This is the moment of truth for Latino voters
By Victor Landa, NewsTaco
As much as Latinos dislike the “sleeping giant” metaphor, it’s given us the cover of potential.
I agree that it drips with stereotypes of laziness and apathy, that if we only woke up we’d be a force to reckon. The metaphor was slapped on us like borders, language and laws have been – used to separate us as “others” who don’t vote like the rest but could, if we’d only stir from our clueless, apathetic nap.
That was before Donald Trump pushed that image aside and, thinking we were asleep and couldn’t hear him, called us rapists and criminals.
The question now is whether Trump’s insults have been enough to shake Latinos from their supposed stupor. And the most recent voter registration and early vote participation numbers point to the possibility that this is the year the giant awakens:
- 133,000 Latinos have voted absentee or through mail-in ballots in Florida; that’s a 99 percent increase from 2012.
- 51,000 Latinos voted on the first day of early voting in Clark County, Nevada, which has 75 percent of the state’s population and where 31 percent are Latino.
- 300,000 votes have been cast so far in Arizona.
- In Texas, there are 206,000 more voters than in 2012, and that’s just in the cities of Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.
- The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials says there are now 23.7 million eligible Latino voters.
There are three things to watch this election
One is the overall increase in Latino voter participation. When the polls close on November 8, how many Latinos will have gone to the polls across the country?
Another is the difference that Latino voters make in swing states, where the votes are considered more decisive. Did Latinos live up to their swing vote potential?
But the third could be the most important. How is the Latino vote characterized in mainstream media?
My guess is that the “awakened giant” story will prevail because it’s the easiest to tell and because it’s a continuation of the story that’s been told for many elections and many generations of Latino voters. And that’ll be a shame because, as is always the case, it’ll be non-Latino reporters and writers and pundits and analysts, sitting around a table in a TV studio, talking about how Latinos finally woke up.
Or, if Latinos don’t go to the polls as advertised, it’ll be the story of a still slumbering electorate, too comfortable in its otherness to join the rest of America.
So it’s a moment of truth
It’s a watershed moment because, vote or not, Latinos will not be regarded the same again.
If we vote and make a difference we will have changed U.S. electoral politics and the way political power is measured. If we don’t we won’t be taken seriously, and this time with reason.
Either way the cover is gone: we’re either no longer asleep or we aren’t the giant everyone thought were. So the next two weeks could possibly be the most important for U.S. Latino politics.
The good thing is that come election day we can chuck the sleeping giant for good.
[Photo courtesy of West Side Republicans]
