Democratic candidates for Texas Governor Dan Morales and Tony Sanchez held a historic debate in Spanish tonight, and the loser was the Spanish language. Morales backed partially out of the deal at the last minute, insisting on translating his answers into English even though that irritated the organizers and put him over time on every question. A Texas Monthly pundit providing half-time color put Morales' odd strategy down to his writing off Hispanic voters in order to increase his appeal to whites. Morales himself made an English First-ish argument that as Governor he would represent all Texans, not just Hispanics, and "in Texas we speak English."
But the most plausible explanation for Morales' change of plans seems to be that his schoolbook Spanish was so bad, he needed to recap in English so he wouldn't come off as a complete idiot. His accent was that of a college sophomore, his delivery was halting, and his usage was full of barbarismos (he wants to "defender a cada uno tejano", for instance). Tony Sanchez fared better, seeming in Spanish like a kindly abuelito, although some of his barbs were too far below the belt to be kindly -- such as his explanation that Morales back-pedaled from the Spanish debate because "le da mucha pena, le da mucha vergüenza, ser hispano" ("he's very ashamed of being Hispanic"). Ouch! Sanchez' accent and comfort level were flawless, although a few gringuismos crept into his speech, too (he said something about a "cuarto de emergencias", which sounds pretty cramped next to the usual "sala", and he also asked " ¿Qué tántos niños...?", which has gotta be from English "how many").
Regardless of how necessary or sensible a debate in Spanish really is, I had high hopes that it would raise the bar for politicians' Spanish skills. So many get by on a little Berlitz "BWAY-nass TAR-dayss" and yet seem to get so much credit from latino voters for even trying that much. I recall Al Gore's interview with a Univision correspondent and how the poor reporter had to struggle not to grimace at Gore's "May goose-tah hobb-lar en ess-pan-yole". Morales is at least capable of forming a semi-coherent thought in Spanish, if not eloquently. But I think there's a little too much Harvard and not enough Harlingen in Morales' speech for him to hold up his end of the bargain.
As for the substance of the debate, it's time to revive Jim Hightower's bumpersticker: "If the gods had meant us to vote, they would have given us candidates."