LAT - Notes

➔ Latino Politics in the News ◆ Start each class session with a short overview of any newsworthy mentions of the U.S. Latino Politics ● Professor will take from the news items questions for the final exam. ○ Sacramento Bee - government announces… → easy questions on the exam, but you need to be there to answer them properly. ○ Each session will theoretically take 3. ◆ About 40 total news stories ● Final is extremely easy - MC, 100 questions. ➔ Garcia and Sanchez - Chapter 1 ◆ Who are Latinos? Who are Hispanics? ● Those with ancestors from origins in which Spanish is a significant and often dominant language. ● About two dozen nations in the Western Hemisphere that fit this description. ● What countries may not necessarily “fit” this very general description? ○ Someone from Brazil. Brazil’s language is primarily Portuguese, so they may consider themselves Latino but not Hispanic. ○ Someone from Spain might consider themselves as HIspanic if they were in the United States, but we as social scientists might say you are not Latino, because they are not from Latinx origin. ◆ Census first counted Hispanics in 1970. ● Before that, there was not an accurate way of determining descent. ● “Is this person’s origin or descent: Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, Other Spanish…” ● Other terms used by Census: ○ 1930: Mexican; 1940: Spanish Mother Tongue ○ 1950/60: Spanish surname ◆ Census was fucked ● 1970 - 1 in 5 houses → super racist, no ethnic differentiation ● 1980 - 100% of houses → same thing ● 1990 - 100% of houses → same thing ● 2000 - 100% of houses → first year you can select more than one race, box differentiation, etc. ● 2010 - Hispanic/Latino/Spanish Origins. ● 2020 - Proposals for redesigning race and origin forms. White - German, Polish, Latino, Spanish, etc. ➔ Census and Citizenship Status ◆ Collecting data on citizenship status ● Stopped collecting data after 1950 on the decennial census ● Started collecting data on the annual ACS in 2006 ◆ Citizenship status data can be used for voting rights and redistricting ● Courts and Redistricting committees often ask that majority-minority districts be drawn based on CVAP.

● Currently this is done with Census ACS data. ◆ Helpful to know the distribution of races in different districts. 50.1% voting ◆ In 2020 the Census tried to add citizenship ● Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross claimed this was to aid the Department of Justice in voting rights (March 2018) ● Opponents claimed it was being used to intimidate immigrants and reduce the true population count ◆ Citizenship question was struck down by courts ● 3 Federal Courts in NY, CA, MD, all ruled against. ● June 2019 … ➔ Race Versus Ethnicity? ◆ Is race socially constructed? ◆ Doesn’t it just mean ethnic group identity? ◆ Afro-Latinos? ◆ Indigenous roots 400 years ago, but also today Week 1.2 ➔ Latino Politics in the News ◆ NBC News.com Sarah Huckabee Sanders - Bans Latinx term on her first day in office. ◆ NBC News Cubans Weigh Options to US After New Biden Rule ◆ Daily Times Councilmember Kevin Deleon says censured penalties would hurt his constituents ➔ Latino America - Chapter 2 ◆ Latino population is increasing very rapidly ◆ Latinos are a very diverse population ◆ At the same time, Latino unity is growing ➔ Demographic Change in American Life ◆ Racial composition of the United States 1950-2050 ➔ The Untapped Latino Electorate ◆ Certain aspects in political communities. In 2016, there were 26.6 million eligible voters that were latino, but only 15.3 were registered. ◆ There’s a significant difference, from about 5.6% in 2000 to 11.3% in 2016. That’s the number of people that are eligible but not registered. ➔ Median Age by Ethnicity ◆ 43.0 for White ◆ 36.5 for Asian ◆ 33.4 for Black ◆ 28.4 for Latino ● 2016 Census Data ◆ The Latino vote will double in 20 years ➔ Why are Latinos growing so fast

● The term Latino was developed by activists in an effort to broaden this category. The term Latino was reinforced in the media. ● The terms Latinx or Latine are gender inclusive. ◆ Does every Latinx country speak Spanish? Hispanic doesn’t mean Latinx. ● Not everyone speaks Spanish. Brazil speaks Portuguese. Some Latin American countries speak their own indigenous language. ● People did not want to present themselves as Spanish with the connection to colonization. It made Latinos uncomfortable, and so they made the term Latino to encompass all Latin American countries in 1980. ● Chicano. Goes back to the indigenous Mechicos, the Indigenous name for the people living in the center of Mexico. Front forward indigenous identity of their indigenous roots, over presenting themselves as Spanish as Hispanic. ● Latinx is still not too popular - especially with the Baby Boomer generation. Same with Latine. Stepping out of the U.S. People usually use that term to be gender inclusive. ➔ Week 2: The Changing Latino Community ◆ News this week ● 1. NJ.com Jan 15: Latinos with Spanish last name higher rates appear in person for court. ● 2. NBC Jan 9: CO stops program to bus migrants to NYC and Chicago. ● 3. NBC Jan 16: Republican Latino state leg candidate arrested in shootings at Dem homes, was an election denier. ◆ 0% of these people are undocumented. They’re all here applying for asylum/refugee status and they’re waiting for their appearance in court to get that status, it can take 3 months to a year. ➔ Quick Summary of Garcia and Sanchez ◆ The historical context: ● They mostly focused on the history and context of Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban origin communities. ● Central Americans are a fast growing segment of the population and constitute nearly 10% of all Latinos. ◆ History and Demographics ● Spanish, Indian, African roots are all important throughout Latin America. ● Indigenous Aztecs, Mayans, Olmecs, Toltecs, Incas. ● Mexican-American War, 1846-48, Treaty of Guadalupe. ● These are three consequential contextualizing events that show how land, rights, and indigenous ownership of the Americas was quickly taken away. ● Spanish American War 1898 ● Jones Act of 1917 ○ Year that established the colonial status of second-class citizenship for Puerto Ricans.

○ Why did we hold onto Puerto Rico? Military advantages. It’s the most outward facing country. ➔ Community Building in Latino America ◆ What’s happening with Latinos today in the political system? This lesson is serve as a foundation for how we get to answering those questions. ● Garcia and Sanchez ● The Constitutional Legal Context ○ Civil Rights Act of 1964 ○ The Voting Rights Act of 1964 (1975) ◆ “If you don’t do this the federal government will force you to do it.” LBJ signed this. Made deal with Texas senators that Texas would not be a part of it to get it passed. ○ Fair Housing Act of 1968 ○ Equal Representation ○ Federalism and State Rights ◆ Are there federal standards? Or can states do whatever they want? This has led to unequal distribution of rights primarily for African Americans, but Latinos as well. ◆ John Ortiz Garfield High ● 50% of Latinx from Garfield that started high school (grade 9) did not finish (grade 12). ◆ 1968 Chicano Walkouts ◆ March 5, 1968 ◆ Freddie Resendez Lincoln High ◆ Wilson, Garfield, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Belmont, Jefferson, and Venice High ➔ What is Latino Identity? ◆ Pan-ethnic, or within origin groups. ◆ The question Garcia/Sanchez ask is: Is your identity Latino identity or Chicano/Mexican identity? ◆ Shared Group Consciousness ● Some kind of disenfranchisement, there’s a collective consciousness within that group. When we see disadvantaged people, we see it in a number of communities. ◆ Linked Fate ● Felt themselves that there fates were linked together. Tied back to Great Migration. So, when policies were passed targeting welfare they felt that they were all mutually effected. ● A lot of African Americans were becoming middle class and still voting 90% Democratic. Our theories of politics and economics did not understand why. But the concept of Linked Fate had very wealthy African Americans voting Democrat each year no matter their income.