Some 2020 Democratic Candidates' Spanish Language Websites Riddled with Translation Errors
Democratic presidential hopefuls are facing criticism for bungling the Spanish translations on their presidential campaign websites.
In efforts to woo the increasing Latino population, Democratic 2020 presidential candidates have created Spanish language campaign websites.
However, it appears the some of these candidates simply used Google Translate to transform the websites from English to Spanish, resulting in major translation errors.
A Politico report said every campaign site it reviewed had mistakes, “ranging from minor typos to truly incomprehensible passages.”
It graded the candidates into three categories: “top of their class, average performers and the truly struggling.”
Sen. Corey Booker of New Jersey, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, Sen. Kamala Harris of California and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee received “A-minus” grades for websites that were mostly error-free with minor typos.
Meanwhile, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro was given a “B-plus” with the comments: “Overall good, needs closer attention to detail, see input forms etc.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York also earned a “B-plus,” according to Politico, but her website “needs to clean up headlines, translate videos.”
Those majorly struggling include Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who were awarded a “C-plus” for multiple errors and exact matches to Google Translate.
Some of the mistakes Politico listed: Klobuchar’s website uses masculine adjectives to address her mother; Harris describes how she “wasted” her life defending American democracy; and Castro wants to build an “América” (instead of the correct “Estados Unidos”) that works for everyone.
The number of Latino voters in the United States is nearly 30 million, and these websites are intended to court this population.
However, mistakes like these imply carelessness and seem more likely to deter Latino voters, critics say.
“It’s the front door to the campaign,” Lisa Navarrete, a UnidosUS adviser, told Politico. “And it’s indicative.
“If you’re not investing in this … it will indicate to us that perhaps you’re not taking the other parts of reaching out to the community as seriously.”
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