Raman practices Spanish before LA mayoral vote
The City Council member is using language lessons to connect with voters as the election approaches in less than a week.
By Rosa Wojcik ·
Nithya Raman recited a handwritten message in Spanish while waiting for a television interview on Thursday. The statement described her arrival in the United States from India at age six and her understanding of what it costs to start a new life. She practiced the lines with Lauren Perez-Rangel, her senior director of Latino outreach, before facing anchor Guad Venegas at Univision’s Westchester studios.
Raman has incorporated Spanish into her campaign speeches since she launched her bid for mayor. She has used a mix of English and Spanish, often delivering full sentences with a soft accent. Her goal is to reach Latino voters, who make up nearly half of the city’s population, before the election takes place in less than a week.
During the interview, Raman responded to questions in English even when Venegas asked them only in Spanish. She acknowledged his points with the word sí, a habit common among native speakers. She did not read the full Spanish statement on camera because the interview format did not allow time, but she demonstrated her ability to understand and react to the language in real time.
Raman began learning Spanish at a suburban Boston high school, choosing it over French because she felt it would be more useful in the world. She attended classes for four years but forgot much of the material while studying at Harvard and MIT. She resumed practice 13 years ago after moving to Los Angeles, using her brother, a Spanish major at UCLA, as a study partner.
Her study methods include reading bilingual books for beginners and streaming shows such as Netflix’s La Casa de las Flores. She also listens to podcasts like Chill Spanish. Raman said she has practiced regularly since joining the City Council in 2020, though she scaled back her lessons once the mayoral campaign intensified.
In 2022, Raman co-authored a motion that introduced live Spanish translation services at City Council committee meetings. She is currently pushing the city to research how to preserve Spanish-language information as the federal government deletes Spanish versions of its websites. She believes that showing up and trying, even with broken grammar, communicates a message of effort to residents.
Raman’s approach differs from past mayors who have used Spanish for political gain. Antonio Villaraigosa took classes to improve his assimilated Spanish, while Eric Garcetti described his fluency as good enough for community meetings. Karen Bass, her opponent, is not fluent but maintains a Spanish-language outreach operation that includes ads and mailers. Raman argues that her effort is a reminder of grappling with a bureaucracy not intended for her.
The election is scheduled for November 3, 2026. Raman aims to become the first immigrant mayor of Los Angeles since Frank Shaw in the 1930s. She would also be the first mayor whose native tongue was not English since Bernard Cohn in 1878. Her campaign continues to focus on direct communication with residents in their own languages.
