'Sleeping giant' Latino vote yet to awaken

The first Latino president of the United States already has been born.

Henry Cisneros, the former San Antonio mayor who was secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Clinton administration, made the suggestion three years ago in an interview with the Spanish-language news service EFE.

"I don't know if he or she's in elementary school or in law school or is already elected ... to public office, but I believe that that person is already alive, and we're 20 years or less away from having a Latino or Latina president," said Cisneros, whose own path to higher office may have been derailed by personal scandal and who today is executive chairman of CityView, an urban development investment firm.

When the day comes that Cisneros predicted, the man or woman behind the resolute desk in the Oval Office will represent an ever-increasing segment of the population. Latinos (or Hispanics, the official government term) made up 15.5% of the U.S. population in 2010, but by 2050 they're projected to approach 25% of the population.

The American, the online magazine of the American Enterprise Institute, calls the Hispanic electorate a "sleeping giant" yet to wake. READ MORE

Hopefully it won't either... Many if not most of us and/or our ancestors came to the United States to live in the land of opportunity built by a nation of individuals. America didn't become great by having every demographic group band together as one and fight amongst one another.

This country offers so much opportunity because people hundreds of years ago dared to think outside the box and realized that their best interests were not what their "leaders" declated them to be. Hopefully, Americans of Hispanic heritage will resist this effort to homogenize us, maintaining our individuality and forcing both major political parties to court our votes as individuals, not all at once as a singular-voting demographic. I can't say what I'd like to say here to serve as an example of how such adherence to the laws of conformity handed down by the so-called leaders of another demographic group have served its overall wellbeing over the years.

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Pedro Hughes June 8, 2012 at 10:16pm

Hopefully it won't either... Many if not most of us and/or our ancestors came to the United States to live in the land of opportunity built by a nation of individuals. America didn't become great by having every demographic group band together as one and fight amongst one another.

This country offers so much opportunity because people hundreds of years ago dared to think outside the box and realized that their best interests were not what their "leaders" declated them to be. Hopefully, Americans of Hispanic heritage will resist this effort to homogenize us, maintaining our individuality and forcing both major political parties to court our votes as individuals, not all at once as a singular-voting demographic. I can't say what I'd like to say here to serve as an example of how such adherence to the laws of conformity handed down by the so-called leaders of another demographic group have served its overall wellbeing over the years.

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