“The diversity of this community — as distinct as the bodegas of the Bronx, as beautiful as the flowers of Miami and as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio — is your strength,” she said Monday in San Antonio at a UnidosUS conference, a large gathering of Latino supporters and leaders. “And yet, it’s when you speak with one voice…United— to find your strength. Unlike some of her husband’s more deplorable bloopers, the taco comment was scripted — it was included in the prepared text released by her office before she began speaking at the Grand Hyatt Riverwalk. The Republican stack was relentless. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican whose father immigrated from Cuba, retweeted a video of Biden’s comment with a tongue-in-cheek joke, followed by three taco emojis: “Personally, I’m chorizo, eggs and cheese.” . The party’s House campaign arm tweeted an image of Dr. Biden in a taco storm with the tagline “Taco Tuesday.” “The First Lady apologizes that her words conveyed anything but pure admiration and love for the Latino community,” her spokesman, Michael La Rosa, said Tuesday morning on Twitter. The First Lady apologizes that her words conveyed anything but pure admiration and love for the Latino community. — Michael LaRosa (@MichaelLaRosa46) July 12, 2022 But it wasn’t just the partisans who punished the first lady. “Using breakfast tacos to try to demonstrate the uniqueness of Latinos in San Antonio demonstrates a lack of cultural knowledge and sensitivity,” the National Association of Hispanic Journalists said in a statement. “We are not tacos. Our heritage as Latinos is shaped by a variety of diasporas, cultures and food traditions and should not be limited to a stereotype.” Some defended the comment as a botched attempt to pay respect to the diversity of the 62 million Latinos in the United States and accused Republicans of feigning outrage over a faux pas. The UnidosUS annual conference was titled “Siempre Adelante: Our Quest for Equality.” The taco comparison overshadowed her confusion gringa mispronunciation of the term for small neighborhood grocers (he said “BOW-guh-dahs”, mixing up the syllables and emphasis, instead of “bow-DAY-guhs”). Some Republicans complained that the media was not taking Dr.’s insult seriously enough. Biden, arguing that the uproar would have been much greater if a Republican had said such a thing. Conservative comedian and author Tim Young called it a sign of “liberal privilege” that it wasn’t “repealed.” Liberal privilege is Jill Biden telling a group of Hispanics that they are “as diverse as breakfast tacos” and not invalidating them for it. pic.twitter.com/VlaISXy8Pl — Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) July 11, 2022 “Trump ate a taco bowl on Cinco De Mayo and was freaking out for YEARS,” tweeted Matt Whitlock, a Republican strategist, recalling Donald Trump’s tweet during the 2016 campaign, a photo of him enjoying a taco bowl on his desk with the message: “The best taco bowls are made at the Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!” “We welcome Jill Biden back to Texas to continue reminding us how unknowable the Biden administration is,” said Republican National Committee spokeswoman Macarena Martinez. “I want to thank you for showing everyone how racist you, your husband and your party are. You are absolutely disgusting,” tweeted Irene Armendariz-Jackson, the GOP challenger hoping to unseat Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. First lady Jill Biden, left, hosts Mexico’s first lady Beatriz Gutierrez Muller on a tour of the Library of Congress on July 12, 2022. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images) Taco Haven breakfast taco in San Antonio with Taco Torres ( front ), haven taco (right) and chorizo and egg taco (back). (Kin Man Hui / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) NAHJ encourages @FLOTUS and her communications team to take the time to better understand the complexities of our people and communities. We are not tacos. Our heritage as Latinos is shaped by various diasporas, cultures and food traditions. Don’t reduce us to stereotypes. pic.twitter.com/KQIq5gwsht — NAHJ (@NAHJ) July 12, 2022 Later on Tuesday morning, Dr. Biden accompanied the first lady of Mexico, Dr. Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller de López Obrador, on a visit to the Library of Congress, as their spouses met in the Oval Office. During eight years as second lady and 18 months as first lady, Dr. Biden has largely avoided the verbal gaffes that have become something of a signature for President Joe Biden during his five decades in Washington. To a great extent, but not entirely. In April 2021, he slaughtered the rallying cry SI can! during a speech to farmers in California honoring labor leader Cesar Chavez, as some of those who mocked her for the taco comment recalled on social media: “Cesar Chavez understood that no matter the obstacles, when people come together to a purpose, all things are possible. Yes we can. Sí se pwodway!” he said. “Pwodway” is not a word in Spanish or English. But she’s not the first lady to say or do something that prompts the White House to send in a cleanup crew. In 1998, Hillary Clinton attributed reports of Bill Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky to a “vast right-wing conspiracy,” a claim that would forever haunt her own political career. During the 2008 election campaign, future first lady Michelle Obama told a rally in Milwaukee that “for the first time in my adult life, I’m really proud of my country — and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.” When Melania Trump boarded a flight to McAllen, Texas, in June 2018 for a visit to a child immigration detention center, she wore a military coat with large graffiti letters on the back that read: “I really don’t care. You;” President Trump insisted he was trolling “fake news,” showing no indifference to immigrant children. She supported him in those days later. But Stephanie Grisham — a senior aide to the first lady at the time and later a White House press secretary — recounted in a book tellingly that the president called his wife into the Oval Office when she returned from South Texas and asked, “What the hell were you thinking? »
