Latino Leadership: The Increase In Latino Politics

539 Words3 Pages

Mexican Leadership Within the past decade there has been an increase in Latino representation that has jumped started the advocacy of Latino related issues all across the nation. Prior to this influx of representation, Latino politics was extremely limited to only local government. In today’s society, Latino politics is a main issue on both the Republican and Democratic platform. Even though this has been a tremendous milestone to reach, Latinos continue to be underrepresented in all forms of government. According to Juan Gonzalez, in 2009 Latinos “represented slightly more than 1 percent of all elected officials in the country at the time when Latinos were 15 percent of the population.” Latino issues may be raised right now, but their needs …show more content…

They are the Henry B. Gonzalez’s for example which take a less radical approach. Henry B. over the years of his political career aimed for a softer side when raising Latino issues. His “softer side” approach aimed to bring Latinos and Anglos together as one body, which was geared by his strong belief in assimilation. He tried to blend issues together and avoid the “us against them” standoff that always partakes with minority politics. His influence on the Mexican American people led John F. Kennedy to recruit Gonzalez as one his lead associates to rally the Latino vote during his presidential race. Henry. B Gonzalez approach influenced many of today’s political leaders, such as former Mayor of San Antonio Julian Castro. As Juan Gonzalez describes, “[Castro] does not rely on the narrow ethnic pride used by old-style politicians to win votes… a political moderate who emphasizes technocratic skills and his first-class education to achieve cross-ethnic and cross-racial appeal.” Just like Henry B., Castro is a Latino political who has been assimilated over the years and gears to appeal to both the Latino and Anglo