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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 August 2000 Issue No. 495 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 August 2000 Issue No. 495
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Habla español?
By Hisham El-NaggarExcuse me, but was that a speech in Spanish? Yes, in Spanish, in nothing but, and delegates are actually applauding! And this is supposed to be the Republican Convention?
Last week Republicans gathered in Philadelphia to state the obvious: George W Bush will be the Republican candidate for president. But there was another, rather less obtrusive message: the Grand Old Party (GOP) is having a go at tolerance.
After all, the Hispanic vote is nothing to be scoffed at. In the past, Republicans have simply assumed it would migrate wholesale to the Democrats. And there was a reason why it did: the GOP found it difficult to shed its image as a party dominated by white Anglo-Saxons who were convinced of their own superiority. It was the Republican party which vociferously insisted, in a recent campaign platform, that English be the country's sole official language. Pete Wilson, the Republican ex-governor of California and one-time presidential hopeful, gambled his career on a notoriously anti-immigrant, not to say specifically anti-Mexican, platform.
As it turned out, Pete Wilson lost, and the overwhelming Hispanic support for Clinton in the past two elections has nudged Republicans to do a bit of soul-searching. Can the GOP really afford to be perceived as villainous by a large and growing community?
The point is a delicate one. Hispanics constitute 15 per cent of the United States population, and have become the largest ethnic minority in the US, ahead of African Americans. A flow of migrants from Mexico and Central America, a birthrate well above the national average and the tendency among second- and third-generation Hispanics to continue speaking Spanish and being proud of their heritage are undisputed facts. They add up to the following: the image of the United States as a cultural "melting pot" is decidedly passé.
The Republicans counted the digits and realised they just could not give up on Hispanics. True, Hispanics are predominantly family-oriented, and not a few of them are devout Catholics. These are values Republicans could, one would think, live with. There is a small inconvenience: Hispanics tend not to be so well-off, and Republicans have been busy over the past couple of decades waging a war on the poor. Well, if substance will not do the trick, PR just might. Enter George W Bush.
George W Bush has a number of advantages, not least of which is being his father's son. But he has another thing going for him: his nephew, George P Bush, whose mother is Latina. The younger Bush - son of Florida Governor Jeb Bush - will be a major asset as George W marshalls the Hispanic vote nationwide.
There are, however, a number of factors which suggest that his task will not be easy. For one, Hispanics living in the US are not a monolithic voting bloc. There is a world of difference between Cuban Americans, based in Florida and sufficiently prosperous and anti-communist to vote Republican almost as a matter of course, and, on the other hand, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans as well as other Central Americans. Mexican-Americans are probably the most numerous. Though many have attained their American dream, the majority has not. It is true that many of those who live in Texas have succumbed to Señor Bush's efforts to woo them, but those who live elsewhere -- especially in California -- are considerably more coy.
Central Americans tend to be poor, struggling immigrants; many of them do not, in fact, make the effort to acquire American citizenship.
Puerto Ricans are, of course, Americans, with full voting rights when they reside in the Continental United States. Many are dark-skinned and are considered black by outsiders. Despite impressive success stories, their lot, in the main, is not enviable. They are probably the most unequivocally pro-Democratic Hispanic group.
Beyond these differences, there is one thing which unites many, if not all, Hispanics living in the United States: the consciousness that they are often discriminated against, either because of their skin colour, a Spanish accent, or simply because some of their fellow Americans perceive them to be more prone to engage in illicit activities.
It is this resentment of discrimination which threatens to nip the Republican romance with Hispanic voters in the bud. Many Hispanics have not forgotten that many of the Republicans who politely applauded the Spanish speech are the same who until recently not only voted against bilingual education and affirmative action, but who also ferociously insisted on setting up barriers against immigration.
Opinion polls suggest that Hispanics are still more likely to vote for Democratic candidate Al Gore than Bush (50 per cent against 35 per cent, the rest reporting no clear preference). That is, however, an improvement from the Republican point of view. Whether this will kickstart a new trend or a fleeting bonanza, however, will be decided by Hispanic voters themselves.
