Is this the most Spanish used by presidential and vice presidential candidates? by Matt Boles
The race to become the 45th President indicates that candidates are finally figuring out what Founding Father and third President Thomas Jefferson wrote more than two centuries ago: Spanish is an important language that will become indispensable for Americans. To be sure, this is not the first time that presidential hopefuls have been multilingual (think Mitt Romney and John Kerry in French), but FDR was the last Commander-in-Chief who was fluent in another language. He was taught both French and German from a young age.
What does it mean to have Democratic Vice President Tim Kaine give interviews in Spanish promising immigration reform within 100 days if Hillary Clinton becomes President, former Republican candidate Jeb Bush speaking the language while campaigning, and Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz challenging one another’s Spanish ability during a debate? The short answer is that the issues are no longer for a monolingual audience to decide and that the rise of Spanish-speaking people has prioritized learning the foreign language. Ironically, the first President to be a United States citizen without ever being subject to the British-crown, eighth-president Martin Van Buren, was the only one to not learn English as his primary language (for him it was Dutch).
The issue of speaking a foreign language in the United States is one on the rise. States like Florida and Kentucky have considered making computer-coding courses in high school count as foreign language credit, while advocates state that Spanish should be taught because it is no longer “foreign.” Harvard University, perhaps the most prestigious university, encourages their students to learn Spanish, especially as estimates predict that a quarter of the U.S.-population will be Hispanic by 2050.
The use of Spanish by politicians is nothing new, and even monolingual presidents have visited numerous Latin American countries, such as President Obama visiting Argentina in March of 2016. John Slidell, a bilingual senator from Louisiana, was sent to Mexico because he spoke Spanish in hopes to purchasing the Rio Grande area peacefully to avoid a war, which ultimately was unsuccessful and resulted in the Mexican-American War.
How much can we make of the use of Spanish in the presidential race to the White House? After all, the fact that Hillary Clinton has advertisements in Spanish is not innovative: President Obama spoke Spanish in an ad in 2008 and Ben Carson was the first Republican presidential candidate in the 2016 race to have “extensive” version of his campaign website in Spanish, and he did not receive the nomination. Additionally, Taco Bell has long used “live mas” as its slogan, with the second word meaning “more” in Spanish.
Just speaking Spanish will not be enough to persuade Hispanic voters on Election Day this upcoming November. The actions and the issues will matter most for all voters, regardless of language. But the fact that Kaine was introduced in Miami as Clinton’s VP pick and the fact that Kaine will be able to connect with Spanish speakers in key battleground states like Colorado and Nevada cannot be understated. Even though voters may not be too impressed by Kaine’s skills, the fact that a Minnesota-born man who learned Spanish in Central America during a mission trip demonstrates background in learning the culture.
And what about Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence? Trump’s wife Melania was born in Yugoslavia, but he does not speak any other languages. His son Barron, however, speaks English, French, and Slovenian. Trump’s comments on the campaign trail regarding foreign languages focuses on Spanish, such as Rubio and Bush speaking the language and refusing to an interview with a Spanish-speaking journalist.
Tim Pence was described in the Spanish media as anti-immigrant. But during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, state Senator from Kentucky Ralph Alvarado, Jr. spoke in Spanish about how the United States is a country of opportunity. When he spoke on July 20, it was the first instance at the Convention where a speaker directly appealed to the Spanish-speaking population.
Regardless of the outcome, immigration is a pertinent topic that will influence voters in the not too distant future. Despite the differences between the two nominees, either in the form of a wall or comprehensive immigration form, the United States will have a change in policy by the next President.
Bio: Matt Boles is a third-year law student at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He graduated from the University of Florida with a B.S. in Public Relations (sum laude) and a B.A. in Spanish (cum laude) and a minor in Latin American Studies. In his second year in law school he was able to study in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he took some law classes in Spanish. He is now the president of the Immigration Law Association at LSU and will be in the Immigration Clinic this fall.