Arellano: ‘We’re all just a bunch of Josés’: Vance’s dig at Padilla is a new low

Published On: June 24, 2025

Sen. Alex Padilla’s name might have been mispronounced in a variety of ways by JD Vance. Alexis Al. Allen.

However, he proceeded directly to Jos.

Vance said the now-famous thing after the vice president parachuted in last Friday to essentially taunt Los Angeles:

I hoped Jos Padilla would be present so I could ask him a question. However, since there was no theater, I suppose he chose not to go.

Vance characterized what transpired a week prior, when Padilla was handcuffed and held at the federal building in Westwood for attempting to ask Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem a question during a press conference, as theater.

To free this city from the socialist and burdensome leadership of Governor Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, Noem, the only would-be actress that day, channeled her inner Evita when she asserted that the deployment of nearly 5,000 National Guard troops and Marines to crack down on activists attempting to prevent migrants from conducting immigration raids was essential.

Vance’s perception of Alex is Jos. Anyone who believes this was a verbal blunder is unaware of their history of anti-Latino sentiment.

Spanish first names have been used by Americans as general derogatory remarks about Latinos for more than a century. Mexican men were written off as foolish Pedros and dangerous Panchos. Latinas of all ethnicities have suffered from being stereotyped as submissive Lupes or sultry Marias.

The Historical Dictionary of American Slang states that Jos was first used against Puerto Ricans. Racists began using the moniker to refer to all Latino men by the 1970s due to its widespread use. Over the past century, Jos has been the most popular Hispanic boy’s name, according to the Social Security Administration.

William Nericcio, an English professor at San Diego State who has dedicated his career to examining the psychology of anti-Latino racism in this nation, stated that Vance’s misnaming of Padilla was the ideal linguistic and class storm. “Yeah, I know you,” the vice president exclaimed to Senator Padilla. I can’t even recall what your name is. That’s how inconsiderate you are. You’re a Jos. You are a filthy Mexican, a nothing, and a nothing.

Nericcio went on to say that it was the icing on the cake when they actually threw Padilla to the ground, alluding to the video that showed federal officers handcuffing Padilla.

“He knows my name, since the two of them served in the Senate together, and the vice president presides over the Senate,” Padilla said on MSNBC over the weekend, calling Vance’s jab trivial and unimportant.

He was very courteous. My blood boiled just as violently when I watched the video of Vance’s Jos flashing a smile just after he said it, his eyes darting about as though he was expecting a laugh, as when I watched images of immigration officers abusing undocumented immigrants.

All of my friends who had their names spelled out as kids or even as adults—Josie, Joe-zay, or pronounced correctly but in an exaggerated tone—came to mind.

In contrast to the vice president’s clan, my grandfathers, Jos Miranda and Jos Arellano, who are brothers from Madreto Vance’s ancestral home in Appalachia and hail from remote Mexican mountain communities, never let hardship dampen their spirits. Jos Fernandez, my T a Maria’s eldest son, who everyone nicknamed Chepe, came to mind. We cousins all adore him for his lively demeanor, mouthwatering carne asada, and cement career, which saw Chepe rise from worker to manager.

In my family, none of the Jos were jokes. The Jos I like were not Cuban revolutionary either.Mexican singer-songwriter Jos MartJos Alfredo Jimnez, a former farmworker who became an astronautHernndez, Jos M. Neither was Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, known in Spanish as Jos. As a self-described Catholic, Vance ought to be aware that using such a sacred name in jest is inappropriate.

Vance is such a clown that he made Padilla’s attempt to question Noem into a charade. His deep prejudice is exposed as he spits Jos out like a bad guy in a low-budget western. If you think I’m going too, take a look at Vance’s press secretary, Taylor Van Kirk, who stated her boss must have confused two lawbreakers when Politico asked her to explain on his Jos slur.

In addition to the fact that Alex Padilla did not violate any laws, Van Kirk’s ambiguous reference to a second alleged criminal supported my argument from a few weeks ago that, to Trump and his team, all Mexicans are interchangeable, unreliable, and probably criminals.

To reiterate, at a press conference, Vance misidentifies Alex Padilla. According to his press flak, it’s because the senator’s name sounds like the name of an unidentified criminal.

Jos is the prevalent dehumanizing thread.

To find out how they were feeling following Vance’s verbal ballet of intolerance, I called up two Jos that I know.

The sixth generation of men in his family with the same name is represented by Jos R. Ralatre. However, when he relocated from Puerto Rico to the mainland, that pedigree was meaningless.

Throughout his early years in North Carolina, Ralat was subjected to the taunts of “No way, Jos!”—the same thing his father had heard from gringos in New York in the 1960s. Instead of even attempting to pronounce Jos, one elementary school teacher called it Ralat. Whatever you’re called. All of the Latino children were named Jos by a middle school teacher.

“I was really perplexed at first,” said Ralat, Texas Monthly’s taco editor. Where I’m from, it’s the most uninteresting name in Spanish. Make fun of that? However, it continued to occur. It was strange. It was terrible. It was about as terrible as having the name “spic.”

That’s why I rolled my eyes and thought, “Here we go again,” when Ralat heard Vance’s Jos dig. It’s such a dull, juvenile insult. He is not Shakespeare.

The chair of Chicana/o Studies at Cal State Channel Islands is Jos M. Alamillo. He was given his father’s name and has a family tree that dates back to 1759. However, as a Mexican immigrant growing up in Ventura, the 55-year-old claimed that the ridicule he faced because of his first name was so widespread that he attended high school using the nickname Joe.

At UC Santa Barbara, Alamillo only resumed using the name Jos after a lecturer pronounced it like any other name on the first day of class.

He claimed that although the action was little, it restored some honor to my name.

Alamillo instantly thought of Ricardo Pancho Gonzalez when he viewed the video of Vance misnaming Padilla. The L.A.-born Mexican American tennis player dominated the game during the 1950s, yet was labeled Pancho by opponents and the media a nickname he eventually adopted but always hated.

Vance made an extremely bad mistake, Alamillo added. I can understand a staff worker doing it, but not the US vice president.

Theprofequickly corrected himself. Actually, I m sure he did it to appease to his followers and especially Trump Yeah, you got him! Way to show up Padilla!

Alamillo laughed bitterly. To them, we re all just a bunch of Jos s.