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First Lady Jill Biden speaking on July 4th
Photo: Chris Kleponis/POOL/EPA
Jill Biden has apologized for saying Latinos are "just as unique" as San Antonio breakfast tacos.
She made the comparison in a speech to the largest Hispanic civil rights organization in the United States.
"The First Lady apologizes that her words conveyed anything but pure admiration and love for the Latino community," Biden spokesman Michael LaRosa wrote on Twitter.
On Monday, the first lady appeared in San Antonio at the annual conference of UnidosUS, a Latino civil rights organization formerly known as the National Council of La Raza.
Failing to compliment Latino diversity, she said the community is "as diverse as the bodegas of the Bronx, as beautiful as the flowers of Miami, and as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio." «.
She also failed to get the correct pronunciation of the word "bodegas," which are small shops in metropolitan areas that typically sell Hispanic groceries.
Jill Biden received opposition on social media, the Association of Hispanic Journalists, for example, was outraged on Twitter: “We are not tacos,” it says there, and further: “The attempt to use breakfast tacos as a symbol of the uniqueness of Latinos in San Antonio to use shows a lack of cultural knowledge and sensitivity to the diversity of Latinos in the region.« One does not want to be reduced to stereotypes.
Going forward, the First Lady and her speechwriters may "take time to better understand the complexities of our people and communities."
Last week, President Joe Biden presented longtime UnidosUS chairman Raul Yzaguirre with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor.
mgo/AP