Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Los Republicanos: Daddy Yankee & John McCain

In what I’m guessing is a attempt to look young and hip John McCain, 71, continued his efforts to reach out to the Latina/o community by inviting reggaetonero Daddy Yankee to his campaign headquarters on Saturday afternoon.

Considering El Cangri’s sometimes raunchy lyrics and hustlin’ past it seems like a weird political coupling. "I don't know anything about Daddy Yankee," said McCain spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace. Great.

Supposedly McCain and Daddy Yankee first met when they were both named two of the 100 most influential people of 2006 by Time magazine.

According to Yankee “He invited me to have a brief conversation on how we can improve the living conditions in Hispanic communities.” The two were said to have discussed issues such as im/migration, education, and Latino/a youth. Yankee says he is not ready to endorse McCain yet hopefully because he will meet with Obama to hear him out on Latino/a issues.

This meeting is funny considering that McCain just put out a political attack ad against Obama accusing him of being a media whore. McCain is really trying to tap in to popular personalities to get his message out instead of actually just talking. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if DY is going to hop on the “Straight Talk Express.”

Source: LA Times

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, Daddy Yankee supports McCain because of his stance on immigration? LOL…the Reggaeton artist is Puerto Rican, so he doesn’t have to worry about being deported, now does he??? If you want to know why the young INTELLIGENT Latinos support Obama then read this Open Letter of Support for Obama from scores of high profile young Hispanics: http://www.gaysofla.com/content/view/248/51/

First he used ads featuring Paris Hilton and Britney Spears to show how ‘shallow’ Obama is and now he’s using a raunchy Latino Rapper to sway the Young Hispanic Vote. Is this old man serious? Is he being advised by total idiots???

Anonymous said...

Yea this is ridiculous. Puerto Ricans for the most part have no idea the struggles people from South and Central America have to endure trying to become residents and citizens. And most of them don't care either. I hope the Latinos on the West coast don't fall for this. What a sad attempt at gainig the Latino vote.

Marisol LeBron said...

I wouldn't go as far as saying Puerto Rican's do not understand the citizenship issues that other Latinos/as face, I think that is a serious oversimplification of a very complex issue. Many Puerto Rican activists work closely with Central and South American im/migration activists to reform the current system.

As a Nuyorican I am very invested in the treatment of other Latinos/as, and speaking out against the brutality on the border is one way to address the less than equal treatment that Latinos/as, citizens or not, are subject to in this country. I know that many Puerto Rican/Nuyoricans feel very strongly about the issue much in the same way that i do.

While highlighting the different privileges of citizenship that Puerto Rican's have in relation to other Latinos/as, we have to remember that that citizenship is a byproduct of colonialism.

Latinos/as need to work together for anti-colonial causes, and besides the outright colonization of the Puerto Rican people and their land, the border and the economic inequities that created and perpetuate are another part of the anti-colonial struggle.