Parties 'Inept' at Capturing Interests of Florida's Spanish-Speaking Groups

Patrick Manteiga knows his readership and in turn speaks from three decades of family newspaper experience when discussing what it would take for the Democrats — or Republicans — to capture the imagination and votes of Florida's Spanish-speaking communities.

"Going into churches, having prayer meetings, doing what Jesus would do" about the meatier issues over time, rather than just focusing on the hot-button issues of the "one-cycle election plan," is the plan he would put forth.

"Caring about the sick and dying," Manteiga added. "These are conversations we're not having with Puerto Rican leaders, with pastors in churches, and I would love to see President Obama come to Florida and have such a meeting. I would love to have [U.S.] Sen. Bill Nelson [of Florida] come here and have such a meeting."

What’s necessary, he said, is to build a leadership within the Spanish-speaking communities — “It’s not just sitting there,” he said — and to speak to the broad range of issues that affect those communities singularly, if not collectively.

“You can’t grab a Cuban and have him talk for the Puerto Ricans,” Manteiga said in an interview following his prepared remarks at the restaurant in Brandon. Likewise, he added, “You can’t grab a Puerto Rican and have him say something for the [Venezuelans].”

Manteiga was in attendance as the guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the East Hillsborough County Democratic Club. He is the publisher and editor of La Gaceta, billed as "the nation's only tri-lingual newspaper and one of the oldest minority-owned and targeted newspapers in America.”

The weekly publication, distributed on Fridays, is printed in Spanish, English and Italian, which reflects Hillsborough County’s legacy of settlement by immigrants from Italy, Spain and Cuba.

Manteiga spoke about the issues that unite and that divide the Spanish-speaking community and how they differ across the country.

In southern California, for example, the overwhelming majority of Spanish-speaking residents are Mexican, and the major concerns building a high-tech wall on the United States-Mexico border to stop illegal immigration.

In Florida, there is no one overwhelming group of Spanish-speaking Americans, Manteiga said, and “here it’s not the wall, it’s the inconveniences and the hassles” of becoming a United States citizen post-9/11 and of “trying to bring over family and friends.”

The aim is to develop and get deeply involved with the leadership in the various Spanish-speaking and Hispanic Latino communities — including Mexican, Puerto Rican, Colombian, Venezuelan, Cuban — and not just rely on “catch phrases and slogans” to address them all as one group, Manteiga said.

“A lot of times you don’t understand the issues and you can misspeak and create anger and resentment,” he said.

Even within specific groups there is a division concerning the most pertinent issues, Manteiga said.

“The [Democratic] party needs to get better focused and have a longer-term plan to deal with this,” Manteiga said.

That’s difficult to do with either party, he added, because “it’s a difficult time, we’re a very divided country.”

"Luckily for us,” he added, the Republicans “are as inept in reaching the Hispanic vote as the Democrats are.”

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