Latino rep sends email warning fellow Dems of ‘treacherous Anglos’ in their party
By Howard Portnoy on May 14, 2014 at 12:16 pm
Frank Otero, who is running for a seat in the New Mexico House of Representatives, sought help getting some name recognition. He called upon current Rep. Miguel Garcia, who was only too happy to oblige. On Monday, Garcia sent an email Monday to fellow House members and Senate colleagues vigorously endorsing Otero and fellow Democrat Andrew Barreras in their campaign bids.
Unfortunately for Otero, the email contained a little extra racially tinged verbiage he could have lived without. A paragraph under the heading “Treachery in Our Ranks Undermine Barreras and Otero” observed:
A minority of unsuspecting Democratic leaders are supporting the Democratic Anglo newcomer opponents in Andrew’s and Frank’s primary races. Anglo Democrats with egos as big as Texas, mouths as big as the Grand Canyon, and much “green” [moolah] from the East and the West Coast.
Station KRQE (h/t Weasel Zippers) notes that Otero is now in damage control mode, telling reporters:
I just don’t believe in that. My grandmother was half-Hispanic and half-Anglo. Some of those comments are offensive even to my family.
Those kind [sic] of comments just don’t fly in any capacity.
House Speaker Ken Martinez (D), also found Garcia’s reference disturbing:
I just have to tell you I’m a little troubled by it and it really doesn’t reflect House Democratic values. I just don’t like race to raise its head as one of the issues you should vote one way or the other.
What is Garcia’s defense against charges of racism? That he didn’t send the email to the media. It appears he assumed other Latinos were as bigoted as he is against whites and now sees their decision to go public with his incendiary email as a betrayal.
In the meantime, the story has gained very little traction on the interwebs. It’s hard to imagine that would be the case if the either the direction of the racism were reversed to white-on-Hispanic or the email had been sent by a Republican.
Read more at
http://libertyunyielding.com/2014/05/14/latino-rep-sends-email-warning-fellow-dems-treacherous-anglos-party/#uAvrqzuvoXOl04hT.99
