Editor’s Note: Every Saturday morning, we take a break from hard news to let Hermina Hermelinda Obregon, a.k.a. Miss Mingo, share her insights with readers. She’s a recovering newspaper reporter living in a bungalow off Duval Street in Key West. At least that’s what her official biography says, if you can believe that. She answers the day’s pressing questions about life, the news, and the best happy hour prices.
DEAR MISS MINGO:
Did Gov. Rhonda Santis really say the hurricane hitting the Florida Panhandle was “weird” and “not normal” because it had a Spanish name?
Weatherbeaten in Weston
Dear Weatherbeaten:
Before answering your question, I should note that I am writing this response while Hurricane Isaias is still bearing down on Florida and the Gulf Coast, and by the time this reaches everyone’s inbox, who knows how much damage, or even loss of life, we might face.
So, first and foremost, let me be perfectly sincere for a moment: My heart goes out to the people living in harm’s way, and I'm crossing my feathers that they will be okay.
As for our governor, whose last name is Italian, it is a little ironic that he would belittle a perfectly fine name in another Romance language—Romance meaning derived from the language of ancient Rome, Latin.
In fairness, though, he admitted he was butchering it. But still.
Isaias is the Spanish form of the English name Isaiah, a prophet in the Old Testament. Isaias is no more “weird” than Isaiah, since both are translations of the original Hebrew word Yeshayahu, which roughly means “to deliver God.”
One of the many things I learned from my high school Spanish teacher, Mr. Shields, is that—hold on to your bonnets—Spanish may seem foreign to many of us, but not to native Spanish-language speakers. And we have millions of them here in Florida, including those DeSantis imprisoned in Alligator Alcatraz, his Everglades concentration camp.
It is, of course, common for words in English and other languages to be spelled and pronounced differently. We all know this.
For instance, in the original Greek, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John of the Bible were Mattiyahu, Markos, Loukas and Yochanan. It’s not the Greek version that’s “weird” or “not normal”; if anything, the English version is.
Speaking of Biblical characters, Jesus was known as Yehoshua in the original Hebrew. That name was transliterated multiple times through Aramaic, Greek, and Latin until it became the English name we know today. If those transliterations had stayed truer to the original, we’d know him as Joshua, not Jesus.
I know all this stuff because I just looked it up on the never-wrong internet, in case you think I’m smarter than I really am.
That said, it was perfectly fine for DeSantis to admit he had difficulty pronouncing a name unfamiliar to him. And, in all fairness, Isaias is a mouthful. It is pronounced, “ee-sah-EE-ahs.”
But just because it is unfamiliar does not make it abnormal. It was thoughtless of him to go there. This is especially so given his history of gleefulness about locking up people of Hispanic heritage.
Someone whose own last name is hardly Anglo should know that.
DeSantis, translated from Italian, means “belonging to the saint.” He has snapped at people—mainly reporters—who failed to pronounce his name the way he likes it: DEE-san-tis and not DUH-san-tis.
So, it wasn’t his best moment to make fun of someone else’s name, even a hurricane’s.
All that said, I’m afraid that by the time you read this column, we may have much bigger things to worry about.
DEAR MISS MINGO:
Okay, I’ll grant you that DeSantis misspoke, but why the heck is the National Hurricane Center using foreign names in the first place?
Confused in Cutler Bay
Dear Confused:
The World Meteorological Organization maintains the list of hurricane names for the Atlantic and Caribbean basins. They use six lists on a rotating basis, with names in English, Spanish, and French that reflect the multiple languages spoken across the region.
The names aren’t ”foreign,” per se. They are multi-cultural, as is the region. Isaias is a perfectly common name, just not as well known among Anglos in the United States.
Think of this as a learning opportunity. We are not alone. Other languages exist in the world. Even in our own neighborhood.
DEAR MISS MINGO:
Donald Trump spent $12 million in taxpayer dollars to run “Love Me” TV ads during football games that were clearly self-promotional and designed to boost Republican candidates. How can tax money be spent like this?
Outraged in Ocala
Dear Outraged:
It’s illegal as hell. And the Democratic National Committee has filed lawsuits against the Trump administration in two federal courts. The suits argue that the ads—which feature Trump and use the song "Love Me"—are illegal government-sponsored political propaganda, not public service announcements. The lawsuits argue that the ads violate federal laws that restrict the use of taxpayer appropriations for publicity or political purposes.
Oh, and the singer-songwriter JMSN had lawyers send a cease-and-desist letter to stop using his music. Which, btw, everyone knows you can NEVER use music like that in any ad, including public service ads (if that’s what they really were), without permission.
The whole business reeks of abuse and gross incompetence.
And, yes, it does ruffle my feathers a bit. So much so that I'm heading down to Duval Street for a cocktail. And I will raise a glass to my friends and followers in the Panhandle.
Stay Safe!
Got a question for Miss Mingo? About life, the news, or clever ways to avoid paying bar tabs? Write to her at MissMingo@Tropic.Press
Want to know more about Miss Mingo? How she got her start? And whether she really lives with two cats—Deadline and Dateline—and a pet iguana named Skippy? You can find her official biography, such as it is, here. If you’re bar-hopping on Duval Street in Key West and spot an intriguing woman in a pink hat you suspect might be Miss Mingo, you can always offer to buy her a Cuba Libre. Will it actually be her? Is there an actual her? Life’s a mystery.
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Editor’s Note:
Congratulations to Miss Mingo, who recently won the Florida Society of Professional Journalists’ Sunshine State Award for Best Blog and Newsletter.
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