Jeff Denham, California GOP Rep., Challenges Party On Immigration

By John Whitesides

CERES, Calif., Nov 26 (Reuters) - For most Republicans in the U.S. Congress, a large gathering of Hispanic voters to discuss immigration would be politically perilous - an invitation to complaints about the party's longtime resistance to measures aimed at helping undocumented immigrants.

But when Republican Rep. Jeff Denham walked into a meeting with hundreds of his Hispanic constituents at a church in California's Central Valley this month, he was met with applause, praise and a hand-lettered "Thank You" sign.

Denham, 46, is a rarity in the U.S. House of Representatives: one of only three Republicans in the chamber's 231-member majority who support a Democrat-sponsored bill that would give millions of undocumented immigrants a legal pathway to U.S. citizenship.

So far, Denham is a voice in the wilderness of the Republican Party, nationally. But in California, he is closer to the mainstream and represents a path forward for his party that begins by facing the human side of undocumented immigrants and extends to a view that immigrants can drive the economy.

Denham, who said he learned Spanish to help court his wife Sonia, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, recalled watching his father-in-law battle the U.S. immigration system and said he would keep lobbying colleagues in Congress on the issue.

"There are some Republicans who have said some outrageous things" about undocumented immigrants, Denham said after meeting with the crowd in Ceres, a city of 45,000 people. "My job is to make sure the entire party is not branded that way."

Immigration - an issue that gained political urgency for both parties after last year's elections revealed the potency of the nation's exploding Hispanic population - has lost momentum in Washington, overshadowed by debates about federal spending and Democratic President Barack Obama's troubled healthcare makeover.

But in California, home to nearly one-third of the nation's estimated 53 million Hispanics, the calls to revamp immigration laws to deal with 12 million undocumented immigrants nationwide have remained front and center. And Obama has said he wants action on the issue.

For Denham, whose district is 40 percent Hispanic, being a cheerleader for immigration reform is a political necessity, even though it has sparked some criticism from conservative groups that typically favor his party.

For other California Republicans, it could be a step toward viability for a party suffering the political consequences of a boom in Hispanic population and a backlash against Republican-backed immigration laws of the mid-1990s that have since been eliminated. Democrats now hold every major state office in California, and significant majorities in the state's legislature and congressional delegation.

Many California Republicans see their experience as a cautionary tale for the party in states such as Nevada, Colorado, Arizona and Texas, where Democrats hope to turn growing Hispanic minority populations into building blocks for permanent political majorities.

"Republicans at the national level and in other states need to look at what's happened in California, because those demographics will affect the whole country," said Ruben Barrales, president of Grow Elect, a California group that recruits Republican Hispanics to run for public office.

The committee, one of several Republican efforts in California to build ties to the Hispanic community, has helped about 50 Hispanic Republicans win local offices across the state. Barrales hopes to break triple digits next year.

"Given the demographics, there is no way that Republicans get from where they are today to becoming a governing party without winning Latinos," said Barrales, a former presidential aide in Republican George W. Bush's administration. "We've got to change the face of the Republican Party so it's reflective of the demographics of the state."

Nationwide, the Republican share of Hispanic votes in presidential races has dropped from Bush's 44 percent in 2004 to Mitt Romney's 27 percent in 2012: the lowest Republican share since 1996. At the same time, the Hispanic share of the national vote increased from 8 percent to 10 percent and is still climbing.


'A CATASTROPHIC TRAIN WRECK'

In California, Hispanic support for Democrats surged after the passage in 1994 of a Republican-backed ballot measure, Proposition 187, that was designed to block state benefits for immigrants who did not have legal status.

Before 1992, Republicans had won California in nine of 10 presidential elections. Since 1992, they have lost California in all six elections, and the state is now one of the nation's most reliably Democratic.

"The fallout since Proposition 187 has been a catastrophic train wreck for the Republican Party in this state," said Gary Segura, a political scientist at Stanford University and co-founder of the polling firm Latino Decisions.

State Republicans have taken a more moderate tack recently, giving substantial support to a law passed by the California legislature and signed by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown making undocumented immigrants eligible for driver's licenses, one of several bills expanding their rights

National Republican leaders acknowledge the demographic threat to the party and tout an immigration overhaul as the first step to recovery among Hispanics. But the effort has hit a roadblock in the House of Representatives, where it is a hostage to divisions within the Republican Party.

Many conservative Republicans oppose a bill passed by the Democrat-led Senate that would give undocumented workers hope of becoming U.S. citizens.

Such Republicans see the bill as an "amnesty" measure that would reward those who broke the law, take jobs from current citizens and lead to lower wages for all blue-collar workers. Some House Republicans also fear a possible primary challenge from the conservative Tea Party movement if they back the bill.

Denham counters such concerns by arguing the Democratic bill would a $1 trillion boost to the U.S. economy by adding millions of new taxpayers to the system. He also noted that it would create a 13-year process to gain citizenship.

"That's a long time," he said. "It's an issue of fairness."

Obama has called on Congress to act soon on immigration. U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said last week that immigration reform was "absolutely not" a dead issue but he would not say when the topic might surface again.

In Ceres, Denham noted that since he became the first Republican to support a version of the bill offered by House Democrats, two other Republicans - Californian David Valadao, whose Central Valley district is 70 percent Hispanic, and Florida's Ileana Ros-Lehtinen - have backed the bill.

"Call other members' offices," Denham urged those in Ceres. "Ask them why" they aren't supporting an immigration overhaul.

Some who heard Denham's pitch remained wary of the Republican Party's commitment to Hispanics, who play a big role in the Central Valley's labor-intensive farming economy.

"Supporting immigration reform is a big first step, but he needs to do a little more than that," said Victor Orosco, a mechanic from nearby Riverbank, where Denham attended a Spanish-language Mass at a Roman Catholic church and briefly addressed the congregation in Spanish before the Ceres meeting.

Orosco questioned whether Denham and other Republicans who now back immigration reform were making a politically inspired conversion. "Now that they see people going to the other team, now they want to support us," he said.

Brenda Noriega of Fresno, a community organizer for the activist group Faith in Community, said after the Ceres meeting that there was still broad distrust of Republicans among Hispanics.

"We are going to vote for the people who support us," Noriega said, making it clear that conservative Republicans did not qualify.

"In the Latino community, we know the Tea Party," she said dismissively. "We know where they stand."


'A LONG WAY TO GO'

Denham rejected the notion that his stance was a re-election ploy, calling it a commitment to fix an immigration system that has torn families in his district apart through deportations and bureaucratic wrangling.

Denham and other California Republicans said winning over Hispanic voters who distrust their party on key issues such as jobs, the economy, healthcare and education would require becoming a more consistent presence in Hispanic communities and putting a more empathetic face on a party often viewed as out of touch with minorities' concerns.

"Some of the neighborhoods that I've walked over the years, I've been the first Republican who has walked there," said Denham, who was re-elected last year with 53 percent of the vote over Democrat Jose Hernandez, a former astronaut.

Denham appears frequently on Spanish-language television networks such as Univision and Telemundo to promote - and often defend - Republican positions. But he acknowledges the party has a long way to go on immigration.

"Some of my colleagues just say, 'Uphold the laws.' That is a very easy statement to make," he said. "We have a long way to go and a very short time to get there."

He said reaching out to contact Hispanics is difficult for many Republican House members in less diverse districts, saying they "tend to stay in their comfort zones."

Nationwide, only 24 Republicans represent a U.S. House district where at least 25 percent of the population is Hispanic - and 11 of them are in California, according to data compiled by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

"If there is any state in the country that really needs to deal with immigration reform, it is California," said Wayne Bridegroom, a Baptist pastor in Modesto who offered a prayer for Denham at the Ceres event.

Andy Vidak, a white Republican cherry farmer who won a special election to the California Senate this year from a Central Valley district that is mostly Hispanic, said winning over Hispanics requires Republicans "to go where Republicans rarely go, and where Democrats take the voters for granted." (Editing by David Lindsey, Peter Henderson and Jonathan Oatis)

“Catch an Illegal Immigrant” contest at the University of Texas Aftermath

A conservative group at the University of Texas has canceled its planned “Catch an Illegal Immigrant” contest this week, saying the effort “was misguided and that the idea for the event was intentionally over-the-top in order to get attention for the subject.”

In a statement, Young Conservatives of Texas Chairman Lorenzo Garcia said members of his group feared they would have been punished or expelled if they went forward with the game on Wednesday. And he said the event might have put volunteers in physical danger.

Young Conservatives Chairman Lorenzo Garcia, former field director for Greg Abbott campaign. Garcia says his group canceled "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" contest on UT contest (Facebook posting on Young Conservatives of Texas site)

“After the University President and the Vice President for Diversity and Community Engagement released statements denouncing the event we planned as violating the university’s honor code, I spoke with our chapter’s members, and they are both concerned that the university will retaliate against them and that the protest against the event could create a safety issue for our volunteers.”

Garcia is a former field director of Greg Abbott’s gubernatorial campaign. The Abbott campaign distanced itself from the event, saying Garcia left his paid job as a field representative a few weeks ago.

Garcia’s organization has held controversial events in the past — including an affirmative-action bake sale in which students were charged different amounts for baked goods depending on their race. In his statement, Garcia acknowledged that giving $25 gift cards to students who “caught” fellow students wearing “Illegal Immigrant” signs was a bad idea.

Announcement of the planned “Immigrant Hunt” prompted university officials, including President Bill Powers, to denounce the idea and to call on the student group to call off its contest. Garcia denied that the game was aimed at diminishing Mexican-Americans and said the Young Conservatives of Texas just wanted to create a debate on the issue of illegal immigration.

“The reactions of some who claim that YCT is creating a demeaning or degrading environment on campus have been truly disgraceful,” he said. “I have always viewed The University of Texas as a place where students could express their opinions—whether or not they were popular.

Even though our event will not go forward, UT students, our state, and our nation need to have a serious discussion and debate about the issue of illegal immigration. I believed that our event would spark this discussion on campus, and though we will no longer be holding the event, I hope that the publicity surrounding the event will create debate among students.”

In a statement, the university said it supports free speech rights of students but is happy the group canceled the event.

Opinion: Putting a perverse publicity stunt in perspective

Students at UT Austin

by Stephen A. Nuño, @StephenANuno 

 In the continuing learning process of how to act in a changing society, a conservative group at the University of Texas’ flagship university in Austin got a lesson in humility it will surely want to forget.

Young Conservatives of Texas were to hold a “Catch an Illegal Immigrant” event this week, where club members would wander around campus “wearing signs that say, ‘illegal immigrant’, and students who capture them and take them to the Young Conservatives’ recruiting tables will get $25 gift certificates”.

This level of diaper-wearing attention-seeking by the group’s chairman, Lorenzo Garcia, would be embarrassing enough to any parent. Yet Garcia was desperately seeking attention for his sick publicity stunt, and the media gave Garcia what he was looking for.  A story on the prospect of “an illegal immigrant hunt” was bound to get clicks, so the media gave Garcia what he was looking for.

Yet it’s important in a democratic society to respond to the littleness of such ideas precisely because of its privileged source.

Insensitivity to human suffering is one thing, and promoting policies that needlessly contribute to human suffering is yet another. But reveling in that suffering by mocking those caught in the claws of our immigration system is a level of sociopathic behavior that can only be matched by the irony of the event being held at a university of immense privilege, in fact already a majority-minority school, by a kid with a Hispanic surname.

In fact, the same kid recently held an affirmative action bake sale.  Students were sold baked goods on a price scale where minorities paid less than whites and Asians, the message being that whites and Asians are being discriminated against by affirmative action policies.

One wonders what access to privilege students like Garcia are yearning for when the median wealth of whites is almost twenty times that of blacks, and whites outpace blacks in almost any socio-economic measurement imaginable.  Acknowledging our history of discrimination against minority groups is a small gesture by institutions of higher learning to consider in the admissions process, and the current gauntlet of depravity thrown at minority communities known as the “war on drugs” is yet another reason to fight for comprehensive admissions policies.

Our immigration policy is but another system of control over minorities, most of which who come here as a result of American foreign policy decisions that are impoverishing the homes of the immigrants among us we now resent, and Mr. Garcia finds so much joy in his perverse publicity stunt.

The response by the Greg Abbot for Governor campaign was to rightfully call this a “repugnant effort” and to distance itself from the Young Conservatives leader.

Garcia was forced to cancel the event when the President of UT-Austin voiced his denunciation of the young conservatives’ proposed stunt and the Office of Diversity and Community Engagement objected to the event by calling it a violation of the student honor code.

Fortunately, wiser heads prevailed, but only because social media and our institutions of information compelled others into the admission that the sources of power are changing.

Lesson learned, for now.


Stephen A. Nuño, Ph.D., NBC Latino contributor and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Northern Arizona University. He is currently writing a book on Republican outreach into the Latino Community.

What would Reagan do? Immigration reform is the most Republican of causes.

 

By Frank Keating

November 11, 2013

LA TImes

 

Like many Republicans — what's more, like many Americans — I regard Ronald Reagan as my political hero and inspiration. For conservatives who came of age in the 1960s and '70s, President Reagan offered a principled and compassionate argument for individual freedom and an equally compelling case for personal responsibility.

In 1989, Reagan described his view of America "as a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here."

Unfortunately, too many conservatives — though they aspire to walk in Reagan's footsteps — have forgotten that immigration reform is the most Republican of causes. We cannot support open borders for trade but not for people. We cannot support the unfettered exchange of goods and ideas while building razor-wired walls that separate children from their parents. We cannot make America stronger and more prosperous by excluding tomorrow's talent and industry.

From my perspective as a Reagan Republican — indeed, as a senior official in the Reagan administration during the last major immigration reform process — I am convinced that we stand on the precipice of opportunity.

In numbers that we haven't seen since the early 20th century, immigrants have been coming here to work and to build a better future for their families. Just as immigrants helped fuel the engine of America's emerging industrial economy 100 years ago, today they are filling two critical job gaps: high-skilled professions in science, technology and advanced manufacturing, and low-skill service and industrial jobs in fast-growing regions. We need immigrants of all skill levels to help build the 21st century economy.

Offering opportunities to new Americans doesn't take jobs from citizens. The economy is not zero-sum. It's dynamic, and bringing new talent to American jobs will enlarge the economy for everyone. In June, a Congressional Budget Office report estimated that the Senate's bipartisan immigration reform bill would boost economic growth by 5.4% after 20 years and reduce the deficit by $900 billion over that period.
Immigration would also help address a critical long-term gap in funding for America's two signature entitlement programs: Social Security and Medicare.

In 1950, there were about 16 workers for every retiree. Today, there are only about three. But according to Social Security's chief actuary, immigrants, who tend to come to the United States at the start of their careers, would enrich the Social Security trust fund by $500 billion over the next 25 years, and by an impressive $4 trillion by the end of the century. That's a game-changer.

These numbers underscore an important point. Immigrants are coming here to work, not to become dependent on the state. People don't make perilous journeys and risk their life savings and sometimes their lives for the goal of getting a welfare check, a food-stamp card or a housing voucher. And welfare reform has made America even less attractive for those who would go on the dole.

But the considerable economic benefits aren't the main reason we should reform immigration. America was the world's first nation to be based on principles, not ethnicity. Citizenship is at once narrow and broad — available to those who share our principles, regardless of race or national origin. It is unconscionable to leave a class of neighbors who share our values in perpetual second-class status.

The promise of citizenship has always drawn pioneers who have made America the strong country it is today. Immigration reform fulfills the promise of the American dream for new generations who will make our country even stronger.

The Senate bill also protects the rule of law by securing the border and ensuring that only law-abiding immigrants receive legal status. Border security is the indispensable lintel that shoulders the load. Without it, the entire structure would be in jeopardy. President Obama can help calm concerns by pledging not to use delays or waivers to weaken the bill.

Future Americans with will, resolve and heart are waiting. As Ronald Reagan might have put it, it's time to open the doors.

Frank Keating, a former Republican governor of Oklahoma, is president and chief executive of the American Bankers Assn.

Copyright © 2013, Los Angeles Times

 

(New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie talks to the media as he visits Jose Marti Freshman Academy in Union City, N.J. Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013, the day after defeating Democratic challenger Barbara Buono to win his second term as governor. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz))

Analysis: Christie win with Latinos will be tougher nationally

by Suzanne Gamboa, @SuzGamboa 

Gov. Chris Christie pulled off in New Jersey what Mitt Romney failed to do nationally – attract lots of Latino voters. Now, can he or any other GOP presidential hopeful do the same nationally in 2016?

Christie’s capture of 51 percent of the Latino vote helped return him for a second term as governor. Just as important, it’s given Republicans a shining example showing other GOPers they can rebound from Romney’s 27 percent showing with Latinos in 2012.

“The results show we can win the Latino vote,” said Izzy Santa, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, which assisted Christie’s campaign. “Our work isn’t done there. We are going to evaluate where we need to be to keep growing the electorate.”

Getting that large share of the Latino vote was done by treating Latinos like everybody else and getting in the trenches long before election time, Christie said in a post-election news conference.

RELATED: In Chris Christie’s re-election, Republicans see blueprint for Latino support 

“The problem politicians make is they look at a specific community and say what can I say to appeal to them? That’s not my approach. Latino folks want the same thing that everyone else wants,”  Christie said.
Mike Duhaime, Christie’s top political strategist, voiced what is likely to become mantra for Republicans who have been steadily losing Latinos amid anti-immigrant and anti-Latino rhetoric.

“There’s no chance to win a blue state if you don’t go out and win over Hispanics, win over a larger portion of  African Americans, win a large chunk of Democrats,” Duhaime told Chuck Todd on Wednesday’s morning’s “The Daily Rundown.”

But New Jersey’s Latino population is not a mirror of the Hispanic population at large. What plays in Jersey, may not play in New Mexico, even if that state’s governor was at Christie’s side on the final day of his campaign.

The state’s largest Latino group is Puerto Rican, about 30 percent of the Latino population, according to Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project. Among eligible Latino voters, four-in-ten are Puerto Rican, 13 percent are of Dominican origin, about 9 percent are of Cuban descent and five percent are of Mexican origin. Another 31 percent are of other Hispanic origin.

Nationally, 59 percent of eligible Latino voters are of Mexican origin, 14 percent are Puerto Rican, 5 percent are Cuban, 3 percent are Dominican and 16 percent are of other Hispanic origin, according to Pew.
There are many issues that resonate throughout the Latino community, but not all have the same ranking of importance when it comes time to vote.

“There’s plenty of research that shows Puerto Rican Hispanics are much less supportive of liberalized immigration reform. It’s not an issue that affects them in the same personal way as Mexican-origin Hispanics,” said Ali Adam Valenzuela, a political scientist at Princeton University.

In addition, Election Day exit polling was done only in English, meaning Hispanics who were reached were likely to be more “assimilated,” educated and higher income, Valenzuela said.

Those differences are likely to make courting a national Latino population more complex for Christie in a 2016 presidential run as well as for any other candidates. There is little expectation that a candidate could get 51 percent, but winning nationally generally means getting at least 35 percent of the Latino vote.

What Christie did right was to stay away from the extreme policy positions and rhetoric of other Republicans. He didn’t repeat the mistakes Romney made of calling for “self-deportation” of people illegally in the country.

Immigration had the potential to become a thorn in Christie’s humming-along campaign, when young immigrants began pressing him about in-state tuition for DREAMers – the young immigrants brought by their parents to the U.S. illegally.

Christie had opposed in-state tuition for DREAMers but changed his view, diffusing the issue that could have ripped into the Latino support he had been building.

“He literally embraced diversity, when he talked about all the different people he had hugged in the campaign. That was meant to speak to the potential non-white Republican voter,” Latino Decisions political scientist Sylvia Manzano said.

The issue was front and center for Republican Ken Cuccinelli, who lost his gubernatorial bid to Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia Tuesday night. Though Cucinelli dialed-down some of his rhetoric on immigration, he was unable to walk away from previous positions and actions on the issue.

“It is telling that (Christie) won and Cucinelli lost and you know, the party needs to understand whether those are two isolated events or if there is a connection because there were two very different Republican messages, I believe,” said Carlos Gutierrez, former Secretary of Commerce under President George W. Bush who has worked with the GOP to attract the Latino vote.

Overall, Christie was a well-liked and formidable candidate who related to Latinos, Gutierrez said. “As many people say,” Gutierrez said, “the candidate makes the difference.”

What Does "Latino" mean to USC students?

Future Latina Trojan at the Los Angeles Coliseum

Latino students reflect on their complex roles at USC 

By Sheridan watson · Daily Trojan

Alan Prieto, a native of Mexico, and Daily Trojan staff member, has never felt comfortable with calling himself Latino at USC. Though the university has a large Latino community, with more than 20 student groups geared toward Latino students, Prieto feels as if the organizations often force all who fall under the Latino umbrella into one entity.

“I don’t like the term Latino or Hispanic, let alone Chicano — it’s very homogenizing to a whole culture,” said Prieto, a senior majoring in art history and critical studies. “Let’s try to differentiate between being Mexican and being Latino.”

Before his move to the United States in the seventh grade, Prieto commuted to a California school from Mexico five days a week and learned English and Spanish simultaneously. His upbringing shows just one facet of the diverse Hispanic and Latino community at USC, a community that has grown to represent 14 percent of the entire USC student population.

This 14 percent is made up of thousands of students who come from many countries and cultures. From second-generation Mexican-Americans to first-generation Peruvian- and Ecuadorian-Americans to Brazilian internationals, the USC Latino student body is one of variance. But that diverse student body is often blurred.

“It’s not like I’m trying to be political about it and want to try and avoid being a part of those organizations,” Prieto said. “I just don’t think that they represent who I am.”
Prieto’s issue is not uncommon. He’s one of many students who said they found themselves marginalized into being categorized as “Latino.”

“Although these students tend to have many things in common, they themselves are very diverse as our community is represented by Mexico, Central America, South America, Dominican Republic, Cuba and Puerto Rico,” said William Vela, director of USC’s El Centro Chicano, a department in the USC Division of Student Affairs aimed at helping the Latino community at USC, in an email to the Daily Trojan.

Geography is not the only element dividing Latino students. About 50 million Hispanics and 11 million undocumented immigrants currently reside in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Pew Research Center. In California alone, about 38 percent of the state’s population identify as Hispanic or Latino according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“Then you have folks who are multiracial, first to fourth-generation, various religious affiliations as well as social class variance, amongst tons of other factors that make our community extremely diverse and not monolithic,” Vela said in an email.

Many students feel the term Latino, as unifying as it can be to a segment of the population, is also limiting to the diverse cultures that lie under its domain. As Latinos at USC have faced numerous challenges ranging from misconceptions and to friction within the community, many students said identity plays an important role in their lives.

“Who’s this guy?”

“When I hang out with my friends, they all speak Spanish,” said Isadora Costa, a junior majoring in economics. “But I don’t.”

Costa, an international student from Brazil, found that in the United States, the terms Latino and Hispanic are often used interchangeably, even though it is possible to be considered Latino but not Hispanic, Hispanic but not Latino, or both.

Those who identify as Latino have cultural roots in a Latin American country in the Western Hemisphere, while Hispanics are those who speak Spanish, which can include people from a number of countries around the world. But many students feel that the diverse Latino student body at USC is often written off as solely Mexican.

Jessica Vidal, a senior majoring in political science and sociology, has often been mistaken for Mexican even though she is a first-generation American whose family is originally from Ecuador and Peru.

“I always get mistaken for Mexican on campus,” Vidal said. “When I first got to USC it was the strangest thing that everyone automatically assumed I was Mexican because I was Latina.”

But the perception of homogenization doesn’t capture the many countries that the term Latino applies to.
“A lot of the time, people think, ‘Oh Latino, oh you’re Mexican,” said Priscilla Hernandez, a sophomore majoring in international relations. “[Latinos] are very similar in some aspects but we’re so different in others; we have different types of culture, different types of food, different traditions — even the way we speak is different.”

Hernandez grew up in West Covina, Calif., a town with a population of 53.2 percent Latinos according to the U.S.  Census Bureau.

“People are multiracial,” Hernandez said. “I think people just don’t know. They haven’t really learned a lot about Latin American history.”

Stephanie Aceves, co-assistant director of the USC Latino Student Assembly, said that LSA is trying to change this misconception.

“The Latino community is typically viewed as being just everyone has the same problem, the same thing, and there’s no way to generalize it,” said Aceves, whose organization works to support Latino students. “[LSA’s] main focus is more visibility to be able to educate others to know that there’s more than just Mexican. There are a ton of different cultures that don’t get a lot of attention.”

Sometimes, these misconceptions even come from within the Latino community itself. Though Spanish is his first language, Undergraduate Student Government President Christian Kurth, who is half Mexican,  said other Latinos on campus have dismissed him as being Caucasian.

“I was part of the Latino Alumni Association and, to be honest, when I go there, sometimes I feel like people are like, ‘Who’s this guy and what is he doing here?’” Kurth said.
Kurth’s mother is a first-generation American from Mexico, and attended USC along with his aunt and uncle.

“We’re all Latinos regardless of how you look or what part or what kind of Hispanic you are or if you speak Spanish,” Kurth said.

The dichotomy between the unifying term and the cultures that fall within it, however, has led to some Latino students feeling alienated from the greater Latino community. Vidal grew up in Westchester, N.Y., where Caucasians comprise about 75 percent of the population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“I feel like I have a very different background,” Vidal said. “A lot of the Latinos here are Mexican-American and I grew up in a suburb with not many Latino families and grew up in a very Americanized way.”
Many students said the detachment that Vidal describes also exists within the international Latino population, in which many students report feeling estranged from the Latino American community.

“The difference between Latinos that are American and international students is huge because even though you are considered a ‘Latino,’ you were raised in America, so you have their culture and values,” said Kim Robles, a sophomore from Mexico who is majoring in business administration. “In contrast, international students were raised in their countries so they are used to having the Latino culture, values and perspectives.”

El Centro has been working to integrate more international students into its group but finds the cultural divide difficult to overcome.

“With respect to the international students, there’s a matter of cultural perspective,” Vela said. “[Domestic students have] grown up here, we’re very much part of the United States, we’re American. International students are really international students.”

Self-segregation and self-empowerment

Last year, USC’s El Centro Chicano celebrated its 40th anniversary. The organization, housed in the Student Union, aims to provide “personal, social and academic support through graduation and beyond,” according to its mission statement. But El Centro is only one of more than 20 organizations on campus that caters to the Latino student community, a community that keeps growing every year.

Hispanic/Latino students make up 14 percent of the USC undergraduate student population. Though this number is considerably higher than many other private research universities such as Duke University, whose Latino population is 6 percent of its total student body, students still feel the pressure of being a minority group at USC.

“Many [students] inform me that they do not see an overwhelming presence of Latino students at USC, walking around campus and in their classrooms,” Vela said in an email. “That is why they come to USC El Centro Chicano, to make those connections and find a supportive and familiar community where they receive cultural as well as academic support via various resources, services and programs we provide.”

These services include referrals for academic advising, counseling, career help, as well as a speaker series and local field trips.

El Centro has become a home away from home for many Latino students searching for a way to acclimate to college life. As a spring admit, Hernandez joined El Centro during her first semester in search of a community that better reflected the one she grew up in.

“It was a shock when I came to ’SC because I’ve never seen so many Caucasian students,” Hernandez said. “I felt so out of place, I needed to find a little place, a little niche. When I started working at El Centro, I made friends a lot faster.”

Groups such as El Centro have often been subjected to accusations of self-segregation, since they are aimed toward a specific ethnicity.

“I actually had a student in one of my classes who was in a Latino frat and he said that the Latino Greeks often close themselves out to others,” Vidal said.

But supporters argue that cultural groups are imperative to help students feel comfortable and help adjust to an incredibly diverse university. As a member of Lambda Theta Nu, a Latina greek sorority, Hernandez has been accused of closing herself off to the wider community.

“People ask me, ‘Why are you in a Latina sorority, isn’t that kind of segregating yourself?’ To me, it’s a sense of empowerment, because I feel more comfortable with people who understand my cultures and traditions,” Hernandez said. “I just wanted to find people who were more like me.”

In 1974, the university created the Latino Floor residential program, which allows freshmen students to live on a floor centered around Latino culture that provides a supportive atmosphere for Latinos through community service initiatives, cultural, academic and social activities as well as just being a home away from home.

“It’s still a reality and feeling of being underrepresented and not the majority,” Vela said in an email. “So when at the end of the day, they come home to something familiar, it’s reassuring and conveys to them that they are part of the USC community, they belong and therefore they engage, become involved and ultimately find their grounding at USC so they can be successful as they approach their sophomore year.”

The floor, however, is not limited to only Latino students.

“Some have grown up around our community and want to continue that experience, others have not at all and want that experience,” Vela said in an email. “Some want to have a community where they can continue to practice speaking Spanish.”

Hernandez said she finds the claims of self-segregation to be unfounded.
“Caucasians hang out with Caucasians all the time and no one tells them that they’re segregating themselves,” Hernandez said. “So why can’t I hang out with my Latina friends also?”

The importance of education

The United States’ growing Latino population is on track to set a record in the rate of Latino college enrollment. According to the Pew Research Center, 69 percent of Latino high school graduates enrolled in college in 2012 — two points higher than the Caucasian population.

In 2000, the Latino high school dropout rate was 32 percent. In 2012, however, the dropout rate fell to 15 percent. According to NBC, a poll by the National Hispanic Media Coalition and Latino Decisions showed that 51 percent of non-Latinos think Latinos can be “very” or “somewhat well” described as “welfare recipient” while 50 percent think that Latinos are “less educated” and 44 percent believe that Latinos “refuse to learn English.”

Prieto defies those stereotypes. After spending the first 13 years of his life commuting from Mexico across the border to attend school in the United States, Prieto’s family moved to El Centro, Calif., so that he and his older brother could attend public school and ultimately attend American universities. Since his father was not an American citizen, Prieto lived with his mother and brother in the United States while his father visited on alternate weekends.

“Both of my parents were really supportive, they wanted me to go to an American university rather than a Mexican one so we moved to the U.S.,” Prieto said. “We were well aware of the efforts they did.”
Prieto is not alone. Hernandez’s parents emigrated from Mexico and worked as janitors, in bakeries and in factories until they learned English in community college. Her mother is currently a third grade teacher and her father works for a dispatching company.

“My parents have always pushed education,” Hernandez said. “My dad because he never got an education and he always regretted that, and my mom because she did and knew that it could open doors for me. It was a given that I was gonna graduate high school, it was given that I was going to go to college.”

Kurth’s mother grew up on Normandie Avenue, minutes away from the University Park campus. His mother’s side of his family attended USC decades ago, albeit for different reasons.

“Pretty much the only reason why my aunt and uncle went here is because they got full-ride academic scholarships,” Kurth said. “My grandpa had to stop working and they were very low-income. It really shows that hard work does pay off and that’s always been instilled in my household. Don’t allow yourself to feel disadvantaged. No matter what your background is, you can do it.”

At USC, Kurth has excelled, winning the 2013 election for Undergraduate Student Government President. He hasn’t forgotten how hard his parents worked to make his successes possible.

“[My family] always expected us to go to college,” Kurth said. “They did a lot for the family because their parents didn’t speak any English.”

Finding their niche

Today, the heterogeneous population comprising the Latino student body is still searching for a niche within the USC community.

“It’s almost a blessing and a curse that there’s so much to get involved in,” Kurth said. “There’s all different kinds of people that all fall into this Latino thing.”

Vela said students who identify outside the traditional Latino norm have begun to organize clubs and groups, such as the USC Brazilian Club. Costa even made a USC Brazilians Facebook group to connect on campus.

Hernandez said she wants Latino students to realize their full potential at the university because there’s a lot to get involved in, and the community is open to everyone.

“At the end of the day, every Latino kind of makes their own experience here at USC,” Hernandez said. “Everyone is going to have unique experiences but you shouldn’t be closed off to something. So I think just be open to all the new experiences and see what fits you and what doesn’t.”

This is the third in a series about demographics at USC. Check out our demographics supplement this Wednesday, Nov. 6.

 
Follow Sheridan on Twitter @IAmSheridanW

Latino students reflect on their complex roles at USC

By Sheridan watson · Daily Trojan

Posted November 3, 2013 (2 days ago) at 5:50 pm in News

- See more at: http://dailytrojan.com/2013/11/03/latino-students-reflect-on-their-complex-roles-at-usc/#sthash.0A6MXfKQ.dpuf