In Spanish, the language AL DÍA has used over its 23 years of publishing, The New York Times chose to publish its main Editorial on Sunday, October 2nd, 2016, for the first time in its egregious history of over 100 years.

The big news over the previous weekend was that the newspaper of record in the United States, The New York Times, published so far in English for over 100 years, all of a sudden decided to switch to Spanish. Wow!

Even more surprising was that the dean of journalism in the country decided to do in its main Editorial column, the “sacred space” left for the influential voice of this news media institution to speak to its millions of readers across the country and all over the globe. (Second "Wow!")

In Spanish..? Why?, we immediately asked ourselves.

Why on the eve of a Presidential election?

Our gut, initial reaction was:

How many of those who prefer to read in the Spanish language, here in the U.S., read The New York Times, anyway?

Why not to write the message to Latinos in straight English, using the common lingo English is, particularly among those U.S. Latinos who read The New York Times, in New York, and all across the world— as we do in AL DÍA, here in Philadelphia?

“It is a political statement by the Times,” said one member of our Editorial Board.

“No, it is a marketing statement,” said another, given the Times obvious interest in the burgeoning U.S. Latino Market.

"Why not?," said yet another with more practical sense since he works in AL DÍA's business division.

The Editorial basically pleads with U.S. Latinos to, please, PLEASE, decide the current race for the White House, and unleash the power of its vote to once and for all determine the outcome of this election...

Regardless of the motivations of the Times editors, they got our attention, no doubt.

The Editorial basically pleads with U.S. Latinos to, please, PLEASE, decide the current race for the White House, and unleash the power of its vote to once and for all determine the outcome of this contest— so close between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump because both candidates have overlooked the 27 million U.S. Latinos registered to vote who can send the pendulum of power in either direction, really fast and heavy, as AL DIA’s own editorial has stated here for weeks— not only in Spanish, but also in English, which is naturally read by millions of Latinos across the country.

The consequence of that would be, we argued —and the Times’ Editorial agreed on Sunday— that the despondent, disrespectful and humiliating way the 2 major political parties treat Latino Voters every 4 years will be changed for ever.

In that we wholeheartedly agreed with the Times. Democrats will stop taking them for granted, ignoring them as obedient maids down in the ranks, below African Americans, and Republicans sincerely may seek a relationship with these growing number of voters, making their leaders part of their ranks in the upper echelons of the party's hierarchy.

But, in that other, more subtle sense, in which  the Spanish language is just a political or marketing tool, as the politicians or marketers have mendaciously been using it for decades since John F. Kennedy in the 1960s, we strongly disagree, with abundant reasons we have spelled out here, in English, on this same AL DÍA’s Editorial space.

To the The New York Times Editors who decide to grace their prestigious Editorial Column with "the language of Cervantes," this is our message:

Please do away with any trace of the old policy of treating us as a substandard minority— one that, on top of that, uses another language, a foreign language— the "language of Mexicans," as Donald Trump would call it, or the rare tongue from the Puerto Rican, Colombian or Salvadorian Ghettos in the largest U.S. cities, which Hillary Clinton's complete indifference with Latinos seems at times to project as her only message to us.

Spanish is one of the most beautiful languages in the world, and it is spoken, written and read by millions across the globe.

Spanish is one of the most beautiful languages in the world, and it is spoken, written and read by millions across the globe. Alongside the English-language masterpieces, the best literature in the universe has been written in Spanish, from the "El Quijote" classic novel by Miguel de Cervantes, to "20 Poemas de Amor y una Canción Desesperada" by Pablo Neruda.

However, here in America, we haven't advanced beyond square one, looking down on its music because it is mistakenly perceived as the noise through which the poor and the uneducated communicate among themselves.

The most we have done as a society, it is to treat it as a very practical device to look sympathetic to this growing "minority" that is advancing, under the surge of its mighty numbers and capacity to mix with the rest of ethnicities, into the real majority of the country. One that speaks —sharp, crisp and without a trace of accent U.S. English— on top of commanding the Spanish language, in a way it is respected, not only in Maimi and San Antonio, Spanish-speaking cities in the U.S., but also, overseas, in Madrid or Buenos Aires.

Latino Americans are not only millions of professionals and entrepreneurs, but also the "Millennial" generation, half of them U.S. Latino youngsters we call here in AL DÍA "Billennials," because they are bilingual, 18 to 25 years of age, and are so eager to cast unexpected votes in this election, despite the fact that nobody, neither Republicans or Democrats, have acknowledged their existence during one single minute of this long presidential campaign.

Latinos are not foreign creatures, living in modern Ghettos in America, speaking in a foreign tongue, like the Jews, or the Irish, Italians or Armenians or the Japanese did in the past.

Latinos are not foreign creatures, living in modern Ghettos in America, speaking in a foreign tongue, like the Jews, or the Irish, Italians or Armenians or the Japanese did in the past.

Spanish, weather we like it or not, has permeated the entire American society and it is in reality the second language of the country, to the benefit of the United States, which grows in influence across the globe with its 55 plus millions of U.S. citizens of Latino descent, living in Upper Class and Upper Middle Class neighborhoods, who can speak or understand that second language, because they were reared in Latino Households, or marry into bi-racial, inter-religious, cross-cultural households, more common in America today than ever in the past— thanks to U.S. Latinos.

We celebrate the fact that The New York Times elevated the status of the Spanish language by the simple act of printing in the mother tongue of millions of U.S. Latinos its influential main Editorial column.

But, like José Martí wrote in the New York Evening Post, over 100 years ago, it is about time Americans of Latino descent are finally seen not as "the people of destitute vagrants and immoral pigmies that "The Manufacturer" (a paper published at the time in Philadelphia) is pleased to picture," but as the fellow U.S. Citizens entitled to the same respect granted to all the other ethnic groups voting in the upcoming November the 8th crucial election. 

This new perception will arrive when The New York Times, now partially owned by Mexican entrepreneur Carlos Slim, moves beyond its symbolic gesture of publishing once in Spanish and develops a more complete narrative (we will prefer it in English) on the most promising ethnic group in the country.

Yes, "El Voto Latino Puede Ser la Diferencia" (The Latino Vote Can Make The Difference), as the great newspaper from New York did put it on Sunday, October 2nd, 2016.