Is Ted Cruz Really Hispanic?”

By  Dr. Herny Flores, NewsTaco

Bueno, I thought we’d seen enough of this issue but Mark Halperin of Bloomberg Politics revived the issue this week so why not revisit it.  During an interview with Ted Cruz, Halperin pushed the Texas senator on his Hispanicity asking about his favorite Cuban dish, music and his Spanish fluency.  Some, like a Cruz lapdog we all know, charged that Halperin had conducted a racist interview.  While others, like myself, saw it as a non-issue because “how Hispanic” Cruz is, is a not important to me at least.  I saw the complainers as trying to make Ted into a sympathetic character and pandering to Latinos.  Still this raises an interesting issue that has been buzzing around various Latino list serves for a number of years.

What Does It mean to be Hispanic?

Who knows really?!?  Being Hispanic is describing oneself according to a Census Bureau concocted category that really doesn’t describe anything culturally other than an identity category that bureaucrats can use to categorize a group of people.  This group happens to have only one thing in common and that is they’re all of Spanish speaking national origin.  So, being Hispanic is really only in the minds of those who don’t wish or cannot identify with their national origin culture and have no other way of explaining who they are culturally because they ain’t Black or White!

Being Hispanic is a safe halfway house for those who cannot or do not, for whatever reason, wish to identify with a national origin group such as Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Columbians, Guatemalans, Argentines or Cubans among others.  Why some of us cannot relate to our national origin identity may be a matter of time and distance, after all some of us have been living in the United States since before the United States was founded.  Others may not wish to identify with their national origin group because we are ashamed to be identified as a member of that group for some reason or other.

So, what is With the Language Issue?

As all of us are from a national origin group whose native language is Spanish it is expected, by many non-Hispanics mostly, that we should be fluent in Spanish.  Bueno, este … , given time and distance and the cultural genocide practiced by school authorities in the United States over the last several hundred years, many of us cannot speak Spanish or speak it badly.  Some of us, whose abuelas y madrecitas  surreptitiously forced us to sit through countless hours of declension exercises, vocabulary tests, and reading and speaking exercises speak Spanish at various levels of fluency.  Some of us have even lived in Spanish speaking countries to increase our levels of fluency to great degrees.  Some of us can write, speak and read Spanish at extraordinary levels on a par with the most educated classes in Spanish language countries.

The level of Spanish fluency among those labelled Hispanic in the United States, then, varies depending upon circumstances that are complicated, complex and tinged with politics.  Whether Ted speaks Spanish fluently or at what level is only important to the curious and/or him.  Frankly, I don’t care if he can’t order  frijoles negros in castellano  or can give a discourse on de Tocqueville to a graduate class in La Universidad Católica de Buenos Aires.  Cruz’s Spanish fluency is another non-issue for me.

So, If Being Hispanic is not important why is this Such a Big Deal? 

Ted Cruz’s Hispanicity (is this even a word?) is a big deal because Latinos in the United States don’t like the guy.  It’s that plain and simple.  But, our dislike for the senator has nothing to do with whether he eats Cuban food, likes or dances to Cuban music or can speak Spanish.  Our dislike for the good senator (watch out when I start calling a politician good) is based upon his position on immigration, public health policy, and civil rights.  The good senator stands against everything the vast majority of Latinos believe in.  We want a politician who believes in what we do, we don’t care if he can’t speak Spanish, the Castro Brothers don’t but we love them, we don’t care if he can’t dance salsa, I don’t know if the Castro Brothers can or cannot, we want a politician who will champion the issues important to the health and welfare of our communities and Ted Cruz is not that politician.

Henry Flores, PhD, is the Distinguished University Research Professor, Institute of Public Administration and Public Service; Director, Masters in Public Administration (MPA); Professor of International Relations and Political Science at St. Mary’s University. He is the author of Latinos and the Vorting Rights Act: The Search for Racial Purpose.

 Latinos and the Voting Rights Act: The Search for Racial Purpose.