What's so funny about papayas?
That's probably what presidential candidate Mitt Romney was asking himself as he finished up an interview with Miami's Radio Mambí on Monday, a station mainly targeted at Cuban exiles.
According to Mediaite.com, in light of the governor's imminent campaign stop at convicted cocaine trafficker Reinaldo Bermudez' El Palacio de los Jugos (The Palace of Juices), host Carlos Santana asked Romney, “They’re waiting for you with a mamey and a guayaba — Cuban fruits — here in Miami, do you like those?”
“I am a big fan of mango, papaya, and guava,” Romney answered. Well of course he's a fan of papaya, it is a superfruit after all.
Santana, stifling his laughter, added. “There are mangos there too.” Great, but will there be papayas there?
Oops. Turns out, context is everything. The reason the host giggled when hearing Romney's response was because for many Cubans, "papaya" is slang for "vagina."
Well that was awkward... but it was an inadvertent faux pas, nowhere in the same league as Romney's true gaffe in in March 2007, when he was moving ahead with his 2008 run at the presidency.
"Hugo Chavez has tried to steal an inspiring phrase — 'Patria o muerte, venceremos.' It does not belong to him. It belongs to a free Cuba," Romney said.
Well actually the phrase belongs to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Unfortunately for Romney -- and according to TIME magazine -- it was directed at a "fiercely anti-Castro Latino Republican gathered for the Miami-Dade Lincoln Day Dinner."
Check out the audio of the interview with Radio Mambí below:
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