January 20, 2009

"¡Sí se puede!" aka "Yes, we can!"


Two Latinos (César Chávez and Dolores Huerta), quite famous because of their activism and movements close to Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, among others, came up in 1972 with the slogan "¡Sí se puede!".

In 1974, the coach of the Phillies of Philadelphia used it for the first time, translating it to another context. Years later, in another baseball match, some parents from Monterrey, who had traveled to USA to support their children, incorporated the "porra" to the Mexican constellation. And since the 90's it has been used in sport competitions, political campaigns, and many other contexts.

Lately (first in 2004, and later again in 2008), Barack Obama used, and still uses, the slogan "Yes, we can!".

So, you can get it as part of the Reconquista made by Latinos, as a premonition that in a (close) future one Latino will be President of USA, or as a sign that optimism is flooding Washington. However you take it, I really hate malinchistas yelling "Yes we can!" instead of "¡Sí se puede!". It is as ridiculous as to read "Mr. Quixote Of La Mancha"...

2 comments:

JA said...

Así es hermano, la reconquista.

Guillermo Núñez said...

Said Enrique.

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