Open thread for night owls: Unmasking the woman behind 'El Bloombito'

At Salon, Mary Elizabeth Williams asks us to Meet the woman behind "El Bloombito":

In the past few days, as New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg held forth at his numerous Hurricane Sandy'related press conferences, two surprisingly entertaining sideshows have emerged in the midst of disaster. There has been the lively, expressive work of the mayor's sign language interpreter Lydia Callis, whom New York magazine accurately praised as a 'both lightning-fast and emotive' presence during Hizzoner's updates. And then there's been Mayor Mike Bloomberg's awkward, shambling attempts at 'Spanish.' Rachel Figueroa-Levin "El Bloombito" Delivered with all the Latin aplomb of a tone-deaf Tijuana tourist, Bloomberg's Spanish has been a hallmark of his administration. But it first became a full-blown meme during Hurricane Irene, in 2011, when Rachel Figueroa-Levin was watching the mayor's not-quite-Rosetta Stone-level attempts to communicate with his Spanish-speaking urban population in pre-hurricane amusement. 'I was joking with people on Twitter,' the Inwood resident says. Rather than 'clutter' her own Twitter stream with her joking imitations of Bloomberg's stilted stabs at multiculturalism, she created a 'speaky the Spanish' alter ego: Miguel Bloombito. In the past two days, El Bloombito's pidgin Español Twitter stream has been a balm to disaster-scarred New Yorkers, a bracingly funny respite from the ravages of Sandy. Prior to the storm, it was Bloombito who warned New Yorkers, 'Cuidado! El stormo somos about to que vamos el lañdfall! Batteño los hatches!' and 'Por favor to remaiño insidero until notice de furthero. Peligroso!' Afterward, it was Bloombito who reminded, 'El floodo agua esta still todos los everywhere. Necesitos los gearo de scuba y el flipper!'

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