Candidate, Group Tangle at Forum Over Spanish Use

An Oxnard City Council candidate and the Ventura County League of Women Voters tangled last week about whether Spanish could be spoken directly to residents attending a political forum in the city’s La Colonia district.

Andres Herrera said a forum moderator tried to prevent him from addressing the primarily Spanish-speaking audience members in their native language after opponents complained that they could not understand what he was saying.

For most of Thursday night, Herrera answered questions in Spanish while his eight opponents used a court-certified translator to speak to La Colonia residents.

But when it came time to deliver closing remarks, veteran moderator Nancy Grasmehr asked Herrera to speak English and have his statement translated into Spanish.

Herrera refused, and issued his closing remarks without a microphone.

“These are American citizens who are going to be voting,” Herrera said Monday. “If I can show some skill and competency in addressing them in their native tongue, I’m going to do it.”

But other council candidates complained that they could not understand Herrera, and that his Spanish-speaking ability gave him an unfair advantage in the political forum attended by about 400 residents.

And one candidate, Deborah L. DeMoss, said Herrera used a derogatory Spanish term to describe his opponents as “tongue-tied.”

“By doing what he did, he excluded us,” DeMoss said. “If he had spoken in English like the rest of us, and used the translator like he was supposed to, nobody would have felt any difference.”

Carlos Aguilera, president of the La Colonia Neighborhood Council, said he and his neighbors, routinely ignored by a system that conducts business in English, would have “felt the difference” if Herrera had obeyed the English-only command.

“Whose interest were they trying to serve by doing that,” said Aguilera, a Herrera supporter. “I felt proud of Andres for not bending.”

Grasmehr, who has been with the League of Women Voters for 16 years, said she initially asked the translator to put Herrera’s words into English for the council candidates.

Toward the end of the political forum, after four candidates complained about Herrera’s use of Spanish, Grasmehr asked him to speak English like everyone else.

“My intention was to have the other candidates know what was being said,” said Grasmehr, refusing to identify those who complained.

Herrera balked at the request, explaining to the partisan audience that he would refuse to have his remarks translated from English to Spanish.

“He was rather exuberant,” Grasmehr recalled. “But I think that is probably the Hispanic way of speaking.”

Herrera said he attended the forum not to be heard by his opponents, but to speak to residents of the run-down Latino barrio. He said he was penalized for being able to speak to voters in their own language.

“Ideally, we know this is the U.S.A. and that everyone should have to speak English,” Herrera said. “But there is a reality here we also have to understand. Here are eight people (his opponents) who claim they want to represent the community, but yet they can’t communicate with those residents.”

But council candidate Roy Lockwood said that because Herrera needed no translator, he actually received more time to speak. Each candidate was given a one-minute time limit.

“Everyone went along with the rules except Andres Herrera,” Lockwood said. “He spoke fast in Spanish, that actually doubled his time.”

During the mayoral forum, Grasmehr said candidate Manuel Lopez was allowed to address the audience in Spanish because his opponents did not complain. She said this is the first time she has encountered a conflict between English- and Spanish-speaking candidates at a forum.

“It hadn’t been well thought out, I think,” Grasmehr said. “Next time we’ll probably set it up a little differently.”