Image Source: Daily Mail
BY EMOKE BEBIAK
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Even though Hurricane Irene was mucho dangeroso, it seems one good thing came out of it: the twitter feed of @El Bloombito.
WNYW has the story.
“(SPEAKING SPANISH) Briefing after hurricane briefing, New Yorkers sat through updates in Spanish one person on Twitter described as ‘so bad it’s awesome.’ Pretty soon, someone started making fun of the mayor on Twitter, posing as El Bloombito...”
New York resident and stay-at-home mom Rachel Figueroa-Levin started the Twitter feed mocking New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Spanglish on Saturday, just before Irene hit. The feed since has gained over 20,000 followers. A best-of selection of the tweets include:
“Nueva Yorkos! Remain in la casa para mucho rain y lighningo y thundera! El Bang Bang!”
Or...
“Muchos trees esta falling downo. No stando under los trees. Que splat!”
The New York Observer caught up with Figueroa-Levin -- in a GChat interview. She tells the paper she had no idea the feed would become so popular.
“I think El Bloombito struck a nerve because Mayor Bloomberg’s Spanish is… well… laughable. I think that if he really wanted to get a message across to the Latino community he should have stepped aside and had someone who speaks Spanish fluently deliver the message.”
But Immigration advocate Adriana Escandon tells Metro -- Bloomberg’s poor Spanish is not funny at all...
“[Escandon] claims it’s more of a political maneuver for the benefit of the mayor’s image and ambitions. In emergency situations, Escandon said, ‘it would not be safe’ to listen to Bloomberg alone.”
Interestingly, Mayor Bloomberg is among the followers of El Bloombito on Twitter. In fact, he responded to the mockery during a press conference--in Spanish, of course. According to the Huffington Post, he explained...
“I'm 69 years old, and it's difficult to learn a new language.”
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