Why Don’t Anglos Vote For Latinos?
This past week I had the privilege of sitting on a panel on San Antonio Politics headlined by San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro and former Secretary of Housing Henry Cisneros at a San Antonio hotel that was hosting the Western Political Science Association’s annual meeting. The organizer asked them to share their impressions of running for the mayoralty and their experiences governing this great city. The mayor and secretary played interesting roles in, what I think, is a formative phase of the city’s development from a regional financial and services center to an important national city with an ever expanding role in international economics.
There’s no race problem, is there?
One interesting thing they said though that led to the question that headlines my comments had to do with racial politics in this city. You have to understand that many folks, in places of influence and in our most respected institutions, always say something like “we don’t have a racial problem in San Antonio”. I’ve heard the same thing said at the national level often using the election of President Obama as proof that the race question in elections has been overcome. Or, they say that Anglos, Blacks and Hispanics have been working harmoniously regardless of our differences for a long time. In short, most folks publicly state either that the race problem has been fixed or they wish to ignore it altogether.
Those who run elections, however, understand that race is part of any election equation that must be overcome. Anyway, both of our distinguished leaders were asked to discuss if they had set any specific “racial” goals for vote getting when they ran for office. In other words was there a particular calculation as to what proportion of the Hispanic, Black or Anglo vote they were aiming for in their campaign. Mr. Cisneros indicated that he felt he needed 80% of the Latino vote and 80% of Black votes because his people didn’t think he would get more than 28% of the Anglo vote. Mr. Castro said that he thought the same way in his campaign but he didn’t think he would get more than 25% of the Anglo vote.
Politics is geography
Both Mayor Castro and Secretary Cisneros (I keep wanting to address him as mayor also but we only have one mayor), as did the other panel members, spoke in terms of north, west, and south side city council districts. We all spoke of how votes vary from district to district, of the different developmental levels and social standing in each district and of the stark contrasts between those parts of the city where Latinos and African Americans reside and those districts that are predominantly Anglo. One of the panelists, frankly, spoke directly about these differences as being important to an understanding of the political dynamics of our fair city.
I didn’t comment one way or the other on the observations of our guests but it did lead me to think this. How is it that we think we have made so much progress in race relations in San Antonio, Texas or, for that matter, throughout the United States yet any Latino candidate contemplating a run at the mayor’s office of any large city or governor’s office or congressional office doesn’t feel he or she can get but a small percentage of the Anglo vote?
What do we have to do to get Anglos to vote for us?
Have the troubled beginnings between Hispanics and Anglos “colored” our relations permanently? How long will it take, or will it ever happen, for a Latino to be perceived as “equal” in the eyes of Anglos and worthy of being considered on equal standing with an Anglo candidate when running for office?
Frankly, I don’t know the answer to these questions but ching-huahua when will this perceived racial distance be overcome? I mean, we’ve increased our educational levels, we’ve served our country honorably and valorously, we play football and basketball (some of us play golf for heaven’s sake), speak English, water our lawns, vote, pay taxes and are born and raised here. We do everything and share the same experiences as Anglos but they won’t vote for our best and our brightest.
¿Porque no?
[Image by wordle]