VivirLatino

Ever wake up a morning after and say to yourself, ” Why the hell did I do that last night?”. That’s what I’m saying to myself this morning after having wasted an hour and a half of my precious life on the Univision Republican debate. Why a waste? Well besides the fact that nothing surprising was said (ok I was a bit surprised at the blatant homophobia). I went into the debate waiting for the obvious racist moment when it hit me. Duh, they know we’re (Latinos) are listening. So in between telling undocumented people to go home they threw in God, compassion, and love. What Latino is going to say no to God, compassion, and love. Hearing all the anti-Chavez, Castro rhetoric, reminded me, that even though the Republicans (minus one) knew we were listening, they also tailored their answers for the Cuban exile community not for me or my kind of Latino. And it seems that much of the Spanish language media didn’t pay the debate any mind, at least not in NYC, where the newspaper front pages are more about our day to day reality, like some kids in Washington Heights who were brutalized by police.

I was also surprised by the constant reference to El Salvador and President Reagan’s intervention there, as if that was the foreign policy model to follow. Were they suggesting that the U.S. should fund opposition parties in Latin America. That the U.S. should support death squads? Oh wait. I think they do that already.

Most Latinos were like my partner, who went into the other room to watch the Mexican soccer final, while I listened to nothing new being said by Republicans, no matter how it was translated.