In 2009, Mayor Michael Bloomberg did a brave thing: he attempted to speak Spanish. Predictably, his attempt proved to be amazingly awkward. But, bless his heart, he tried, and continued to try, offering up his shaky command of the Spanish language during press conferences, speaking events, and most memorably, when narrating Hurricane Irene evacuation plans. Mispronunciations and laughter abounded.
Bloomberg's muy gringo accent provided New Yorkers with comical fodder and opened the mayor to a flood (no pun intended) of social media heckling. But, the greatest thing to arise from Bloomberg's scuffle with the Spanish language was by far and away El Bloombito, the Twitter account of Bloomberg's Latino alter ego. The brainchild of Rachel Figueroa-Levin, El Bloombito brilliantly tackled Bloomberg's failed attempts at connecting with Latinos through Spanglish tweets, providing a heady mix of self-deprecating humor and half-witted aphorisms.
In less than two months, Bloomberg will leave the mayor's office to make way for his successor Bill de Blasio. And, we fear Bloombito's pithy 140-character revelations may come to an end. Let's pay our respects to his best work while he still tweets on. Pouro uno outo para El Bloombito.
Big Pun would be proud. Maybe.
Wiser words were never spoken.
Bye, haters.
Promises, promises.
Who knew Bloombito was so progressive?
Spoken like a true G.
El Spongebobito?
Important questions.
There's a fine line between equality and superficiality. That's what you meant, right Bloombito?
Bathombre-can this make it to theaters, please?
Shots fired! Watch your Weiner, back. Err, back, Weiner.
So many applications of the phrase "que zap" and all of them are wonderful.
It appears Bloombito is a little more self-aware than Bloomberg.
El Bloombito: a philosopher at heart.
The former mayor is a master of many languages, people.
Yes, he just insulted your mother and made a voting joke at the same damn time. Take a bow, Bloombito.
Too soon, Bloombito. TOO SOON.
