Latina activist: Sanders supporters shouted 'english only' at me
Civil rights leader and Hillary Clinton supporter Dolores Huerta says she was met with cries of "English only!" after she offered translation services at a casino caucus site in Nevada on Saturday.
"What happened is the person who was running the caucus said we need a translator and he said the first person that comes to the stage can be the translator, so I walked up to the front and then some of the organizers, the Bernie organizers, decided to shout 'no, no, no,'" she told CNN. "Then a Bernie person stood up and said, I can also do translation. So then the person running the caucus said we won't have a translator... then some of the organizers were shouting 'English only, English only.' This is bad."
I offered to translate & Bernie supporters chanted English only! We fought too long & hard to be silenced Si Se Puede! #ImwithHer#NVcaucus
— Dolores Huerta (@DoloresHuerta) February 20, 2016
When asked by ThinkProgress how she knew that the chants came from Sanders supporters, Huerta said the caucus process made it "really clear." "The room was divided with the Hillary people on one side and the Bernie people on the other," she said. "It was really unfortunate, because there were many Spanish-speaking voters, the casino workers. We wanted to make it more comfortable for them, so they could know what was going on." Actress America Ferrera, a fellow Hillary supporter, also tweeted about the incident.
Harrah's casino site- Bernie supporters chant "English-only" to stop civil rights leader @DoloresHuerta from providing Spanish translation.
— America Ferrera (@AmericaFerrera) February 20, 2016
Shortly after news broke of the incident, "Dolores Huerta" began trending on Twitter. Many users expressed their sympathy with the civil rights leader.
I think Bernie fans should act a little more like Bernie and a little less like Trump. What they did to Dolores Huerta was awful!
— Nicole (@NLB83) February 21, 2016
You may not agree with Dolores Huerta or John Lewis supporting Hillary, but you do NOT disrespect them. PERIOD.
— PragmaticObotsUnite (@PragObots) February 21, 2016
However, some Twitter users have called Huerta's account into question due to a video that has been circulating allegedly taken at the event:
@BanTorture@NVforBerniehttps://t.co/yK9lekcjsR here is a video of the moment! It's crazy how you can hear them clearly say NEUTRAL
— Andrew Scully (@ScullyThings) February 21, 2016
"Neutral" is what was shouted & the caucus rules call for https://t.co/icYquweIks via @YouTube#AmericaTogether https://t.co/snIs0duG7b
— Marie Adams (@MarieAdams366) February 21, 2016
Since when does NEUTRAL mean ENGLISH? @BernieSanders Harrah's #Democratic#NevadaCaucus Shouting over Dolores Huerta https://t.co/K8c5qNF8QU
— ORCoast4Bernie (@ORCoast4Bernie) February 21, 2016
Click through images from the Nevada Democratic Caucus:
