Habla Español? Tim Kaine Is Latest Candidate to Use Spanish

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/29/us/politics/tim-kaine-bilingual-spanish.html

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PHILADELPHIA — Senator Tim Kaine stepped to the microphone, a bit haltingly, setting off on his national introduction in Miami with the full complement of awkward-dad flourishes.

He waved with both hands. He let fly a hearty fist pump. A thumbs-up was quickly aborted.

But as he ticked off his thank-yous last Saturday — to the crowd, to the city, to the university hosting him — a sudden calm seemed to arrive. He paused, nodding, and dropped his shoulders, opening his palms with a check-me-out cool.

“Bienvenidos a todos!” he cried.

Welcome to all. And to the general election debut of a cherished political trope: the conspicuous speaking of Spanish by eager white people.

When Hillary Clinton considered Mr. Kaine as her Democratic running mate, his bilingualism was central to the choice, a skill invoked repeatedly when skeptics wondered about elevating another white male politician in a party that prides itself on its diversity.

So far, Mr. Kaine, the Virginia senator who once worked with Jesuit missionaries in Honduras, has excelled on this score, earning high marks for his Spanish proficiency and sophistication.

“Better than some Hispanics in Congress,” Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist and CNN commentator, wrote on Twitter.

During Mr. Kaine’s convention speech on Wednesday evening, the senator inspired some of the loudest cheers when he slipped into Spanish. He said he learned the values “fe, familia, y trabajo” — faith, family and work — as a volunteer in Central America. He called he and Mrs. Clinton “compañeros de alma” — soul mates. And near the end, he proclaimed her “lista,” which means “ready,” saying there was no higher compliment when he lived in Honduras and arguing that Mrs. Clinton embodied its spirit.

Yet the adoption of Spanish by politicians is rarely risk-free, inviting questions of authenticity, inevitable accusations of pandering and the potential for overzealous use.

Recent political history is specked with moments when speakers sought to conquer the Spanish language. And the language has won. They lose themselves in the syllabic thickets. R’s are over-rolled. Eyebrows arch theatrically, as if aptitude can be achieved through playacting.

There was Michael R. Bloomberg, who as New York City mayor spawned a cult following and a popular Twitter parody account, @ElBloombito, sending up his flat Northeastern delivery.

As president and candidate, George W. Bush spoke with manifest confidence and frequent grammatical indifference.

“George W. Bush was the first U.S. president who thought that he spoke Spanish,” said Jorge Ramos, the influential news anchor for the Spanish-language network Univision.

Mr. Ramos invoked an electoral “Christopher Columbus syndrome,” the rediscovery of Hispanic voters during each presidential cycle.

“Hispandering,” he said, “happens every four years.”

During this election, the affliction has been bipartisan.

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign earned scorn for producing a list titled “7 things Hillary Clinton has in common with your abuela.” Abuela means grandmother. Quickly, a hashtag, #NotMyAbuela, was born.

The Republican primary was often heavier on bilingualism, with two major candidates brandishing their Cuban roots and a third, former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, often appearing more at ease speaking his second language than his first.

“Hold the teléfono!” Jimmy Fallon told Jeb Bush during his appearance on “The Tonight Show” last year. “I know you just got back from Miami, but I didn’t think I was interviewing Governor Pitbull.”

Donald J. Trump swiftly chastised Mr. Bush, whose wife is Mexican-born, for bringing Spanish to the campaign trail. “This is a country where we speak English,” he said at a debate, drawing out the last word, “not Spanish.”

Even Hispanic politicians have not been immune from run-ins over when, and how well, they speak the language. At another Republican debate, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the son of a Cuban immigrant, said that Senator Marco Rubio of Florida had a habit of delivering a different message on immigration when addressing a Spanish-speaking audience.

“I don’t know how he knows what I said,” Mr. Rubio shot back. “He doesn’t speak Spanish.”

Mr. Cruz, who did not speak much Spanish growing up, accepted the challenge, valiantly if a bit inelegantly, according to Spanish-speaking listeners. He welcomed Mr. Rubio, in Spanish, to speak the language onstage.

Mr. Trump’s own Hispanic outreach has been limited. It seemed to crest in May, when he posed — one thumb up, the other guiding an eating utensil — with what he called a taco bowl from one of his restaurants.

“I love Hispanics!” he wrote on Twitter.

They do not love him — a reality that can at once help explain the selection of Mr. Kaine by Mrs. Clinton, who hopes to run up an enormous margin with Hispanic voters, but could also render Mr. Kaine’s appeal superfluous.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll last month found that 89 percent of Hispanics held negative views of Mr. Trump, who has by turns accused Mexico of sending rapists across the border and questioned the impartiality of a judge with Mexican heritage.

Hispanic leaders have also stressed that simple fluency is unlikely to sway voters on its own. According to a Univision survey last year, 68 percent of Hispanic voters said a candidate’s prospective fluency in Spanish would not influence their vote.

But any effort, however successful, can be appreciated.

“Any elected official who makes an attempt to connect with a wider audience, it’s important,” said Melissa Mark-Viverito, the City Council speaker in New York and a prominent Hispanic supporter for Mrs. Clinton. “I don’t consider that pandering.”

She said that Bill de Blasio, New York’s mayor, who often speaks Spanish at the end of his public announcements, has occasionally asked for assistance when he encounters a difficult word.

“De Blasio has an understanding of Italian,” she said, which has perhaps accelerated the learning curve.

Mr. Ramos credited President Bush with hastening a political shift toward learning Spanish, helping to curtail some less palatable plays for Latino votes — heavy on “tacos and mariachi and sombreros,” Mr. Ramos said.

He did not say anything about taco bowls.