What Latinos Want?

400,000 Latinos become eligible to vote each year, and as we have heard many times before will be the swing vote for the upcoming elections. So this means that the candidates will need to address the issues that Latino's feel are important. However, figuring out exactly what this large group feels is the most important is a difficult task.

This video goes out and talks to a variety of Latino's on the streets of New York City to try and figure out what the important issues are and who they think would be the best President. Of course, one of the most important issues is immigration. Either these people or people they know have all gone through the process of immigration, whether it is legal or not. It is always going to be a huge deal in this community. The war in Iraq also was a large concern for many of the people they talked to. One man said that they next President must be a Democrat, because the Republicans haven't done anything in the 8 years that they have been in office. I am not saying whether I agree or not, but this is what some people feel has happened.

One woman felt that Obama would not win the Presidency because she felt that America is more ready for a woman President than an African American President. She also said, even though she is a Democrat, if it was between McCain and Obama, she would vote for McCain because she feels that Obama would not be able to get us out of Iraq and we might as well just continue with a Republican. Many people felt they would vote for Clinton because she has been working to help out the Latino community for a long time.

In New York's Cultural Mix, Black Latinos Carve Out Niche

I read an article from the New York Times that is about black Latinos and their struggle to identify with the Latino community, the African American community, or sometimes both. This struggle was brought to life because Dominicans in New York planned to open a museum and cultural center, surprisingly called, "Afro-Quisqueya." Only 2% of Latinos counted in the 2000 Census considered themselves as black, with a much higher density claiming to be black Latino within New York.

Many black Latinos have trouble identifying with only one of these communities. There were a couple people in this article whose mothers were black Dominican and fathers were white Puerto Rican. One of the people said that even though they were light-skinned, they needed to identify with the African American community to honor his or her mother. As we talked about in the first week of class, people identify themselves with different groups based on how connected they feel.

Hip-hop is often thought as something created by solely African Americans, but it has also been very important for the Latino community. Will Jones, a 26-year-old black Latino of Panamanian descent, said that hip-hop has become the middle ground that both African Americans and Latinos can be a part of.



http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B02EFDB133DF93BA15757C0A9659C8B63&scp=2&sq=Latinos+in+New+York&st=nyt

116th Street Festival in New York

On Si tv, there is a show called Latination. On Thursday, March 20, 2008 there was a Boricua special talking about the 116th Street Festival in New York City. It talked about the Puerto Rican culture both in New York and Chicago.

The 116th Street Festival started about 20 years ago because Nick Lugo, the co-creator of the festival, felt that there was a need for some sort for celebration to take place. It is the day before the Puerto Rican Day Parade because they felt that it would be more like a pep rally to get the younger population more involved. It is also a way to share the Puerto Rican culture with other cultures.

Tito Puente was a huge influence on this festival and started his career in Spanish Harlem. He is known as the "King of Latin music." He opened the door to everyone in Latin music. By age 13 he was playing professionally and some even called him a child protegy. As we discussed in class, music is extremely important to the Puerto Rican culture. La Casitas in the Bronx is a place where Puerto Ricans can go to play music, eat Puerto Rican food, and just socialize with other Puerto Ricans.

In Paseo Boricua, located in Chicago, is home to thousands of Puetro Ricans. There are two of the largest flags in the world are located on the roads leading into Paseo Boricua in order to make Puerto Ricans feel at home and like there is a place that they can go to feel safe. They also have a Puerto Rican Day Parade, just like New York. There is also a large library located within Paseo Boricua, where Puerto Ricans of any age can go to learn about their history and culture.

Rosie Perez made a documentary called “Yo Soy Boricua Pa’Que Tu Lo Sepas! (I’m Borican Just so You Know).” She decided to make this documentary to show people about the history, the island, the people and the unique relationship between Pueto Rico and the United States. Puerto Ricans fight in wars, fight for our President, and yet cannot vote for the President. It begins and ends with the Puerto Rican Day Parade.

Will Puerto Rico Support Clinton or Obama?

Currently Senator Clinton is trailing in the race for delegates. So instead of focusing on things such as the war in Iraq, she decided to dedicate her time the Puerto Ricans. She has vowed to create more jobs within Puerto Rico by creating new tax benefits, as well as returning some of the land on the outlying island of Vieques. On other thing that she said she wants to do is advance plans that would allow the Puerto Rican people to decide whether they would like to remain a commonwealth, become a state, or gain its independence. This, however, could be a very bad thing because it is apparent that Puerto Rico is split on whether or not they want their independence or not. Will these political promises provide enough delegates for Senator Clinton to gain the nomination for the Democratic Party?

Senator Obama has also focused on Puerto Rican politics. In November of 2007, Senator Barack Obama met with Puerto Rico Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila in Puerto Rico. Governor Vila has endorsed Senator Obama for quite a while now. Out of the seven superdelegates in Puerto Rico, three are committed to Senator Clinton, two are committed to Senator Obama, and the remaining two are undecided. So come June 1, 2007, who will win the delegates of Puerto Rico? Senator Clinton or Senator Obama?

Fidel Resigns. What Does this Mean for Cuba?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/02/19/castro/index.html

With Fidel Castro resigning and giving power to his brother, Raul Castro, should change be expected? This question seems to have split opinions. Some Cubans believe that there is hope for its people to have more freedoms, no matter who the next president is. Others believe, however, that there is little hope for any change because it is just one dictator replacing another. So why did people either love Fidel as a leader or hate him?

Some people see social progress that Fidel's reign has made. There is better health care, less racism, and universal education. Many of his supporters, in fact, blame the U.S. embargo for the economic problems that Cuba has. People who disliked Castro as a leader, however, felt that his continued defense of a totalitarian model only created misery and unhappiness for all of Cuba's people. President Bush feels that the international community should help create a democratic system in Cuba in order to better the peoples' lives. Should the U.S. intervene in another countries internal battle? It all depends on how you look at things. My opinion is that we should not go try to "help out" another country unless they ask for our help. It is possible that the people respect Raul Castro and want to keep the government the way it is. The people who feel differently may attempt to overthrow him, just as Fidel overthrew Fulgencio Batista. That is when the U.S. will attempt to help out Cuba.

Latino Voters in Texas Wonder What "Change" Consists of

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/22/sanchez.latinos/

This article aimed at comparing and contrasting Hispanic's view of Obama and Clinton. Clinton wants to stop funding NAFTA and other free-trade agreements. This did not gain a good response from the Hispanic audience because many of the jobs within Texas consist of trading. They want to keep free trade and free flow of commerce between the U.S. and Mexico. Both Obama and Clinton have vowed to let Bush's tax cuts expire. If they really look at who that affects, however, they would realize that it hits the Hispanic community in Texas hard. Many of them own small businesses that were actually helped by these tax cuts. When they expire, it will be a huge tax increase. As for building the 700-foot long fence on the U.S.-Mexico border, Obama and Clinton both voted for it, but once they started their campaigns for Presidency, they changed their minds. However, of the respondents in this article, 70% said they supported the building of a fence on the border. They also felt that neither Clinton nor Obama spent enough time on the foreign policy between the U.S. and Cuba. Things are bound to change now that Fidel Castro has ceded power and gave it to his brother, Raul. This article gave some very interesting views that I did not expect.

The main thing that I noticed in this article was that the author used "Hispanic" rather than "Latino." As we discussed in the first few weeks of class, "Latino" tends to be very broad and it includes all of Latin America. "Hispanic," on the other hand tends to only include the Spanish-speaking countries. So in other words it excludes countries such as Brazil and Haiti. In class we have talked about the different groups that Mexican-Americans associate themselves with. I'm wondering if using "Hispanic" instead of "Latino" could have caused any flaws in her interviewing.

I thought that it was interesting that a lot of the main issues that Clinton and Obama talked about contradicted the views of the Hispanics in this article. The Latino vote is generally Liberal but this article makes it look like they don’t really agree with anything that the Democratic nominees say. I’m not sure if I believe everything that is said in this article, but it was an interesting point of view that both Clinton and Obama need to be more clear about what "change" may consist of.

El Cenizo, TX - Spanish the Official Language?

This video talks about a town in Texas on the U.S. Mexican boarder. Spianish is the official language of this town, so even the politics are spoken in spanish. Their 24 year old mayor translates meeting agendas into spanish. Before the official language changed to spanish, El Cenizo was not prosperous at all. Now, however, with the city and its people speaking the same language it has a paved roads and a police and fire station. The city also pushes people to speak english as well. El Cinezo also prohibits people from turing in illegal immigrants and actually acts like a safehaven for them, which is a growing thing in several cities across the nation. People don't really seem to care that the city is conducting business in spanish, but tend to be troubled by the fact that they are harboring illegal immigrants.

In our book, Fluid Borders, it says, "American national identity requires English momlingualism because speaking another lanuage has often been seen as a sign of allegiance to another nation or culture and thus antithetical to being a 'true' American." So does that mean that this town is going against American national identities? In my opinion, no. They are only trying to make their town a better place to live and because almost all of its population is made up of legal Mexican-Americans it is easier to speak spanish. Many Mexican-Americans speak only spanish in their homes, so why not do this in the government? It's not like they are abolishing English completely from the whole town. They do still encourage the children to learn English so that if they move away from this town, they will still have an equal chance at getting a good job. I agree with Ruben Navarrette Jr. in this video when he say that the government shouldn't be pushing english or pushing spanish. If the people want this sense of "American national identity," then they can make the choice to speak English or Spanish, it should be up to them. If the United States wanted everyone to speak only English, they would have made it our national language.

Courting Latino Voters

This video talks about the 9.3 million registered, Latino voters in the United States and what candidates for the upcoming election need to do in order to win their vote. The first point was that people need to realize that there are differences between people who are Cuban, Peruvian, Mexican, ect. In the United States, people tend to lump them all together. However, the traditions, living conditions along with many other things are very different in Peru than they are in Cuba or any other Latin country. The traditions and life experiences are what makes every single person different, regardless of race. The one similarity that most people of Latino decent is that they speak Spanish. This means that the candidates should, and have, put out campaign ads in Spanish as well as in English.

In these ads, the candidates must talk about issues that are important to people. This video claims that education opportunities, homeownership, and healthcare are among the most important issues that Latino people care about. While interviewing people, it was said that people are losing jobs which in turn causes them to have to move or be unable to pay rent. This means that homelessness and multiple families living together in small homes barely large enough for one small family. Another person who was interviewed stated that educational opportunities were very important to him, but he feels as though the U.S. educational system is falling behind. Also, many Latinos are opposed to an open door policy. This means that immigration is a big issue as well. As we have talked about in class, there are many Mexican-Americans who don't agree with illegal immigrants being here in the United States. They feel as though these illegal immigrants should have to go through the same process they had to in order to become a citizen. It is a very controversial subject that affects all of the United States, not just the Latino community.

Arizona Police Routinely Asking for Proof of Citizenship

According to a report on foxnews.com, December 23, 2007, Arizona police are routinely asking for proof of citizenship from every suspect they arrest. This procedure was set up in response to the killing of a police officer, Nick Erfle, in Phoenix last year. Erik Jovani Martinez, a twice deported illegal immigrant, was arrested and released. After being released he killed Nick Erfle.

First of all, how do they refrain from racial profiling? They say that they ask for proof of citizenship from every suspect, but do they really mean just those who look as though they could be from Latino decent? The mayor of Scottsdale, Mary Manross says that the police are definitely not engaging in racial profiling, but who is there to regulate that. There is racial profiling everywhere in the U.S. and not just against Latinos. You hear about it all the time. Unfortunately, there are still some racist people in the world that do decide that other races are criminals and need to be punished.

Secondly, what if a person doesn't have proof of citizenship? Obviously most people who are driving are going to have their driver’s licenses, but is that enough to prove they are a citizen of the United States? You hear about people having fake ID's and identity theft all the time so obviously it is somewhat easy to get a fake drivers license. Also, most people don't carry their birth certificates, social security cards, or passports around with them. Those are things that we are told to keep at home or in a safe deposit box, somewhere it won't be stolen. So are they just asking for proof of citizenship from people who look like they could be immigrants?

Overall, I feel as though this new procedure is a bad idea. It just leads to more corruption with law enforcement. Many people who shoot police officers are citizens of the U.S. so what makes it okay for the police to single out possibly illegal immigrants? A criminal is a criminal in my eyes, whether they are illegal immigrants or U.S. citizens. Are they going to start asking everyone what gang they are affiliated with next? This is a ridiculous procedure and it needs to be stopped soon.

If you'd like to read the article, the link is:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,318126,00.html?sPage=fnc/specialsections/immigration