Latino America: How America’s Most Dynamic Population is Poised to Transform the Politics of the Nation

This book is all about the influence of Latino voters on our recent Presidential elections. It makes the case the Latino voters have mattered. It makes the case that Latino voters will continue to matter.Much of the voting trends involving Latinos is about demographics. At 17% of the U.S. population and growing, Latinos are in the U.S. to stay. And more and more Latino voters are coming. More than half of the U.S. Latino residents live in one of three states: California, Texas or Florida. And, more and more of them are turning out to vote. About 65% of U.S. Latinos, nationwide, are of Mexican heritage.Per the authors, in 1970, less than 5% of U.S. residents identified themselves as Latino. By 2010, that was up to more than 16%. Additionally, more than 90% of Latinos under age 18, currently, are U.S. citizens, and, per the authors, nearly 900,000 of them turn 18 every year. Today, the overall percentage of U.S. Latinos born in the U.S. is about 60%.As for actual voters, in 2008, about 9% of U.S. voters were Latinos, up from less than 4% in 1992, when Bill Clinton was elected President. Per the authors, “Latinos prefer more government engagement in solving society’s challenges, not less….The result is a supermajority that votes Democrat…” But there is more to this, which is about what the book is about.Most know that George W. Bush in 2004 carried about 40% of the Latino vote. And Ronald Reagan once said, “Hispanics are Republicans, they just don’t know it yet.” But as the book points out, Republicans, more recently, have been their own worst enemies when it comes to Latino voters.As for voter turnout, Latino voter turnout among registered voters is only about 50%, which amounts to about 11 million uncast ballots in a Presidential election. A major reason for this is that many Latino voters do not think it matters if they vote. The book suggests that more would be motivated to vote “if they had personal connections to the electoral process.” And, per the book, Latino voters can also be influenced by the opinions/suggestions from nurses, teachers and firefighters, more so than by clergy, actors, athletes or other celebrities.In the 2008 Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton won the Latino vote by 2-to-1 over the other candidates. Latino racial prejudice against Blacks accounted for some of this support, but more opposition probably came from an unfamiliarity with candidate Barack Obama. Obama, per one source, went on to win 84% of the Latino vote in the general election against Republican John McCain. Latinos amounted to approximately 9% of that total vote. The economy at that time and the Iraq War were cited as primary issues for these voters. Latinos, in general, felt that the Iraq War had been a mistake. 77% of Latino voters also supported universal health insurance.The book tells us that it is impossible to give any single group of voters the credit for winning a Presidential election. At the same time, the authors make a good case that the Latino vote has, in fact, mattered. Latinos influenced the swing states in the 2008 race. Obama’s share of their votes was much higher than in 2004. Per the authors, “The Latino vote did not deliver the power punch in what became a landslide victory for Obama (in the 2008 election), but Latinos were far from irrelevant.”The 2010 election midterm elections went to the Republicans, but the book goes into great depth to show that the Latino vote still mattered, and that the results would have been far worse, if it were not for the Latino support for Democratic candidates. And, this, of course, was about the time that “Republican anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy actions served to poison their brand with Latino-registered voters.” Two examples were the “papers please” law in Arizona and the GOP vote in the Senate to defeat passage of the DREAM Act. A third would be the passage of Prop 187 in California, which had proved to be the long-term disaster for Republicans in California.The case is made that the Latino vote was more important than ever in the 2012 Presidential race, as most Latino voters were firmly in the Democratic Party camp. The book goes into great detail on this race, including recalling the famous Romney statement about “self-deportation.”This being a 2014 book, it does not foresee the election of Donald Trump. Its strength is in the detail it provides to support its thesis that “Latinos have the capacity to reshape the American political system and in fact have begun to do so.” And, I’ve said above, the book provides a great deal of detail to support its thesis.

Used this for my Latino politics course. Barreto and Segura do a wonderful job of capturing the Latino point of view. So much useful information and great insight to different time periods such as the Latino voter turnout in the 2008 presidential election.

I bought this for my daughter, who read it and sent it to my wife. They liked it very much

Excellent research, data analysis, and forecasting. This book is a must read for anyone wanting to see what the United States will look like in the next generation. If you're at all interested in demography, futures studies, or marketing, read this book.

A must read. We have to understand each other.

This book a must read for anyone who wants to be aware of the population groups and the power of voting!

I haven’t read the book but saw the author on BookTV.A country is about its culture among other things. So as Latinos import their culture (as they are doing since it’s “racist” to think otherwise) along with their vote we will become more like the corrupt and failed nations they come from. At least that the way it seems to me.Think ancient Rome.

Be warned first. These authors write as "Latinos" as for Democratic voting Mexicans, usually first and second generation. Mexicans. Cubans who vote opposite to Mexicans are excluded by these authors; i couldn't find anything about Cuban=American politicians of the GOP, for example.In short, the authors have a bent on more immigration, more AFDC, more tax money going to Mexicans for food stamps, education and health care.While they champion the independent Latinos who make their way through a competitive American society they believe that Latinos need more subsidies for just about everything. So much for the hard-working and self-supporting Latino the authors would like Americans to continue to financially support.

I think this book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand modern American politics. Simple as that.