February 1, 2008
By ANA RIVAS
From California to New York, Hispanic bloggers are speaking up in ways that could influence Latino voters’ decisions just as their votes are becoming more relevant in the presidential race.
The bloggers’ politics vary widely. But with Super Tuesday right around the corner, their writings share a common tone: the urgency of an election year that is, as Latinopundit1 put it, "upon us like salsa on a taco."
The blogs’ bilingual, bicultural character mirrors how Hispanic voters see the election. In Of America6, Roberto Lobato points out the stark difference between Mitt Romney’s English language ads, "chock-full of immigration agents," and his Spanish ad that features his Mexican father. As Mr. Lobato explains, Latino voters will likely see and hear the different English and Spanish messages coming out of the candidate’s mouth.
While traditional media have described Sen. Clinton’s name recognition and alliances within the Latino community as something that could help her in next week’s contests, many Hispanic bloggers had more to say — especially about the Clinton campaign’s reference to Latinos as their "firewall8."
In Latino Politics Blog9, a political science student "from sunny Southern California" wrote that Sen. Clinton shouldn’t be so confident. "When a group has been marginalized for so long and has relatively weak internal leadership, I don’t think that any politician can really call such a group its ‘firewall,’" he wrote in his Jan. 30 entry.
One Latinas Blog11 also asked why "the Latino community is falling for it [Clinton’s name recognition]", and listed 1990s trade deals and Wal-Mart ghosts to warn readers about the New York senator’s past. In that same "gotcha" blogging style, One Latinas Blog posted about the Mexican descent of Arizona Sen. McCain’s Hispanic outreach director. "I consider him a double agent12," the blogger writes, "not working in just the best interests of the United States, but in the best interests of Mexico as well."
On a lighter note, Los Blogueros13, which has followed politics in Spanish since November 2004, fantasized about a combat between former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s rock14 and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s reaggeton15, and compared both candidates’ YouTube musical appearances.
Hispanic bloggers are also passionately discussing the racial issues that erupted during the Democratic contest in Nevada, when the first appreciably Latino electorate cast its vote.
"There’s no black-brown divide — just Latino envy," wrote blogger Latina Lista17, claiming that Latinos lacked a national leader. A reader replied that the divide exists because "Mexicans don’t fit" in America’s one-minority scheme. "Where will they put the blacks?"
"If only Oprah understood Spanish," bemoaned Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez of Arizona in her blog, Multiplicative Identity18, before posting a Colombian song19 she thinks could change the election. "Hay Gonzalez blanco, Hay Gonzalez negro", the song goes "Cada quien tiene, tiene del otro su poquitico." (Translation: There are white Gonzalezes, there are black Gonzalezes / Everyone has a bit of the other.)
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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