Ads may add something in translation

Thursday, Oct. 31, 2002 | 11:30 a.m.

A two-letter word in Spanish has opponents of Question 2 howling four-letter words in English.

The word, "su," which means "your," has changed the language of the slogan in favor of the measure, which would amend Nevada's constitution to recognize only marriages between a man and a woman.

Now, billboards in Hispanic neighborhoods around the Las Vegas Valley read, "Protect your marriage" in Spanish. The English slogan is, "Protect marriage."

Groups against the measure are crying foul. They say its supporters are deliberately misleading the Hispanic community, traditionally family-oriented and heavily Roman Catholic.

The measure's opponents are pulling out the stops to counter what they called a misinformation campaign that includes the Spanish-language media in Southern Nevada. They've chosen an unlikely voice for radio ads airing since Monday in Spanish -- Teresa Benitez, Miss Nevada.

"When I saw (the billboard), it made me so mad," said Liz Moore, Southern Nevada coordinator for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, a backer of the radio ad.

"It was so ludicrous, it had to be intentional."

But Richard Ziser, chairman of the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage -- the group that collected signatures to put the measure on the ballot -- said he wasn't even aware of the change.

"I've never even been asked about this," Ziser said.

"It wasn't a conscious decision on my part. ... We had someone who speaks Spanish do the translation and I don't think it was intentional -- unless that person had his own agenda," he said.

But Benitez, whose father is Mexican and who studied political science at the University of Nevada, Reno, said the wording is obvious in its intentions.

"Anyone who reads both English and Spanish know's what's going on here," she said.

"They're playing into the fear of the Latino community, with its men and machismo, where the men are manly, the women are petite and get married at 16 ... and if you do anything but vote 'yes' on Question 2 you're letting society fall to the heathens."

Her voice on the radio says the measure encourages hate and intolerance. Question 2 opponents said they have had a hard time getting this viewpoint into the Spanish-language media, sensing an editorial bias against same-sex marriages.

Moore said she had a meeting scheduled Oct. 5 with Eddie Escobedo, publisher of El Mundo, Southern Nevada's oldest Spanish-language newspaper. She said Escobedo didn't show.

But Escobedo said he doesn't remember the appointment, and that his paper's editorial board had already come down in favor of the question, so it wasn't necessary to publish contrasting points of view.

"All -- or most -- Hispanics agree that marriages between the same sex shouldn't exist," he said.

The Oct. 12 edition of the paper ran an editorial cartoon on the question. It said, "Be careful about this election's proposals." Under the No. 2, it said, "Marriages between members of the same sex?" The bottom of the cartoon read, "Is society becoming immoral?"

Patricia Vazquez said she attempted to represent the position against Question 2 on behalf of Equal Rights Nevada, a nonprofit, in an interview with Univision, one of two Spanish-language television networks.

"They interviewed me for a piece on the news, but it didn't play," she said. "Instead, when it came to show the 'con' side of the issue, they showed images of a marriage between two men in dresses, with the best men being two lesbians with painted mustaches. After showing the images, the commentator laughed.

"I was very disappointed in how they covered the issue," she said.

Both sides of the issue agree that the question should mobilize the Hispanic vote.

"The Hispanic population is in line culturally with what we're putting forth," Ziser said. "It's a definite target group for this campaign." The coalition is distributing 25,000 fliers in Spanish to Hispanic neighborhoods in support of the question later this week and has aired radio and television ads for weeks.

The opposing camp said they're also counting on support from the Hispanic population, estimated at 72,000 voters, according to Ethnic Data Services, a voter information clearinghouse.

"We recognize that the Latino community is growing and is an important part of the voting population," Moore said. "We also think that discrimination is something Latinos feel on a daily basis, so we think the message of fairness will reach them."