Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) voiced his support for immigration reform legislation on the Senate floor yesterday in historically unprecedented fashion, delivering his speech entirely in Spanish. In doing so, Kaine became only the third Senator in US Senate history to use Spanish in remarks on the Senate floor - Senator James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) made brief comments in Spanish in 2003 and 2005, while former Senator Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) also did in 2005, according to the New York Times. Watch the beginning of Senator Kaine's remarks below. Scroll further down the page to hear him speak Spanish in an interview with Univision's Jorge Ramos in 2010.
Kaine went to the podium and asked for unanimous consent to be able to deliver his remarks in Spanish. When it was granted, the senator spoke for 14 minutes, during which he acknowledged the nation's nearly 40 million Spanish speakers and indicated they "have much invested in this debate".
"Creo que es apropriado que tome unos pocos minutos para explicar la legislación en español, un lenguaje que ha sido hablado en este país desde que misioneros españoles fundaron San Agustín, Florida, en 1565," said Kaine ("I think it's appropriate that I take a few minutes to explain the legislation in Spanish, a language which has been spoken in this country since Spanish missionaries founded St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565").
The Washington Post reported that in an interview after the speech, Kaine said he had the help of two Spanish-speaking staffers in writing it. "I had two sets of eyes helping me," he said, adding, "I'm definitely a gringo." The Post also noted that Kaine's remarks came immediately after Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican of Cuban descent, introduced an amendment to the bill which would require undocumented immigrants to be English-proficient before they could receive green cards.
The Virginian-Pilot wrote in 2005 that Kaine learned Spanish at age 22, after he decided to take a year off from Harvard Law School to volunteer at a Jesuit missionary school in the northern Honduras city of El Progreso. He had previously helped raise money for a mission there while a high school student.
"I think people were probably surprised," Kaine told the New York Times. "One of my people got a call by a Latino staffer in the House and said, 'I have waited 20 years to see this happen,'" The senator, who was once the governor of Virginia, added that he has been using Spanish more often recently than when he first began life in public service - every day, as opposed to once every four or five months. His skills may have given him a political edge. 62 percent of Latino voters in Virginia went for him in last November's senatorial election.
"Espero que podamos empezar un nuevo capítulo y que mandemos un mensaje fuerte al mundo y la nación que somos un país de leyes pero también de justicia e igualdad," Kaine said at the close of his speech ("I hope that we can start a new chapter and send a strong message to the world and the nation that we are a country of laws but also of justice and equality").
© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
