{"id":2397,"date":"2012-08-31T15:27:39","date_gmt":"2012-08-31T19:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/?p=2397"},"modified":"2012-08-31T15:27:39","modified_gmt":"2012-08-31T19:27:39","slug":"so-the-republicans-have-discovered-spanish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/31\/so-the-republicans-have-discovered-spanish\/","title":{"rendered":"So the Republicans Have Discovered Spanish . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Republican Party has become well-known for its English Only sentiments. Anyone speaking another language has been suspect as if not truly USAmerican. Yet suddenly the Republicans have discovered Spanish! Careful notice was given the RNC audience, seen enthusiastically applauding the occasional Spanish of the Hispanic speakers. Marco Rubio, in introducing presidential candidate Romney was allowed to say<\/p>\n

My Dad used to tell us: “En este pais, ustedes van a poder lograr todas las cosas que nosotros no pudimos” “In this country, you will be able to accomplish all the things we never could.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A beautiful tribute to the American Dream, to be sure. Yet he was endorsing a candidate who vowed to veto The Dream Act if it ever came to his presidential desk; a candidate who would starve out over 10 million immigrants, until they “self-deported”. It is worth noticing that the Republican FoxNews site carried a transcript<\/a> of Rubio’s speech with the Spanish removed. (The quote above came from the NPR website which included Rubio’s beautiful statement in Spanish<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The likes of Tom Tancredo have virtually poisoned the sensibilities of many Republicans as regards a true bi-lengualism, wherein one maintains a first language while learning another. Attempts at “English Only” legislation, although usually unsuccessful, are used to create fear that somehow a familly which shares a first language such as Spanish, is somehow posing some threat to the right of others to speak English as their first language.<\/p>\n

The usual refrain is “They are in the United States. Why don’t they speak English? Even Republican Senator Rick Santorum told Puerto Ricans that English was “the official language of the United States”, and that before US territory Puerto Rico could become a state, they would have to convert to English as their first language.<\/p>\n

In something of a Freudian slip he referred to Puerto Rico as a “Spanish speaking country” before quickly rephrasing with “Spanish speaking island”. The irony is that every Puerto Rican is automatically a USAmerican citizen, and learns to read and write in English in the local schools.<\/p>\n

This sense of “otherness” which Santorum and others would ascribe to an island of USAmericans is likewise attached to Hispanic families in the contiguous 48 states. The tragic irony is that the Republican politicians do not consider the deportations of one million hispanics adequate.<\/p>\n

They still consider the border insecure, and refuse to consider a humanitarian approach to all the families who are still here as a result of a once strong economy which had once benefitted from their strong work ethic.<\/p>\n

Republicans have condemned President Obama for using what little executive power he has to soften the harsh conditions of a generation of “dreamers” who seek relief from the constant threat of deportation.<\/p>\n

Then at the same time they will run Spanish ads supposedly criticizing the president for the many deportations. The hipocrisy is obvious and sickening. And the effort to confuse a vulnerable community (one which I have come to love) while attempting to extract their votes is simply reprehensible. So the Republicans have discovered Spanish. So why is it so difficult for them to discover the hearts and hurts of the people who speak it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Republican Party has become well-known for its English Only sentiments. Anyone speaking another language has been suspect as if not truly USAmerican. Yet suddenly the Republicans have discovered Spanish! Careful notice was given the RNC audience, seen enthusiastically applauding …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Continue reading →<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-perspective","category-immigration","category-race-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}