Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine is touting America's Latino culture as reaching back to the nation's very beginning, declaring Spanish was "the language of our country before English."
In an interview Monday on "Noticias Telemundo," the Virginia U.S. Senator, a fluent Spanish speaker, appealed to Latino voters by promising a push in the first 100 days of Hillary Clinton's presidency for immigration reform and a jobs package, the Huffington Post reported.
"Latino culture is one of the most important things in our country right now because we have had Hispanic roots since the beginning," he said in an interview with José Díaz-Balart in Spanish, according to a translated transcript, the Huffington Post reported.
"Spanish was the language of our country before English," he added. "It's important to remember that, and celebrate it."
"And also, the issues important to Latinos are the same: education, economic development and, especially, respect," he continued. "In this campaign the question of respect is very important, because the two sides of the campaign have very different opinions about the Latino community."
Spanish colonizers first brought the language to the continental United States in the 16th century, founding the settlement of St. Augustine in what is now Florida in 1565, the Huffington Post noted — but points out "it was not the only language that was here before English."
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