In 2012, Ted Cruz Said Spanish Speakers Live in ‘Language Ghetto:’ Now He Wants Their Votes

Mar 26, 2015
8:03 AM

This one comes from TIME. The same week Texas senator Ted Cruz launched his presidential campaign for 2016, his campaign also released a Spanish-language campaign that loudly screams his family’s immigrant background and plays up his Cuban and Latino roots.

This is coming from the guy who thinks bilingual education creates a “language ghetto.” What was reported in 2012:

“When my father came over here penniless with $100 sewn into his underwear, thank God some well-meaning liberal didn’t come put his arm around him and say, ‘Let me take care of you. Let me put you on the government dole [and] rob you of your self-respect. And by the way, don’t bother to learn English. Let me keep you in a language ghetto,’” Cruz said. He said the traditional “American dream” is being destroyed by letting people use their native languages and grow dependent on government aid.

Yet in 2015, you run ads in Spanish. Ironic.

By the way, Cruz and his campaign should have read Pew’s recent report about U.S. Latinos and language, which states the following:

About six-in-ten U.S. adult Hispanics (62%) speak English or are bilingual, according to an analysis of the Pew Research Center’s 2013 National Survey of Latinos. Hispanics in the United States break down into three groups when it comes to their use of language: 36% are bilingual, 25% mainly use English and 38% mainly use Spanish. Among those who speak English, 59% are bilingual.

Which leads us to this point: you don’t think U.S. Latino voters can’t see through Cruz’s Spanish ad and how it differs from his English one? And, if you think Spanish speakers in this country are living in a “language ghetto” and have no interest in learning English, why do you suddenly want their votes?

And while we are it, can you address the fact that your dad, the guy who “came over here penniless with $100 sewn into his underwear,” bribed his way out of Cuba and into the United States?