Que pasa? How did the Nevada caucus forget to hire a Spanish translator?
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Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders duked it out for the Hispanic vote in Nevada Saturday.听But both camps, and the caucus organizers, seemed to have forgotten something important: a Spanish translator.听
Dolores Huerta, a prominent civil rights activist in the Latino community and a Clinton supporter, volunteered to translate before the start of the caucus. Then in a tweet Saturday afternoon, Ms. Huerta claimed she was heckled by Sanders supporters.听
But Sanders-supporter Susan Sarandon countered Huerta鈥檚 tweet with one of her own Saturday evening.听
Instead of chanting "English only," Ms. Sarandon says audience members were shouting "Neutral," because they wanted a neutral translator without clear affiliation to either Clinton or Sanders.听
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Erin Cruz, an independent volunteer at the Nevada Caucus site, says the moderator at the front of the room asked for a translator from the audience after realizing they didn鈥檛 have one.听
鈥淚mmediately, the Hillary camp starts ushering up Dolores Huerta, who is a prominent Latina activist and very outspoken for Hillary,鈥 Ms. Cruz recounts to US Uncut. 鈥淲e were yelling for , taking objection because we felt there should have been a translator, but it should have been someone undecided, not someone for Bernie, or someone for Hillary.鈥澛
After the room started erupting, the moderator told both sides of the room that whoever reached the stage first would be the translator. Both camps offered a translator, but the moderator realized there would be no fair way to decide between the two. Then the moderator told the audience the caucus would be conducted in English only, since no consensus could be reached.听
鈥淎ll we said was to be up there,鈥 Sarah Falanga, a Sanders supporter, tells US Uncut.听
Clinton supporters say Huerta had every intention of giving a neutral translation, and there is no excuse for the behavior from Sanders鈥 camp.听
鈥淲e were with the Culinary Workers, and a good chunk of ,鈥 Delia Garcia, the caucus precinct captain assistant and observer for the Clinton campaign, told ThinkProgress. 鈥淚鈥檓 so disappointed because Dolores Huerta is a progressive icon in our community, not just Latinas, but labor, women, everybody 鈥 to treat here that way is just not cool.鈥澛
But the real question at hand isn鈥檛 for Sarandon, Huerta, Clinton or Sanders. It is for the moderator: Why was a neutral Spanish translator not sought out before the start of the caucus?
Nevada Democratic Party officials have yet to comment on the slip-up. But it seems like an unfortunate oversight, considering Clinton and Sanders鈥 Latino focus in the western state. 聽According to Pew, 28 percent of Nevada鈥檚 population 鈥 and聽 鈥 identify as Hispanic. 聽 聽
, which includes major cities like Las Vegas, has a population of over two million 鈥 more than two-thirds of Nevada鈥檚 entire population. And 30.3 percent of the county鈥檚 population is Hispanic, which is higher than the overall state average of 27.8 percent. More than 30 percent of Clark County speaks a language other than English at home.
Since 1965, the Voting Rights Act has fought for . Under this law, language translation is required when more than five percent of the state鈥檚 voting age citizens 鈥渁re members of a single language minority and are limited-English proficient鈥 or 10,000 voting age citizens are members of a language minority 鈥 whichever is lower.听
Because of the Voting Rights Act, all US elections in Clark County must be conducted .听
So instead of pointing the finger and unleashing an arsenal of tweets against either the Sanders or Clinton camps, attention should be focused on the Nevada Democratic Party鈥檚 glaring omission.听