The Hispanic Republican: The Shaping of an American Political Identity, from Nixon to Trump

by Geraldo Cadava, Timothy Andres Pabon (Read by), TBD (Read by)

Overview

An illuminating and thought-provoking history of the growth of Hispanic American Republican voters in the past half century and their surprising impact on US politics.

In the lead-up to every election cycle, pundits predict that Latino Americans will overwhelmingly vote in favor of the Democratic candidate. And it’s true—Latino voters do tilt Democratic. Hillary Clinton won the Latino vote in a “landslide,” Barack Obama “crushed” Mitt Romney among Latino voters in his reelection, and, four years earlier, the Democratic ticket beat the McCain-Palin ticket by a margin of more than two to one. But those numbers belie a more complicated picture. Because of decades of investment and political courtship, as well as a nuanced and varied cultural identity, the Republican party has had a much longer and stronger bond with Hispanics. How is this possible for a party so associated with draconian immigration and racial policies?

In The Hispanic Republican, historian and political commentator Geraldo Cadava illuminates the history of the millions of Hispanic Republicans who, since the 1960s, have had a significant impact on national politics. Intertwining the little understood history of Hispanic Americans with a cultural study of how post–World War II Republican politicians actively courted the Hispanic vote during the Cold War (especially Cuban émigrés) and during periods of major strife in Central America (especially during Iran-Contra), Cadava offers insight into the complicated dynamic between Latino liberalism and conservatism, which, when studied together, shine a crucial light on a rapidly changing demographic that will impact American elections for years to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781094158600
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/26/2020
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x (d)

About the Author

Geraldo Cadava is an associate professor of history and Latina and Latino studies at Northwestern University. He is the author of Standing on Common Ground.

Timothy Andrés Pabon is an English- and Spanish-speaking voice-over artist who has worked extensively in advertising and audiobook narration. He has had acting roles on House of Cards and has also been a costar on HBO’s acclaimed series The Wire opposite country music legend Steve Earl. As a stage actor, he has worked off-Broadway at the June Havoc Theatre, and his regional credits include Center Stage, the Shakespeare Theatre, Arena Stage, the Hippodrome, Olney Theatre, Rep Stage, and GALA Hispanic Theatre.

Editorial Reviews

03/16/2020

Northwestern University history professor Cadava (Standing on Common Ground) offers an evenhanded and exhaustive analysis of how the Republican Party built its base of Hispanic support. Noting that Republican presidential candidates have won roughly one-third of the Hispanic vote in every election since 1972, Cadava explores efforts to align Hispanic and Republican priorities on Puerto Rican statehood, sanctions against Cuba, and the flow of undocumented immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border. He profiles such activists as Benjamin “Boxcar Ben” Fernandez, cofounder of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly; notes examples of political patronage, including the appointments of three Mexican American women as U.S. treasurer; and documents the impact of the Elián González case on the 2000 Bush-Gore election. In a brisk final chapter, Cadava addresses a 2013 Republican National Committee report urging the party to expand its base by supporting a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and the refusal of many Hispanic Republicans to “turn their backs” on President Trump, in spite of his nativist rhetoric and policies. Deep dives into committees, campaigns, referendums, and polling data sometimes make for a ponderous reading experience but deliver a wealth of insights. This granular account offers essential context on a voting bloc with an outsize influence on American politics. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"Thoughtful, fair-minded, and learned, Cadava's eye-opening book will teach experts on American politics things they didn't even know they didn't know."

Rick Perlstein

2020-03-01
A survey of changing political trends among Latino American constituencies over the last half-century.

Hispanics are not born Democrats, although they have trended that way in the last several elections. It seems likely that they’ll do so in 2020, if only because of the current president’s anti-immigrant and nativist rhetoric. Still, Northwestern University professor Cadava points out, Hispanics voted for him “by a slightly wider margin than the percentage of Hispanics who voted for establishment candidates such as John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012.” The author rightly observes that the Hispanic population is not monolithic: Mexicans, Cubans, Central Americans, and Puerto Ricans bring different cultural sensibilities to the table. Cubans who left their native country because of opposition to Fidel Castro are far more likely to vote Republican, for instance, than Mexican farmworkers in the Southwest, and though most are at least nominally Catholic, both progressive and conservative elements in the Hispanic population can cite church teachings to back their political views. Cadava looks back at the days when Hispanic support was strongest for Republican candidates, as with the Latinos con Eisenhower organization and its follow-up, Latinos con Goldwater, which enjoyed reasonable success because of Goldwater’s determined courtship of Cuban Americans and Mexican Americans. Even Nixon had a so-called “Brown Mafia,” though it relied for support on “doling out government grants and contracts, dangling appointments in front of prominent Hispanics, cutting deals with some of the Chicano movement’s leaders, and efforts to suppress support for McGovern.” Other Republicans have been more worthy of that support—Gerald Ford, for instance, who expanded the Voting Rights Act to include ballots and other election materials written in Spanish. As for the present, Cadava ventures that Hispanic supporters of Trump believe that while he’s “unrefined,” he’s not a racist.

Of interest to political trend watchers—and a warning to Democrats not to take the Latino vote for granted. (8-page color insert)

Kirkus Reviews