Lost in Translation

By Russ Vaughn

Should anyone be wondering why Barack beat such a fast track for Texas this week, it becomes rather claro when one takes a look at what's been cropping up with increasing frequency in Latino journalism recently. The opening sentence in a that, column this week by Esther J. Cepeda of the Washington Post Writers Group, states, "President Obama thinks Latino voters are stupid."

That was claro enough for this ol' gabacho to read further and discover that buyers' remorse may be running fairly high in the Hispanic community. That Latino demographic which voted almost en bloc for Obama in 2008 (67%) is discovering that they were sold a bill of goods on immigration reform. How do you say Hopenchange en Español, señor? Umm, think maybe something got lost in the translation?

Miguel Perez of Creative Writers Syndicate wrote in an April 26th column entitled, Obama's Latino Problem,"The anger and sense of betrayal many Latinos feel toward the president certainly would justify a huge voter backlash in 2012."

As Linda Chavez, Republican politico and conservative Townhall.com columnist has written,

"But many Hispanics have soured on Obama -- and not just because he failed to deliver on his promise of comprehensive immigration reform. Like most other Americans, Hispanics care most about the economy."

She goes on in the same column, adding to the Democrats' worries with the observation,

"Hispanics never have been as reliably Democratic as black voters. In several recent elections, more than a third of Hispanics have voted for Republican candidates at the state and national levels, and 40 percent voted for President George W. Bush in 2004. Those GOP Hispanic voters tend to be more affluent and thus more consistent voters, as well."

My favorite, although often infuriating Latino pundit, Ruben Navarrette, Jr., wrote this on April 6th, "More and more Latinos are wising up to President Obama's phony immigration two-step," in a column praising Univision anchor, Jorge Ramos, for asking El Número Uno some tough questions on immigration reform which Obama couldn't stammer his way through in either language. And here's how Ruben summed up the president's carefully contrived and self-serving campaign speech in El Paso yesterday:

"Blah, blah."

Somehow I don't think Obama's claro attempt to blame Republicans for lack of forward movement on comprehensive immigration reform impressed Ruben, Esther and Miguel nor many of their readers the way his campaign strategists had planned. To paraphrase Esther Cepeda, it seems that liberals and Democrats do indeed, "think Latino voters are stupid." That is la verdad and requires no translation.