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Bush's Spanish Narrows Gap with Latinos

Special Contribution to The Seoul Times
By Domenico Maceri

In the late 1800s, U.S. President James Garfield, a former classics professor, amused friends by translating simultaneously an English document into Greek with his left hand and Latin with his right hand. President George W. Bush cannot match this linguistic ability, but his use of Spanish and his family connections with Mexico have helped him considerably and may do the same for Latinos.
Bush readily recognizes his linguistic limitations. Although he speaks Spanish, he has often said that he does not want to destroy it because he considers it "un idioma muy bonito" (a very beautiful language). Bush did study Spanish in high school and college and honed it in the oil fields of Texas, but he could probably not communicate at all in a debate in Spanish. Spanish wire service EFE reported last year that Bush speaks Spanish "poorly."

Syndicated columnist Molly Ivins, no fan of Bush, has written that his Spanish is pretty bad. She went as far as saying that Bush is not bilingual/bicultural, but rather "bi-ignorant."

However, during the 2000 campaign Bush fielded questions in Spanish and answered them in English in a television interview carried by Univision, the national Spanish network in the U.S.

Although Bush's Spanish fluency may not qualify him for membership in the Spanish Royal Academy, his strategy of peppering his speeches with Spanish phrases has a strong impact. Latinos are very sensitive to language and at the same time very vulnerable.

The anti-bilingual education movement and the 24 states that passed English-only laws are perceived by Latinos as attacks on Spanish and ultimately limitations on their opportunities. Sometimes these laws are merely symbolic, but other times have dire consequences. Certainly, the virtual elimination of bilingual education in California and Arizona is a step back to the days of "Sink or swim" for immigrant children. And the English-only laws limit opportunities for those who do not know the English language very well. In Alabama, driving-license tests in Spanish were reinstated only after Martha Sandoval sued the state.

Latinos thus find the Spanish language a sensitive issue and by and large they do not find Bush's Tex-Mex Spanish at all patronizing. The Spanish coming out of the resident of the White House helps bring down the walls separating Anglos and Hispanics. It sends a strong message to Latinos: I am like you; I am also struggling with your language as you are with mine; I am on your side; I'm part of your family.

But the message carries over to English-speaking Americans as well. It says that it's OK to speak more than one language. Languages are not to be feared.

Indeed, languages make us more American rather than less, for they reflect who we really are.

Using Spanish has a lot of symbolic â€â€