Republicans Try To Reach Latinos By Speaking Spanish

GOP Tries To Reach Out
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney stands with Jorge Ramos as he takes part in the Univision "Meet The Candidates" forum at Miami-Dade College in Miami, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney stands with Jorge Ramos as he takes part in the Univision "Meet The Candidates" forum at Miami-Dade College in Miami, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Wadi Gaitan, a 24-year-old House Republican staffer who serves as a Spanish-speaking spokesman, TV booker and occasional tutor, was stumped. He was trying to teach a Republican lawmaker how to say “sequester” in Spanish, but the literal translation was proving to be problematic.

“That one was tricky at first. I couldn’t figure it out, because in Spanish, ‘secuestrar’ literally means to kidnap someone,” Gaitan said. “I said, let’s not use the literal translation, because we don’t want to say that we’re kidnapping people, or that President Obama is kidnapping people.”

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