A BBC News blogger says he quoted Bernalillo County Republican Party Chairman Fernando C. de Baca accurately and in the proper context in a recent posting that has stirred controversy.
Jon Kelly wrote in an e-mail that he is “100 percent confident” in his quoting of C. de Baca, who he cited in a Friday blog posting as saying that, “The truth is that Hispanics came here as conquerors. African-Americans came here as slaves. Hispanics consider themselves above blacks. They won’t vote for a black president.”
That set off a firestorm of criticism of C. de Baca from the campaigns of GOP presidential candidate John McCain and 1st Congressional District candidate Darren White and others.
C. de Baca later told 770 KKOB-AM reporter Peter St. Cyr that his statement was taken “totally out of context” by Kelly. The 70-year-old said he was speaking about his grandfather’s generation, who would often say things such as, “Remember your ancestors came here as conquerors.”
“The point I was trying to make was that there is a generational difference between those folks who were born before the civil rights and those born in more recent periods,” C. de Baca told St. Cyr, adding that, “in my humble opinion, the older set of Hispanics would probably not vote for a black for president, but that the younger ones would flock to vote for (Obama), conceivably.”
C. de Baca also told St. Cyr that his comments came in response to a question from Kelly, who he said asked him “to help him understand the history of
Kelly said in the e-mail that C. de Baca is wrong.
“He raised the subject, not me,” Kelly said.
Update, 2:15 p.m.
BBC Global News international communications manager Patricia Lodge just released this statement:
“Jon Kelly accurately reported what Fernando C. de Baca said to him about Hispanic perceptions towards African Americans. The BBC has not received any complaints about the report from Mr. de Baca or the Republican Party.”