[dropcap size=big]I[/dropcap]t was 'curtains up' for the spectacle of the 2020 presidential election on Wednesday night in Miami, as the first of two groups in the overcrowded Democratic primary fought for speaking time before the U.S. public. While pundits parsed the seconds, the semantic standout of the night undoubtedly was the candidates' use of halting, marbled American Spanish to somehow appeal to the English-dominant U.S. Latino electorate.
It is a political tactic well-known in the American Southwest but which works best in a very narrow linguistic window. On Wednesday night, Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke tried it first. Unprompted, he launched into his high school El Paso Spanish, and it was ... fine?
"Necesitamos incluir a cada persona en el éxito de esta economía," Beto said. He continued: "Pero si queremos hacer eso, necesitamos incluir cada persona a nuestro [sic] democracia. Cada votar [sic], cada votante, necesitamos la representación [sic] y cada voz necesitamos escuchar."