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Some random notes and quotes on Obama’s victory as it relates to Latinos

By Carol Amoruso, HAV Editor

After George Bush garnered 44% of the Latino vote in his “reelection” in 2004, and predictions that John McCain, who’d co-sponsored comparatively liberal immigration reform in the Senate (later repudiated when he became a presidential candidate) would equal Bush’s impressive numbers, Barack Obama, half black, half white, half immigrant, amassed, this past momentous Tuesday, two thirds of the Latino votes, trumping McCain 66% to 32%.  He even out-polled Bush’s 2004 numbers in traditionally Republican Latino Florida.

Why did Latinos—their 8% eligible voter turnout remained stable—go all-out for the Democrat when in recent years they’d been drifting rightward at the ballot boxes?

For some, it was clearly a matter of identifying with a person of color, the symbolism of breaking through that most formidable barrier that has defined this country since its inception.  By extension, many Latinos were thinking, if a black man can do it, so can a Latino.  For some, it was “the economy, stupid.”  Latinos (and African Americans) have been disproportionately affected by the plummeting economy, most notably home foreclosures, that most salient icon of buying into American life.  That 2/3 formidable margin gave lie to the pundits’ defining the Latino political persona as one delimited by conservative social values and revealed how uppermost were the more immediately relevant (and humanistic) matters of providing for health care, a decent education and wages, relief from toil and financial worries in later years, and an end to an ethos of bellicosity.  For still others, it was Obama’s undeniable charisma and aplomb coupled with his fairy-book family man image.

I’ve been plumbing the media, canvassing friends and pounding the streets searching for an unscientific but hopefully illuminating round-up of Latina/o takes on the historic outcome.  My demographic proved even more staggering than the legitimate pollsters.  Everyone I spoke with voted for Obama, and with enthusiasm.

I was happy to find Richard Rodriguez on National Public Radio (Tell Me More).  Despite frequent falls into unfortunate contrarian views, Rodriguez is vastly insightful and eloquent, always provocative and ultimately humanitarian.  Rodriguez confessed that, when victory became clear, “I started bawling in my hotel room” and reflected on it as “a moment of grandeur.” Rodriguez, who at times is conflicted about ‘hispanidad,’ declared, “I was very proud of the Hispanic vote.” He noted that, like many Latinos, he could identify with Obama: Their roots are both working class, defined, at least in part, by the immigrant experience and they are both, notes Rodriguez, “brown men.”  At the same time, one of those not aloft in the bubble of euphoria, he cautioned, “The history of racism doesn’t come to an end with this moment,” and suggested that many voted more against the Republican devastation than for Obama’s brownness. At the same time, though, he said, soberly, “We had broken some curse in America.  Some new chapter has begun.”

Geared by Rodriguez’ comments, I set out in search of friends on the phone and on the web and of folks in my heavily Latino neighborhood of Jackson Heights, Queens.  Here’s what some had to say:

Luis Vanegas, Colombian born, monitors the working conditions of sweatshops around the world to determine compliance with universal humanitarian guidelines.

The Obama victory was one of the most emotional moments I have felt in my life, not because I knew the last eight years of pain would soon end, but because Obama truly reflects the underdog feelings of all Latinos and blacks.

I truly feel an Obama administration, more then the present one or the one we could have had under John McCain, will finally begin to address the neglected and important needs of the US-Latino community: immigration, education and jobs.

Electa Arenal, Mexican and North American, is Professor emerita of the Ph.D. Program in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Women’s Studies at the City University of New York Graduate Center.  The elipses are all hers:                                                                                       I would not use grandeur as did Richard Rodriguez... though I might fall into calling the scene majestuosa... majestic... the crowds and crowds... but we were a same boat coalition in many ways... energetic, focused, determined, perhaps daring, facing and taking a worthy challenge....
 
Yes--it will be better for Latin@s... A chance for a saner immigration policy -- a facing and working out of tensions
between African Americans and Hispanics....   a recommitment to education..... a reduction in the prison-industrial
complex (that will be a hard one)...
 

Samantha is a student, working as a clerk at the natural foods shop nearby.  She’s “pure Colombian.”                                                                                                                                   “I’m very happy that he won…He’ll work for and improve the whole nation, not just be better for Latinos.  Barack Obama will be a president for all Americans.  I voted for him because I like what he represents.”

Maria Dominguez is also a Colombian student.  She is financing her studies by working at the Vitamin Shoppe on my corner.                                                                                                  “I feel great over Obama’s victory.  “We need change…He will work, not just for Latinos, but for everybody. It’s important that a black man won the presidency because maybe 20 years from now, a Latino can win. (20 años, Maria? Que lastima!)

William Aleman, Dominican-born, has an audio and video recording studio—LMS Audio Vision--in Yonkers, New York                                                                                                                 I would like to see one day when people in America can see us not as Latinos nor as a person of color, but as human beings. Obama’s victory last night gave me the hope to think I might be around still to see a day when we will vote not for a black or white man nor for a woman or for a man, but for a human being. Until last night I thought that "maybe" only my young daughters in a far away future would have the chance to see that, not I. This is one of the times when you celebrate that you might be wrong. I voted for issues, and I hope that Obama's presidency will improve life in all sectors of the American society.

Rajib Ghosh is another student working at the Vitamin Shoppe.  He is half Latino and half Indian. I was happy to see Obama win and confident he will work on the economy, and go to war only if necessary, but I don’t know how he would deal with immigration because it was wasn’t discussed during the campaign.

Celina Gibaud is my nextdoor neighbor.  She came here from Argentina over 40 years ago and struggled as a single mother working as a chef, masseuse, and now she sells jewelry on the neighborhood flea market circuit.                                                                                       I’m glad that he won.  He came from a poor family that had to struggle.  He deserves it and his people have had to wait 200 years for this and they deserve it.

Adrián Rodríguez-Contreras, Associate Professor of Neuroscience at City College, New York (see our Q and A), is identifying himself as a “Mexican migrant working at a higher education institution.” 

(Did you feel that “moment of grandeur” upon Obama’s election?) Not personally. However, the fact that a man of color is now the president of the US of A is remarkable! Largely because many people outside the US still perceive Americans as a people of mostly European descent.

(Do you think the Obama presidency will work to improve life in the US for Latinos?) Not necessarily. Obviously I am curious to see what happens with the long-standing issues of immigration, education and access to decision making, but I am specially interested to find out how the new government will interact with the diverse group of leaders in the rest of the American continent. The new USA government has a good opportunity to change the failed policies of the past, and open up to the perspective of a more interactive American continent. This is how I perceive the new government would improve life for Latinos here and abroad.

If you, our readers, would like to weigh in with your comments—is there a McCain or third party supporter out there?—go to the Hispanic-American Village blog: