Pres. Obama Talks Immigration with Piolin on Spanish Radio

A couple or three things to note about one of Pres. Obama’s recent radio interviews.

First, that it was on Spanish radio; Univision radio to be exact.

Second, that he granted the interview to a radio personality known as “El Piolin.” Piolin, for the uninitiated, is Spanish for Tweety Bird.

And third, he chose an interview with Tweety on Spanish radio to lay blame of the lack of significant immigration reform legislation on the Republicans in Congress.

With national elections looming we should pay close attention to context. The Piolin morning radio program is a national broadcast that boasts of being the “number one” radio program in the country.  Piolin, aka Eddie Sotelo, is a well known personality in the Spanish speaking community. What’s more, the host, an immigrant from Mexico, came to the United States as an undocumented worker and subsequently gained legal status. He found his niche in morning radio and hasn’t looked back since.

Pres. Obama’s appearance on the Piolin show was not his first. The program’s audience first heard him three years ago when then Sen. Obama was campaigning for the presidency.

The Los Angeles Times published a lengthy piece about Obama’s radio interview and went into great detail analyzing the impact of the Latino voting community in national politics.

You can read the LAT article in its entirety HERE.

You can listen to the interview in it’s entirety HERE.