Republicans and the Latino Vote

Donald Trump   Ted Cruz 

You would think they would know better.  The NYTimes has peculiar article on its front page today,  2 Latino Candidates at Odds, Heritage and Ideology Aside,  by Lizette Alvarez and Manny Fernandez.  The writers examine differences between Cruz and Rubio in their campaign for President.  And, they examine their differences on immigration.  They report that the two are each hoping to break the Republican Party’s isolation from Latino voters.

But, they do not mention that both candidates, as Cuban Americans, do not come from a community divided by immigration.  Cubans have a unique status.  They are allowed to come to the US with little obstruction.

On the 2010 Census form, people of Spanish, Hispanic and/or Latino origin could identify themselves as Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano, Puerto Rican, Cuban, or "another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin."

 According to this census, 50.5 million people, or 16% of the population, are of Hispanic or Latino origin.  The 2010 Census listed 33 million Mexican-origin residents (64.9 % of all Latinos); Puerto Ricans within the U.S .numbered 4.7 million (9.2 %); Cuban Americans 1.9 million ( 3.7  %); Salvadorans 1.8 million (3.6 %); Dominicans 1.5 million (3 %); Guatemalans  1.1 million  (2.2 %); Colombians 972,000 (1.9 %); Hondurans 731,000 (1.4%); Ecuadorans 665,000 (1.3 %); and Peruvians 609,000 (1.2%).  Each of these groups has its own identity and historical experiences.

Mexicans, Mexican Americans and other Latinos (except Cuban Americans)  have good reason to be concerned about  current the mobilization of  racist movements by these  harsh and xenophobic  campaigns of Trump, the Republicans including both Cruz and Rubio.

During the 1930’s some 1,000,000 Mexicans were deported in response to similar campaigns, including over 500,000  US citizens, and  an additional 1,000,000 Mexicans were deported in Operation Wetback in the 1950's. Trump proposes that it should happen again.

Under current law the Obama administration has deported some  2,480,000 undocumented people, including an unspecified number of parents of U.S. citizen children.

So, no.  Cruz and Rubio do not represent the Mexican, Mexican American and Latino vote.  Cubans have long been a majority Republican.  Cruz and Rubio do not change that.

There are numerous posts on this blog about the Republican assault on immigrants. See particularly   http://antiracismdsa.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-gop-trump-strategy-whites-yes.html