I was going over a report published last Monday by the Pew Hispanic Center, when it came to my attention that Latinos in the U.S. are a long way from finding any sort of national leader. I guess the days of Cesar Chavez are loooong gone.
After being polled to name one important prominent Hispanic national figure, the best guess 64 percent of U.S. Latinos could come up with was "I don’t know." An additional 10 percent were unable to name anyone as most important, while U.S. Supreme Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor came in at third place with 7 percent. Trailing behind were Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) with 5 percent, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa with 3 percent, and Journalist and Univision news anchor Jorge Ramos bringing up the rear with 2 percent.
This may not come as much of a surprise considering that the nation’s largest minority group is comprised of people from dozens of different countries who speak several different languages, represent diverse socio-economic backgrounds, and can’t even agree on what to call themselves. (Latino? Hispanic? Mexican/Guatamalan/Ecuadorian-American?)
What is surprising is that the report also shows that immigrant Latinos were more familiar with the names of the people in the survey than native-born Latinos and that "English-dominant Hispanics are less likely than bilingual or Spanish-dominant Hispanics to have heard of each prominent Hispanic." With the exception of Ramos, all of the leaders tested in the survey were U.S born. Perhaps too many second and third generation kids fell asleep in American Government in high school? Or do we need to watch more telenoticias?
I then started to wonder if we really even need a leader. Is it really necessary or plausible? Can one person really represent and fight for the interests of a group that's so incredibly diverse? Within the community, Latinos are at odds over so many day-to-day things, forget about getting us to agree on politics.
But then I read that one thing majority of Latinos can agree upon are feelings of discrimination in the U.S., with 61 percent saying that it is still a “major problem”, up from 47 percent in 2002, according to data in the report. Maybe it is time to start looking for the next great Latino uniter...
3 comments:
i vote for don francisco. not that i'm latina or anything. but he's pretty rad and lives in miami. that's all i got. ps i think it's depressing that so few people mentioned sotomayor...when i started reading this post i expected you to say that everyone who responded to the poll knew who she was. ho hum. and re: having one leader - yea i think that's pretty rough. i think latinos need to join together to fight against certain problemas that exist here- namely racism and the immigration DISASTER that's currently alive and well in the good ole us of a.
I think there will be someone. How can so many states be considering to make a law like that of Arizona's and not have someone rise out of the entire conflict. At least that's what I'm hoping.
@KM- Latina or not, I think it's important that people outside of the community look positively upon Latino leaders, or leader of any other minority group in Washington for that matter. Cause we all gotta work together to make sh*t happen. Plus, between all your years spent in Chile, your husband, and your embrace of the culture, you're practically one of us. And once you give birth to a little Chileno, you'll be in for life.
I also think Don F isn't a bad candidate, if he could only distance himself a little more from the ridiculousness of Sabado Gigante. And you were upset about the Sotomayor thing, I was irritated reading that people actually named Villaraigosa as a national figure. People in LA don't even really like him.
@Sara - I'm hoping the same.
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