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GRIEGO: Latinos in Obama camp put cliches to rest

By Tina Griego, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published February 5, 2008 at 11:18 p.m.

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I end up Tuesday night at Horace Mann Middle School in north Denver. Let's just say I'm glad I got there early. By 6:30 p.m., the cafeteria was standing- room-only, and the jubilant Democratic Party site coordinator was clambering upon a table to shout: "This is only one-fourth of House District 4, and I don't know any of you. It's fabulous."

By 6:35, half the group had moved into the gym, where Precinct 514 crowded into one corner and, in short order, cast its votes:

Hillary Clinton: 38

Barack Obama: 62

Upon being given the opportunity to cajole Obama supporters into joining the Clinton camp or vice-versa, first-time caucus-goer and Denver Public School Board member Arturo Jimenez, an Obama supporter, said in Spanish: You have a great opportunity to support a candidate who offers hope to many communities. It doesn't matter, your race, age, gender.

I wished Sergio Bendixen were there.

Bendixen is the Clinton pollster quoted in a recent interview with The New Yorker as saying, "the Hispanic voter - and I want to say this very carefully - has not shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates."

Let us lay that canard to rest.

If that were true, Wellington Webb would never have become Denver's mayor. And he was just one African-American mayor buoyed by Latino support in this nation.

Have there been tensions between the groups? Of course. Latinos and blacks are not unique in this matter. History teaches us that. It tells us that in the competition for resources and struggle for social acceptance, it is the people at the bottom of the economic totem pole - those who have much in common - butting heads.

My grandpa, a railroad worker, viewed the few black workers around him with suspicion and prejudice. It was an ugly thing to hear, and were grandpa alive, I don't know what he would make of Obama.

In a modern-day context, take a look at Border Street. Swap black for illegal immigrant, and witness the same historical struggle at work.

It's a shame, then, that a Latino would foment a strategy of divide and conquer. As Denver Councilman Paul Lopez, another Obama supporter, told me, "that kind of sentiment is meant to divide folks who would normally be united on real issues like poverty, inequity in education, better access to affordable health care and better access to a voice, whether it be in city hall, state Capitol or the White House."

Former Denver Mayor Federico Pena told me it reminded him of his own first campaign for mayor. "One of my opponents polled, asking, 'Would you vote for a Hispanic?' That question became public, and there was outrage. It backfired, and I was elected."

Let's look at the alignment of a few Latino political leaders in our backyard. Jimenez, Lopez, Pena and City Councilman Rick Garcia support Obama. On the Clinton side: former state Sen. Paul Sandoval, current state Sen. Paula Sandoval, City Councilwoman Judy Montero and former state Sen. Polly Baca.

I'm tempted to call this split generational. Jimenez, for example, tells me his socially conservative grandparents are Republican, his aunties and uncles Clinton supporters and he and his cousins Obama people. At the Clinton rally I attended Sunday, an event sponsored by the campaign's Hispanic Leadership Council, the average age had to be 50 years old. Lots of abuelos and abuelas. And, as Harry Pachon, a longtime observer of Latino politics, noted last month in the Los Angeles Times, Bill Clinton was the first president to have two Latino Cabinet members serving at the same time. "Moreover," he wrote, "during the Clinton years, rising economic tides lifted Latino boats along with many others."

Latinos who support Obama speak of him as an internationalist, a uniter, a person who doesn't have, as Pena put it, "the albatross of old partisan battles hanging around his neck." Part of his appeal lies in his ability to transcend identity politics.

But, even the generational argument falls short. Take a look at that endorsement list of local Latino politicians again. Listen in at the Precinct 514 caucus:

"Clinton supporters stand here against the wall," the caucus leader said. "Obama supporters stand over here."

There's goes Jimenez with the Obama supporters. And who is in the Clinton camp? Well, Angie Rivera Malpiede, who offers some support to the generational argument because her daughters are going for Obama. But, here, too, are first-time caucus-goers Ron and Lupe Armenta, a lovely young couple in their late 20s. Lupe admits considering Obama because he's a minority and I'm a minority and he understands that experience. But, in the end, she and her husband believed Clinton's experience mattered more. Listening to us talk is Judy Vargas, Lupe's grandma. Vargas chose Clinton for her experience and her stand on health care.

I repeat Bendixen's statement to them and am not surprised when they bristle. "I voted for Wellington Webb," Vargas informs me.

Pena calls Bendixen a friend but says on this matter he is simply wrong. "The evidence is contrary to the broad sweeping statement about this supposed tension," Pena said. "I think it's important in the year 2008 that we look at the facts and not assume old cliches."

Precisely. Dig up that old coffin holding the restive spirits of racial and ethnic stereotyping and - bam - drive another nail into it.

griegot@RockyMountainNews.com

Comments

  • February 6, 2008

    7:49 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Ottis writes:

    Actually, the NPR report this morning about last night's elections said the single largest factor in Clinton's wins were Hispanic voters. And the report included interviews with Hispanic voters. Why Hispanics support Clinton so much vs. Obama was not addressed, other than in benign comments.

  • February 6, 2008

    10:07 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    T1anda writes:

    Yeah I remember the HalloPena days...Federico was mediocre at best!! No wonder his wife was a wingnut!! Barack Hussein Obama is an inexperienced, oily orator and a consummate politician. Obama will never be anything but Jesse Jacksons, Al Sharptons, Louis Farrakans lap dog...and the Rev Wright who is Obamas spiritual leader and pastor of a exclusively Black church in Chicago!! Look it up the church's name is Trinity Church of Christ..and see for your self how they describe themselves and their church!!!

    Obama's middle name gives me the willys! According to Muslim law if you are born to a Muslim father you are, and always WILL be a Muslim. Apostate or not Obama needs to denounce the Islamic tradition of killing people for not adhereing to Islamic law, when born into a Muslim family!!

    Well so much for Obama's speech when he said "there is not a black America and white America and Latino America; there's the United States of America."

    That statement sounds a little foolish when Obama belongs to a black church which claims to be "unashamedly Black" and is devoted to blacks and "the mother country of Africa!!!

    Why is it that many Democrats go completely quiet when Obama chooses to give his allegiance to a crack pot church with a decidedly ethnic character!!

  • February 6, 2008

    12:30 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    redwhiteandBLUE writes:

    T1anda,
    I checked out the black value system of that church. Tidy lil pkg.
    me myself and for ourselves, wonder if that will change if he's elected pres. hmmmm? Maybe people are only looking at the promises of health ins.and don't bother to really look into the issues, and
    background.

  • February 6, 2008

    12:40 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    STOPUSAGiveaway writes:

    F E E R I C O P E N A was also elected by 33,000 frudulent hispanics, mexican,s chicanos, lations etc THEY DO"N"T SEEM to know fro whence them care especially with over 70% percent
    I L L E G I T I M A C Y and now they want it all
    A M N E S T Y to be continued by McCain, Obama-Osama-Clinton...since Ted Kennedy and Former Pres Johnson opened up the flood gates.
    What a nation we would be if our numbers were the ONLY NUMBERS and the births were not ILLEGITMATES of ILLEGALS ILLITERATES....
    Now we have the greatest world debt and keep taking in 7-8 MILLION bodies each year and the birth rate has us as a non competitive nation with gambling at the forefront and AUTO WELFARE BREEDING for AUTO WELFARE CITIZENSHIP form WOMB TO TOMB via HEATHERN BREEDERS SPERM DONOR EXPONENTIALS...ain't life great whe you cannot afford your own medical insurance+an payments until you reach your deductibles while you pay for a wh re at age l9 with five from different sperm donors.
    EXPECT even more from McCain(who betrayed his own POW's; Keating 5; AMNESTY BILL+ supported by Clinton and Osama-OBama.
    Buy does anybody even care...
    At least we won't have to DIAL #2 for SPanish anymore because there won't be any choice....
    This is what my ancestry deserve for contribution to the ALAMO; Civil War; being Colorado pioneers on and on.....
    Do Unto Others
    One Nation Under GOD

  • February 6, 2008

    7:09 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Spencer writes:

    Well the coverage I watched last night stated that the Latino vote in California put Clinton over the top. They said Obama was having a real issue with the Latino vote. It would be interesting to see some statistics rather than an example here and there of a Latino that supports Obama.