{"id":48499,"date":"2021-03-25T13:16:11","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T13:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/politicallycorret.co.il\/the-non-monolithic-latinx-vote\/"},"modified":"2021-06-15T10:26:02","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T10:26:02","slug":"the-non-monolithic-latinx-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/politicallycorret.co.il\/en\/the-non-monolithic-latinx-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"The Non-Monolithic Latinx Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Translation: Tom Atkins<\/strong><\/p>\n

The intriguing ethnicity called Latinx, immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Spanish speaking countries, is the biggest US minority. You may know them as Latinos or Hispanics, a term which has recently gone out of favor due to evoking racist connotations. Latinx has recently replaced Latinos as a gender-neutral alternative, influenced by gender- and queer discourse.<\/p>\n

Even though all forecasts point to Spanish speakers being the majority of US citizens in twenty years\u2019 time, Latinx voter turnout is traditionally very low. Out of the 32 million eligible Latinx voters in the US, estimates are that at least 57% did not vote, whether in person or by mail. This low turnout seems to be the result of several reasons, mostly related to a lack of trust in the political establishment. Professor Lisa Garcia Bedolla, talking to the NPR political podcast gave an example of how this electorate is often mishandled:<\/p>\n

Last September, following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and before President Donald Trump\u2019s Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, he considered Miamy Judge Barbara Lagoa. Lagoa is not only a conservative judge, but hails from a family of Cuban exiles, a fact Trump hoped would help him win the favor of Florida\u2019s Latinx community. As we now know, she wasn\u2019t eventually nominated.<\/p>\n

Professor Bedolla explains that this simplistic approach not only doesn\u2019t win the support of Latinx voters, it actively alienates them. It is based in stereotypes and a gross misunderstanding of Latinx voters. The important thing to realize is that there is not one Latinx electorate. The often heard term is that the Latinx vote is not monolithic<\/em>, but composed of diverse opinions, beliefs, sentiments and needs.<\/p>\n

Up until the 1970s, most Latinx immigrants to the US were Mexican, settling mostly in the South-West (Arizona, Texas and California). Cuban immigrants settled mostly in Florida and Puerto-Rico. Today, there is a huge variety of Latinx, from wildly different backgrounds. Most speak Spanish, but some Portuguese. Some are darker-skinned, some lighter. They hail from different social-economic classes and backgrounds. And in the 2020 election, even the most religiously conservative among them, even the anti-abortionists among them, are very concerned with other issues on the agenda, such as the Coronavirus pandemic, education, healthcare and work related issues.<\/p>\n

As with white voters, there is a gender gap among Latinx voters. Men are more likely to buy into Trump\u2019s machismo, while many women are very concerned about his remarks and conduct. there is also a huge difference between immigrants who left a tyrannical socialist regime such as those in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela,and those who became activists after arriving from Mexico. Some southern Latinx have never immigrated – their families lived there ever since it was a Mexican territory.<\/p>\n

Many experts agree that both Democrats and Republicans have yet to find a respectable way to talk to Latinx voters: Spanish language election ads are simplistic, rarely mentioning relevant political issues. Latinx voters complain that politicians on both sides of the aisle only remember them every four years, and even then only go so far as to play Mariachi music or incorporate a Spanish expression into their speech. In 2015, Hillary Clinton made this mistake while campaigning for Presidency: In a speech to a Latinx crowd in Iowa, she compared herself to their abuela<\/em>, Spanish for grandmother. She was accused of hispandering, and was the subject of a trending Twitter hashtag – #NotMyAbuela.<\/p>\n

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Mi Abuelita was not white and rich like @HillaryClinton<\/a>. Obviously #NotMyAbuela<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/QLEXVG7kRL<\/a><\/p>\n

— Beatlegal09 (@Beatlegal09) December 23, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n