Ocasio-Cortez takes aim at Fox News after guest mocks pronunciation of her name

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has taken aim at Fox News after a guest on Laura Ingraham’s show accused her of “doing the Latina thing” when she pronounces her own name.

The congresswoman responded in a series of tweet to a message highlighting a segment on Ingraham’s Fox News show, in which the TV host was speaking with attorney Joseph diGenova​, a frequent commentator on the network.

During her conversation with diGenova, Ingraham asked him to comment on the way Ocasio-Cortez speaks when she introduces herself.

“She does the Latina thing,” diGenova replied, “where she does [with Spanish accent] ‘Anastasio [sic] Ocasio-Cortez.’”

Ocasio-Cortez reacted to a tweet from journalist Issam Ahmed, who wrote that “some pundits dislike it when people of colour pronounce their own names correctly”.

“How dare they refuse to say their name in a wrong accent & not mangle their own family name so that I can feel more comfortable instead of look inside myself & examine why something as small as *a person’s name* makes me uncomfortable in the first place?? This is an outrage!” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in faux indignation.

The congresswoman then said that Fox News “likes to say my name (incorrectly) as ‘Cortez’”.

“My last name is not ‘Cortez’, just as theirs isn’t ‘Ingra’ or ‘Carl’ or ‘Hann,’” she added, referring respectively to Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, and Sean Hannity.

“For the curious, in Latinx culture children take *both* their parents‘ names,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a follow-up message.

“It’s not a ‘progressive, new thing’. It’s just how some names work.

“[Puerto Rico] hyphenates, others mark differently. Your last name = the families that came together to make you.”

Ocasio-Cortez clarified that “AOC”, as she is often referred to, is “also fine” by her standards.