By Juan Montoya
We can trace it all back to Channel 5's Rick Diaz, the former anchor for KRGV's Channel 5 News.
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Back in his day, when he ended a news broadcast, he would sign off with his signature goodbye and then threw in his "y que tengan muy buenas noches" in Spanish. That was all the Spanish that he used in the entire broadcast.
Now he has a program called "Con Mi Gente" that is entirely in English. Local Spanish speakers probably appreciated the token gesture from Diaz, and still probably do. We remember a nature show talking hat also using "Vamonos" at the end of his show.
Local businesses grabbed on to the tokenism and several car dealerships now feature slogans in Spanish such as "Dale Gas.""Son Buena Gente" and that self-adopted Hispanic Charlie Clark's "Orale."Clark says he was adopted by Hispanics and even featured a local woman as his abuelita to show just how much he loves the natives and encourages them to "dame chansa" and "mochense."
This probably lends a certain endearing quality for these folks to do business in the Rio Grande Valley, but it also reduces bilingualism to a philistine level. It seems that the only time these people speak Spanish is when they're trying to take your money or sell you a car.
Will the United Way be far behind and adopt Clark's "Mochate" slogan when they come calling for donations to their cause? Or maybe the Heart Association will ask that you "tengas corazon?"
We can trace it all back to Channel 5's Rick Diaz, the former anchor for KRGV's Channel 5 News.
Back in his day, when he ended a news broadcast, he would sign off with his signature goodbye and then threw in his "y que tengan muy buenas noches" in Spanish. That was all the Spanish that he used in the entire broadcast.Now he has a program called "Con Mi Gente" that is entirely in English. Local Spanish speakers probably appreciated the token gesture from Diaz, and still probably do. We remember a nature show talking hat also using "Vamonos" at the end of his show.
Local businesses grabbed on to the tokenism and several car dealerships now feature slogans in Spanish such as "Dale Gas.""Son Buena Gente" and that self-adopted Hispanic Charlie Clark's "Orale."Clark says he was adopted by Hispanics and even featured a local woman as his abuelita to show just how much he loves the natives and encourages them to "dame chansa" and "mochense."
This probably lends a certain endearing quality for these folks to do business in the Rio Grande Valley, but it also reduces bilingualism to a philistine level. It seems that the only time these people speak Spanish is when they're trying to take your money or sell you a car.
Will the United Way be far behind and adopt Clark's "Mochate" slogan when they come calling for donations to their cause? Or maybe the Heart Association will ask that you "tengas corazon?"