[ilbegone]

It is an interesting twist.

If I recall right, the polls leading up to the election indicated that people labeled "Latino" were far more concerned about the economy than immigration.


All this clamor within the Republican party tells me that white Republicans in Washington are still clueless by seeing a whole race of people as all the same person.

I recently had a discussion with an interesting "Hispanic" man (perhaps third generation who learned at least some Spanish from his parents and Grandparents) who voted for Romney and fears that Obama is ultimately going to destroy us. He is a 60 something retired sheriff and is some kind of a political science teacher in a university not part of UC/Cal state system. He is not a full Phd professor.

The discussion was about "the Latino vote" and the man became agitated, I believe angry. What was lost in the discussion is that under the surface we actually agree for the most part, but the discussion itself was ultimately interpreted by him to be racially oriented rather than a political discussion and the exchange was essentially pointless. It's too bad, because the man is a nice guy and I have greatly enjoyed his company while quaffing a beer or so. Might not happen anymore.

The word "Latino" has so many meanings as to be extremely unreliable as a descriptive word, the word does not distinguish between nationalities, legality of presence, language, political persuasion, or culture and can be used in several different conflicting ways according to convenience. So, "Latino" needs to be defined in a manner which is not so vague in political discussion as it is now. That was part of the problems of discussing the "Latino vote" with the "Latino" gentleman above.

So, what the Republican party needs to do is get beyond ham fisted, fratricidal politics and understand that the real issue concerning most "Latinos" is not so much about immigration as it is about racial consciousness on both sides of the arguments and even with described Latinos who agree with Republican party politics.

***

Edited in and added a couple or three hours after posting:

Professional "Mexicans", the squeaky wheel.

Borrowing from professor Richard Rodriguez (my interpretation from his description of going to a function honoring Cesar Chavez in person), a portion of people within a narrow definition of "Latino" (brown skin, Spanish last name, American citizens with multigenerational family residency in the United States and having a particular political view which includes racial politics).

Rodriguez describes Cesar Chavez as sitting in the middle of the group blinking in the light with his personal presence reminding them of what their grandparents were as they were adoring and applauding their little Mexican American saint, and then Mexican waiters poured champagne. The Latino audience is described as fat cats, stuffed shirts, movie producers and the like (obviously including educators and politicians) - American born "professional Mexicans" who hire Mexican nationals to do menial tasks. The question was posed that without the notion of victimization what would all these people in the audience really be? The suggested answer was that they might as well be "Italian" as "Mexican" for ethnic identity.

So, what really defines "Latino", and why is that absurd game of "I'm a more authentic Latino than you are" so commonly played, particularly when the majority of Mexican nationals who come here won't regard any of them (including Cesar Chavez, Ohtli award notwithstanding - Mexican governmental proclamations don't create cultural Mexicanidad) as being Mexican?

It is worth noting that Chavez' grandfather came to America to escape peonage slavery on a Mexican hacienda probably in the 1880's. Modern born in America "professional Mexicans" haven't experienced any sort of that kind of thing and most have no Idea of what Cesar Chavez' realities were in his own day. Otherwise they might understand why Chavez called the Border Patrol on illegally present Mexican nationals whom the growers hired to break his strikes and why he refused to go along with the radical Chicano idea of enlisting Mexican governmental aid from Mexican president Echevarria for the Chicano Movimiento 40 years ago until the Mexican government stopped supporting illegal immigration into America.