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More good news for Obama out of Texas?
Submitted by SHNS on Thu, 02/21/2008 - 13:47.
There may be more good news awaiting Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois when the results -- influenced by a large Hispanic vote -- are announced following the March 4 Texas Democratic primary.
Texas can be a whole different enchilada than California when it comes to Hispanic political and social thinking. It can be as different in the Lone Star State as the red salsa versus the green salsa sitting on the table in an authentic Mexican eatery.
My descendants are Texas Hispanics. We always viewed our California brothers and sisters (who voted in large percentage for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York on Super Tuesday) with curiosity, particularly during the 1960s and 1970s. It was not our intent to express that they were wrong in any way for their intense political activism and collective loyalty to specific leaders. They were just different when it came to needed "change" -- the motivating word in the 2008 Democratic primaries.
Even the word "Chicano" did not catch on with my family and relatives. My mother said it carried the connotation of being slow and clumsy. She felt we had enough obstacles against us in society. Why add another?
Texas never felt any ripple effect from California's Proposition 187 movement that grew out of then-Gov. Pete Wilson's public attacks against Hispanic immigrants. Every tejano knew that sort of nonsense would not be practical. Then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush helped stop that movement in the 1990s before it reached the Mississippi River.
I don't mean to suggest that Texas is without its own obstacles for Latinos. My father swore he would never live there. "They're still fighting the Alamo!" he'd yell. Lynchings of Latinos continued into the 1900s. Corpus Christi's late, great Hector Garcia founded the American GI Forum in 1948 to deal with rampant discrimination against Hispanics. In its first act, the civil-rights group partnered with then-Congressman Lyndon Johnson to get a Latino war hero buried in Arlington National Cemetery after a local funeral home refused to allow the hero to lie in repose with his white comrades in arms.
When Texas becomes majority Hispanic in little more than a decade, new enemies will need to be confronted. That kind of change provides some advantages for Obama's "change" message in Texas that he didn't have in California.
Here are a few tips for his campaign based on my family experiences:
-- Fill your Texas support staff with Chicago Hispanics who know the senator well: My family crossed the border into Texas during the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920, then relocated to central Kansas, where my father went to work for the Santa Fe railroad. My grandmother would regularly catch the train from Kansas to Chicago to visit relatives. Texas Latinos have a lot of kin in Chicago. And hearing of Obama's good work from relatives' lips will go a long way toward convincing Lone Star Latinos.
-- Hit the Hillary flip-flop: Clinton staged an abrupt political retreat earlier this year when she deserted an effort by New York's governor to allow immigrants to apply for driver's licenses without having to prove legal residency. To the governor, it was a public-safety issue. Clinton deserted him when opinion polls showed a political backlash against the proposal. Obama has consistently supported the license proposal.
-- Stress jobs, jobs, jobs: Unlike many politically active California Chicanos, my family believed working twice as hard and long as anyone else would provide them with the ultimate change-- beginning within their own families. Money remains the power in U.S. society.
-- Obama should stress his work on the immigration-reform legislation that failed last year in Congress. It had bipartisan support. Texas Latinos have shown themselves less aghast at reaching across the aisle to work with Republicans, even voting for them occasionally.
-- Bring Latinos and blacks together: Obama can gain Hispanic support by encouraging healing in the rift between Latinos and blacks in many parts of the South. It exists. Dallas public schools suffered greatly while whites kept fleeing to the suburbs.
-- Latino families in Texas constantly preach the value of education. Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' story is not just a once-in-a-lifetime tale. It happens. Black powerbrokers, still trying to cope with the unresolved needs of their own children, have shown themselves hesitant to embrace Hispanic needs and support a more balanced allocation of resources. Obama must preach to both groups how to work together so urban centers do not become educational wastelands.
Jose Antonio Burciaga, the late El Paso, Texas-born and -raised writer and muralist, used his talent to teach with humor about creating change through direct involvement. He pointedly cited the differences between Texans and Californians of Hispanic descent. In his book, "Drink Cultura: Chicanismo," Burciaga devoted an entire chapter to his own "mixed marriage." His wife, Cecilia, was born and raised in California.
Obama's message of hope can help change the more disunifying aspects of the Chicano, tejano and black existence. And it can help all Texans accept the change that's coming their way by the year 2020.
On March 4, Texas Latinos can give Obama the kind of delegate breathing room he needs to capture the Democratic nomination.
(Tim Chavez of Nashville, Tenn., is a political columnist. He can be reached at timchavez787(at)yahoo.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
Thank you
I am a black woman living in California. In my small city 85%of the residents are of Mexican descent. It has been a long road, trying to help folks see that blacks and Latinos have much the same issues. We have been neglected by the same politicians. We have been tricked and used by the same politicians. We do not need to keep competing for scraps. Our people have built this country and continue to do so. We need to pull together for our common good. I hope Obama's campaigners read your thoughtful suggestions and take them to heart. Good luck from California!
Thank You
Very informative.
My exposure to Hispanics is minimal. I think Obama will be good for both Latinos and blacks since his political style is cooperative rather combative. We'll only know after he becomes president.
I am more confident that he will get us out of Iraq than I am that Clinton will. Leaving Iraq ill free up money that will help both communities.
She is too interested in being commander-in-chief being slow to get out because of all of posturing she will do to look tough. She is a Bush retread on military power.
Obama in Tejas
Having lived both in Tejas and Califas, I have seen and been the victim of racism. The more obvious forms of racism exist in less affluent and educated communities. The upper echelons practice a more subtle and pervasive form. I am 55 and excited to know that the younger generation is leading the way towards a less racist USA. Maybe with Obama as president, I won't be so cynical. It is about time!
CA
re: "Unlike many politically active California Chicanos, my family believed working twice as hard and long as anyone else would provide them with the ultimate change-- beginning within their own families."
What the heck does that mean? Newsflash: we Mexican-Americans in CA believe in hard work too. These divisions aren't as great as you make it seem. I live in CA, but like you, my family came to the US between 1910-20, settled in Texas, and then moved to Kansas when my great-grandfather worked for the railroad. They then settled in Los Angeles during during the late 1920s.
Obama ran behind with Latinos in CA because he didn't campaign here. It's as simple as that.
I agree because I am a Hispanic from Texas
I now live in Nashville myself like the author of this article. I agree 100% that Texas Hispanics (in Texas they call themselves Hispanics while Cali calls them Latinos) are different. I've got relatives in CA so I know first hand. I can also agree that just because people have brown skin in Texas doesn't mean they are moving towards Clinton. My brother, an independent is voting for Obama, my sister is torn, her heart is telling her Obama while her head is telling her Clinton, and believe me, it is for none of the reasons you would believe. All her co-workers (female Hispanic teachers) don't believe a word or trust anything that comes our of Clinton's mouth, which I found amazing. My mother is a Huckabee supporter who would never vote for a woman becasue she doesn't believe women are strong enough to be president (a view shared with many older Hispanic women in South Texas, believe me I've tried convincing them in the past.), and my father believes they are all crooks and liars and isn't voting.
Hispanics are going to play a role in this race, but not how everyone expects. And as for the issue of education in the Hispanic community, The author was dead on. My family preached education so much that my parents refused to teach us Spanish when we were young becasue they wanted us to get ahead in school. We did, we all graduated with college degrees, some of us with two. We were always in the GT classes and involved in educational school programs like UIL, Odessy of the Mind, etc. My parents saw the value of an education and it's importance in giving us all better lives than the poverty we grew up in. Obama's teams understands the culture and is doing a great job of addressing this. I'll be interested to see how it all plays out on March 4th.
Another interesting note is that the African American/Latino friction doesn't exist in Texas as it does in CA. Yes there is some in the larger cities but, it isn't dividing or as signifigant as in CA. Where I grew up there was 1 black family in my whole city. His family was treated the same as anyone elses, we were all minorities.
Reality Check
Actually the tension between blacks and Latinos in CA, is overstated. The problem exists in South-Central Los Angeles, an area with a history of economic problems.
In 1992, the problem there was between Korean shop owners and blacks, and before that it was black on black crime.
Because Los Angeles is such a huge media center, anything that happens here is extrapolated to the entire region. The media are lazy and they like to frame everything in terms of conflict. The reality: Latinos live and work in every region of California--cities, suburbs, deserts, mountains, beaches--and have little contact with African-Americans, much less conflict.
The media like to pretend that all Latinos and blacks live together in one big simmering ghetto. Not true.
Believe it or not, the majority of people in CA actually get along!
assuming uniformity is a mistake
great commentary (although I think you mean "forebears" and not "descendents"). I grew up in a small town north of Albuquerque in New Mexico, and agree that it's a mistake to assume Latino/Hispanic/Chicano means one big block with a unitary agenda. In some areas, it's the Anglos who are the newcomer immigrants!! The common denominator is often a lack of economic opportunity that comes from getting marginalized and thought of as "the help".
Si se puede!
aswesa
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