Latino Voter Profile

‘I, Too, Sing America’

This is the second in an occasional series of profiles of individual Latino voters. The profiles are meant to provide a glimpse into the life and politics of a given individual. None of these individuals are meant to be stand-ins for a specific class of Hispanic voters. The format is “as told to” whereby the entire article consists of quotations from the person interviewed. This ensures the subject’s voice comes through loud and clear.

Today’s Latino Voter Profile is Dana Ramos who works as an executive assistant at an HSBC office in Nevada. Ramos was two years old when her mother took her from Mexico to Las Vegas. The entire interview was conducted in English on Saturday night following the Nevada Caucus.

As told to CandidatoUSA editor Luis Clemens by Dana Ramos:

“My mom came with a visa and luckily Immigration never asked for any of my paperwork or anything. I crossed the border and waved goodbye to the immigration officials.

“We’ve been here ever since. My family’s whole plan was to work here to take money back to Mexico but we ended up staying here. When my brother was born, my parents thought ‘maybe it would be good to stay so the children can learn English and then we’ll go back.’

“I didn’t become legalized until Ronald Reagan passed his amnesty, and if it wasn’t for him I still would have been illegal. Or undocumented I should say. I don’t like it when people say illegal.”

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Clinton Clobbers Obama Among Latino Voters in Nevada

A whopping 64 percent of Nevada Latino Democrat caucus-goers supported Hillary Clinton, according to a Cable News Network entrance poll. Barack Obama mustered only 24 percent of Latino voters despite having the backing of the local 60,000-member Culinary Workers Union (CWU), which is 45 percent Hispanic. The Illinois senator’s poor showing means his campaign will have to redouble its Hispanic voter outreach efforts ahead of February 5th when primaries will be held in such heavily Latino states such as Arizona, California, Colorado and New York.

The Nevada Democratic Caucus was the very first electoral battleground where Latino voters mattered. And the first reality check of several nationwide polls that late last year demonstrated overwhelming national support among Latino Democrats for Clinton over Obama.

The Illinois senator’s campaign did not rely solely on the CWU endorsement for its Hispanic voter outreach efforts. Obama went canvassing in heavily Latino neighborhoods. He chanted ¡Sí se puede! and brought in Latino elected officials such as California State Senator Gil Cedillo and Illinois congressman Luis Gutiérrez. The latter recorded a Spanish-language video explaining the Nevada caucus process. And the Obama campaign advertised on Spanish-language radio and television while also ensuring a presence on local Spanish-language newscasts. In many ways, it was a by-the-book Hispanic political marketing effort emphasizing a positive and even uplifting message about Obama.

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Q&A With Eliseo Medina

Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the 1.9 million member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), spoke to CandidatoUSA about the dramatic backlog in processing a little over one million naturalization applications. The topic was the subject of a Congressional subcommittee hearing this morning and of executive action earlier this month. The federal Office of Personnel Management recently issued expedited authority to the United States Citizenship Immigration Services Agency to re-hire 700 agency retirees to process the backlog of applications.

The SEIU participates in a coalition working to boost the number of Latino citizens and increase Latino voter turnout.

Are you frustrated by these delays?

Yes. It is absolutely shocking and unforgivable that we have an agency increase their fees claiming they were going to provide better service and then we wind up with worse service. It is totally unforgivable that all this kind of bureaucratic bungling could end up denying people the right to vote.

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Latino Voter Profile

This is the first in an occasional series of profiles of individual Latino voters. The profiles are meant to provide a glimpse into the life and politics of a given individual. None of these individuals are meant to be stand-ins for a specific class of Latino voters.

The format is “as told to” whereby the entire article consists of quotations from the person interviewed. This ensures the subject’s voice comes through loud and clear.

Today’s Latino Voter Profile is Javier Barajas, owner of the Lindo Michoacán restaurant in Las Vegas where last week Hillary Clinton held a campaign event. Most of the interview was conducted in Spanish.

As told to CandidatoUSA editor Luis Clemens by Javier Barajas:

“I must have been about 16 when I arrived in Las Vegas in 1976. I was traveling with an uncle of mine and we were planning on going to Indio, California, to pick grapes. We were traveling as illegals. The migra grabbed my uncle. I managed to get away. I got on a bus that was supposed to go to Los Angeles where a cousin was waiting for me.

“I don’t know how, maybe because I was so tired. But the only thing I remember about the bus ride is that I woke up in Las Vegas. The next day I started working at Terrible Herb’s Car Wash. I worked there for three years. I worked mornings at Terrible Herb and nights at Viva Zapata restaurant. I worked some fifteen, sixteen hours a day.

“I progressed from dishwasher to busboy. I eventually became the chef at the restaurant.

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Huckabee proposes ending immigration from Cuba?

A rival campaign tipped me off to the following statement by Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, ”I say we ought to put a hiatus on people who come in
here … if they come from countries that sponsor and harbor terrorists.”

Such a move would presumably end immigration from Cuba, which is on the official State Department list of terrorism sponsors. And that would not sit well with the Cuban-American voters who represent a hefty percentage of likely Florida Republican primary voters. The U.S. government’s existing immigration quota of 20,000 visas a year for Cubans was created in 1994 to stem the dramatic flow of balseros from the island.

The Week in Latino Politics

In his autobiography, “Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life,” New Mexico governor Bill Richardson lists what he not so humbly calls “Richardson’s Rules.” One is “Aim big,” another is “Share the credit.” The former marked Richardson’s entrance into the 2008 presidential race and the latter marked his departure.

The man with the outsized appetite for foreign adventure and domestic campaigning (he holds the handshaking title in the “Guiness Book of World Records”) aimed as high as he could while already sitting atop an impressive resume.

He left the race a little under a year after joining it and without having inspired the passion of voters in either Iowa or New Hampshire. Polls did not augur different results in Nevada. Hence, the decision to get out and return to his day job.

During the speech announcing his withdrawal, Richardson thanked each of the Democratic presidential candidates by name and cited their respective achievements. In closing, he said “Gracias. Que Dios los bendiga (Thank you. May God bless you.)” It was a nod in the direction of the Latino voters who, outside his home state, never showed him the love the first major Hispanic presidential candidate hoped to receive. Aside, that is, from a number of high-profile Latino political endorsements such as that of former Clinton Administration Cabinet Secretary Henry Cisneros and Hispanic Republican marketing guru Lionel Sosa.

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