Last Updated on July 12, 2022
Jill Biden has sparked intense backlash after she compared the Hispanic community of San Antonio, Texas to the diversity of “breakfast tacos.” The First Lady has since apologized for her comments.
Jill Biden made the controversial remarks while addressing UnidosUS, a civil rights organization. She said the group’s founder Raul Yzaguirre “helped build this organization with the understanding that the diversity of this community, as distinct as the bodegas of the Bronx, as beautiful as the blossoms of Miami, and as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio, is your strength.”
The comments have been slammed as pandering by a number of members of the Hispanic community and beyond. “I’m an American who was born to legal Mexican immigrants,” wrote Texas congressional candidate Irene Armendariz-Jackson. “I do not identify as Latinx. I do not identify as a bo-guh-da. I do not identify as a breakfast taco, either.”
Texas senator Ted Cruz tweeted along with three taco emojis: “Personally, I’m a chorizo, egg & cheese.”
A spokesman for Jill Biden has since issued an apology. “The First Lady apologizes that her words conveyed anything but pure admiration and love for the Latino community,” a Biden spokesperson, Michael LaRosa, tweeted.
Biden was also panned for using the gender-neutral term “Latinx” that has been rejected by the Latino community, according to numerous studies. According to a poll conducted in December 2021, only 2% of 800 respondents said they regularly use the term. 40% of respondents said the term offends them.
The Jill Biden controversy is not the first time the family has been accused of pandering to the Hispanic community. In 2020, then-candidate Biden played the popular song “Despacito” on his phone while speaking at a Hispanic Heritage Event.
