Spanish Debate Draws More than English

None by KCPW

Utah Hispanics Tune In

(KCPW News) The first-ever Presidential debate held in Spanish on Sunday night drew twice as many adult viewers as earlier English-language debates. Univision estimates more than 800-thousand households have the channel in Utah and 70-thousand watch it regularly.  Local Latino activist Tony Yapias says there are hundreds of Hispanics in Utah who are new citizens eligible to vote, but struggle with English:

"Many of them, even though their English is conversational, they have a hard time understanding the political language," says Yapias. "Hearing the debate in Spanish makes a huge difference."

All of the leading Democratic candidates participated in the debate broadcast Sunday on Univision. Their responses were translated simultaneously into Spanish. Since Hispanics as a group tend to vote Democratic, Yapias notes Sunday's crowd was a friendly audience:

"The question I think a lot of us were asking ourselves is are the Republicans going to show up now?" says Yapias. "They're the ones that have been less friendly to our issues - especially dealing with immigration - so it would be interesting to see how they dance around the same questions."

In fact, Univision appears to be having trouble getting Republican presidential candidates to commit to a Spanish-language forum and has postponed that debate. Political strategists say Hispanic voters could have a significant influence on the 2008 presidential election, if they come to the polls. Historically, Hispanic turnout has been lower than that of other voting blocs.

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