Rise of the Latino Vote

"The Rise of the Latino Vote examines the struggles of activists and elected officials from the 1960s to the 1980s to mold Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans into a single national political constituency. Its argument is three-fold. First, it argues that the drive to forge the "Spanish-speaking vote," as it was first called--and not simple demographic growth--that led the federal government to recognize "Hispanics" as a national minority group, shattering forever the nation's black/white binary. Second, the book argues that establishing a channel for "Spanish-speaking" electoral and policy participation both contributed to the collapse of the New Deal order and embedded parts of that very order's economic vision in the multicultural era that ensued. Indeed, the making of the "Hispanic Vote" revealed an "identity politics" deeply entwined with "class" considerations. Third, the book demonstrates that the "Hispanic" constituency's emergence rested on a fundamental uncertainty: Was Hispanic politics about assembling a coalition of existing peoples, or rather a vehicle to transcend national origin differences to articulate the values and desires of a new of U.S.-based community?"--