Latino Politics - Professor Ivelisse Cuevas-Molina PDF

Preview

Summary

Professor Ivelisse Cuevas-Molina...

Description

Latino Politics Latino? Hispanic? Latinx? What is Race? • OED: ◦ each of the divisions of human kind, having distance physical characteristics ◦ 3 points ▪ all humans have race ▪ humans are divided along racial lines ▪ race is related to physical characteristics ◦ Folk definition - cultural/popular definition ▪ folklore makes references to the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations ▪ 3 points 1. physical characteristic 2. categories ▪ species/variation 3. Distinguishing factors ▪ phenotype: the set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genotype with the environment ▪ origins 1. long term residence 2. region • Race = Social Construct ◦ race is inevitable ◦ need not exist ◦ exists with a purpose - political construct ◦ problems ▪ widely held as truth ▪ central to identity What is ethnicity? • Dictionary: ◦ “of or relating to large groups of people classed according to common racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural origin, or background" • Max Weber ◦ belief in shared descent ▪ origin ▪ geographical/ancestral ▪ distinguishable customs/common bond ◦ common culture ▪ values, beliefs, practices, customs ▪ food, language, religion ◦ socially constructed

◦

origins in migration ▪ heterogeneity through distinction ▪ competition because of scarce resources

Race V. Ethnicity • differences ◦ defining characteristics ▪ phenotype versus culture ◦ ascription versus agency ▪ race - ascribed (by dominant group in society) ▪ ethnicity - (allows people) agency ◦ multiplicity ▪ multi-racial, not multi-ethnic? ◦ flexibility ▪ assimilation (process by which you change your ethnicity — emigrating to another country and adopting your culture) • Pan-ethnicity ◦ What? ◦ distinctions/similarities are homogenized ◦ categorical ◦ cultural ◦ cognitive - Linked Fate (black americans — single origins entonces high linked fate) Hispanic and Latino/a/x • dont refer to race or color: many races in Latin America owing to the history of the region. The indigenous people of the region were conquered and colonized by white Europeans, who then forcibly imported millions of black Africans and enslaved them. • Latino ◦ Any person of Latin American descent residing in the united States. Different from Latin Americans (people actually living in Latin America right now) Latino • Geographic reference, meaning form Latin America ◦ refers to mostly everything south of the US including the Caribbean ◦ excludes any country that doesn’t speak Spanish, Portuguese, and French Hispanic • people who share the common language of Spanish. Word adopted by the U.S. gov’t in the ‘70s to give people from Latin America a common identity ◦ However, it excludes a big part of the region — namely Brazil, which is Portuguese-speaking. So a person from Chile is Hispanic but a person from Brazil is not. A person from Spain could also be deemed Hispanic, which is why some argue it’s not a great way to define Latinos.

• • •

Language reference to Spanish and Castellano meaning from a country whose primary language is spanish Hispanic ad identity ◦ Most hispanics use family’s country of origin over pan-ethnic terms

*Latino used by more left leaning politicians *Hispanic used by republics • • •

most hispanics don't see a shared common culture among other U.S. Hispanic most hispanics don't see themselves fitting into the standard racial categories used by te census latinos split on whether they see themselves as a typical American

Latinx • gender neutral alternative to Latino, Latina and Latin@ ◦ linguistic revolution

Latino Politics & Political Science The Latino Caucus in Political Science - established to both promote and protect the professional development and well-being of Latin@s in poli sci and those interested in the study. History • inspired by NCOPS (National Conference of Black Political Scientists) ◦ helped establish and fund early hispanic political scientists Latinos - the nation’s largest minority Theoretical and Conceptual Issues • Theory Building ◦ two tiered pluralism (Hero, 1992) [first issue] ▪ institutional limits to latino political power ▪ national origin differences “makes theorizing about 'Latinos' extremely hazardous" • Validity of Pan-Ethnic labels ◦ Generational change (Jones-Correa & Leal, 1996) [second issue] ▪ attachment to pan-ethnic labels ▪ less support for bilingual education all of this means that people less attached to individual labels like Dominican Boricua are less attached to bilingual classes ◦ Pan-ethnic attachment [third issue] ▪ attacks on immigrants/immigration ▪ attacks o the use of Spanish

◦

◦

Incorporation disparities [fourth issue] ▪ Cuban Americans - past policy of political asylum ▪ Puerto Ricans- citizens since 1917 ▪ Mexican Americans - well incorporated ▪ other Latinos - difficult paths to citizenship New Issues ▪ unaccompanied minors ▪ migrant caravans (but not an invasion —duh) ▪ family separations ▪ building a wall ▪ travel bans ▪ DACA

Political Socialization • political ideology • experience of discrimination • generational differences • foreign born vs. US born Electoral Engagement • Early enhancers of voting ◦ 1965 Voting Rights Act ◦ Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project (SWVRP) ◦ Puerto Rica Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF) • Continued Limitations ◦ No Election Day registration ◦ citizenship ◦ lack of civic engagement • New enhancers of voting ◦ majority-minority districts ◦ co-ethnic candidates ◦ mobilization/campaigns Gender • women are majority of voters Latin@x demographics and Mexican Americans Latino/Hispanic Community • "Latino" and "Hispanic" labels: used to identify persons fo Spanish origin. Including all striating from the 17th century to the 21st century • Latino-ness and Hispanic-ness is a social construct • latino politics = bridging across national origin boundaries social construct: invented and constructed by society focusing on intenten qualities created by ourselves

Hispanic Demographics • Significant population growth ◦ 1970 - 9.6 mill (4.7%) ◦ 199 - 22.6 mill ◦ 2017 - 58.9 mill (18.1%) • Median age - 28 (lower than white africans by a lot— makes them very important to work force and economy) • Median income - $47,675 • Living in poverty - 22% • High School - 27% • Citizenship 78% *Census - 111.2 mill (28% of pop) by 2016 • Consequences ◦ latinos largest minority in 27 states ◦ more congressional seats in AZ, NV, TX, and FL ◦ new geographic settlement in Deep South Latino Population growth • 3 Primary factors ◦ large number of child bearing age women ◦ higher birth rates the the general population ◦ international migration • Decrease in foreign natality • Mexicans largest subgroup by more than 30 million • 34% foreign born • 20% with insurance • 45% homeowners • 15% have a B.A. or more Spanish Language • 2015 - 68% report speaking english well • TV & Radio in Spanish ◦ meet service needs of Latinos ◦ vehicle for Spanish language maintenance ◦ vehicle for Spanish language acquisition Mexican Americans P1 • Mexico ◦ former spanis colony ◦ 1821 independence ◦ 50 different presidencies between 1821 & 1860 economic disarray led to American settlers in the north

•

Mexico and the U.S. ◦ 1830’s 1835 - Texas revolution Jackson & Pol expansionism ◦ 1846 - start of the Mexican American War ◦ February 2, 1848 - Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo end of the Mexican American War Mexico cedes pver 50% of its territory to the U.S. $15 mill 100,000 Mexican citizens in those territories CA, NV, UT, part of AZ, CO, NM, & WY ◦ 2 main provisions in the 1848 Annexation classification of Mexicans as white in order to become citizens (didn’t happen for indigenous Mexicans) court proven validity of land grants ◦ Mexican Citizenship Status socioeconomic status phenotype varied by state ◦ 3 Areas of citizenship formal voting rights Federal v. State citizenship CA 1849 white males of Mx decent NM 18 protection of Criminal Justice System protection of private property

•

Mexico and the US the border, immigration policy and deportations 1924 - Mexicans excluded from National Origins Act 1925 -Border Patrol is created to enforce the 1924 NOA 1929 - State Department starts to limit Mexican immigration 1930’s - media blames Mexicans for economic depression start of deportations 500,000 from Los Angeles 1950’s - Operation Wetback 1.3 mill deported 1942 to ’64 - Bracero Program U.S. paying to deport and bring Mexicans at the same time 1960’s Maquiladora program (meant to give former Braceros jobs, didn’t work) 1965 - Immigration and Nationality Act place limits on mexican immigration family reunification become priority 10 years wait for visas

Mexican Americans in the U.S. • 20th Century ◦ Diverse ▪ generational status ▪ indigenous identification ▪ location of settlement ◦ Jim Crow ▪ MA’s considered non-white ▪ 3 forms of discrimination 1. housing ▪ (property sale restrictions, found unconstitutional by Supreme Court in 1948) 2. employment ▪ restricted to skilled trades ▪ excluded from labor unions (labor unions were closed to non-whites) 3. education ▪ segregation in all of the southwest ▪ placed in classrooms all together ▪ tracked to home economics (particularly for females) and vocational training for males ▪ students strongly discouraged from high school (prevention of college degrees) ◦ Disenfranchisement ▪ poll taxes ▪ literacy tests ▪ white primaries 1. primaries restricted for only white males (at that point primaries were the most important part of the election process) ▪ lynchings, deportations, and harassments 1. were in police custody before getting lynched (would be handed over by the police to the public to be lynched) 2. Lynches: extra judiciary executions meant to discourage (terrorize) people to participate in civic life ◦ School Segregation ▪ 1899 - AZ Title XIX, established English as the language of instruction ▪ 1931 - Alvarez vs. Lemon Grove School District 1. Parents filed suit against school that took students to a barn, judge ruled in favor of parents, immediate reinstatement of Mexican American students to their original schools ▪ 1940’s - Mendez - vs. Westminster: CA school desegregation precursor to Brown vs. Board of Education ◦ Political Organizing ▪ Mutual aid societies

▪

▪

1. help Mexican Americans with economic uncertainties 2. auxiliary communities for Mex. women Labor Unions 1. JMLA (Japanese Mexican Labor Association) first Multiracial Labor Union, held meetings in Spanish, Japanese, and English ▪ tried to join AFL, couldn’t because Japanese Americans weren’t accepted by the AFL and dissolved because couldn’t get economic support 2. LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) Civil Rights Organizations

Farm Workers Movement • 1927-93 • Cesar Chavez - Founder; Dolores Huerta - Co-Founder (Chicano movement) ◦ National Farm Workers Association Chicano Movement • 1963 - 1972 • no one united movement; workers and students • Chicano ◦ originally pejorative ◦ “adopt by Mexican Americans activists in the 60’s as a way to transform a negative stereotype into something positive…not only a particular national origin but also a leftist political consciousness • Chicanismos: “a cultural nationalist view which argued in favor a uniform, experience of discrimination and exclusion that united all Chicanos toward a common purpose .” • The end of the movement ◦ COINTELPRO (FBI) ◦ Continued legacy - MALDEF, NCLR, LULAC, MAPA, NALEO Mexican American Politics Today • Institutionalization ◦ increased representation in formal politics but still underrepresented ◦ presidential candidacy Julian Castro 2020 • Trump Era ◦ retrenchment of anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric Puerto Ricans History of Puerto Rico • Former Spanish Colony • Taíno culture ◦ Boriken, borinquen ◦ Boricua

•

Status Politics - Central Issue ◦ Long standing pro-independence movement ◦ 1868 Grito de Lares ▪ Puerto Ricans organized a rebellion against spanish to become own republic ▪ failed revolt ◦ 1898 Spanish American War (Cuban) ▪ July - U.S. Invasion of P.R. 1. Puerto Ricans thought the US was gonna help them become liberated by Spain, did not think they were gonna be taken ▪ December - Treaty of Paris 1. P.R., Guam (possessions of Spain) become possessions of the U.S. ◦ 1898 U.S. Military Rule ◦ 1900 Foraker Act ▪ civil gouvernent (appointed by the U.S. president) ▪ free commerce with the U.S ▪ public school education entirely in English (stops in 1940) ▪ unincorporated territory 1. keeps P.R. in limbo political status, away from statehood ◦ 1917 Jones Act ▪ statutory citizenship (granted by law not right of birth, thus can be revoked if it services a legitimate government reason) ▪ bicameral legislature (everyone in congress is elected but government continues to be elected by president) ▪ english official language ◦ 1922 Puerto Rican Nationalist Party ▪ 1930 Pedro Albizu Campos elected leader 1. Nationalist party is no longer in favor for America; starts antiAmerican policy for Nationalist party ▪ 1937Ponce Masacre 1. masacre of Nationalist members by Insular police 2. Insular police pro US, persecuted anti-US ▪ 1950 October Rebellion in Jayuya ▪ 1950 November assassination attempt of President Truman ▪ 1954 attack on the U.S. House of Representatives 1. commuted sentences by Eisenhower and Carter ▪ 1946 Jesús T. Piñero 1. first P.P. born governor appointed by Pres. Truman ▪ 1948 Luis Muños Marín 1. first elected governor of P.R. ▪ 1952 Commonwealh Constitution or ELA ▪ Referenda in Political Status 1. 1967 (ELA), 1993 (ELA), 1998 (none of the above), 2012 (Q1 No, Q2 Statehood)

▪ ▪

Q1 - keep current status Q2 - get statehood

Puerto Rican Migration • Operation Bootstrap (Operación manos a la obra) ◦ 1947 Industrial Incentives Act - industrialize Puerto Rico (used to be agrarian society) ◦ Industrialization =/= employment • Great Migration 1950’s ◦ NYC - immigration office, funneled Puerto Ricans into NYC ◦ New England • Circular migration Puerto Rican Politics • 1930’s ◦ Vito Marcoantonio - leftist, supporter of independence • 1958 - Puerto Rican Day Parade • Herman Badillo ◦ 1965 elected Bronx president ◦ 1970 first Puerto Rican leeched to Congress • 1960’s & 1970’s - Young Lords Organization ◦ Puerto Rican version of Black panthers ◦ founded in Chicago, second head quarters in NYC ◦ did daycare for parents, provided meals for children, security in their neighborhoods ◦ armed paramilitary group ◦ persecuted by COINTELPRO ▪ infiltrated & arrested ◦ changed mission, took on independence movement then died out • 1996 - tax incentives from Operation Bootstrap disappeared, manufacturers started leaving the island, starts mass immigration

***Jones Act: To Use American ports off the mainland you have to use U.S. Merchant Marines, increases costs and tariffs on imported goods

Dominicans & Cubans Cuban History • •

1868 Grito De Yara & Ten Year’s War ◦ Spain VS Cuba for Cuban independence 1892 Jose Marti & Cuban Revolutionary Party in NYC

•

• • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • •

1898- Spanish-Cuban-American War ◦ Close economic ties with Cuba led to U.S Military intervention in Cuba ◦ Pro-independence Cuban rebels helped U.S Troops 1898 Treat of Paris established Cuban Independence 1901- Platt Amendment 1902- Cuban constitution 1912 U.S Intervention in Cuba 1917 U.S Forced Cuba to hold new elections 1933 U.S established Batista led government 1940 Batista is officially president 1952 Batista return to power through a coup d’etat 1959 Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and Camilo Cienfuegos. Batista flees the country ◦ April 1959 Castro visits the U.S, meets with Nixon 1960 Castro speech at the united nations, meetings with Malcolm X, Nikita Khrushchev, and other world leaders 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion, joint U.S and Cuban exile attempt to end Castro’s government 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis 2008 Fidel Castro steps down from the presidency 2016 Fidel Castro dies 2017 first non-Castro president of Cuba

Cuban Exiles in the United States • • •

•

•

• •

Successful integration into U.S economy and politics Castro regime central to Cuban-American politics 1960’s 3 political leanings among anti-Castro Cubans ◦ Right wings (former Batista supporters) ◦ Moderates seeking democracy ◦ Left wing (former Castro supporters) seeking social, economic, and political change, NOT socialism Sense of community built ◦ Shared Experiences ◦ Common story of oppression and loss of their homes Cuban refugee program ◦ Federal financial assistance ◦ U.S Funded travel for Cuba to Miami 1965-1973 Cuban Refugee Adjustment Act ◦ Eligible for permanent residence just for one year Mariel Boatlift 1989 ◦ Approx. 125k Cubans arrived in Miami ◦ Many came from prisons and mental hospitals

Cuban American Politics & Policy •

•

• • • • •

Shift from Dems to Republicans in the early ’80s ◦ Republican support for Cuban candidates ◦ Cuban candidates won, continue to win Elected officials at all levels ◦ Presidential candidates at 2016 ▪ Marco Rubio ▪ Ted Cruz 2013 removal of travel restrictions to Cuba 2014 Obama and Raul Castro announced the restoration of diplomatic ties 2015 embassies reopen 2016 Obama visits Cuba 2017 Trump reinstates economic and travel restrictions

Dominican Americans • Espanola--first Spanish colony in the America’s 1492 • Tainos- named the island Quisqueya, giving Dominicans the name of QUisqueyanos • 1697 Treaty of Ryswick ◦ Spain and France agree to end military conflict over control of the island • 1777-- a treaty of Aranjuez, established the official border between Haiti and Santo Domino • 1801--Haitian Control of the entire island by Toussaint L’Ouverture • 1844 independence of the Dominican Republic • 1874 peace treaty with Haiti ends the repeated attempts at annexation/unification of Espanola • 1884 U.S established diplomatic ties with DR • 1892 U.S boys Dominican international debt, expand the debt 7 fold until 1897 • 1916 U.S invasion and occupation of the D.R until 1924 • Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina coup d’etat ◦ 50,000 people died under his dictatorship, including almost 30k Haitians living in the Dr ◦ U.S Support through his regime ◦ 1961 assassination • 1962 first free and fair elections in DR • 1962 U.s occupation until 1966 Interest Groups Interest Groups • An interest group is an organized group of individuals or organizations the make policyrelated appeals to government ◦ interest groups enhance democracy by representing individual, encouraging political participation, and educating the public

◦

but interest groups represent the private interests of a few, not the public interest

Pluralism • a condition or system in which many groups, interests, or ideas co-exist in a nation and share political power ◦ so long as all groups are free to organize, the system is arguably democratic, as individuals will join groups they support and won’t join groups they oppose ◦ bigger groups will have power as they should • but some groups organize more easily Organizational structure • groups appeal to members by offering them certain benefits: ◦ informational benefits: newsletters, periodicals, training programs, conferences, and other info ◦ material benefits: goods and services ◦ social beenfits: friendship, networking ◦ purposive benefits: accomplishments What do Groups need? Money, leadership, members • groups need money to sustain the organization and to fund the groups activities (lobbying, voter education, etc) • groups with access n organizational discipline are more successful How do they influence policy? • insider strategies ◦ directly influencing decision makers ◦ pursuing advocacy through the courts • outsider strategies ◦ educating the public ◦ campaigning and contributing to candidates • many groups pursue both insider and outsider strategies *amicus briefs Civil Right...