I have been struggling for a long time to determine the why of the difficulties Obama has among Latinos in the southwest. Only in New Mexico was it anywhere close to even. More specifically in south west Texas where the familes of my mother (near Laredo) and my father (near Brownsville) are from HRC rung up huge margins.
Before we start, let me say that I consider myself hispanic--and that might just be why I can't figure it out.
First a bit about me, bear with me it matters. As you can tell by my name, Minnesota is my home state. It's where I was born, grew up and where I vote. Moreover I grew up in a part of the state that was 92% white, and is represented by Colin Peterson, Blue Dog. As an aside let me state that unless you find some sort of incredible candidate who can self-fund, this district will go red with anyone but Peterson. Anyhow, I also was raised in an upper-middle class household, until just a few months shy of my 18th birthday when we got bumped down to lower-middle class because of a job transition. Because of the demographics, and because I went to private schools growing up (more on that later) I had very limited exposure to non-white people outside of church until I got to college and beyond. Hence I have little connection to what people would assume "Latino" culture is and I think of myself, when I bother to think about race, as Hispanic. I speak Texas Spanish decently (with an accent until I've been using it a week) but understand and can read it just fine.
In an effort to understand the Clinton voting demographics, I talked to my parents especially about their positions and our extended family. A thing to note here is that my extended family is pretty enormous. I have 15 aunts and uncles, most of whom have had several children. I think between us, we have about 100 members of my extended family. About a third are Republicans for various reasons (economic, religious). A little less than half are Dems and the rest are not affiliated or very political active though most of them do vote in presidential elections. They all went to college, they all have good jobs (except a few who are rather religious and work for/with a church) are raising families and there was only 1 or 2 black sheep, who have mostly reformed. 3 have gone to Iraq. Two on multiple tours. There are veterans of Vietnam. The generation that has passed on now held veterans of WW2 and Korea.
Okay so now the point: why the Obama trouble? In a word, for the older generations (35+) it's because he's black.
In several words?
There is a sense among my Dem family members at least, that the last African American to actually care about Latinos was MLK. Ever since then, there is a feeling that African Americans have pushed down on Latinos for whatever resources are available. By this I mean, things like social and racial legislation--everyone is hyper-sensative to discrimination against African Americans, but discrimination against Latinos is far more likely to be ignored. That African Americans in general HAVE ignored Latinos. That instead of united for racial equality, there is instead competition.
Remember when Mexico's Vincente Fox said that Mexicans often do jobs Africans Americans won't? There was a blow back because he was denigrating African Americans--and that just reinforced the belief. Everyone was all up in arms about it, but who officially or in the media, said "Hey, Latinos do actually do a lot of shit jobs don't they?" Most of the furor was about African Americans.
So to those who feel that way it's an example of African Americans getting all the attention (and let me be clear, there is a belief/recognition that they absolutely should get attention) at the expense of Latinos continuing to be quietly discriminated against. Were there African Americans who stood up and said "Latinos get treated badly so let us also help them" anywhere?
I've researched social programs at my undergraduate university in the 60s and 70s, their hay day. And at this particular institution the focus is very much on black-white leaving out not only Latinos but other ethnicities as well.
So unfairly or not (and I think unfairly) Obama's being black or at least, considered black (he's half white) bring along a lot of baggage. The older activist Latino generation feels like African Americans after MLK, got ahead by abandoning Latinos when all discriminated minorities should be fighting for equality together.
Among the younger generation and those who were raised more economically affluent there is far less of this kind of resentment/grievance. And again, it's less prevalent in states that are farther from the "front lines" south to speak in the Mexican border.
They see an Obama presidency as one that has the possibility of reducing discrimination against African Americans, but actually be worse for Latinos because they'd get no attention at all.
So what would it take according to the study of my family members to make actual inroads, inroads that would allow Latinos to listen to his message instead of tuning it out? Obama would probably have to publicly apologize for African Americans abandoning Latinos in the later 60s and beyond, apologize for advancing themselves at the expense of Latinos and pledge an actual commitment to all discriminated people.
Is it unfair? I think so. The spot light thing exists. It's much more common for discrimination against African Americans to get play than against other ethnicities. But that's not Obama's fault. And I for one, after looking at his own record don't see anything to support the idea that he'd advantage any particular ethnicity at the expense of another--that's against what his call to responsibility is all about. I think it would be politically destructive in regards to his standing among African Americans were he to do something like this however.
I have no personal experience of this inter-racial grievance. Part of that is by design, my parents purposely sent me to private schools so that I wouldn't have to be a poster child for racial equality as a child. I'm in law school. My sister isn't even in high school yet, but I can tell she's a little smarter than I am. Had we had to deal with racial issues upfront growing up (and believe me the public schools where I grew up had them) would we be the people we are today? I found it hard enough being the only Dem in my class!
The more Latinos get to know Obama the more they will like him, but without some kind of public acknowledgment of what they feel has happened, many of the older generation won't bother to listen, they'll just tune him out.