A breakfast taco starts a food fight in Arizona and tells us a lot about progress
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It started with a double pratfall by America’s first lady, Jill Biden.
Among political figures, there are few as guileless as Dr. Biden. She has never done or said anything that tells me she plays politics as blood sport.
She strikes me as America’s grandma. A very kind one at that.
But it was sort of funny when the 71-year-old first lady, quite innocently, stumbled on her words while trying to connect with Hispanics at the San Antonio conference of the Latino advocacy organization UnidosUS.
Biden talked about the “diversity of this (Hispanic) community — as distinct as the bodegas of the Bronx, as beautiful as the blossoms of Miami, and as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio."
Not only had she mispronounced “bodegas,” but she left some Hispanics scratching their heads — “We’re breakfast tacos?”
Chalk it up as a Jill Biden senior moment mixed with an overeager White House speech writer.
The crowd didn’t care. They cheered her remark, said CNN correspondent Nicole Chavez.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists, channeling their officious and dopey journalist side, sniffed,
"(Biden and her scribes need) to take the time in the future to better understand the complexities of our people and communities. ... We are not tacos (and) do not reduce us to stereotypes."
OK, we get it. You went to Princeton.
Biden’s communications team responded, "The first lady apologizes that her words conveyed anything but pure admiration and love for the Latino community."
And that’s what started the food fight in Arizona politics.
A breakfast taco.
A Latina fires the first salvo
Seizing on the stumbles of the matron of the Democratic Party, Tanya Contreras Wheeless, a Republican running for Congress in the Arizona District 4 primary, tweeted out, “I am not a taco, but I am a proud, conservative Latina who looks forward to flipping #AZ04 in November!”
Ruben Gallego, the Democratic congressman in Arizona District 3, shot back, “In the years I have known of you in Arizona it wasn’t until you ran for office that you added Contreras. Glad you are proud Latina now hope it will stay after you lose. FYI … google Tanya Wheelers (sic) see how often Contreras comes up prior to her running.”
He added, “Tanya is Latina, Cuando le conviene.”
Gallego wasn’t done.
"If you were Latino in Arizona around 2010 people were telling us to go back to Mexico," he wrote, referring to the year that then-Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law Senate Bill 1070, Arizona’s draconian immigration law. "On the phone you would hear I am not voting for a (slur). We know people that couldn’t get jobs or leases. Did Tanya use Contreras then… no she hid as Wheeless. We took the arrows for her."
As recounted by Republic political reporter Tara Kavaler, Wheeless responded with a written statement:
"Many women change their last name when they get married, but that doesn’t change who they are or where they came from. Attacking me for using my married name is sexist and racist."
"I will use my name when and how I want. I am proud to be part Mexican, part Canadian and 100% American, and I'll never stop fighting for the American dream."
What it tells us about American culture
I was charmed by this food fight in Arizona’s Latino family. I don’t know who won the Twitter spat, and I don’t care. But I do think it tells us something uplifting about America that a liberal Democrat is accusing a conservative Republican of using her ethnic Spanish name – Contreras – to try to win a Republican primary.
Is that what she’s doing?
Who could ever say for sure? But if you don’t think ethnic names have resonance in 21st century American politics, I give you Barry Obama, Robert Francis O’Rourke and “Sandy” Ocasio.
If this country is rotting to its core with systemic racism and implicit bias, there are sure a lot of Americans using racial and ethnic identity to their advantage to win elections or move product on TV and the internet.
My oldest daughter, who is African American, went to a conservative Catholic college – her choice – and told me her picture was showing up in college promotional materials. “It’s not because of anything I did,” she said.
I was proud she got that. What we both understood was that the college was expressing its own aspiration to grow more diverse. A good thing.
By the time she graduated, I marveled at all the ethnic diversity in the graduating class. Roughly half of the kids winning academic awards were Latino. That warmed me.
The emerging shift in Latino politics
Demography may be destiny, but it’s anyone’s guess where demography is leading. In 2002, a couple of liberal political thinkers, Ruy Teixeira and John B. Judis, published the book “The Emerging Democratic Majority,” arguing that America’s changing demographics, among other things, would lead to a progressive realignment in American politics.
Today, Teixeira is a Cassandra warning mostly white liberal Democrats that their extreme turns to the left are costing them Latino votes. Last December in a Substack post headlined “The Democrats’ Hispanic Voter Problem: It’s not as bad as you think -- it's worse” he wrote:
“The Democrats are steadily losing ground with Hispanic voters. The seriousness of this problem tends to be underestimated in Democratic circles for a couple of reasons: (1) they don’t realize how big the shift is; and (2) they don’t realize how thoroughly it undermines the most influential Democratic theory of the case for building their coalition.”
In another post this week headlined “Working Class and Hispanic Voters Are Losing Interest in the Party of Abortion, Gun Control and the January 6th Hearings” he added:
“It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Democrats’ emphasis on social and democracy issues, while catnip to some socially liberal, educated voters, leaves many working class and Hispanic voters cold.”
Pointing to new data from Echelon Insights, he provided examples of several key perspectives in which Latinos are parting ways with hardcore progressives. Here are just a few:
“America is not the greatest country in the world vs. America is the greatest country in the world. By 66 percent to 28 percent, strong progressives say America is not the greatest country in the world. By 70-23, Hispanics say the reverse and working class voters as a whole concur by 69-23.”
“Racism is built into our society, including into its policies and institutions vs. Racism comes from individuals who hold racist views, not from our society and institutions. Strong progressives are very, very sure of America’s systemic racism, endorsing the first statement by an amazing 94-6 margin. But Hispanics disagree, endorsing the second statement that racism comes from individuals by 58-36, as do working class voters by 57-33."
Regarding that first point about love of country, this is anecdotal, but my son in law, whose father is white and mother is Latino, just finished a hitch in the U.S. Marines and told me the Latinos in the Corps are far and away the most patriotic, the most committed to flag and country.
Keep this up and the white liberals in the faculty lounges of Cambridge and New Haven will be falling over themselves to build a wall.
Phil Boas is an editorial columnist for The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Jill Biden starts a food fight in Arizona. It reveals good about America
