Is this guy for real?
He's named Juan Valdez (true story), became a citizen of the US in 2007, and has legally changed his first name to John so he can assimilate to the U.S. run for political office in the great and open-armed state of Arizona. That's just the lead, people.
Valdez is running aginst two candidates for the Arizona State Legislature in a competitive Democratic primary. During Monday night's Clean Money Clean Elections debate in Phoenix
With aid from an English translator, Valdez proceeded to answer every question the moderator tossed at him—on topics ranging from health care and immigration to neighborhood graffiti—in Spanish.
Despite living in Phoenix for the past 15 years, Valdez, who owns a pool-plastering business, is simply more comfortable speaking his native language, he said.
“This was my first time speaking in front of important people,” Valdez told Insider in English after the hour-long debate. “I thought maybe I would get nervous.”
Now, we're on the left side of the immigration "debate" for sure, but not learning English after a decade and a half of living in Arizona, even if your district speaks it in large numbers, is pure stupidity if you're running for political office. But it gets better, way better:
When asked if his English-language skills would prevent him from being an effective legislator, the 15-year Phoenix resident asked Insider to repeat the question—twice.
Nope, better than that, as a friend notes in an e-mail attached to this story:
Note the extra irony in that AZ has adopted an English Only requirement for official state business, which this was.
However, Juan Valdez (the politician, not the heroic Hispanic rebel and coffee brewer), does have one excuse:
About half of the residents who live in the west-central Phoenix district speak either Spanish and English or only Spanish.
Wouldn't it be great if this guy somehow pulled off an electoral trimuph? Hell, they'd build a border fence around his neighborhood...
Via AZCentral.
UPDATE: Typo in the opening sentence fixed. Valdez became a citizen last year.