News Information and Media Site: Race/Related: The Changing Face of the Latino Vote in the U.S.

October 31, 2020

Paola Bueno, 21, left, an associate of La Colmena, a community-based organization working with immigrant workers, encourages the manager of a local restaurant to post flyers for a campaign to turn out the vote in the largely Hispanic community of Port Richmond in Staten Island, N.Y.Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press

Why the Latino Vote Matters

There is no route to the White House without Latino support: This year, with about 32 million eligible voters, they make up the largest minority group to ever take part in an election.

As a whole, they are more likely to vote for Democrats. But look closer and the story gets more complicated — and a lot more interesting.

Patricia Mazzei, the Miami bureau chief for The New York Times, sat down with Jorge Ramos, the journalist and anchor of Noticiero Univisión and a contributing Opinion writer for The Times, and former Representative Carlos Curbelo, Republican of Florida, to talk about what is driving the diverse Latino population this electoral year, which key states hinge on their vote, and what these communities are doing to transform their numbers into political power.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

PATI MAZZEI: Every single election cycle we have this conversation about the growing power of the Latino vote, given how many more Latinos are in the U.S. each year. And after each election, a lot of times we ask ourselves why Latinos did not vote, given the level they could have with their numbers. So, I want to start off by asking what, if anything, is different this year?

JORGE RAMOS: Let me start by saying what continues to be the same is what I call the Christopher Columbus syndrome. It’s like, every four years, they rediscover us, they love us, candidates start speaking Spanish in a few words, and then for the next three years they forget completely about us.

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What’s different are the numbers. We are the largest voting bloc in the United States when it comes to voting. 32 million Latinos will go to the polls. And the real tragedy is that maybe only half of them, 16 million, will actually vote.

CARLOS CURBELO: Without question, Pati, Latino communities in Arizona, in Florida, in Georgia, are poised to be the difference makers in critical states! So although we do this every four years, I think there’s a good reason why we do it. Because there are Hispanic communities in key states that, here in the state of Florida, have made the difference in some important elections in the past, and that certainly could make the difference in this critical 2020 election.

MAZZEI: An audience member, Marcella from Indiana, asked if the political views of Latinos might be influenced by how long they’ve been in the U.S.? Those who have been in the U.S. longer might be more inclined to support one ideology than another. And Carlos, you are always talking about the young Latino voters, because you are one of them, and you were born in the U.S.

So, do you think that’s the case? Your parents and grandparents, were they more conservative than you are?

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CURBELO: A lot of American politicians are starting to realize that different Latino voters are motivated in different ways.

Especially on the Democratic side, politicians are starting to understand that you can’t only talk immigration when trying to win Latino voters. You have to talk about jobs and the economy. In south Florida, you have to talk foreign policy. In other words: The community looks a lot more like the rest of the United States than, I think, sometimes we perceive.

MAZZEI: Let’s talk about immigration. Because in the past, it has been sort of the gateway issue for a lot of Latino voters, where even if it was not their number one issue, as you said, Carlos, they would see it as, if you speak to immigrants with a certain amount of respect, and you acknowledge the contributions that we make to this country, then we will listen to you on the other issues, on the economy, on education, on health care and foreign policy.

This cycle, though, immigration has just really hardly been talked about. Why is that?

RAMOS: I think it’s a huge issue. Before the year 2000, the vast majority of the growth within the Hispanic community depended on immigration. There were about a million legal immigrants coming every year, and about a million undocumented immigrants coming every single year. But then, 9/11 happened, and things started to change. And now, the vast majority of the growth in the Hispanic community comes from people born in the United States. And that changes everything.

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However, when you talk about immigration with someone, it tells you, for a Latino, for an immigrant, who you are. It’s a very symbolic issue. So if you have Donald Trump and Joe Biden talking about immigration from completely different perspectives, they tell you exactly what’s happening. Also, we cannot forget that, right now, in the United States, there are more than 10 million undocumented immigrants! 10 million undocumented immigrants who are part of the U.S. who have contributed much more to the economy than what they take away from it. And there has to be a solution.

A recording of the event and interview delves more into Latino evangelicals, disinformation targeting Latino communities and the effect Black Lives Matter protests have had on Latino voters.

A demonstrator walks near the hotel where President Trump stayed last week ahead in Nashville of the final presidential debate.Tom Brenner/Reuters

What It Means to Cover the American South

By Rick Rojas

A year ago, I was in Montgomery, the capital of Alabama and once of the Confederacy, as the city elected a Black mayor for the first time. I was struck by an electricity pulsing through the city, a sense of jubilation and satisfaction in a place that was in many ways still shrouded in a complicated and vicious history.

Resident after resident shared a similar sentiment: the time had come.

I was just a few weeks into a new job as a national correspondent covering the American South for The Times. As I reported the story, I absorbed lessons that have stuck with me and molded my approach to this work, particularly now as my role with the paper has shifted yet again, helping to guide coverage of the South as the chief of a new bureau in Nashville.

Being immersed in a community influences the stories we find and the way we tell them, hopefully passing a deeper understanding on to our readers around the world. The Times has long had a bureau in Atlanta, which was my previous home base. Now, with Nashville, we will have a presence in two cities that are cultural and economic hubs, better positioning us to explore the questions of identity that are central to the story of the South.

The perception of the South in the broader consciousness is anchored in that ugly past, influenced by indelible images of national shame — depictions of slavery or of civili rights activists being brutally beaten down. The devastating consequences of that legacy are easy to find, but I quickly learned that was not the whole picture.

A veteran of covering the South once told me that every story in this part of the world is a race story. It is a bit reductive. but it is not untrue.

Sometimes, it can be overt, like covering Black Lives Matter protests, whether marching through the streets of Atlanta or assembling on the front lawn of a small Mississippi town’s city hall. But it is also there when writing about inmates in a crumbling Mississippi prison system revolting or about who has endured the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic’s toll.

The residue of racial oppression was important context in covering those stories. But it also materialized in the ingenuity, resilience and unyielding patience I also routinely encountered — in Selma, Ala., where crowds gathered as the body of John Lewis, the pioneering civil rights leader and congressman, crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge one last time, or in Mississippi, as the flag that had flown for 126 years with the Confederate battle emblem embedded into it was brought down after decades of protests.

The work of untangling the past from the future is ungainly and unpleasant. It moves at a glacial pace, often inflaming simmering tensions and sowing fresh hostility. Still, it is moving.

As soon as it happened, people embraced each other and cheers filled the cavernous corridors of the State Capitol. The atmosphere inside was charged with currents of something I felt in Mobile and something I will keep searching for as I continue my work from Nashville.

Around the Web

When a Senate colleague mocked Kamala Harris’ name, so many people winced with recognition [The Los Angeles Times]

Is There Room for Black Conservatives in the GOP When the President is Racist?[Mother Jones]

A Lifetime of Pancakes, and Jamaican Banana Fritters [The New Yorker]

When a White Republican Teen Invited a Black Pastor to Preach in His Hometown [The Atlantic]

COVID-19 Is Killing My People — And No One Seems to Care [The Atlantic]

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