Bush: Empty Palabras?

opinion by Domenico Maceri, contributor

George W. Bush’s mistakes with English are famous, but the press has been generous in not reporting his gaffes in Spanish and seems to have given him an “A” for effort.

For example, during the 2000 election he asked the audience for their “botas” (boots) instead of “votos” (votes).

Overall, though, Bush has got some mileage out of his claim to know Spanish. His weekly radio addresses are in English and Spanish, in his hope to capture more Latino voters, who in the last election preferred Al Gore by a margin of 2-1.

Democrats accused the President of pandering, saying that his words don’t match his actions. Yet, not willing to appear outdone, Democratic leaders have also begun doing bilingual radio addresses. House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt and Texas Congressman Silvestre Reyes, argued that Bush is all palabras and no action.

Ramon Murguia, Chairman of the Board of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights group, echoed these sentiments. He said that using language to connect with Hispanics shows the President is interested, but more substance is necessary.

The fact that Democrats followed suit en espanol suggests that language is certainly an issue though certainly not the only one. Bush has a leg up on the Democrats when it comes to language because he speaks it, though not very well, while no very visible Democrat does. Indeed, Bush’s connections with the Spanish language go deeper. Jeb Bush, George W.’s younger brother and Governor of Florida, speaks it fluently. Jeb is married to Columba Garnica Gallo, born in Mexico. The couple met in 1971 while Jeb was teaching English in an exchange program for Phillips Academy. Their son George Prescott Bush also speaks it fluently and acted as a surrogate campaigner for his uncle during the presidential bid last year. He gave many speeches in Spanish, trying to explain Bush’s vision for the country.

Knowing that they cannot compete with Bush en espanol, Democrats have been forcing the subject of issues, not words. Here they have an edge on the president. Bush’s agenda of a huge tax reduction provides benefits primarily to the wealthy—among whom Latinos certainly are not. Insofar as education, Bush’s focus on testing may also have negative effects since it might force more Latino students to drop out of school.

As for immigration, a key issue for most Hispanics, the President does not favor a general amnesty for undocumented workers. On the other hand, Bush’s appointments of Latinos have been reasonable by previous standards. Al Gonzalez has been nominated White House Counsel; Mel Martinez serves as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. In fact, when it comes to dealing with Latinos, Bush has managed to stay away from the extreme wing of the Republican Party. When he was Governor of Texas he did not support the elimination of bilingual education, and he has not embraced the English-only movement. Some far-right elements see the semi-official status of Spanish as a dangerous road to multilingualism and a possible break-up of the country.

In addition, Bush lobbied Congress in 1995 to approve a $40 billion-loan guarantee to Mexico. And his first trip abroad as President was to meet Vicente Fox, his Mexican counterpart.

In spite of his Spanish veneer and family connections with Mexico, Bush only managed to get 31 percent of the Latino vote, about the same as his father in 1992. Language is certainly a political issue with Latinos but it only goes so far.

To seriously compete with Democrats for Latino votes, Bush needs to make substantial attempts to move away from his conservative agenda, particularly on immigration.

Domenico Maceri (dmaceri@aol.com), PhD, UC Santa Barbara, teaches foreign languages in Santa Maria, CA.