Latino presidential vote has been critical since 1980

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The fact is Latinos have already made a difference in presidential elections.You might think it silly to have to prove that but some people never get the news.In fact, it is easy to argue that Latinos experienced presidential election success before they were even called "Latinos."In 1960, John Kennedy got 85 percent of the national Hispanic vote in his razor-thin victory over Richard Nixon. He won Texas with 91 percent of the Mexican-American vote and a state plurality of only 50,000 votes. More to the point, Kennedy became president because he won Texas and Illinois.Even without Illinois, because of Texas, Kennedy would still have had enough Electoral College votes to win the presidency.So, for those who fret and worry and base their beliefs on big-picture scenarios, I suggest they simply look at history. It tells us what an extraordinary victory it was, especially because of the Viva Kennedy! organizations which sparked a movement to combine politics into a much sought-after civic identity.Think about it this way: before there was Aztlan, there was Camelot.The years that followed Kennedy's triumph formed one of the most amazing Hispanic chapters in U.S. history. The civic movement to bring about community improvements got legs after engaging in politics and running candidates at the local, state and congressional levels.Expectations always ran ahead of results. And why not? From the start the Kennedy victory was a victory at the top while there was hardly any political building from the bottom up. The intervening 1970s and '80s were largely about that.Those difficult years account for an extraordinary transformation. Some people may not want to hear about how hostile and negligent government had been to Hispanics. But it was.While that transformation is not nearly complete, it needs to be looked at in the context of advances in democracy. The Hispanic contribution has been unyielding in building a more responsive government through increased representation. It is about building the political infrastructure. Today there are 6,000 Latino election officials, 27 of them are in the U.S. House of Representatives. Three are U.S. Senators.That representation goes hand-in-hand with voting involvement in presidential campaigns. In 1972, about 2.1 million Latinos participated. Their number has grown steadily over the past nine presidential elections. Nearly 7.5 million Latinos cast ballots in 2004. This year the number is expected to exceed 9 million.If any evidence is needed to mark the Hispanic difference in presidential elections, you need only turn to the 2000 Florida vote count. That dispute was ultimately settled by the U.S. Supreme Court. But a measly 537 votes made the difference and George W. Bush became president.Let's look at Florida a bit closer. On Election Day, Cuban Americans cast a "voto castigo," against Al Gore and the Democratic Clinton administration, for its action in Elian Gonzalez's repatriation to Cuba and reuniting the boy with his father. Cubanos in Florida cast 50,000 more votes for Bush than they had for Bob Dole in the previous presidential election. During the exit polling, the now-defunct Voter News Service interviewed 2 percent of Cuban American voters, who formed 8 percent of the electorate, casting ballots 4-to-1 for Bush. Other, smaller Hispanic groups in the state voted 2-to-1 for Gore.The undercount of Cubans, whose voters were significant to Bush's teeny-weeny win, was a contributor to the election night confusion.Just as in Kennedy's victory in Texas, Bush's in Florida can be assigned to the Hispanic vote.Now tell me again -- is somebody disputing whether Hispanics have played decisive roles in electing presidents?Josi de la Isla writes weekly commentaries for Hispanic Link News Service. E-mail him at joseisla3(at)yahoo.com.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)