That's right I said it, we Latinos are more in line with Republicans thanks to our culture.
Like many young Latinos growing up in a blue collar town I grew up thinking I was democrat. After all that's the party that was supposed to represent me and my interest, right?? The GOP was the party of the rich and "White" while the democrats protected the Latinos. That's what the media portrayed us as and soon as I could vote I registered as a democrat. I mean I did have a pseudo- mentor from a far, a young energetic Mayor of Baldwin Park who at the time was the youngest mayor in the country Mr. Fidel Vargas. So I followed the crowd and listened to the democrats as they brought into our lil town Bill Clinton with their left leaning rhetoric. Caught up in the moment I eagerly sought out Candidate Clinton and took pictures with him at Morgan Park I was thoroughly and emotionally caught up in the excitement. I mean, Who comes to Baldwin Park to seek out the Latino vote???
I went home thinking of what had just happened and who had come to town and what they said but in the end it was more hype than connection. The young vibrant, Harvard educated Mayor that I admired from a far was not the traditional democrat, at least to me. Now a political science major at CSU Fullerton, I didn't see the connection. What I did see was a Mayor that was efficient, cutting edge , the "E Team" concept and Fiscally conservative. This young mayor eschewed family values and his deep ties to the community was evident. My paradigm had just been shifted.
I wanted to connect to the democrats because I wanted to be included but the more I looked into it the more and more I realized it was not for me. My family values were not the same at the ones the democrats were pushing. My father worked 2-3 jobs and so did my mother all while being phenomenal parents. Always independent and never relying on Govt for a hand out. Eventually my parents started their own business and they still kept 2 jobs each. The lessons of hard work, perseverance, persistence, doing for self and not giving up were the direct opposite of what the democrats were telling me.
Education was a priority to my parents. My father wanted to be an attorney while in Mexico but that was cut short because of family obligations. Later it was a shot at playing professional soccer for ATLAS. So his dream of being an attorney was never met but it served as a template for me to follow. My mother didn't have the same chances and only complete grade school but that wasn't a deter ant for her to pushed us to get what was not afforded to her as a child . I wanted to make my parents proud of my grades so I kept pushing.
My parents came to this country to work and live the American Dream. They didn't come here for the Govt programs and were not dependent on it. The democrats told me top depend on Govt Assistance and use Govt to lift myself up, my upbringing told me different. The values of my grandparents were to work and provide for my family and not allow others to do for me what I should do for my self. "Entitlement" was not a value learned in my family nor from my grandparents. "Pongase a trabajar y no sea Huevon", "get to work and don't be lazy" the words of my stern grandmother who never trusted the Govt in Mexico as many others her age did. The mistrust of the Govt runs deep in Mexico. The corruption and abuse of the citizenry is appalling. Why would immigrating here change that ?
The more I looked at it, the more I saw that my family values, culture, morals, principals, identified with the Republicans. Even more so today where the democrats now fight to keep GOD out of schools and in public. Religion is greatly important to the Latino community, as are traditional family values but those are not valued in the democrat party. They rather embrace atheism or secularism rather than GOD so as to NOT offend anyone all the while they offend those who are religious,mainly Latinos.
I challenge every one that reads this to look at their family values and see where their values are best aligned with. Odds are they are more in-line with the GOP.
