that you were asking if I have a problem with Latinos. It did not make any sense to ask that question of me so I assumed that you were asking that of Tom Tancredo.

Anonymous said...

I understand a small amount of Spanish, and most all of the words posted, but "Los Latios" is not a word I have ever heard. Nor is it a word listed in any of the dictionaries I have available. I can only assume that is some sort of American or Latino slang(which IS American slang either way). Los is plural. But "Latios" is not a word that I am familiar with. And the only reference I have found of it is in the game of Pokeyman. Is this the pokeyman tips forum?

Dave Barrett said...

anonymous,
Give qcmediaghost a break. The Spanish speakers I showed his comment to knew what he meant. Living in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual immigrant country as we do we should be encouraging to people trying to express themselves in a language of which they are not native-speakers.