A Veteran Voter Waits to See

It is an election year and by all measures it seems to be a very exciting one. For the Democratic Party there is the possibility of an African- American, a female, or a Hispanic president. (This essay was written in January. Ed.)

But wait, rewind! What do you mean the possibility of a Hispanic president? Bill Richardson former Secretary of Energy, four-time Nobel peace prize nominee, up until yesterday was a hopeful in the Democratic primary contest. Unfortunately he was overshadowed by Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

So who will get the fast growing and ever-fluid Latino vote?

I had to call my great-grandma Mama Mena; she is a prideful 104-year-old "Democratca por vida" (Democrat for Life). I had to ask her where her vote stood even though I knew better and that the phone call could possibly last for hours on end and end with a scolding for only calling about politics.

I took my chances.

My Mama Mena is fluent in Spanish and only speaks broken English so the conversation mostly took place in Spanish. She said her main candidate was Clinton with her defensive tone I knew all too well as a child. The interpretation of her tone was "Leave my opinions alone." Just like when I was a child I had to continue to press the issue to find out, "What if Hillary concedes before she and the rest of California have a chance to cast their votes?" She let out a deep sigh and said in a commanding voice, "Obama" but, before I could say anything she quickly added, "I could vote for [Arizona Sen. John] McCain."

What? McCain? My Mama Mena the die hard Democrat said she could vote for McCain?

Could McCain be the vote that splits the Democratic Party and leaves it in disarray?

It seems that McCain’s entrance into the general election could put the Latino vote into play as no other GOP candidate has before. How my great-grandma and the rest of Latinos choose to vote should be a great concern for political strategists, especially as the primaries move to a Latino-packed West. I think it very important to make it clear that my great-grandma’s and other Latino voters are neither indecisive nor anti-black. The Latino voter reflects on history, culture, and immigration politics. The Latino vote has been proven to be fluid and goes hand-in-hand with both their interest and culture.

During the 2004 presidential election, George W. Bush’s Spanish-language appeals and promises of immigration reform won him somewhere between 37 to 44 percent of the Latino vote, a major increase from what he got in 2000.

Latino voters like my great-grandma had never had their vote courted as it was in 2004.

My great-grandma and other Latino voters heard McCain alongside the Kennedy name during daily Spanish-language media reports about "reforma migratoria" (immigration reform) for nearly two years. That still echoes in the Latino electorate. McCain’s recent about- face on immigration and his new "border security first" approach will only guarantee that my great-grandma embraces her inclination to vote for a Democrat.

For my great-grandma and many like her, the appeal to vote for Obama and Clinton is rooted in memories of a civil rights era, which Obama so eloquently invokes.

I see my great-grandmother, a former migrant worker, remembering when she and my great-grandfather had to listen to speeches of, "Ladies and gentleman-and you colored folks too."

Obama’s political poetry of "reconciliation" and memories of the good Clinton years remind my great-grandma and other Latinos of the importance of their vote.

But when Democrats are evasive, this incites frustration among the Latino community, which can be dangerous. When a Spanish language anchorwoman asked Obama about his vote for the immigration wall he was evasive. Clinton continues to flip-flop on the driver’s license issue.

With frustration, I see the possibility for an opening of moral and political exploitation of voters, as Bush did in 2004. My great-grandma and most Latinos reject the wall as a "muro de la muerte" (wall of death). The immigration debate does not seem to merit Clinton’s or Obama’s attention, which seems to leave many Hispanics outside the wave of Obama-mania.