The rise of the Latino vote : a history /
Benjamin Francis-Fallon.
- Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, (c)2019.
- 1 online resource (494 pages) : illustrations
"Published in Cooperation with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University"
The many political communities of Latino America -- Viva Kennedy and the nationalization of "Latin American" politics -- Civil rights and the recognition of a "national minority" -- Becoming Spanish-speaking, becoming Spanish origin -- Mastering the "Spanish-speaking concept" -- Liberal Democrats and the meanings of "Unidos" -- The "Brown mafia" and middle-class Spanish-speaking politics in 1972 -- The "impossible dream" of the Hispanic Republican movement -- Securing representation in a multicultural democracy -- Latino liberalism in an era of limits -- The "new Hispanic conservatives"
"The Rise of the Latino Vote examines the struggles of activists and elected officials from the 1960s to the 1980s to mold Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans into a single national political constituency. Its argument is three-fold. First, it argues that the drive to forge the "Spanish-speaking vote," as it was first called--and not simple demographic growth--that led the federal government to recognize "Hispanics" as a national minority group, shattering forever the nation's black/white binary. Second, the book argues that establishing a channel for "Spanish-speaking" electoral and policy participation both contributed to the collapse of the New Deal order and embedded parts of that very order's economic vision in the multicultural era that ensued. Indeed, the making of the "Hispanic Vote" revealed an "identity politics" deeply entwined with "class" considerations. Third, the book demonstrates that the "Hispanic" constituency's emergence rested on a fundamental uncertainty: Was Hispanic politics about assembling a coalition of existing peoples, or rather a vehicle to transcend national origin differences to articulate the values and desires of a new of U.S.-based community?"-- "Francis-Fallon returns to the origins of the U.S. "Spanish-speaking vote" to understand the history and potential of this political bloc. He finds that individual voters affiliate more with their particular ethnic communities than with the pan-ethnic Latino identity created for them, complicating the notion of a broader Latino constituency."--Provided by publisher