During a speech in San Antonio, Texas on Monday, she hailed the state’s diversity as “as distinct as the bodegas of the Bronx, as beautiful as the flowers of Miami, and as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio.”
Her comment alluded to the popular dish in the South Texas area, where many Hispanics, so-called Latinos or Hispanics, live.
But soon there were reactions to Jill Biden’s choice of words. The next day, a media organization representing the Latinos group accused Biden of reducing the group’s diversity to stereotypes.
“We are not tacos,” the organization pointed out sourly.
“Using breakfast tacos to try to demonstrate the uniqueness of Latinos in San Antonio shows a lack of cultural knowledge and sensitivity to the diversity of Latinos in the region.”
The White House has apologized for the statement.
“The first lady apologizes for her words conveying something completely different than pure admiration and love for the Latino community,” her spokeswoman Michael LaRosa wrote on Twitter.
The trip to Texas was intended to appeal to Spanish-speaking voters ahead of the midterm elections to Congress this fall, a group that has traditionally been important to Democrats.