This election season and like some others that I remember (since 1981), the Spanish media and the so called Hispanic leaders are predicting again that the Latino or Hispanic or Latin American or whatever they have decided to be happy with what others can call us, it is going to be THE DECIDING factor in the coming presidential election.  Even though, there is a good number of Hispanics becoming American citizens, a lot of them are just doing it because they want to take advantage of the benefits that come with being an American citizen more than anything else.   The main benefit being the fact that they can petition some of their relatives.  The majority does not do it because they can’t wait to go out and vote to help change the immigration laws or to get rid of the republicans from congress or the white house, even though, that’s what Univision and Telemundo are trying to accomplish.  The population that watch the Spanish networks are mostly illegal or new legal residents that don’t speak English yet and so are not able to vote anyway.

The Spanish media is really working hard in trying to convince the ones that are able to become citizens to do it and then to vote for the democrats, but the big part of the Latin population that is able to do it, is Latin Americans who came to the U.S. 10, 15 or 20 years ago when the illegal immigration was not really a problem and believe it or not, they are not happy with the idea of transforming this country in what they were trying to get away from, a culture of corruption, unemployment and low wages.

The Latin population that is older than 17 and younger than 30 and are able to vote, are not interested in politics.  They are not even interested in watching the news.  The little bit that the younger ones know about the news is because they catch a glimpse of it while their parents are watching “Las novelas” (Spanish soap operas) and the network shows an advance of the news when they happen to cross the living room in their way to the kitchen to see if they can get something to eat.
I am not trying to deny the fact that there are some Latin Americans that become citizens because one of the benefits of being a citizen is the opportunity to participate in the electoral process, but from those, some will lean for the democrats, some for the republicans and a very small group will always wait until they hear some candidate say something that they can agree with or touch a subject that they care about.

The Latin American vote is not 100% for the democrats and it will never be, and is not 5% or any low number like that for the republican, but it is there not just for the ones that take the time to go and talk to us and promise us the sun, the moon, the stars and the sky, just because they think we are stupid enough to believe it, but to those who are honest enough to promise what they can deliver and explain why they can’t promise more than that, but will it make a difference? May be, Will it be the decisive factor? I don’t think that we are a big enough part of the voting society to be a decisive factor YET.

One thing that the Republican Party needs to start realizing is that the Latin American population shares a lot of the conservative ideas and values that the real conservative republican profess.  We are very conservative in nature, and we value good morals.  We are more in tune with what the real conservative Republican Party stand for than what the Democrats stand for.  They (the republicans) need to come and talk to us about lowering the taxes, reduce the number of abortions, keep the marriage and the family sacred, allow us to keep believing in the God of Moses and be honest about the immigration issues.  We are law abiding citizens and the laws need to be respected, including the immigration laws.  Don’t come to us with promises that you won’t keep.  Not all of us (Latinos) are in favor of immigration reforms that are amnesties anyway.