I’m getting a little tired of American news outlets’ ignorance to the fact that the phrase “Yes, we can!” adopted by the Obama campaign has long been used in Latin America and by Hispanics in the US in it’s Spanish version: Si, se puede.
The Washington Times editorial board should know better. So should William Booth of the Washington Post. Do these guys have fact checkers?
As far as I can tell, it was first used by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta in the United Farmworkers campaign in 1972. Ever since, it’s often been the campaign slogan of Latin American leaders from across the political spectrum. I remember Nicaraguans joking about posters used in Enrique Bolanos’s campaign for that country’s presidency, where it was unclear if there was an accent or a dot over the “i.” With an accent “Si” means “yes.” Without, it means “if.” There’s a very big difference between “If we can” and “Yes, we can.”
Tags: 2009 Presidential Election, Avila, El Salvador, FMLN, Frente, Funes, Language, Si se puede
