NPR: Democrats Debate in (Translated) Spanish

Democrats Debate in (Translated) Spanish

You just can't get away from Iraq. On Sunday night, the Democratic candidates held the first-ever Spanish-language debate, and the first topic discussed was Iraq — not immigration, as some may have expected. That might be because, as a debate moderator noted, two-thirds of Hispanics support a withdrawal from Iraq.

But what really stood out at the debate, broadcast on Univision, was that none of the candidates were actually allowed to speak Spanish. The moderators asked questions in Spanish, the candidates' answers were translated into Spanish, but the candidates who can speak the language fluently, like New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, weren't allowed to do so because it might give them an advantage over the others. As Richardson put it, "Univision is promoting English-only in this debate."

Overall, the debate served as a reminder that the millions of Spanish-speaking Americans are important targets for the 2008 election, and the Democrats are doing everything they can to bring more Hispanic votes their way.

As ABC News notes, President Bush (who has shown that he also understands the importance of this vote) and Karl Rove really went after the Hispanic community in 2004, and about 40 percent voted GOP. But that dropped to 30 percent in 2006 — a decrease attributed to the GOP rhetoric on illegal immigration. And it's not likely to increase when you have a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination (can you say "Tom Tancredo"?) suggesting that even legal immigration be stopped.

The Republicans were invited to debate on Univision as well, but only John McCain accepted.

10:09 AM ET | 09-10-2007 | permalink

Comments

I don't think we should have special debates in Spanish. If these people want to live in America they should make it a top priority to learn to speak and understand English.

Sent by Betty | 10:53 AM ET | 09-10-2007

I applaud the effort of univision to do debates in spanish, I think that the democratic candidates that participated
should be commended for participating.
Sincerely
miloleo

Sent by Ernesto Barnett | 1:14 PM ET | 09-10-2007

don't be so ignorant and ethnocentric, While it is important to learn english it may well benefit us all to learn spanish as it eventually become to intermingled into our living english/american language that it will be difficult to know where one language starts and the other stops. There's nothing wrong with wanting to educate a group of citizens and their family members based on population percentage (switzerland).

Sent by Annie | 1:53 PM ET | 09-10-2007

Whereas 82% of the US population is composed of native English speakers, speaking and understanding English are undeniably important skills for all Americans. However, in law English is not the official language of the United States. In fact, at almost 30 million, the United States also boasts the fifth largest population of Spanish speakers.

Sent by Nick | 2:19 PM ET | 09-10-2007

I agree with number one. People need to adjust and learn the English language.
In the other hand Americans want it easy for them. They are famous for not caring about other languages and cultures.
Unfortunately we are all becoming Americans.

Sent by Mistamatisis | 1:29 PM ET | 09-11-2007

I'd like to make a rather LARGE clarification. The questions were given in Spanish, then simultaneously INTERPRETED into English for the candidates. Their remarks were then INTERPRETED back into Spanish for the audience, etc.

Interpretation is the act of conveying a message ORALLY into another language. Translation is the act of transmitting a message in WRITTEN form into another language. These tasks are very different and require extremely high levels of competence, agility, and endurance.

Sent by Stickler | 4:29 PM ET | 09-18-2007

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