Republicans and the Latino Vote

Donald Trump   Ted Cruz 

You would think they would know better.  The NYTimes has peculiar article on its front page today,  2 Latino Candidates at Odds, Heritage and Ideology Aside,  by Lizette Alvarez and Manny Fernandez.  The writers examine differences between Cruz and Rubio in their campaign for President.  And, they examine their differences on immigration.  They report that the two are each hoping to break the Republican Party’s isolation from Latino voters.

But, they do not mention that both candidates, as Cuban Americans, do not come from a community divided by immigration.  Cubans have a unique status.  They are allowed to come to the US with little obstruction.

On the 2010 Census form, people of Spanish, Hispanic and/or Latino origin could identify themselves as Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano, Puerto Rican, Cuban, or "another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin."

 According to this census, 50.5 million people, or 16% of the population, are of Hispanic or Latino origin.  The 2010 Census listed 33 million Mexican-origin residents (64.9 % of all Latinos); Puerto Ricans within the U.S .numbered 4.7 million (9.2 %); Cuban Americans 1.9 million ( 3.7  %); Salvadorans 1.8 million (3.6 %); Dominicans 1.5 million (3 %); Guatemalans  1.1 million  (2.2 %); Colombians 972,000 (1.9 %); Hondurans 731,000 (1.4%); Ecuadorans 665,000 (1.3 %); and Peruvians 609,000 (1.2%).  Each of these groups has its own identity and historical experiences.

Mexicans, Mexican Americans and other Latinos (except Cuban Americans)  have good reason to be concerned about  current the mobilization of  racist movements by these  harsh and xenophobic  campaigns of Trump, the Republicans including both Cruz and Rubio.

"If we do not vote, the haters will win," Dolores Huerta

Dolores Huerta 

Dolores Huerta, who co-founded United Farmworkers with Cesar Chavez and who is an Honorary Chair of Democratic Socialists of America, spoke during a news conference Tuesday morning Nov. 10, before the Republican candidates debate  in Milwaukee  and said it's "really unfortunate" that GOP leaders are trying to win by attacking innocent people.

Huerta calls Donald Trump the face of the Republican Party, and accuses him of dehumanizing Latinos.

GOP Positions may sink Republicans in the Fall elections. 

Huerta says his primary opponents are no better.

"When we think about people like Rubio and Ted Cruz, even Jeb Bush, who speaks Spanish, they may have a Spanish last name -- but they do not have a Latino heart because they don`t care about immigrants. They don`t care about our community," Huerta said.

These protesters say Latino voters could swing this swing state next fall.

Latino Families Criticize Democratic Senator Kay Hagan

A coalition of Latino families is going after Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina in a pair of Spanish-language billboards that are meant to expose her record on immigration.

The billboards went up Tuesday — one in Raleigh and another in Durham — and were paid for by donations from Latino families. They show an image of Hagan and assert that the Democratic senator “is not a friend of immigrants.” Hagan is among the handful of vulnerable Democratic senators running for re-election in tough races.

Viridiana Martinez, a Dreamer who helped with the efforts to put up the billboards, said the purpose of the billboards is to hold Hagan accountable on immigration.

“This isn’t about a political party,” Martinez said in an interview with VOXXI. “This is about accountability, and Sen. Hagan needs to know that there are consequences for being anti-immigrant.”

The billboards allude to a vote Hagan took in 2006 when she was a state senator to prohibit undocumented immigrants from being able to get driver’s license in North Carolina.

Chicano/a Studies- Not Hispanic

Identity Crisis: An Arrested Development

By  Rodolfo Acuña

The debate as to what to name Chicana/o Studies will have future repercussions. The proposals are not new; they are not innovative; and they are symptomatic of the historical struggle of Mexican origin people in the United States to identify themselves. 

The problem is that the group has grown so large and the stakes so high that the consequences will hurt everyone. Unfortunately, the level of the discourse lacks logic, and it prolongs a resolution to the identity crisis of Mexican Americans.

Admittedly, Latinos have a lot in common, but we also have a lot of differences, e.g., in social class, population size, where we live, and our history to name a few dissimilarities. These differences strew the landscape with landmines especially for those who already believe that all Latinas/os look alike. It makes it easier for them to lump us into one generic brand.

The Case of Marco Rubio ( and Ted Cruz)

Rodolfo F. Acuña

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)  strongly criticized the first draft of President Obama's immigration reform plan saying “It’s a mistake for the White House to draft immigration legislation without seeking input from Republican members of Congress… ," predicting that "if actually proposed, the President’s bill would be dead on arrival in Congress." The Rubio statement calls the bill "half-baked and seriously flawed." It alleges that Obama’s bill is not tough enough on border security and that it penalizes "those who chose to do things the right way and come here legally" over "those who broke our immigration laws."

Rubio’s statement undermines the social construct of a Hispanic group that bonds the disparate Latino groups. Many of the activist members of this group dismissed Rubio as a “gusano” – a worm or a maggot – a term popularly used to refer to reactionary Cuban exiles that came here during the 1960s.

Prior to his epiphany Rubio had no interest in Mexican or Latino immigrants; his sudden awakening and concern about immigration was kindled because of the strength of the Latino vote, and Mr. Rubio’s presidential aspirations. Based on his surname Rubio claims the right to take ownership of the issue, even though his base is the Tea Party and the far right of the Republican Party.