Don’t Vote? If You Knew Us, You’d Know Better

The joke was that Latinos for Reform produced a “Don’t Vote” television ad (in English andSpanish) because they wanted to claim responsibility for all the Hispanic voters that don’t go to the polls.

I know, it’s a bad joke in bad taste, especially because the ad never saw air time. Univision affiliates in Nevada refused to air it, and in the process lost the $80,000 in revenues that the commercial would have generated (reportedly, in Las Vegas alone). In this economy 80 grand is tough loss.

The Latino community across the country was understandably angered. The ads were obviously directed at them. Those ads were at best condescending and at the worst insulting.

The idea that Latinos could be persuaded to not vote says volumes about the mindset of the Latinos for Reform folks. It belies the fact that they know nothing about the history and political struggles of the Hispanic community. Given the years and generations of civil rights struggles to secure the right of suffrage for Latinos in Texas and the U.S., the mere idea that Latinos not vote is beyond belief.

Let’s put this in perspective. In 1902, the state of Texas instituted a poll tax, aimed directly at keeping blacks and Latinos from the political process. It may seem irrelevant more than one hundred years later, but the fact is that the poll tax in Texas was not repealed until 1964.

In the interim, Latino communities across the state devised ways of getting around the obstacle. There are many people alive today that remember fundraisers and collections where pocket change, savings and jewelry of value were donated to the poll tax cause. Money was raised to pay the tax for as many Latino voters as possible.

Right around the time that the poll tax was abolished the Latino civil rights movement began to gain strength. Organizations such as MALDEF, LULAC and the GI Forum were committed to ensuring equal civil rights for all citizens of the United States. And that struggle continues to this day.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that because this is 2010 there are no more voting rights issues left to champion. On the contrary, just last year in our own backyard the case Garcia, et al vs. City of Hondo, Texas, resulted in a temporary injunction of a municipal election. The U.S. Department of Justice intervened in the case brought for violations of the Voting Rights Act.

So with this backdrop, with all this history and present day reality, a group in Nevada has the gall to ask Latinos to not vote.

Of course, their defense is to say that their intent was misinterpreted, that what they meant to say was that Latinos should not vote for specific Democratic Party candidates who failed to deliver on immigration reform legislation.

That’s a lot of time and a lot of money spent to end in an “oops.” Either way, it’s their mistake. Either way, they shouldn’t have done it. Either way, Latinos aren’t laughing.