As I walk into La Carreta, Latin music is playing loudly in the crowded room, the chatter of Spanish fills the hot, stuffy air. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is in town this early summer afternoon, paying his respects to the loyally Republican Cuban community that has thrived in the city of Hialeah just northwest of Miami, but it is also the precise scene to which Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo was referring when he said matter-of-factly “you just pick it up and take it and move it someplace. You would never know you’re in the United States of America. You would certainly say you’re in a Third World country.”

Nearly all of the opening remarks and introductions were made in Spanish only. Rebecca Sosa, Miami-Dade County Commissioner spoke in Spanish first to the audience. After finishing her speech en Español, just to remind the few English-speaking people in the room (mostly reporters) just where they are, she says to her audience, in English, “I was elected to speak to you in Spanish.” I grimaced, cocked my head to one side…looked at her askance…and all I could think is. That’s just wrong!

At this point, I’m wondering if Rudy even speaks Spanish, because more than half this crowd of 250 or so isn’t going to understand a word he says except when he mentions “Castro.”

Rudy, recognizing this midway through his speech, said that his wife was learning Spanish and would be around in the future to help translate.

After Giuliani spoke, I approached a few women to gather their first impressions of ‘America’s Mayor’. Not surprisingly, two of the three women I asked, shook their heads, saying…uh..no uh speaka ingles.

And yet, just moments before, they were on their feet, cheering wildly, holding up RUDY placards as he wrapped up his speech.

Despite their ebullient response to the Mayor’s English-only speech, I think it goes without saying, all future appearances by Giuliani (and every other presidential candidate, for that matter) in Miami will require a translator on stage if they want their message effectively communicated.

The one of the three with whom I could effectively communicate was a woman in her late 60’s who spoke in Spanglish. (Hablo un poquito Español)

She had lived in New York City for 20 years, through the 1980’s, but her son, a retired New York police officer, still lives in the City. She wants me to know that her son always tells her how New York has been a whole different city since she left and Giuliani became mayor. Out of nowhere, she spouts out “I’m so happy.” I ask her why. She points to the podium, where Rudy Giuliani was standing just a few minutes ago, and with such conviction, says….”This is the man.”

On many occasions, Giuliani has stressed the importance of learning to read, write and speak in English in America. It demonstrates a disturbing degree of resignation, to have to bite your tongue in the heart of the problem, where it would take cojones muy grandes to echo Arnold, and tell a predominantly Cuban, Spanish-speaking audience en Español, that by conversing all the time in Spanish, reading El Nuevo Herald and watching Univision and Telemundo, they’re doing themselves no favor, that it will only hold them back from getting ahead in America. But, you know what? That would be a lie. They do just fine in Miami, and requiring Cuban-Americans to learn English is, sad to say, an unnecessary imposition. Cubans get a pass because they are self-reliant, they are political refugees, and they are here legally, but, by failing or refusing to assimilate into American society — if we’re keeping it real — by showing no interest in breaking the language barrier in their adopted country, they remain part of the problem our politicians are loath to confront.

Sure, Giuliani was being truthful when he said that the story of the Cuban people in Miami, the achievements and accomplishments of Cuban-Americans who fled communism to the Land of Opportunity is one of the great, best examples of what America is all about. But because they are just that, “Cuban-Americans” who have no practical need to ever learn the foreign language of English, and are not considered just Americans like you and I, and 300 million other citizens of the US, is one of the best illustrations of what this country should aspire to never be about.

For a comprehensive account of the content of Giuliani’s speech and what he said in the post-speech Q&A for the press afterwards, I refer you to the video and articles posted in the Race 4 2008 Early Morning Essential Reads.