Friday, July 9, 2010
Politics What’s English for Burrito?
Posted by Zach Hagadone on Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 9:45 AM
When the Bonner County Fair Board decided this year’s fair theme would be “Fiesta at the Fair,” incorporating the Spanish word for “celebration,” they thought it was harmless enough.
“We set up a theme to make it fun to decorate,” according to Fair Board Chairman Tim Cary, of Priest River.
But members of the Bonner County Republican Central Committee took a different view, opting to use the Espanol—and the occasion of the fair itself—to make political points about English as the nation’s primary language and express support for Arizona’s recent, controversial, anti-illegal immigration law.
According to a June 29 letter sent to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer from the BCRCC:
At the June meeting of the Bonner County Republican Central Committee of Bonner County, Idaho, the membership voted to affirm your new law on illegal immigration and to make a statement at the Bonner County Fair by displaying evidence of our support. "The theme of this year’s fair is the Spanish word for 'celebration:' 'fiesta'. The Republicans at BCRCC want to make it very clear that English is our primary language, and call our booths “Celebrate!” and display some Arizona license plates if you have some to spare. Please let us know where we might obtain a couple. Our fair happens the last week of August. Thank you."
The story, first reported by the Sandpoint Reader and picked up by Spokesman-Review blogger Dave Oliveria and reporter Betsy Russell, has generated some statewide buzz about the BCRCC’s intended message.
Cornel Rasor, who signed the letter and serves as BCRCC chairman and a member of the Bonner County Commission, said there’s been some confusion over the content of the message to Gov. Brewer.
He said the group’s intent is pretty straightforward: “Support for Arizona.” The English primacy component of the BCRCC’s statement is totally separate, he added.
“My take is that there were some people unhappy with the fiesta theme, probably based on the language issue,” Rasor said. “At the same time, there was some discussion related to Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration law, which was a continuation of discussion at the state [Republican Party] convention, where there were resolutions raised to support the legislation and even encourage our legislators to support similar types of legislation
Cary, who has served on the Fair Board for more than 20 years, was a little surprised to hear that the BCRCC would be using the “fiesta” theme to make any sort of political statement.
“We try to keep politics out. Election year it’s tough to do,” he said. “I just didn’t expect anything like this. If the committee doesn’t have anything better to do with its time or money, then we must have a lot of money in this damn place …
“I guess if this is the case, we’re going to have to take the food booth that serves Mexican food and change all the names for burritos and tacos into whatever they are in English,” he added.
Laura Bry, chairwoman of the Bonner County Democrats, said her group will also be at the fair, “with our Democratic donkey pinatas.”
Comments (4)
Showing 1-4 of 4
Well, as we ALL know, Americans are ONLY white men, so of course any words that have anything to do with anything not strictly English (you know, from white people) will have to go: cookie, kindergarten, barbecue, chili, spaghetti, anchor, cruise, rodeo, avocado, banana, cookbook, iceberg, easel, etch, bonanza, freight, zig-zag, cafeteria, canoe, chocolate, canyon, geek, gas, gin, hate, holster, cockroach, landscape, luck, noodle, hamburger, tundra, vodka, paprika, coffee, wok, panda, tomato, walrus, horde, llama, pastrami, avalanche, guitar, patio, tornado, yo-yo, tattoo, curry, hammock, taboo, limbo, cashew, tapioca, parka, cigar, shark, tae kwon do, tango, okra, dollar, muffin, jaguar......
And, of course: Republican (res publica). I think it is DEFINITELY time for the Republicans to go.....
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Odd... why would cookie have to go? Lou Montulli originated "cookie" while working for Netscape in 1994, an American in America. Did you misunderstand "cooky"?
Barbecue derives from the word barabicu originated in the language of both the Timucua of Florida and extended to the Taíno of the Caribbean, later carried to Europe with Columbus after 1492. He also was one of the 1st Europeans to know Chili, which is a Capsicum plant originating in the Americas, domesticated here more than 6000 years ago. Long before Chili applied to anything else. Columbus called them peppers and the name Chili pepper went back to Europe with his crew, where it spread worldwide.
"Republican" originated in 1699 in America, though it derives from the Latin term you note, and does mean "the commonwealth". The Republican party was formed in the 1850s (Lincoln's days) as a largely anti-slavery party to oppose the Democrats. Exactly what is your opposition to Republicans? That they believe in the "common wealth" of the nation, rather than spending ourselves into prosperity? Which by the way cannot be done. You owe a great apology to your children for certain.
Would you like your other obvious errors pointed out? Like your typical leftwing mentality to quote without citing your information.
The information I quoted can be found in any current encyclopedia, or online in less than 10 seconds. I am NOT a white man or a Republican, but I am American. Are you?
Wow. Rude and wrong. "Cooky" is a lesser known variant of "cookie" which comes from the Dutch word "koekie" which was a variant of the word "koekje", which was also Dutch and both referred to the things one puts chocolate chips in. According to Merriam Webster, it originated circa 1701, and the Random House Dictionary puts it between 1695 to 1705. Still Dutch all the way.
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