As of the 2020 U.S. Census, 62.1 million Latinos live in the United States, representing 18.9% of the total U.S. population, a 23% increase since 2010. This racial/ethnic group is the second largest after non-Hispanic whites in the U.S. In 2020, the states with the highest Hispanic or Latino populations were: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Texas. According to the Brookings Institution, Latinos will become the nation's largest minority in 2045.
With the help of laws and court case wins, Latinos have been able to receive the help needed to participate in American politics. According to data provided by the Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey (CMPS), 72% of Latinos believe that it is very or somewhat important to vote. They have traditionally been a key Democratic Party constituency, but more recentlyShepard, Steven (October 30, 2021). The 5 key groups fueling Youngkin's rise. Politico. Retrieved November 5, 2021. have begun to split between the Democratic and Republican Party.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R) is the highest-ranking Latino official in American history.
Latinas in American Politics Latinas have been involved in American political history for centuries. Dating back to 1848 with the conclusion of the U.S - Mexican War, Mexican women moved across the border to get prospective jobs, Facing challenges in working conditions, activists started unionization. In 1933, thirty-seven agricultural strikes took place in California and twenty-four strikes were led by the Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union. The 1930s was a pivotal time where Latinas in America were involved in politics. A Latina activist named Carmen Bernal Escobar made an impact as a member of the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America where she negotiated significant wage increases and benefits.
The largest and oldest Hispanic and Latin American civil rights organization in the United States is the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). The women apart of LULAC participated in many projects that began the uproot of this organization. Its first council #9 was created on February 22, 1934, in El Paso, Texas. By 1938, the league had created the first women's national office in Mrs. Esther Machuca as Ladies Organizer General. Women like Alicia Dickerson Montemayor and folklorist Jovita Gonzalez were actively involved in voluntarist politics and educational reform for the community. The growth of the role of women in LULAC has not stopped. Later 1981, the league's first national vice-president for women was elected. Programs for women are carried out locally through the efforts of state coordinators for women.
Limited representation and neglect
Mexican Americans Following the annexation of Northern Mexico in 1848, many Mexican who resided there as well as migrants became U.S. citizens. The treaty that allowed this for Mexicans was the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The purpose of the treaty was to end the Mexican-American War that started in 1846. After the Mexican American war ended in 1848, the Mexicans on the U.S side of the established border became second-class citizens and they were now entitled to land and political power. However, the United States violated this treaty disregarding established Mexican-American rights.
Another pivotal movement for Mexican Americans was the Chicano Movement. In 1962, the recognition the activists in the Chicano movement brought for Hispanics were major headlines. Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, Helen Chavez, and Gloria Arellanes, activists of the United Farm Workers Union, brought public attention with a series of marches, national boycotts and improved working conditions. These marches gave more recognition to Mexican-Americans and what they do for America and how they should be properly compensated. To this day after the beginning efforts of the 1800s and 1900s, Mexican Americans and all Latinos still face political exclusion in the United States' political system with restrictive voting laws and disinformation campaigns.
Puerto Ricans
March 2, 1917 marks the day when Puerto Ricans were granted American citizenship as a result of President Wilson signing the Jones-Shafroth Act. Signing this contract opened a door to a bicameral legislature in the island territory. This was considered advantageous to the U.S. at the time. As the U.S. partook in World War I, over 20,000 Puerto Ricans were drafted, with many of them commanded to guard the Panama Canal. In 1936, a Puerto Rican man named Pedro Albizu Campos and a couple leaders of the Nationalist Party were imprisoned by the U.S. government under the conviction of seditious conspiracy after leading movements in Puerto Rico seeking independence. In 1947 Campos returned to Puerto Rico and restarted his campaign for the same cause being independence. This caused a multitude of concerns for the U.S. government, causing them to label these movements as "anti-American events" and viewed anyone participating in it as threats the government.Obler, Suzanne, and Deena J. Gonzalez, editors. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States. Oxford Press, 2006. The Puerto Rican population increased from around 300,000 in 1950 to nearly 5 million by 2012. This migration has majorly impacted a couple of American cities, especially New York City, as it was influencing the culture, politics, and labor markets.
Although Puerto Rico is essentially under United States's authority, being controlled by the United States as an unincorporated territory and governed by the U.S. federal law, it is not a U.S. state. There have been perceptions of exploitation and neglect as a result of this uncertainty. Puerto Rico is the largest overseas dependency, where over three million inhabitants (who are U.S. citizens) and a large diaspora living stateside. The ways in which they were neglected by the U.S are shown in examples such as, U.S. presidential elections where Puerto Ricans on the island cannot vote in these elections leaving them subjected to the federal laws and budgets that govern them. Another example is how the federal government continues to consistently underfund Puerto Rico's Medicaid and Medicare programs unlike all other U.S. states. This forces the territory to manage the severe healthcare disparities with the lack of federal support. In addition, when Hurricane Maria occurred in 2017, it caused millions to live without power and clean water for months. This natural disaster has highlighted the systematic neglect and dysfunction that the U.S government has towards Puerto Rico and its citizens.
Legal background Before Latinos were allowed to vote, they faced a lot of voting discriminatory practices, especially in the Southwest region of the United States. After the Civil War, many Southern states adopted discriminatory voting practices against African Americans, but also for anyone that was non-white. According to the Mexican American Legal DefenseMexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Texas laws prohibited Tejanos (Texas residents who descended from Mexico), from speaking Spanish, organizing political demonstrations/protests or even from serving as election judges as early as 1845. By the 1900s poll taxes, and white primaries (only white people were allowed to participate in primaries), prohibited Mexican Americans from voting. It took several laws and court cases to remove voting barriers like this that prohibited Latinos from participating in U.S. politics.
Voting Rights Act of 1965 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law by the 36th U.S. President, Lyndon B.Johnson. The act made it illegal for states, mostly Southern states, to keep discriminatory voting practices in place. This included literacy tests and polling taxes. The law primarily impacted African Americans as they were visibly disenfranchised from voting, but the act also helped remove barriers for Latino voters.
Impacts By 1966, after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, voting discriminatory practices were eliminated under the law. However, the Latino community still faced language barriers to vote. As a result, the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project was started in 1974, becoming the first and largest non-partisan organization in the U.S. Founder William C. Velasquez, created the organization after realizing that language barriers remained for Latinos even after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed. Many Latino voters, including Puerto Ricans, were unable to cast their vote between the time the VRA of 1965 was passed and its revision in 1975.
Voting Rights Act of 1975 In 1975, 38th U.S. president, Gerald Ford, extended the VRA Act of 1965, to protect language minorities. Specifically, Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act was added to the act, which required certain states (those that have had discriminatory voting practices) to provide language assistance and translated voting materials (e.g., registration forms, ballots, instructions) to language minority groups, during elections. The language minority groups that were included under the provision were those that spoke Asian, American Indian, Alaska Native, or Spanish. These states would also need the federal government's permission to change their voting laws.
States need to provide language assistance if more than 5% of the voting age is not proficient in English or more than 10,000 voting-age citizens are not proficient in English and the citizens that are limited English proficient have less than a 5th-grade education.
Impacts Since the enactment of the VRA of 1975, the Latino voting block increased by 183%. According to the National Research Council (US) Panel on Hispanics and the United States, Latino officeholders increased in the six states (Arizona, California, Florida, New Mexico, New York, and Texas) with the largest Latino population. In 1973, there were only 1,280 Latino officeholders across these 6 states, by 2003, there were 4,130.DeSipio L. Latino Civic and Political Participation. In: National Research Council (US) Panel on Hispanics in the United States; Tienda M, Mitchell F, editors. Hispanics and the Future of America. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2006. 11. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK19906/ John A. Garcia, a political science researcher at the University of Michigan, explains that this increase in political representation is due to the fact that the VRA of 1975 helped create a comfortable environment for Hispanics and Latinos to run for office positions in the Southwestern part of the United States.Garcia, John A. "The Voting Rights Act and Hispanic Political Representation in the Southwest." Publius 16, no. 4 (1986): 49–66. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3330158.
In an additional study conducted by Political Scientists, Melissa Marschall and Amanda Rutherford, it was found that Section 203 led to increased Latino representation in political offices, and Latino voter participation. However, the authors found that federal oversight alongside Section 203, ensured that adequately trained bilingual poll workers were present and that voting materials were translated. Without federal monitoring, Section 203 is not as effective.Marschall, Melissa J., and Amanda Rutherford. "Voting Rights for Whom? Examining the Effects of the Voting Rights Act on Latino Political Incorporation." American Journal of Political Science 60, no. 3 (2016): 590–606. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24877483.