U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) hailed Argentina for supposedly being a “completely homogenous” nation with “only one culture, only one religion and only one race.”
Salazar, who is of Cuban descent, made the comments in a Spanish-language video supporting Javier Milei before he was elected president of the South American country.
Milei is a “right-wing libertarian and former television pundit who calls himself an ‘anarcho-capitalist,'” according to NBC News. He was elected president last weekend and drew praise from some U.S. Republican politicians, including Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, (R-TX), former President Donald Trump, and other MAGA acolytes.
NBC reported on Salazar’s comments, which were translated from Spanish to English:
We want it to be one of the best countries in the world, because it’s what they deserve. A country that has everything. It has soy, it has meat, it has minerals, it has land, it has water, and it has only one culture, only one religion and only one race, completely homogenous.
The misconception of Argentina as “predominantly white and Catholic” lasted through most of the 20th century, according to Oscar Chamosa, an associate history professor at the University of Georgia.
Chamosa told NBC News that “large numbers of people identify as Indigenous and Afro-descendant immigrants from other South American countries, particularly Bolivia and Paraguay.” Despite that fact, Chamosa added that the official Argentine censuses “do not account for race.”
In a statement, José Muñoz, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Salazar’s “comments praising the notion of advancing a society with a single culture, religion, and race are antithetical to our American values.”
Salazar’s spokesperson responded to criticism of her comments by stating, “Argentines were united as one people against the failures of communism.” She did not directly address why Salazar used the words she did, according to NBC News.
