The White House may be the next thing to go Latino.
First daughter Malia Obama has gained a strong command of the Spanish language, President Barack Obama said Friday during a speech to Mexican high school and university students.
“You’ve welcomed our daughter Malia and her classmates to Oaxaca,” Obama said during a speech at Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology. “And as a proud father I have to say that Malia’s Spanish is getting very good.”
"It helps that she's smarter than I am," Obama added.
Malia Obama traveled to Oaxaca on a school trip last year.
Obama rolled off some Spanish himself, drawing applause when he referred to Mexico City as D.F. and following up with the phrase “es un placer estar entre amigos,” or “it’s a pleasure to be among friends.”
Obama finished out the speech with “Viva Mexico. Viva Los Estados Unidos. Que Diós los bendiga” -- Spanish for “Long live Mexico. Long live the United States. May God bless them.”
He noted that it was his fourth visit to Mexico as president and his second visit to the museum.
Some may recall that in 2011 Obama also showed off his Spanish skills by properly pronouncing “Puerto Rico” during a four-hour visit to the island, though “arroz con gandules” gave him trouble.
During Friday’s speech, Obama called upon the U.S. and Mexico to discard “old stereotypes, said he didn’t favor drug legalization, and acknowledged that U.S. guns fuel the violence of Mexico’s drug war. He said he’d push for “common sense” policies to exert more control over gun sales.
More than 250,000 guns per year flow across the border into Mexico, according to an estimate by the University of San Diego’s Trans-Border Institute and Brazil’s Igarapé Institute.
Before You Go
