Latino Politics in the United States - Essay Example

Running Head: Latino Politics in the US Latino Politics in the US In United s, Latinos are one of the most growing groups. The 1990 United States census showed that the Latinos population to be 22.4 million. The Latino is composed of five groups namely: Puerto Ricans, Mexican, Salvadorans, Cubans, and Guatemalans. There vast population has big influence on the voting pattern in elections which are normally held in United States. As from 1960s, the 1965 Voting Right Act and the 1964 Civil Right Act societies legislations’ formations mainstreamed more Americans to politics, where Latinos where powerful on the issue (Garcia, 2003, p. 31). This made the Latinos vote to have great impact on national, state and local elections. During most presidential elections, the aspiring candidates normally concentrate on the votes of Latinos as they occupy the major states of United States such as New York, California, Texas, Florida, and Illinois. These states comprise more than half of the majority of electoral vote required for presidency election (DeSipio, 1996, p. 280). However, despite the fact that the Latinos forms the largest group in United States fail to participate fully on political issues and also to form a unified voting bloc. Several factors have been attributed to the impediment of Latinos participation on politics in United States. One of the most factors attributed to this is lack of group identity (Garcia, 2003, p. 34). Self-identification has influence on cohesion of a group. It also leads to articulation of a large group of people. The kind and extend of self-identification locates relation that exist between one group with another. Also it has relationship with political ideology and participation. However, with Latinos, the sense of self-identification is missing. The Latinos diversity in United States is the greatest among the other groups (Garcia, 2003, p. 34). For example, there is big division among the Mexican. This means that there is no political cohesion among the Mexicans. Latinos have different experiences in United States and can mark out their ancestors from 22 nations that are different. A survey that was carried out on 5,404 Latinos showed a big ethnic diversity among the groups. The diversity existing among the Latino groups has actually hindered the development of voting bloc that is powerful (Garcia, 2003, p. 34). Some Latinos traces the presence of their families in United States in many countries, where as other groups are just first-generation immigrants. It has been argued out that, the reasons beyond the immigration of these groups was due to political reasons. However, others are said to have migrated because of economic opportunities (Gutierrez, 2004, p. 255). Other diversities attached to Latinos that has contributed to poor coordination towards their voting pattern are: religion, resource endowment, and language. Some Latinos live in poor condition as they experiencing high cost of living, while others live in better conditions categorized as middle class. In terms of their faith and religion, some are protestant, others catholic, Buddhist that is Chinese Cubans, and Jewish. In terms of their language some Latinos speak only English but others are bilingual (Gutierrez, 2004, p. 255). The Latinos are also diverse in terms of race. The above discussed socioeconomic, regional, religious, cultural and racial differences or diversities have had great influence on the political behavior of the Latinos (Haynie, 2000, p. 30). The major three groups of Latinos: the Puerto Ricans, Mexican and the Cubans play a vital political role within the regions in which they are too many. The Mexican Americans in the past have stayed in the southwestern of United States of which this area was conquered by the United States during the war of Mexican. The other two large groups: Cubans lived in Florida and Puerto Ricans inhabited the northeast. However, since the beginning of the Second World War, the Latinos started to occupy other areas rather than their historic areas in which they have lived in large number (Wald, 2006, p. 120). For example, the American Mexican has already occupied the great lake and the Midwest regions; the Puerto Ricans have already occupied the Sunbelt and Midwest. This has the implication that they have had to create the political coalitions together with other groups of Latinos, and Asian Americans and African Americans. The purpose of this coalition was to help them lobby for legislation which was to the advantage of several Latinos that is the minorities. This has been difficulty for these groups to achieve. For example, in the Chicago city, the conservative Cubans find it hard to work with Mexican Americans and the liberal Puerto Cubans, as the Cubans tend to cast their votes to republicans and the other two groups for democrats (Garza, 1996, p. 111). The second factor towards less participations and representation of the Latinos in United States is the population of youth. According to findings by some sociologists it is argued that, the more the population is composed of many youths, the less likely will the community members be interested on political issues. The Latino population median age is 25.5 years, with other groups which are younger (Gutierrez, 2004, p. 256). The major and the largest groups of Latino: the Puerto Ricans and the Mexican American have average age of 20 and 21 years respectively. On the other side, the Cubans, which is the third largest Latino group the average age is 35 years. The Cubans due to large number of adults who most of them have greater age, their political participation is of great levels compared to the other two groups (Gutierrez, 2004, p. 256). Thirdly, the big portion of the legal population of Latino can not vote as they have not yet become full citizens of United States. For example, the 1988 elections, 52 percent of the legal Latinos did not cast their votes due to the reason that they were ineligible. The illegal population was estimated to be 1.7 to 2.9 million, where most part of the population was from Latinos who could not vote in the elections by then (Fanta, 2002, p. 213). Fourth, the political participation by Latinos in United States has also been affected by the high levels of poverty among the groups. A study of Latino political participation showed a correlation between the indicators of socioeconomic factors such as income and education and the political participation level. Due to the fact that, the Latinos have higher poverty levels compared with the rest of Americans, their participation rates on voting process is very low regardless that they may benefit from their election participation (Haynie, 2000, p. 30). The Latinos living below poverty level are approximated to be a quarter of their total population. Voter turnout under such circumstances has been found to be contributed by apathy, in which the Latinos believe that their votes will bring no difference on the existing conditions of living. The Latinos also lack trust on the political leaders due to the experience they have from their former countries (Haynie, 2000, p. 30). In the late 19th and earl 20th centuries, the Latinos formed several political and social organizations to deal with most of the needs that the community members experienced. Most of the organizations were formed during the Second World War. In those days, through measures such as poll taxes and literacy, as well as education, social and employment segregation. The Latinos were shield barred from practicing their political powers and voice (Velez, 2004, p. 51). Despite the fact that the odds were against the Latinos, their communities actually made modest acquisition by lobbying for legislations and holding offices that were protective, especially in regions such as south Texas where they lived in majority (Velez, 2004, p. 51). The state that has experienced high levels of participation in United States is New Mexico in its history. The reason to this could be attributed to its large size of population. Through out this state, most of the significant political gains have emerged from the civil rights movement (Velez, 2004, p. 51). The political organizations of Latinos are diverse in relation to the number of constituencies and the dissimilar needs of the range of population from time to time. Some organizations only cater for particular needs of groups and individuals. For example, the Cuban committee for democracy and the Cuban American national foundation formed in 1994 and 1980 respectively are the drivers by which the Cuban Americans have modeled the United States foreign policy on regard to Cuba (Velez, 2004, p. 87). This has been a significant issue to the community of greatly to the refugees’ first generation. On the other hand, the Puerto Ricans which was found in 1950 in New York has aimed on issues concerning community development and education in the community of Puerto Rican (Velez, 2004, p. 87). Some Latino organizations started as parochial effort in which later grew into national and state pan Latino organizations. The oldest Latino civil rights organization for example, is the LULAC (the league of united Latin American citizens) which was formed by the Mexican Americans spend most of its first years in fighting against the segregation challenges of the Mexican communities in public and school facilities (Fanta, 2002, p. 213). The formation of the above organization gave the Mexican Americans the ability to deal with most of the needs that suppressed their community of which up to date the membership for Latinos is open across the state. Being that the community has large size of population their membership to the organization comprises the majority. The organization together with other organizations is endeavoring to fight discrimination against the Latinos and to encourage political participation. Other political organizations have been formed in United States by the Latinos so as to unite the Latino groups. For example, the National Council of La Reza (NCLR) which represents not less than one million people Fanta, 2002, p. 214). Despite the fact that the Latinos have made no commensuration gain in United States politics with their big numbers, they have at least gained something in the politics. By the year 1990 several Latinos have had the opportunity to bear offices at local levels (Velez, 2004, p. 21). Several Latinos have been appointed to the United States cabinets by the United States presidents. To conclude this I would say that for the Latinos to be successful in United States must unite as one community. This will give them the voting power to elect one of their best who can handle their current issue and problems (Velez, 2004, p. 21). References: DeSipio, L. (1996). Counting on the Latino Vote: Latinos as a New Electorate. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, p. 280 Garza, O. (1996). Ethnic Ironies: Latino Politics in the 1992 Elections. Boulder: Westview Press, p. 111 Fanta, C. (2002). Latino politics in Massachusetts: Struggles and prospects. Oxford: Oxford University, p. 213, 214 Garcia, J. (2003). Latino politics in America: Community, culture, and interests. Mahwah, NJ: Praeger, p. 31, 34 Gutierrez, D. (2004). The Columbia history of Latinos in the United States since 1960. Columbia: Columbia University Press, p. 255, 256 Haynie, K. (2000). Encyclopedia of minorities in American politics: Hispanic Americans and native. London: Routledge, p. 30 Velez, F. (2004). The mass media and Latino politics: Studies of United States media content, campaign strategies and survey research. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, p. 21, 51, 87, Wald, K. (2006). Religion and politics in the United States. Mahwah, NJ: Praeger, p. 120 Read More