The Hispanic Republican: The Shaping of an American Political Identity, from Nixon to Trump

by Geraldo Cadava

Overview

An illuminating and thought-provoking history of the growth of Hispanic American Republican voters in the past half century and their surprising impact on US politics, updated with new material reflecting on the 2020 election

In the lead-up to every election cycle, pundits predict that Latino Americans will overwhelmingly vote in favor of the Democratic candidate. And it’s true—Latino voters do tilt Democratic. Hillary Clinton won the Latino vote in a “landslide,” Barack Obama “crushed” Mitt Romney among Latino voters in his reelection, and, four years earlier, the Democratic ticket beat the McCain-Palin ticket by a margin of more than two to one. But those numbers belie a more complicated picture. Because of decades of investment and political courtship, as well as a nuanced and varied cultural identity, the Republican party has had a much longer and stronger bond with Hispanics. How is this possible for a party so associated with draconian immigration and racial policies?

In The Hispanic Republican, historian and political commentator Geraldo Cadava illuminates the history of the millions of Hispanic Republicans who, since the 1960s, have had a significant impact on national politics. Intertwining the little understood history of Hispanic Americans with a cultural study of how post–World War II Republican politicians actively courted the Hispanic vote during the Cold War (especially Cuban émigrés) and during periods of major strife in Central America (especially during Iran-Contra), Cadava offers insight into the complicated dynamic between Latino liberalism and conservatism, which, when studied together, shine a crucial light on a rapidly changing demographic that will impact American elections for years to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062946348
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/26/2020
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	232,190
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Geraldo Cadava is an associate professor of history and Latina and Latino studies at Northwestern University. He is the author of Standing on Common Ground.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Part I Awakening

Chapter 1 Becoming Republican 3

Chapter 2 A New Generation 43

Part II Influence

Chapter 3 Nixon's Hispanics 79

Chapter 4 The Hispanic Watergate 112

Chapter 5 Political Power 141

Part III Doubt

Chapter 6 Fernandez is America 173

Chapter 7 Reagan's Revolución 204

Chapter 8 Immigration Divides 234

Part IV Loyalty

Chapter 9 La Familia Bush 267

Chapter 10 Building the Wall 294

Conclusion The Future for Hispanic Republicans 323

Acknowledgments 341

Notes 343

Bibliography 395

Index 407

Editorial Reviews

03/16/2020

Northwestern University history professor Cadava (Standing on Common Ground) offers an evenhanded and exhaustive analysis of how the Republican Party built its base of Hispanic support. Noting that Republican presidential candidates have won roughly one-third of the Hispanic vote in every election since 1972, Cadava explores efforts to align Hispanic and Republican priorities on Puerto Rican statehood, sanctions against Cuba, and the flow of undocumented immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border. He profiles such activists as Benjamin “Boxcar Ben” Fernandez, cofounder of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly; notes examples of political patronage, including the appointments of three Mexican American women as U.S. treasurer; and documents the impact of the Elián González case on the 2000 Bush-Gore election. In a brisk final chapter, Cadava addresses a 2013 Republican National Committee report urging the party to expand its base by supporting a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and the refusal of many Hispanic Republicans to “turn their backs” on President Trump, in spite of his nativist rhetoric and policies. Deep dives into committees, campaigns, referendums, and polling data sometimes make for a ponderous reading experience but deliver a wealth of insights. This granular account offers essential context on a voting bloc with an outsize influence on American politics. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"Thoughtful, fair-minded, and learned, Cadava's eye-opening book will teach experts on American politics things they didn't even know they didn't know."

Rick Perlstein

Geraldo Cadava’s history...provides a unique vantage point on US politics; on the shifting terrains of foreign policy, labor, and religion; and on the changing nature of specific states, as well as on deeper ideological fights over the soul of the country: is it to be an inclusive nation of immigrants, or, as the nativists today say, a country founded on white supremacy? An excellent, insightful study.

Greg Grandin

04/01/2020

Cadava (history, Northwestern Univ.; Standing on Common Ground) has produced one of the few scholarly book-length treatments of Hispanic/Latino conservatism in the United States. Focusing on the period 1952–2000, Cadava walks through the metamorphosing relationship of Hispanics with the Republican Party. Conservatives have long contended that Latino/as have a natural affinity for the Republican Party, with its espoused values of faith, family, and freedom. This alleged affinity sits uneasily with the nativist rhetoric and anti-welfare, anti-immigration policies of figures such as Pat Buchanan and Donald Trump. Notwithstanding this tension, Latinos have awarded Republicans one-third of their votes in presidential elections since 1972. Cadava traces this party loyalty to Cold War-era anticommunism, as well as concerted efforts by the Nixon, Reagan, and Bush administrations to court Latino voters. The author also highlights the diversity among Hispanic communities and causes. Tightly focused on the leaders and events of Hispanic conservatism, Cadava touches only in passing on cultural, liberal, or pre-1950 Latino traditions. Most books concerning Hispanic Republicans are memoirs or commentary, notably Linda Chavez's Unlikely Conservative, Mike Gonzalez's Race for the Future, and Leslie Sanchez's Los Republicanos. In this field, Cadava's scholarship stands out. VERDICT An evenhanded and thought-provoking study of Hispanic conservatism.—Michael Rodriguez, Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs

Library Journal

2020-03-01
A survey of changing political trends among Latino American constituencies over the last half-century.

Hispanics are not born Democrats, although they have trended that way in the last several elections. It seems likely that they’ll do so in 2020, if only because of the current president’s anti-immigrant and nativist rhetoric. Still, Northwestern University professor Cadava points out, Hispanics voted for him “by a slightly wider margin than the percentage of Hispanics who voted for establishment candidates such as John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012.” The author rightly observes that the Hispanic population is not monolithic: Mexicans, Cubans, Central Americans, and Puerto Ricans bring different cultural sensibilities to the table. Cubans who left their native country because of opposition to Fidel Castro are far more likely to vote Republican, for instance, than Mexican farmworkers in the Southwest, and though most are at least nominally Catholic, both progressive and conservative elements in the Hispanic population can cite church teachings to back their political views. Cadava looks back at the days when Hispanic support was strongest for Republican candidates, as with the Latinos con Eisenhower organization and its follow-up, Latinos con Goldwater, which enjoyed reasonable success because of Goldwater’s determined courtship of Cuban Americans and Mexican Americans. Even Nixon had a so-called “Brown Mafia,” though it relied for support on “doling out government grants and contracts, dangling appointments in front of prominent Hispanics, cutting deals with some of the Chicano movement’s leaders, and efforts to suppress support for McGovern.” Other Republicans have been more worthy of that support—Gerald Ford, for instance, who expanded the Voting Rights Act to include ballots and other election materials written in Spanish. As for the present, Cadava ventures that Hispanic supporters of Trump believe that while he’s “unrefined,” he’s not a racist.

Of interest to political trend watchers—and a warning to Democrats not to take the Latino vote for granted. (8-page color insert)

Kirkus Reviews

Geraldo Cadava offers a fascinating examination of the socioeconomic interests and foreign policy concerns that have drawn Hispanics/Latinos into a rapidly changing Republican Party. If readers harbor the mistaken idea that Hispanics are a monolithic voting bloc, this book should dispel this idea once and for all. Though the work is written for a general audience, even experts on Hispanic politics and voting behavior will find much that is new and surprising in these chapters.

María Cristina García

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