Latinos Big Winners in Univision Candidate Debate

“The language that unites Hispanics has, in a way, become the protagonist” in this event, announced Univision anchor Jorge Ramos.

Ramos and co-anchor Maria Elena Salinas posed questions to the candidates, who responded in English. Their responses were simultaneously translated into Spanish. Seven of the eight Democratic presidential candidates showed up for the debate. Sen. Joe Biden, who had originally agreed to participate, decided to back out.

The candidates made valiant efforts to address questions of concern to Latino voters, though they largely failed to differentiate themselves from one another. In some ways, their interpreters (each candidate had his or her own) were much easier to distinguish – from the deep voice of Sen. Barack Obama’s interpreter to the clear, young voice of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s translator.

The variety in the translators’ accents and abilities, however, distracted from the debate. Some viewers on Univision’s online forum said they had trouble understanding the translators. “What a shame that Univision could not find among millions of Hispanics seven people who can speak Spanish correctly,” blogger desertjade2 writes in Spanish on Univision.com.

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