In the event that Hillary Clinton upsets Bernie Sanders to win the Democratic nomination in 2016, she may be tasked with picking a suitable nominee for vice president.
Who would she choose?
A lot of people seem to think HUD Secretary Julián Castro is an obvious choice. Not only is Castro 27 years younger than Hillary, he is also very loyal (he's already endorsed her) and Hispanic.
Or is he?
Yes, he is. However, despite being raised by Hispanic parents in Texas, and serving as mayor of San Antonio (a largely ceremonial role), Castro never really learned to speak Spanish. If he wasn't a Democrat, some people might question whether he was "Hispanic enough." Unlike Ted Cruz, for example, no multimillionaire pundits have tried to force Castro to speak Spanish on television.
In preparation for his potential role as vice presidential candidate (a largely ceremonial role), Castro is said to be beefing up on his Spanish skills:
At home, Julián Castro’s been spending more time reading and watching television in Spanish, trying to get his speaking skills up to speed.
People close to Castro believe it's necessary, because they believe (correctly) that, if nominated, Hillary's choice of running mate will be based exclusively on racial identity:
Along the way, Castro’s inner circle of aides and advisers have come to see Clinton’s running mate decision as a pretty simple math problem: it’ll be a white man, a black man or a brown man, they figure.
And then they run it down from there: the white man’s Sen. Tim Kaine, and though he’s got a lot of good government experience and the geography that could help with Ohio and Pennsylvania on top of his own Virginia, they say that at 58 he’d be too old to provide a generational contrast to the 68-year old Clinton, and too white for a campaign being defined by immigration reform and Black Lives Matter and Donald Trump’s attacks on minorities. Yes, Kaine speaks Spanish—and fluently, from his days as a missionary in Honduras, as opposed to Castro, who like so many first-generation Americans, had parents who only spoke English with him—but they don’t think it’ll go over too well for Clinton to try explaining to Latinos that at least the white guy she picked over a Latino speaks their language.
Yeah, that wouldn't be bueño.