Nobody Shouted "English Only" at Dolores Huerta

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

22 February 16

et me begin by saying that I respect the lifetime accomplishments of Dolores Huerta. She is an icon in the labor movement, Cesar Chavez’s partner in the farmworker movement. I would not have objected to her translating at the caucus being held at Harrah’s Casino in Las Vegas.

She is mistaken, however, when she claims that supporters of Bernie Sanders shouted “English only.” One person in that room uttered the words “English only,” and it was the precinct chair, who said: “We are going to go with English only, I’m sorry.”

The room did get loud, but there was no objection to there being an interpreter; the objection was to having a Clinton surrogate on the stage. In the video above, you can hear “No” and “Neutral” being shouted. Nobody was chanting “English only.”

In an interview in The Washington Post, Huerta said, “The Bernie organizers were shouting, ‘No, no, no.’ Then a Bernie person stood up and said, ‘No, we need to have it, I can also do translation’ or whatever. The person who ran the caucus said, ‘Well, we won’t have a translator.’ The sad thing about this is that some of the organizers were shouting, ‘English only! English only!’ The Bernie organizers.”

Most of her statement is accurate, but the most serious allegation she made is not true. For the record, I shot the video and was centrally located in the room.

Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.

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