The Texas Debates: Politics of Language

KERA    Dallas, Texas

clip run time » 5:46

BPJ asked Rick Thompson of KERA to share some lessons learned from the Spanish-language gubernatorial debates held in March 2002. These debates were supported by a BPJ production grant.

Un Nuevo Día para La Política en Tejas y los Estados Unidos

Even before the historic day arrived, the first-ever Spanish debate for Texas governor nearly collapsed over the question of language. Ironically, the dispute involved Democratic candidate Dan Moraless last-minute decision to change the rules by summarizing answers in English. In the end, Moraless strategy apparently backfired, and may have contributed to Tony Sanchezs decisive victory. But more importantly, this groundbreaking debate received extraordinary publicity both in Texas and around the country and seemed to generate increased Latino interest in the election. In fact, the March 12 primary saw a record-breaking 34% turnout of Latino voters.

Background
The Spanish language debate was developed by KERA and its seven cross-media partners: Texas Monthly, Univision, The Dallas Morning News, WFAA, the Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation, the Texas Association of Broadcasters and the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. Our original plan had been to just produce an hour-long English language gubernatorial debate with real-time Spanish translations. But when a similar Telemundo-sponsored debate in San Antonio fell through, The Texas Debates offered to produce an English and a Spanish debate. The result was a 3-hour debate night event. The first hour was an English language debate between the gubernatorial candidates. The second hour was a debate between the candidates for the U.S. Senate, and then in the third hour we brought the gubernatorial candidates back for the Spanish language debate.

Planning
Knowing there would be side-by-side comparisons of both debates, the first-ever Spanish forum mandated careful design drawing upon vital insight from co-sponsors Univision (television) and the Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation (radio).

The panel of Spanish-language journalists met twice with the producers to review debate questions. Ultimately, some questions were similar but many of the Spanish questions were sharpened to draw differences on personal, family and social issues because they were considered more relevant for the Spanish-speaking community.

Lessons Learned
Although it may be years before voters again encounter Spanish-fluent frontrunners, future debates would be well advised to include real-time translations. But, if you have the opportunity to produce a Spanish debate, here are a few helpful suggestions.

1. Partner with a Spanish-language medium that has similar journalistic practices.

2. Establish the language rules of the debate clearly. Is it strictly in Spanish or can it be bilingual?

3. Consider offering an English translation of the debate on the SAP channel.

4. Interview and audition translators to ensure they correctly use the right word choices and nuances.

5. On the technical side, assemble a bilingual production team. In addition to a Spanish-fluent producer, consider having a bilingual director or assistant director, floor manager and camera operators.

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