Are Some Latinos in the Wrong Party?

You would have to go back several decades to encounter the kind of outright racism and xenophobia-based politics that unfortunately, in recent years, have enjoyed a revival in the United States. You would also have to be living in a complete vacuum to fail to see how detrimentally these politics affect U.S. Latinos, as well as how most of it has been driven by Republicans!

Still, we see Latinos trying to defend the Republican Party — trying to dismiss its anti-Hispanic agenda. These are people who openly put the interests of their party before those of their own community.

We live in a time when some politicians feel they have a license to demonize illegal immigrants and encourage discrimination against all Latinos to score political points with right-wing extremists. And some Latinos still are willing to vote fore them!

Some Latino Republicans tell you they haven't seen the Draconian measures, heard the racist rhetoric or encountered the mean-spirited campaign propaganda. When Republican demagogues spew their hatred of Latinos, they don't take it personally. They figure it must be about someone else. They see no one trying to racially profile them, dilute their culture, deny them their native-language or turn back the clock to a time when minorities had no civil rights.

You have to wonder then what bubble they have been living in!

Sometimes Latinos are guided by one single issue — like abortion or gun rights — that makes them support the Republican Party, even when they must know that on most other issues, voting Republican can be hazardous to their own communities and families.

I see this constantly among my fellow Cuban-Americans, many of whom believe that because I was born in Cuba, I should be a staunch supporter of Republicans on all issues. Making myself, my family and my Hispanic community submissive to the racist rants of GOP extremists.

No way, Jose! The idea that Cuban-Americans owe some kind of loyalty to the GOP is getting old and tired, especially since Republicans have done as little as Democrats have to help us liberate our homeland.

Next April, I will celebrate the 50th anniversary of my arrival in the United States. So should I have spent the last 50 years basing all my decisions — my life as an American — solely based on phony political promises about Cuba? If a politician demonstrates that he hates Latinos, but goes to Miami and says he also hates Fidel Castro, does that mean I have to support him? How long do we fall for their hollow rhetoric on Cuba?

Some Cubanos have written to tell me that as a Cuban-American, I have the responsibility to avoid criticizing candidates who have taken a stand against Castro. Others say I should know better than to criticize anyone who is running against a "socialist" like President Barack Obama.

Apparently, they have forgotten what real socialism is like. Clearly, they don't remember that the disparity between the rich and the poor, which is advocated by Republicans in this county, is what brought us revolution, real socialism and despair in Cuba.

But the blind Latino Republicans are not just Cuban.

"Republicans only have a problem with illegal immigrants," Republican Latinos tell you — as if being lucky enough to obtain immigration credentials makes them humanly superior than those who weren't so lucky.

It's one of the saddest chapters of American history, and it's repeating itself. Once a new wave of immigrants joins the American mainstream, some begin to feel threatened and to discriminate against other immigrants who came later.

Apparently, it's now the Latinos' turn to keep writing this sad history and to prove that you don't have to be white to be xenophobic. Bigots come in all colors and nationalities.

This tends to occur among immigrants who have been here for a while, especially among the children and grandchildren of immigrants — people who can't appreciate the sacrifices their ancestors made to get here. But amazingly, even some "established" immigrants discriminate against those who are recent arrivals. Once they "make it" and they feel they have something to protect, some begin to complain that newer immigrants are getting a free ride.

Established immigrants will tell you that illegal ones pose a threat to homeland security, take jobs from Americans, drive down wages, evade taxes and benefit from education and health care services that should go only to Americans. And they don't realize that by discriminating against the latest wave of immigrants, they are writing a new sad chapter of American history. They don't see that what they are now saying about other immigrants is precisely what other Americans still say about them. It's terribly selfish and hypocritical, but the moment some immigrants cross the U.S. border, they want to shut it for everyone else.

Amazingly, many Latino Republicans don't see how GOP demagogues are not just targeting illegal immigrants, but all Latinos. When they hear the GOP presidential candidates insisting on making English the official language of government, they refuse to see that this is an effort to deny them their right to obtain some government services in Spanish. When they see the candidates insisting on a melting pot instead of a salad bowl to describe the American experience, they don't see the clear GOP efforts to dilute our ethnic identities. When they see Republican politicians obsessed with the Mexican border and unconcerned about our border with Canada, they refuse to see the blatant racism. When GOP leaders insist on denying U.S. citizenship to the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants or when they engage in voter suppression efforts to keep Latino citizens from voting, Latino Republicans turn into ostriches.

As the saying goes, there are "none so blind as those that will not see." But isn't it up to the rest of us Latinos to at least turn on the light for them? If we created a list of the top 1,000 atrocities committed by Republicans against legal resident Latinos (while pretending to only be going after undocumented immigrants), would that be enough to convince Latino Republicans that perhaps they are in the wrong party?

I don't know. Just asking!

To find out more about Miguel Perez and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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