Foreign Languages and New York’s Changing Politics
José Serrano was born in Puerto Rico in 1943, and as a child moved with his family to New York, as part of a wave of migration from one island to the other that helped reshape both. Early in his career as a congressman representing a heavily-Latino district in the Bronx, he appealed to constituents both in English and in their native language. However, over time, he spoke Spanish less and less. When he retired in 2021, he was succeeded by Ritchie Torres, who is also full-blooded Puerto Rican, but was born in New York and admits that he speaks little Spanish himself.
This story would be familiar in any Latino community, or indeed pretty much any immigrant community in the United States. It is one that has been told and retold since English settlers started to arrive in formerly-Dutch New Amsterdam in the 1660s. Linguistic diversity is woven into the cultural fabric of the city. In political challenges like this year’s mayoral election, whose party primary results came in last month ahead of November’s election, language can also help make a campaign.
The Democratic primary, whose winner becomes the ex officio frontrunner for the mayoral election, pitted former governor Andrew Cuomo against upstart progressive activist Zoran Mamdani. Mr. Mamdani, who ultimately triumphed, won plaudits for his creative methods of reaching voters, including via viral TikToks like one in which he jumped in the ocean wearing a suit and tie in January to advertise his plan to freeze rents. He also used his language skills.
Mr. Mamdani was born in Uganda, a member of the South Asian community that lived in the region for generations before they were expelled by post-colonial governments (incidentally, Rishi Sunak’s parents likewise came from East Africa). At different campaign events, he put his Hindi/Urdu and Swahili skills on display, and also made some effort in Spanish.
By contrast, Mr. Cuomo has been more reticent. He does speak Italian, and did once during a CNN interview to make fun of his brother, a former host on the network. But he has never used it in politics, and has even shied away from using a strong New York accent, which one might expect from a guy who grew up in Queens. A generation or two ago, both the language and the accent would have been hugely helpful in connecting with voters. But New York has changed.
Mr. Cuomo’s father counted on the Italian community to help propel him into office, in much the same way as Barack Obama did with black voters. But Italians, like the Irish, the Jews (for the most part), and old timers of English and Dutch heritage, no longer live and vote together as they once did. A hundred years ago, people used to complain that it was hard to get around the Lower East Side without speaking German — my great-grandfather lived there pretty easily after illegally immigrating to America. Today, there is nary a trace of what was once Little Germany.
As anyone who has visited New York, especially the outer boroughs, can attest, there are plenty of more recent immigrant communities that maintain a strong group identity. My barber lives on a street where everyone speaks Uzbek, and an African-American cab driver recently complained to me that people in Central Harlem keep addressing him in Wolof. Mr. Mamdani’s background and language skills enabled him to reach some of these communities, and they helped push him over the top.
The more important point to make, though, is that every candidate will conduct his campaign almost entirely in English. In other countries, like Canada, knowing multiple languages is a prerequisite for political success. Belgium’s new prime minister does not even think his country should exist, and yet he had to ask for votes in French as well as his native Dutch.
But in America, language barriers erode rapidly. It is very normal for children and grandchildren of immigrants to have little knowledge of their ancestral tongues. Today, Spanish is America’s second language. But even as millions of Latin American migrants have flowed into the country, younger native-born Latinos generally favour English.
Some candidates, usually those on the progressive left, do use Spanish on the campaign trail. A prominent example is Queens congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, a child of immigrants who speaks Spanish fluently but not as well as English (I can relate), and does occasionally use it in public life. But to many, this kind of just seems like pandering.
New York politicians even typically shy away from using the accent of their own community. Incumbent mayor Eric Adams grew up in a poor, mostly black section of Brooklyn, but like Mr. Cuomo, he avoids using any local accent. In this way, New York City is just like most of America outside the South. People express pride in where they come from, but it is best to ask for votes in language that does not alienate anybody.
So, language can play a role in New York politics, just as it always has. In tight elections, it can make a difference. Heritage undoubtedly gave Mr. Mamdani an edge, as it did for Mr. Serrano and Mr. Cuomo the elder in generations past. But even in a city as diverse as New York, politics is and always has been conducted mainly in a single, unifying register. New York politics can be divisive, nasty, and corrupt. But it is heartening to know that, no matter who wins, everyone can complain about him in a language we all understand.
