Latinos are not a monolithic group, but some people sure like lumping us together:
From the National Journal:
“In a lengthy, sweeping decision, a federal court in Washington on Tuesday unanimously struck down Texas’ new congressional map, ruling that the plan was enacted with ‘discriminatory purpose’ against Hispanics protected under the Voting Rights Act. The ruling will not affect this year’s elections, but barring successful appeal, Texas would have to redraw its maps before 2014.
The three-judge panel ruled that Texas legislators drew a map that intentionally denied fair representation to Hispanic voters during the state’s decennial redistricting process. On a narrower, 2-1 basis, the court also ruled that the new map ‘does not entitle minorities to proportional representation.’ “
And here’s the lumping part from Huff Post Latino Voices:
“After Texas won four new seats in the 2010 reapportionment process — something which was due almost entirely to growth in the state’s Latino population — its state legislature attempted to circumvent the Voting Rights Act. In a November 2010 email obtained by the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund and presented as evidence in court, a Texas legislative staffer suggested drafting new districts by identifying communities with a large number of voters with ‘Spanish’ surnames and low voter turnout, then lumping them together into an opportunity district.
Staffers drawing the state’s new congressional districts pushed areas with a large number of very active Latino voters into mostly Republican and non-Hispanic white districts. With these maps in place, the impact of the more active and largely Democratic-leaning Latino voters would be minimized and Republicans in these areas could be safely reelected. With the new districts in place, it became highly unlikely that candidates preferred by minority voters would hold any of the state’s new congressional seats.”
Now, I don’t share the foaming animosity toward Republicans that some of my left-wing compadres harbor. I believe in republican politics, and so I know that any form of representative government should welcome a wide range of views and ideologies, progressive as well as conservative.
That being said, isn’t it clear that some sections of the Republican Party are determined to suppress the minority vote in 2012?
First, and despite no evidence that voter fraud is anything but an extremely rare occurrence, the Republican Party has made it a part of their platform to push for voter ID laws nationwide. In Pennsylvania, a Democratic-leaning battleground state, voter ID supporters are upholding a law that could potentially disenfranchise 1.4 million voters in the state — 1 in 3 voters in the Philly area alone — even though voter IDers have admitted to having no evidence of voter fraud at the polls.
Photo by Azavea
And in Texas, where the addition of 4.2 million residents since 2000 (or a 20.6 percent increase) is attributed to Latinos, Republicans in the state are trying to redraw district maps as to limit Latino influence in elections.
I promise I’m no conspiracy theorists. But if something walks like discrimination and talks like discrimination, it’s probably discrimination.
About Hector Luis Alamo, Jr.
This is sooo biased. First of all if you are a citizen of the US no one can take your vote away. If you.are a citizen then you DO have a right to vote and an ID. If you don’t have an ID you are obviously illegal or undocumented and you do not posses the right to vote. Simple as that, I am latino and a republican! I can see why the Republicans want to do what they do. Most hispanics come to.this.country have 10 kids and feed them off.of welfare or some goverment funded program, want to get all the benefits for free and take advantage of the governme.t which consequentally only raises taxes.for people like me who.have gotten an.education and worked to build myself up.as opposed expecting someone to give me something for all the children I irresponsably have. Get more information people and stop using the word discrimination so freely!
http://www.nypl.org/help/community-outreach/ID
You are so correct BL! I was just contacted by the GOP headquarters here in NY and they told me because I am a minority and a Lateeeno I will not be allowed to vote! And I am a life long Republican! Go figure!
It’s only clear to those who are easily manipulated. Control your emotions. If you truly believe that any political leader in our current society would want to deliver you dirty air, dirty water, bigotry, misogyny and abandon our elderly, well then you’re an idiot. If you also believe that mediocrity deserves praise and prosperity over anything extraordinary and diligent, well then you’re foolish.
As a Latino, I continue to find this reporting too biased. As a registered Republican, it amazes me how this poropaganda continues to focus on only the negative aspect of the Republican Party. I’ll be the 1st to admit that the party I support has issues as well as the Deocratic Party. But if you are going to represent the Latino community as a whole, I think it would only be fair that you show and represent both sides of the issues.
The GOP is working hard y’all to limit how many Latinos can get library cards! The war on Latinos continues, fight on mi raza!
BL flagrantly suppresses all Latino perspective which lies outside of the far left. Please tell me about fairness and equality.
I have offered to be a contributor and received no response.
maybe you should change your name from Being latino to BEING DEMOCRAT
i agree Jose 1st of all Being Latino is not reporting,they are clearly in democratic side,i doubt BL has ever said anything negative about the Fast&furious saga.lots of mexicans are being killed courtesy of the Obama administration but since its Obama he gets a pass.if it was Romney BL would be all over it.
Does BL represent all us Latinos or just the Register democrats Latinos?
My mom lives in Miami, and she is a Republican, but she was visited by men wearing white hoods on horse back and they said that if she voted in the next election, no matter for what candidate, they would come back and burn a wooden cross on her lawn. We live in scary times Latinos!
I’m a registered Democrat, but BL is seriously being annoying by being so blatantly one- sided and biased. I agree with the above comments.
BL represents Latino Democrats.BL never says anything positive about republicans,evrything is all Hate which is unfortunate but i still like BL page even though they hate republicans
You people are so damn annoying. Why not just dispute articles instead of always crying about BL. You guys hate it so much yet keep coming back to cry. Go create the “Being a Latino Republican who is so Disillusioned That We Don’t Acknowledge How Racist Republican’s Are” FB page.
@wakeupbrian your such a moron, your the racist
you’re **
with democrats evrything is racial,thats all u ppl talk about and then u say reps r racist?? LOL,u ppl have to stop talkin about race 24/7.there are other things goin on or is that all u ppl can talk about?
There are other things going on, such as our horrible education system. Prime example, your comments @juan.
Boo Hoo!!! Crybabies, just like Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the Douche-i-cans. OBAMA 2012!!!!!
I am donating 100 tickets to any latino who wants to see the Obama America 2016. Watch it and open your eyes. Obama is only using the latino vote to advance his agenda. He will destroy this country so neither latinos or anyone else will proper. He want an army to combat the citizens of this country. Get informed. Don’t buy the lies!
Josh, please email me at hector.la@beinglatino.us …. We’d love to have conservative Latinos on board
Josh, write for BL!
Lucy thank you for what you are doing. The movie is a big hit!
To address a previous statement, rather than discuss the article at hand, we usually bring up BL’s now-blatant one-sidedness via *these* comments in particular b/c we know that a real person is reading them on the other side and hopefully taking note and planning a way to address them. (I might actually repost this on your wall though.)
I subscribed to BL so that I could share and learn more about, well, “being Latino” in the U.S. Latinos come in many shapes and sizes; most may be Democrats, some are Republicans, but that DOESN’T mean that “being Latino in the U.S.” = “being a Democrat Latino (Latino Democrat?) in the U.S.”
PLEEEEEASE BL, know that those who have more Conservative tendencies per se are NOT against Democrats. Heck both sides need e/o to ensure *balance* and a true democracy. BUT I’m afraid even you (yes you!) must help maintain that balance; otherwise, you’re unfairly MISREPRESENTING what being a Latino in this country actually entails (which I’m sure defeats your purpose to begin w/). It’s not just about Rep issues or Dem issues; it’s about Rep AND Dem issues.
IF for any reason representing both (equally important) sides is too BIG a task for you, then please change your name and discuss Democrat Latino issues. Nothing wrong w/doing so; just be honest and admit that someone else may be better at handling the “other” side.
And to clarify, BL is an online magazine, not a newspaper; a views site, not a news site. And while an overwhelming majority of Latinos are Democrats and support a progressive platform, I do agree that BL needs more conservative contributors. So I invite any conservatives interested in sharing their views with BL’s readers to email me at the address listed above.
@WakeUp Brian…Annoying??? You find other people’s opinions Annoying?? I keep coming back because as a Latino I will always continue to support Latinos. And despite the difference of political opininon, I’m just stating my own opinion in reagards to Being Latino clear obvious choice on which side of the poltical spectrum they are. Doesn’t mean I “hate” their FB page. It just means I disagree. But since you want to go “there”, It’s statements like yours that have riled up the extreme “Right”. And it seem to more common these days…beginning with your political party….
But Latinos would typically be the largest Republican minority voters with Asians being the second largest on average. Blacks, there’s a few.