Why New Mexico Hispanos should support Obama

Helen Laura López |

8/10/2008 - 8/10/08

Will New Mexico Hispanos support Barack Obama? If they do, will it be wholeheartedly? The idealist in me says yes to both questions. The realist says yes, but only if there is aggressive leadership in the Hispano north and a strong effort by the Obama campaign to let Northern New Mexicans know who he is at the core. Whether Obama or McCain carries New Mexico in November will depend on how norteños vote, and if they vote.

I had an eye-opening conversation with an Hispano friend who has held public office for about 25 years. We agreed that he is "old-school politics." He told me he was OK with Obama but he voted for Hillary Clinton because he thought Hispanos would do better under a Clinton administration. He felt that an African American president would meet the demands of African Americans to our detriment. He expected fierce competition for top appointments and mid-level jobs and that African Americans would take many of them at the expense of Latinos. He expected federal projects and programs directed more toward African American communities than Latino communities.

That is not an isolated view. It may well have been true 25 years ago, or perhaps even now if the African American president had been part of the civil-rights movement, because of the intense internal ties within each faction. But this is a different era and a different man. This man is half African and half Anglo-American. He was raised by a mother and grandparents from Kansas — classic American white Midwesterners. His mother was more worldly than most of us, and she raised a man of the world. She was an anthropologist with an intense interest in a multicultural world. She married two men of different races, nationalities and cultures. Imagine the impact all that had on her son's view of humankind.

Many African Americans have claimed Obama as their own, after initially claiming he wasn't black enough. White people aren't claiming him as white at all. In the mainstream, people are moving toward seeing the global essence of his make-up. It is time for Hispanos to explore that view and consider how it affects us. How smart is it for a Democrat to reject a man who has the vision and ideas we so desperately need, only because his father was black, and pull the lever in the voting booth for a Republican whose ideas are repugnant to all that Democrats believe in, only because he is white? With enough work by the Obama supporters, I am confident that the majority of New Mexico Hispanos will see through that tactic of dividing us by race and deliver a Democratic victory.

Traditional Hispano leaders can lead the way, as Speaker Ben Luján is doing. They must go into the villages and homes and inspire people to vote for the man who will lead us out of the mess we are in, and into a better world. Traditional Democrats must stop degrading the progressive movement and its new ways. Young Ben Ray Luján is an example of new leadership. He will lead his supporters into voting for a better future at all levels of the Democratic ticket. Sí se puede.

Helen Laura López is a Taos County resident with a law practice in Santa Fe.