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A former LAUSD superintendent announces run for L.A. mayor, Check-in on Palisades fire aftermath, Comedian Marc Maron ends podcast— Afternoon EditionXavier Becerra, a former California attorney general and U.
S. Health and Human Services secretary, is among several candidates vying to become governor of California in the 2026 election.California’s race for governor has picked up steam, and some candidates are reaching out to voters in multiple languages. That’s not groundbreaking, given the state’s linguistic diversity, but, right now, these efforts could be more significant.to temporarily allow immigration agents to continue treating language as grounds for questioning. According to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, speaking Spanish in public or speaking English “with an accent” is one of the factors thatAt least three of the candidates running for governor are campaigning in languages other than English. Xavier Becerra, a former state attorney general and health secretary, is leaning into a bilingual strategy on social media. “For some people,” he said, “it'll be easier” to understand his platform “if they hear it in Spanish. And I want to elevate them, because they deserve to be as informed as anybody else.”Jonathan Rosa, an associate professor at Stanford’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, said that, in this context, the gubernatorial candidates' Spanish use is more than just a way to reach multiple constituencies. “It suggests that a political candidate is trying to signal to different audiences that they are taking a stand in opposition to anti-immigrant perspectives … and English-only sentiment,” he said. At a political summit this summer, California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra briefly broke into Spanish in response to a journalist’s question:Becerra could have touted his extensive government experience. He’s a former member of Congress and state attorney general. He also served as Health and Human Services secretary in the Biden administration. But Becerra, the son of Mexican immigrants, reflected on his parents’ labor, in connection to California’s current plight. “My dad used to say to me: ‘Mijo, si me puedo levantar en la mañana e ir a trabajar, va a ser un buen dia,’” he said. Becerra immediately translated for English speakers: “‘My son, if I get up in the morning and go to work, it’s going to be a good day.’” Becerra’s father was a construction worker, he explained. So for him, missing out on a day’s work could mean not having enough money to put food on the table. If elected, Becerra pledged, he’ll work to ensure that Californians have access to affordable healthcare and housing; that they can send their kids to college; and that they “retire in dignity.” “For some people, it'll be easier for them to really understand if they hear it in Spanish,” Becerra said.On social media, Becerra makes being bilingual look easy. But honing his mother tongue, he told LAist, has been anything but.Becerra grew up in a bilingual home in Sacramento. Until college, he thought his Spanish was pretty good. But when he enrolled in a Spanish class as an undergrad at Stanford University, Becerra discovered he had a lot of room left for growth. So he studied abroad at Spain’s University of Salamanca, where he broadened his understanding of the language's many varieties. Still, his ability to communicate complex ideas in Spanish wasn’t seamless. When Becerra was first elected to public office in his early thirties, Spanish language news organizations began asking for interviews. “My words weren't always the most eloquent,” he said, recalling on-camera stumbles. “I found out how important it was to be able to communicate both in EnglishToday, Spanish speakers around the world compliment Becerra’s fluency.Karen Bass, seen when she was a candidate for L.A. Mayor, has endorsed former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's campaign for California governor.Other candidates running in the 2026 race to become California’s next governor said they share Becerra’s goals of connecting with voters in their preferred tongue. Former state controller Betty Yee is vying for the Democratic nomination. In an email, spokesperson Marcey Brightwell said Yee is “engaging trusted community leaders to facilitate in-language discussions in our diverse communities.” These conversations involve citizens across the state, Brightwell added, including Latinos in the Central Valley and those of Vietnamese descent in Orange County. Yee has done a little Spanish-language social media engagement, but “she is eager to expand in multiple languages as the campaign progresses,” Brightwell said. Antonio Villaraigosa, the former assemblymember and Los Angeles mayor, noted that more than 200 languages are spoken in California. “From the first time I got elected in 1994, I've always spoken in English and Spanish,” said Villaraigosa, who is also competing for the Democratic nomination. “And if I could speak Korean, Mandarin or Armenian, I'd do that as well.” How the 19th century's 'English only' movement sidelined Spanish in California, and the legacy it left Though Villaraigosa is of Mexican ancestry, his mother chose not to teach him Spanish to shield him from anti-Latino discrimination and the potential of being placed in remedial classes at school.To practice, he’d listen to radio and TV programs and watch movies with subtitles. When he tried to strike up conversations with native speakers, most were supportive, he added. But some “people used to make fun of me and say, ‘No, speak in English.’”, an online language program and cultural community that helps people with Latin American roots reclaim their Spanish. Part of that work involves acknowledging and celebrating the region’s many dialects, which have been imbued with Ramirez also helps Latino professionals — including lawyers, teachers, therapists, nurses and politicians — take their Spanish to new heights. “The population I work with comes from that era where people were punished at school for speaking Spanish,” she said. Like Villaraigosa’s mother, many of her clients’ parents thought it would be best not to pass on their mother tongue. “We're all healing together,” Ramirez added. “That self-imposed assimilation was an effort to survive.”— Antonio Villaraigosa, candidate for California governor, on speaking Spanish and Englishto temporarily allow immigration agents to continue treating language as grounds for questioning. According to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, speaking Spanish in public or speaking English “with an accent” is one of the factors that In this context, the California gubernatorial candidates' use of Spanish is more than just a way to reach multiple constituencies, said Jonathan Rosa, an associate professor at Stanford’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and author of “Looking like a Language, Sounding like a Race: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and the Learning of Latinidad.” “In this political moment, it also has a symbolic meaning,” he said. “It suggests that a political candidate is trying to signal to different audiences that they are taking a stand in opposition to anti-immigrant perspectives … xenophobia, assimilationism and English-only sentiment.”“It's important for us to not make sweeping generalizations about the meanings of this language use,” Rosa added, “and to pay attention to how those meanings take shape in context.”
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