Two in ten Americans are Hispanic. It is the largest ethnic minority in the country and the one that has grown the fastest in recent decades. It represents more than 25% of the population in six states, including Arizona and Nevada, two of the so-called swing states that can be decisive in November.
With this data, it is logical that the campaigns of Joe Biden and Donald Trump are adjusting a good part of their messages to the codes and forms of communication of this group. And a trend that stands out is the use of spanglishthe mixture of English and Spanish, in common day-to-day conversations.
According to a study by the PEW Research Centerr64% of Hispanics in the United States use the spanglish at least sometimes and 40% admit to using it often. Among those under 49 years of age, many of them second or third generation Latino immigrants, 7 out of 10 use it.
Prominent voices such as that of Ilan Stavans, professor at Amherst College in Massachusetts and expert in Latin culture, consider that the spanglish For many, it has become a “communication vehicle” that reflects their identity and cultural mix, with even more specific versions appearing depending on origin: dominicanish (mix of Dominican and English), tex mex (Mexico) or the cubonix (Cuba).
An advertising spot published a few years ago by the United States Postal Service perfectly reflected this reality. A boy from a Hispanic family asked his mother for a “trompo” for Christmas. She bought it online, but when she saw her son walking around the house making trumpet noises with a piece of paper, she realized that he was not referring to a “trompo,” but rather a “trumpet.” in English).
As that advertisement shows, for some years now the spanglish It is already part of the daily lives of many families and, therefore, also of American advertising culture. Brands as important as McDonald’s or Colgate use it as a way to promote inclusion and identification with the Hispanic public. Who at home and with his friends speaks in spanglish You feel more attached to a brand that speaks to you in the same way.
And politics is not far behind. This year, Biden has already promoted at least two videos on spanglish aimed at specific users of social networks. In a 15-second one, titled For Us, a voice-over mixes Spanish and English while images of the president and Latino voters are shown. It has phrases like: “Every Joe Biden program is for us”, “student loan debt is going down” or “Joe Biden doesn’t fight for the rich.”
It is not the first time that the Democrat’s campaign has used this strategy. In 2020 he already directed spots in spanglish to battleground states like Arizona. One was titled “Yes we can, hope again” and it told the story of a Hispanic entrepreneur hit by the pandemic and Donald Trump’s economic policies. The move went well and the Democrats won that state for the first time in 24 years.
This year, the Democratic campaign has begun to appeal to the Latino population very early, given the worrying numbers shown by polls in recent months. Although Biden still has a higher voting intention among these voters, his advantage has been reduced considerably compared to what he had when he won the presidency in 2020.
Hispanics evaluate Biden especially poorly on economic issues. According to an Axios and Ipsos survey, while only 20% consider the current president to be good for the economy, 42% say the same about Trump.
To stop the leak of votes, since the beginning of May the Biden campaign has also activated another line of content aimed at Latino voters: recovering archival videos about Trump’s insults to immigrants and the effect of his immigration policies, which separated thousands of families when he was president. And Hispanics will not only have a decisive influence on who wins the presidency, but they are also fundamental in the fight for control of the Senate and the House of Representatives. For this issue, states such as Florida, California, Texas and New Mexico are also important.
In 2020, Biden won Arizona by only 10,457 votes and Nevada by 33,596. If he fails to regain the lead he had among Hispanics that year, he probably won’t win there and his path to the White House will narrow considerably. Taking this into consideration, it is certain that her campaign will talk much more spanglish in what remains until November. Traditional politics can continue to relegate Spanish, but it can no longer do without Spanglish. The best symbol of integration through fusion, mixing and linguistic hybridization.
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