WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:02.080 Did you ever vote for a Republican? 2 00:00:02.759 --> 00:00:05.840 No, this is historian Heral. 3 00:00:05.920 --> 00:00:09.039 Look at that man and he's talking on the phone 4 00:00:09.119 --> 00:00:11.000 with his grandma, Gloria. 5 00:00:11.080 --> 00:00:15.600 And did you and grandpa ever never, ever, ever been 6 00:00:16.400 --> 00:00:20.040 a Republican? Yeah, but Grandpa has been. 7 00:00:20.720 --> 00:00:20.959 Yeah. 8 00:00:21.560 --> 00:00:24.000 Did you guys ever argue about politics or no? 9 00:00:25.040 --> 00:00:26.279 Yeah, a little bit. 10 00:00:26.720 --> 00:00:29.800 Like were you arguing about particular issues like Republicans are 11 00:00:29.800 --> 00:00:31.400 like this or Democrats are like this? 12 00:00:31.600 --> 00:00:32.120 Do you remember? 13 00:00:32.120 --> 00:00:32.159 No? 14 00:00:32.280 --> 00:00:35.519 He just always say that Trump was was the man, 15 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:38.400 and Trump was good and Trump and you know, and 16 00:00:38.760 --> 00:00:46.720 I'd say, Jerry, I don't want to talk politics. 17 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:52.320 But we, dear listener, we are going to talk politics. 18 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:54.920 From Futuro Media. It's Latino USA. 19 00:00:55.160 --> 00:01:00.520 I'm ARIAJSA, and today we're going to talk about Latino Plicans. 20 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:08.639 When Donald Trump announced his campaign for president in twenty 21 00:01:08.680 --> 00:01:13.160 fifteen by saying this about immigrants from Mexico, They're. 22 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:18.399 Bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, their rapists, and some I 23 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:19.319 assume are good. 24 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:22.040 People, many Latinos were offended. 25 00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:25.839 So when Trump said in an interview on NBC News 26 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:29.360 a few weeks later, if I get the nomination, I'll 27 00:01:29.400 --> 00:01:32.080 win the Latino vote. I will win it, he was 28 00:01:32.120 --> 00:01:37.959 met with well some skepticism. Just three years earlier, after 29 00:01:38.080 --> 00:01:41.360 Mitt Romney lost the twenty twelve election to Barack Obama, 30 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:44.160 the Republican Party had declared that it needed to be 31 00:01:44.240 --> 00:01:49.840 more welcoming to Latinos and Latinas and even embrace immigration reform, 32 00:01:50.440 --> 00:01:55.600 or if they didn't, the party's appeal would shrink. But then, 33 00:01:55.640 --> 00:01:57.240 of course this happened. 34 00:01:57.600 --> 00:02:02.000 I've just received a call from Secretary Clinton. 35 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:08.000 Trump won the twenty sixteen election, and even though he 36 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:12.320 demonized Latino immigrants, Latinos were a part of his victory. 37 00:02:12.520 --> 00:02:15.360 I am an American and I'm Latina, and guess what 38 00:02:15.720 --> 00:02:16.519 I voted. 39 00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:17.080 For Donald Trump. 40 00:02:17.639 --> 00:02:20.760 Trump didn't win the Latino vote, but he did get 41 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:24.399 almost a third of it, about twenty eight percent. And now, 42 00:02:24.440 --> 00:02:27.160 on the eve of the twenty twenty election, Trump has 43 00:02:27.160 --> 00:02:29.600 a chance to do it again, and when it comes 44 00:02:29.600 --> 00:02:33.160 to Latinos, he might even do a little better this 45 00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:34.440 time than last. 46 00:02:34.600 --> 00:02:36.800 Hey, guys, this Latino's for Trump. We're out here knocking 47 00:02:36.840 --> 00:02:38.480 on doors in Houston, tacting what I'm. 48 00:02:38.280 --> 00:02:41.840 Doing, showing love to the greatest president of my history. 49 00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:46.200 I am voting for President Trump because I cherish my guns. 50 00:02:46.720 --> 00:02:50.280 I cherish my faith and I'm pro life. 51 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:54.560 These are clips from videos on the official Latinos for 52 00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:58.640 Trump Instagram account. Polls show that the president is doing 53 00:02:58.720 --> 00:03:03.600 particularly well with US born Latino men, and with Cubans 54 00:03:03.600 --> 00:03:08.519 and Venezuelans in Florida who fled socialist regimes, as well 55 00:03:08.520 --> 00:03:20.080 as with Latino and Latina evangelicals. So today we're going 56 00:03:20.160 --> 00:03:24.520 to dig deep into understanding Latino and Latina Republicans and 57 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:28.120 their history with the help of Heral Lokadava, who you 58 00:03:28.200 --> 00:03:31.240 heard from at the beginning of this episode. Heeraldo is 59 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:34.840 a historian at Northwestern University and the author of a 60 00:03:34.880 --> 00:03:38.760 recent book called The Hispanic Republican, The Shaping of an 61 00:03:38.760 --> 00:03:43.560 American political identity from Nixon to Trump. In this book, 62 00:03:43.640 --> 00:03:46.960 he argues that we shouldn't be surprised when Latinos vote 63 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:49.160 for Republicans, including Trump. 64 00:03:49.480 --> 00:03:52.640 Between a quarter and a third of Latinos have supported 65 00:03:52.640 --> 00:03:56.640 the Republican candidate ever since Richard Nixon's reelection in nineteen 66 00:03:56.680 --> 00:04:01.480 seventy two, and it has been a remarkably durable support. 67 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:06.480 Heraldo has spent years talking with dozens of Latino Republicans 68 00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:10.440 and sifteen through historical archives to try to understand this 69 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:15.120 significant and often overlooked group of Latino and Latina voters. 70 00:04:15.760 --> 00:04:19.280 But his interest in the topic started with his own grandpa, 71 00:04:19.400 --> 00:04:24.320 the Latino Republican who you heard about in that phone call. Heraldokadada. 72 00:04:24.440 --> 00:04:25.880 Welcome to Latino, USA. 73 00:04:26.600 --> 00:04:27.839 Thank you so much for having me. 74 00:04:28.360 --> 00:04:32.040 All Right, your grandfather is born in Panama, yep, settled 75 00:04:32.080 --> 00:04:34.839 in Arizona. You say that you used to argue with 76 00:04:34.920 --> 00:04:37.320 him a lot about politics. Take us to those arguments. 77 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:39.080 When did they start and what did they look like? 78 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:42.159 Oh, my goodness, I think they really started in the nineties. 79 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:44.400 I mean I was born in nineteen seventy seven, and 80 00:04:44.440 --> 00:04:48.200 so I think the time when I became really politically aware, 81 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:52.120 conscious started following elections and politics was in the nineteen nineties, 82 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:55.520 and our conversations started like this. I mean, me just 83 00:04:55.720 --> 00:04:59.919 kind of not understanding why he supported the border w 84 00:05:00.400 --> 00:05:03.599 and harsh immigration policies. And his line was always that, 85 00:05:03.960 --> 00:05:06.720 you know, I came illegally, I became a citizen by 86 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:09.919 joining the military, and I think that's what others should 87 00:05:09.960 --> 00:05:12.200 do as well. And he told me that in nineteen 88 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:16.560 eighty Ronald Reagan was promising to put more money back 89 00:05:16.640 --> 00:05:20.120 into his bi weekly paycheck by lowering taxes, and that 90 00:05:20.279 --> 00:05:23.920 was the first time he voted for a Republican And 91 00:05:24.040 --> 00:05:26.719 what I became fascinated by is how after that he 92 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:29.400 kind of embraced whole cloth all of the positions of 93 00:05:29.440 --> 00:05:32.480 the Republican Party. So I was interested in this idea 94 00:05:32.760 --> 00:05:37.240 of how someone's political viewpoints can evolve over time. And 95 00:05:37.400 --> 00:05:40.920 you know, they might have a fairly narrow reason for 96 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:44.360 supporting a party to begin with, but over time their 97 00:05:44.400 --> 00:05:49.960 relationship with that party deepens and becomes more fixed. I 98 00:05:49.960 --> 00:05:51.919 think the other thing that's important about my grandpa is 99 00:05:51.920 --> 00:05:55.679 that because he's my grandpa, you know, he and I 100 00:05:55.720 --> 00:05:58.160 have been extremely close, and I think the fact that 101 00:05:58.200 --> 00:06:01.000 it's a close relationship helped to me approach it with 102 00:06:01.120 --> 00:06:05.960 empathy and desire to truly understand the beliefs of people 103 00:06:05.960 --> 00:06:08.640 who I might not necessarily agree with. 104 00:06:09.160 --> 00:06:11.920 Let's pull back now from your grandpa to the way 105 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:15.720 in which Duram your grandfather's life and mine. Latino and 106 00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:19.120 Latina voters have been covered in the media. There's a 107 00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:23.440 notion that Latinos are naturally liberal. There are others that 108 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:28.000 believe that Latinos are actually more naturally conservative. So what 109 00:06:28.160 --> 00:06:32.640 do all of these cliches get wrong about Latinos and politics. 110 00:06:32.880 --> 00:06:37.000 Yeah, you know, many Democrats have had these Joe Biden 111 00:06:37.160 --> 00:06:41.680 like moments where Joe Biden said, if you don't vote 112 00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:45.279 for a Democrat, you ain't black. I think Hispanics have 113 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:48.760 had lots of those moments over the years. In twenty ten, 114 00:06:48.920 --> 00:06:51.799 I remember Harry Reid saying that he can't understand why 115 00:06:52.400 --> 00:06:56.240 any Hispanic would be a Republican. And on the other side, 116 00:06:56.320 --> 00:07:00.039 it's Reagan who famously told Leonel Sosa, one of the 117 00:07:00.080 --> 00:07:03.919 Hispanics running his Hispanics for Reagan campaign, that you know, Lionel, 118 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:07.719 you're going to have the easiest job imaginable because Latinos 119 00:07:07.720 --> 00:07:11.080 are Republicans who just don't know it yet. So I 120 00:07:11.080 --> 00:07:13.920 think the real problem with that is I just don't 121 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:17.480 think that Latinos are naturally anything. Over a long period 122 00:07:17.520 --> 00:07:21.320 of time, Latinos have been serious political actors with serious 123 00:07:21.320 --> 00:07:25.640 political ideas, and therefore shouldn't be taken for granted by anyone. 124 00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:29.920 I think there are very few political operatives who talk 125 00:07:29.960 --> 00:07:32.480 about Latinos, and Latinos in the United States has been 126 00:07:32.880 --> 00:07:37.360 serious political actors that need to be taken seriously. Although 127 00:07:37.560 --> 00:07:41.600 the Republican Party, for example, started aggressively courting Latino and 128 00:07:41.640 --> 00:07:45.360 Latino voters in the nineteen sixties, the same period after 129 00:07:45.400 --> 00:07:50.440 the Civil Rights Act when the party started abandoning Black voters. 130 00:07:50.680 --> 00:07:52.400 So how do they do this? 131 00:07:52.880 --> 00:07:56.720 You know, Nixon during his first administration really makes a 132 00:07:56.720 --> 00:08:01.080 commitment to reaching out to Latino's bolic and strategists are 133 00:08:01.200 --> 00:08:05.240 very explicit about the fact that African Americans are leaving 134 00:08:05.240 --> 00:08:07.480 the party in droves and they're going to have to 135 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:11.880 make up for that loss support from somewhere, and Latinos 136 00:08:11.880 --> 00:08:17.200 seem like prime candidates. And at the same time, states 137 00:08:17.240 --> 00:08:22.440 like Texas and California are becoming more and more important electorally. 138 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:25.600 In nineteen fifty, New York still had the greatest number 139 00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:28.960 of electoral votes in the country, but with the growth 140 00:08:28.960 --> 00:08:31.960 of the Sun Belt after World War Two, states like 141 00:08:32.080 --> 00:08:36.920 Florida and Texas, Arizona, California grew in population and therefore 142 00:08:36.960 --> 00:08:41.040 grew in electoral importance, and Latinos were concentrated in these 143 00:08:41.160 --> 00:08:43.120 increasingly important states. 144 00:08:43.559 --> 00:08:47.600 Nixon actually is the first Republican president to get about 145 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:50.840 a third of the Latino vote. But I didn't know this, 146 00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:55.360 which is that Nixon's tactics to get the Latino vote 147 00:08:55.360 --> 00:08:59.199 actually came up in congressional hearings during the Watergate scandal. 148 00:08:59.320 --> 00:09:02.920 So yeah, what did those hearings reveal about how Nixon 149 00:09:03.040 --> 00:09:06.320 brought those early Latino Republicans into the party. 150 00:09:06.800 --> 00:09:11.040 Nixon based his appeal to Latinos in nineteen seventy two 151 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:17.800 primarily on patronage. And by patronage, I mean, you know, 152 00:09:17.920 --> 00:09:23.080 handing out federal contracts to Latino business owners who supported 153 00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:29.839 the president, creating more federal jobs for Latinos. And this 154 00:09:29.960 --> 00:09:32.120 came up during the Watergate hearings. 155 00:09:32.400 --> 00:09:35.439 For the first time in our nation's history, the Spanish 156 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:39.920 speaking people were invited to participate in an upfront manner 157 00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:41.720 during a presidential campaign. 158 00:09:41.920 --> 00:09:44.400 It was found that he had not Nixon personally, but 159 00:09:44.440 --> 00:09:47.040 the administration had entered into a lot of kind of 160 00:09:47.040 --> 00:09:51.280 crooked deals with Latino business owners in return for their 161 00:09:51.280 --> 00:09:52.360 support for the president. 162 00:09:52.640 --> 00:09:56.120 The percentage of Spanish speaking voters casting ballots for the 163 00:09:56.200 --> 00:10:01.080 Republican nominee increased from approximately six percent to nineteen sixty 164 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:04.680 two to about thirty five percent in nineteen seventy two. 165 00:10:05.040 --> 00:10:09.079 The person testifying about all of this is Benjamin Fernandez, 166 00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:13.800 and he was testifying as the head of Nixon's National 167 00:10:13.920 --> 00:10:18.600 Hispanic Campaign Committee. The other really important part of Nixon's 168 00:10:18.600 --> 00:10:24.199 appeal was based on economic uplift, and so he appointed 169 00:10:24.400 --> 00:10:28.560 a Mexican American to run the Small Business Administration. He 170 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:32.360 created the Office of Minority Business Enterprise. He established the 171 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:38.040 National Economic Development Association, which was headed by Benjamin Fernandez, 172 00:10:38.080 --> 00:10:41.440 who would later become the first Hispanic candidate to run 173 00:10:41.480 --> 00:10:44.400 for president. All of it just demonstrates that, you know, 174 00:10:44.520 --> 00:10:49.280 economic uplift and an appeal to middle class Hispanics was 175 00:10:49.320 --> 00:10:51.720 an important part of Nixon's campaign. 176 00:10:52.520 --> 00:10:57.040 So then after Nixon, the next Republican president who makes 177 00:10:57.040 --> 00:11:01.760 a concerted effort to bring in Latino voters is Ronald Reagan. Yeah, 178 00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:04.559 you write about how he there was a kind of 179 00:11:04.640 --> 00:11:07.840 strategy change with the party in terms of Latinos, focusing 180 00:11:07.920 --> 00:11:12.000 much more on ideology, like really targeting issues like religion, 181 00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:17.719 so called family values, anti communism. So how does that 182 00:11:17.920 --> 00:11:20.640 change what it meant to be a Latino Republican? 183 00:11:21.080 --> 00:11:25.480 Yeah, So the Reagan campaign was the first campaign to 184 00:11:25.840 --> 00:11:30.440 do a kind of national media campaign on radio, television 185 00:11:30.760 --> 00:11:35.040 to Latino communities and his Hispanic advisors in the run 186 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:38.680 up to the election kind of sat down and tried 187 00:11:38.720 --> 00:11:42.280 to come up with what were the core characteristics that 188 00:11:42.360 --> 00:11:47.120 brought Latino Republicans together. So they talked about things like faith, 189 00:11:47.360 --> 00:11:51.160 They talked about a hard work ethic, They talked about 190 00:11:51.160 --> 00:11:54.240 a lot of things that served to kind of put 191 00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:59.200 an umbrella overall Latino Republicans because famously, you know, it's 192 00:11:59.200 --> 00:12:02.840 not to get groups of Latinos to feel the same 193 00:12:02.880 --> 00:12:08.280 way about things. You have very different national groups Puerto Ricans, Cubans, 194 00:12:08.760 --> 00:12:12.760 Mexican Americans, and in order to try to bring them 195 00:12:12.800 --> 00:12:17.719 all under the same tent, Reagan tried to articulate what 196 00:12:17.760 --> 00:12:22.199 the core characteristics of Latino Republican identity would be. 197 00:12:22.840 --> 00:12:26.560 What about anti communism specifically, because you know, one of 198 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:30.720 the stereotypes of Latino Republicans is like the anti communist 199 00:12:30.800 --> 00:12:32.480 Cuban exile who lives in Miami. 200 00:12:33.080 --> 00:12:38.839 Reagan becomes the first Republican president to win an overwhelming 201 00:12:38.880 --> 00:12:43.600 amount of Cuban American support. He wins something like eighty 202 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:47.360 and then ninety percent of the Cuban vote in South 203 00:12:47.400 --> 00:12:50.080 Florida in nineteen eighty and nineteen eighty four. You know, 204 00:12:50.120 --> 00:12:53.840 for much of the nineteen sixties, many Cubans in South 205 00:12:53.880 --> 00:12:56.560 Florida are still really focused on politics on the island. 206 00:12:56.559 --> 00:12:59.720 They still have this idea that they're about to overthrow 207 00:12:59.800 --> 00:13:02.840 Castro and can return to Cuba. So that means they 208 00:13:02.840 --> 00:13:06.880 don't become as involved in American politics as they do 209 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:11.640 in later years. In the big naturalization of Cuban Americans 210 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:14.960 happens in the mid nineteen seventies, so by the time 211 00:13:14.960 --> 00:13:18.040 that Reagan runs for president, there's just a lot more 212 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:21.679 Cuban American voters who will participate in elections, and they 213 00:13:21.720 --> 00:13:24.280 have a candidate in Reagan who they're really drawn to 214 00:13:24.400 --> 00:13:29.559 because of his staunch anti communist, anti Castro politics. And 215 00:13:29.640 --> 00:13:33.120 in the spring of nineteen eighty three, on Cuban Independence Day, 216 00:13:33.240 --> 00:13:36.920 he visits the restaurant in Little Havana Esquina de Tejas. 217 00:13:37.320 --> 00:13:40.720 Is there any place in Cuba outside of maybe the 218 00:13:40.760 --> 00:13:45.480 Presidential Palace where that menu could still be served? 219 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:50.840 And ever since then, I mean really, after nineteen eighty four, 220 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:55.800 the Cuban Americans became seen as fiercely loyal Republicans. 221 00:13:56.120 --> 00:14:00.520 So Ronald Reagan in terms of Latinos and Latinez just say, 222 00:14:00.920 --> 00:14:04.480 it's complicated. I know people who have named their first 223 00:14:04.520 --> 00:14:08.640 borns after Ronald Reagan or Nancy Reagan. Wow, giving thanks 224 00:14:08.679 --> 00:14:11.520 to them because in nineteen eighty six they were able 225 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:15.679 to regularize their situation, begin to get green cards and 226 00:14:15.800 --> 00:14:19.400 a process to citizenship. That was almost three million undocumented 227 00:14:19.400 --> 00:14:23.160 immigrants that were involved in this process of the Immigration 228 00:14:23.280 --> 00:14:27.080 Reform and Control Act. But it wasn't like everybody in 229 00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:29.840 the Republican Party said, Okay, this is it, we're in. 230 00:14:30.040 --> 00:14:33.440 Immigration is our issue. It was more divisive. 231 00:14:33.760 --> 00:14:35.040 Yeah, that's absolutely right. 232 00:14:35.080 --> 00:14:35.320 I mean. 233 00:14:35.320 --> 00:14:37.920 In the debates leading up to the Immigration Reform and 234 00:14:37.960 --> 00:14:38.840 Control Act. 235 00:14:38.800 --> 00:14:43.760 This administration asked the Congress to pass a comprehensive legislative package, 236 00:14:44.120 --> 00:14:48.480 including employer sanctions, other measures to increase enforcement of the 237 00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:50.800 immigration laws and legalization. 238 00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:56.560 Many Hispanic Republicans were really upset with how those deliberations 239 00:14:56.600 --> 00:15:01.120 were going. They largely sided with their Democrat counterparts in 240 00:15:01.720 --> 00:15:06.840 opposing employer sanctions, which they correctly believed would lead to 241 00:15:06.880 --> 00:15:10.400 discrimination against all Latinos or anyone who appeared to be 242 00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:15.200 or sounded like a Latino. And they also favored amnesty 243 00:15:15.240 --> 00:15:20.360 all of the naturalization provisions and the pathway to citizenship provisions. 244 00:15:20.440 --> 00:15:24.800 So the Immigration Reform and Control Act is the beginning 245 00:15:25.080 --> 00:15:29.040 of a kind of cleaving between the Republican Party and 246 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:32.040 Hispanic Republicans, or I should say, just a much more 247 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:37.160 fraught relationship, you know. I think one way of narrating 248 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:40.920 the history of the Republican Party since the nineteen seventies 249 00:15:42.200 --> 00:15:46.520 is the kind of increasing tension between the nativist wing 250 00:15:46.560 --> 00:15:48.440 of the party and the wing of the party that 251 00:15:48.760 --> 00:15:50.600 argues for greater inclusion. 252 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:54.680 All right, so there's tension, but for a long time 253 00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:57.360 it seems like the nativist wing of the party is 254 00:15:57.480 --> 00:16:01.960 not winning. And after Rake and You write about how 255 00:16:02.040 --> 00:16:06.720 the Bushes were seen as really being welcoming of Latinos. 256 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:11.440 Latino Republicans between two thousand and two thousand and eight 257 00:16:11.920 --> 00:16:17.440 really looked to George W. Bush as the answer to 258 00:16:17.800 --> 00:16:20.600 a lot that had been wrong with the party. In 259 00:16:20.640 --> 00:16:24.320 the nineteen nineties, when the party kind of tacked right 260 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:26.960 on immigration and there was a lot of news coming 261 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:30.080 out of California about Proposition one eighty seven, and then 262 00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:33.720 how that law would get replicated in other states across 263 00:16:33.760 --> 00:16:38.760 the country. Then President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, signed the 264 00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:42.280 very harsh immigration bill in nineteen ninety six that was 265 00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:46.680 really championed by Newt Gingrich's Republican Congress. I'm talking about 266 00:16:46.680 --> 00:16:52.160 the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, and these 267 00:16:52.200 --> 00:16:56.160 were taken as really bad signs for the status of 268 00:16:56.840 --> 00:17:00.840 Latino Republicans within the Republican parties. So then when George W. 269 00:17:00.920 --> 00:17:07.600 Bush came along and promised moderation and compassionate conservatism and 270 00:17:07.640 --> 00:17:12.919 cooperation with Vicente Fox and you a long list of 271 00:17:13.119 --> 00:17:15.840 Hispanic appointments. So a lot of the Hispanic Republicans I 272 00:17:15.880 --> 00:17:17.679 talked to love to tell me about how in the 273 00:17:17.720 --> 00:17:20.960 early months of the Bush administration there was an event 274 00:17:21.040 --> 00:17:24.280 where Bush lined them all up in front of the 275 00:17:24.280 --> 00:17:28.360 White House, all of his Hispanic appointees, the Bushies, they 276 00:17:28.359 --> 00:17:33.520 called themselves, and that line of Hispanic Republican appointees stretched 277 00:17:33.560 --> 00:17:36.160 from one end of the White House to the other. 278 00:17:36.840 --> 00:17:41.520 Latino Republican feelings toward Bush evolved and became more complicated 279 00:17:41.600 --> 00:17:43.920 towards the end of his presidency than at the beginning, 280 00:17:43.960 --> 00:17:47.240 because they felt like a lot of his promises to 281 00:17:47.280 --> 00:17:52.600 them hadn't been delivered. But in general, his presidency was 282 00:17:52.600 --> 00:17:57.720 seen as a moment of great inclusion for Latino Republicans. 283 00:17:57.760 --> 00:18:01.320 But I think in retrospect from where we are in 284 00:18:01.400 --> 00:18:06.119 twenty twenty. I don't think you can understand the Bush 285 00:18:06.119 --> 00:18:09.560 hears as anything but a blip, an eight year kind 286 00:18:09.600 --> 00:18:12.840 of respite from what has been a quarter century of 287 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:16.399 pretty divisive immigration and border politics. 288 00:18:22.320 --> 00:18:25.520 Coming up on Latino USA, we continue our conversation with 289 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:30.639 historian Hieraldo Cadava to understand what President Trump has meant 290 00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:34.080 for Latino Republicans, and we hear from a couple of 291 00:18:34.119 --> 00:19:29.959 Latino Republicans themselves. Stay with us, Hey, we're back. And 292 00:19:30.119 --> 00:19:33.520 before the break, I was speaking with historian Herald Locavava 293 00:19:33.800 --> 00:19:37.600 about how the Republican Party has cultivated a relationship with 294 00:19:37.680 --> 00:19:42.399 Latino and Latina voters over the last fifty years. Let's 295 00:19:42.560 --> 00:19:46.960 jump back to that conversation now. At this point, it 296 00:19:47.080 --> 00:19:49.199 is clear that in terms of the Republican Party, the 297 00:19:49.280 --> 00:19:54.000 nativist wing is clearly in power. Donald Trump began his 298 00:19:54.200 --> 00:19:58.399 campaign with what many Latinos and Latinas believe is hate speech, 299 00:19:59.040 --> 00:20:01.880 and yet Latinos and latin has voted for him. 300 00:20:02.359 --> 00:20:03.760 So how do you explain that. 301 00:20:05.640 --> 00:20:09.879 I remember having one conversation with a Hispanic Republican leader 302 00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:13.520 who was talking to me before the twenty sixteen election, 303 00:20:13.560 --> 00:20:16.640 and he said, look, I don't love everything Donald Trump 304 00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:20.440 stands for, but I'm going to vote for him because 305 00:20:20.440 --> 00:20:23.080 I'm not going to let one man ruin the movement 306 00:20:23.240 --> 00:20:25.840 that I spent decades building. He was talking about the 307 00:20:26.280 --> 00:20:29.680 Hispanic Republican movement and the effort to bring Hispanics into 308 00:20:29.800 --> 00:20:33.480 the Republican Party. So I think that loyalty has a 309 00:20:33.480 --> 00:20:35.120 lot to do with it. But then I do think 310 00:20:35.200 --> 00:20:41.320 there are a handful of issues that Latino's support that 311 00:20:41.480 --> 00:20:46.320 the Republican Party stands for, conservative economic policies like tax 312 00:20:46.400 --> 00:20:51.879 cuts in financial deregulation, religious freedom and the incorporation of 313 00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:56.479 religion into public life, and of course this tired, it 314 00:20:56.520 --> 00:21:01.520 seems to me, argument about socialism and communism. I do 315 00:21:01.560 --> 00:21:05.280 think that these are still the issues that draw Latinos 316 00:21:05.320 --> 00:21:07.080 into the Republican Party. 317 00:21:07.520 --> 00:21:10.439 When people think of Latino voters, you know, one in 318 00:21:10.560 --> 00:21:14.800 four knows someone who has been detained or deported. These 319 00:21:14.840 --> 00:21:20.000 policies under Donald Trump have become just outright cruel, really 320 00:21:20.200 --> 00:21:24.840 really cruel and vicious. How does this play into Latino 321 00:21:24.920 --> 00:21:27.480 Republicans and their support for Donald Trump? 322 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:33.720 On immigration in particular, Latino Republicans say several things. They 323 00:21:33.760 --> 00:21:38.399 say that first, immigration is not the only issue they 324 00:21:38.440 --> 00:21:41.920 care about. They care about healthcare, jobs, education much more, 325 00:21:41.960 --> 00:21:45.639 and on each of those issues there are conservative positions 326 00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:50.480 that they're willing to fight for. They also take some 327 00:21:50.560 --> 00:21:53.639 of Donald Trump's claims at face value that he's not 328 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:58.879 anti immigrant, he's anti quote unquote illegal immigrant, and you know, 329 00:21:59.040 --> 00:22:02.960 it's it's always a isn't to me watching Republican events 330 00:22:03.119 --> 00:22:07.880 like round tables that the President has with Republican leaders 331 00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:09.600 in particular areas We're here. 332 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:14.720 To discuss my administrations on wavering devotion to Hispanic American communities. 333 00:22:14.840 --> 00:22:17.240 They seem to live in this kind of friction free 334 00:22:17.400 --> 00:22:21.160 zone where everything the president has done has been amazing 335 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:22.520 for Latinos. 336 00:22:22.080 --> 00:22:24.119 And we built the greatest economy in history. 337 00:22:24.320 --> 00:22:28.119 So they exist in this kind of conflict free fantasy 338 00:22:28.240 --> 00:22:30.880 zone where Donald Trump is the best. 339 00:22:31.240 --> 00:22:34.840 So in terms of the Democrats, they understand that Latinos 340 00:22:34.840 --> 00:22:38.000 and Latinas are going to become larger and larger in 341 00:22:38.080 --> 00:22:40.119 terms of their share of the electorate. Right now, we 342 00:22:40.200 --> 00:22:43.960 are thirty two million, the largest non white vote that 343 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:46.159 there is in the United States, and there's been this 344 00:22:46.359 --> 00:22:50.920 kind of assumption among Democrats that these demographic changes will 345 00:22:50.960 --> 00:22:56.840 increasingly give them an advantage over the Republicans. So are 346 00:22:56.840 --> 00:22:59.760 the Democrats right? Even if Trump wins this time, over 347 00:22:59.800 --> 00:23:02.960 the long term, will it be enough to just get 348 00:23:03.240 --> 00:23:06.320 a third of the Latino vote for the Republicans to 349 00:23:06.359 --> 00:23:07.240 hold onto power. 350 00:23:07.920 --> 00:23:11.600 Here's where I think Democrats are wrong. I think that 351 00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:17.679 they assume a kind of static American future. You know, 352 00:23:17.720 --> 00:23:22.840 Democrats are assuming that all things else remaining the same. Yes, 353 00:23:22.920 --> 00:23:25.960 if you project into the future twenty thirty years when 354 00:23:26.040 --> 00:23:31.240 Latinos represent a quarter or a third of the US population, 355 00:23:31.320 --> 00:23:34.199 maybe even more forty to fifty percent, that that is 356 00:23:34.600 --> 00:23:38.520 definitely going to be a bad thing for Republicans. And 357 00:23:38.560 --> 00:23:41.000 I think a lot can happen in the next thirty years. 358 00:23:41.400 --> 00:23:44.560 I think, you know, the risk of just assuming that 359 00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:50.639 a growing Latino population will benefit the Democratic Party is 360 00:23:50.760 --> 00:23:57.080 part of what allows Democrats to not take Latino's seriously 361 00:23:57.320 --> 00:24:01.800 for three years and then focus on them intensely for 362 00:24:01.880 --> 00:24:05.280 a year. I mean, I basically think that Chuck Rocha 363 00:24:05.600 --> 00:24:08.879 and others in the Bernie Sanders campaign had it absolutely 364 00:24:09.040 --> 00:24:16.520 right that the key to winning Latino support is early, continuous, 365 00:24:17.040 --> 00:24:21.879 sustained investment in Latino communities, even when you're not looking 366 00:24:21.920 --> 00:24:25.840 for their votes. But to answer your question basically about 367 00:24:26.080 --> 00:24:31.840 will this thirty percent of Latino support that Republicans have 368 00:24:31.920 --> 00:24:35.040 won over the past fifty years, will that be enough 369 00:24:35.080 --> 00:24:38.560 going forward? I think that it won't be enough. Even 370 00:24:38.560 --> 00:24:42.000 if we can't predict the future, we would probably generally 371 00:24:42.080 --> 00:24:45.359 say that winning thirty percent of a really important and 372 00:24:45.400 --> 00:24:50.200 an increasingly important demographic isn't a recipe for success. 373 00:24:52.520 --> 00:24:55.560 Well, heer Aidol, thank you so much for sharing all 374 00:24:55.560 --> 00:24:59.439 this information and for taking a little bit more clarity 375 00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:00.800 about let the Republicans. 376 00:25:00.840 --> 00:25:03.240 It's it's a lot to talk about. Thank you so much. 377 00:25:10.040 --> 00:25:12.359 Now, all of this history that we've been discussing with 378 00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:16.320 Heroldo Cavava is pretty recent and a lot of the 379 00:25:16.359 --> 00:25:20.160 players are very much alive and involved in politics. So 380 00:25:20.320 --> 00:25:23.480 Latino USA producer Alisa Scarce called up a couple of 381 00:25:23.520 --> 00:25:26.239 those players, and she's here with me now in our 382 00:25:26.320 --> 00:25:29.840 virtual studio. I'm at home and so is she, Alisa. 383 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:31.600 So who did you speak with? 384 00:25:31.840 --> 00:25:35.080 Hey, Mariette, So I talked to two people. Both of 385 00:25:35.119 --> 00:25:37.680 them are people that I read about in Heraldo's book 386 00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:41.400 who have been really influential in Latino Republican politics for 387 00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:44.040 a long time. And I wanted to talk to them 388 00:25:44.080 --> 00:25:47.200 about how they think about President Trump in the context 389 00:25:47.280 --> 00:25:50.480 of all that history. So the first one is Jose. 390 00:25:50.920 --> 00:25:54.960 This he's actually an advisor to President Trump's campaign these days. 391 00:25:55.200 --> 00:25:59.520 I tried to represent the campaign and some of the 392 00:25:59.600 --> 00:26:06.320 more controversial Hispanic media. 393 00:26:05.680 --> 00:26:06.560 Does that include US. 394 00:26:07.040 --> 00:26:11.040 Uh No, So Jose. 395 00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:13.560 Is Puerto Rican. He lived on the island up until 396 00:26:13.600 --> 00:26:17.080 about twenty years ago. Then he moved to the DC area, and. 397 00:26:17.080 --> 00:26:22.640 I've been involved in every presidential political campaign since two thousand. 398 00:26:22.800 --> 00:26:27.359 Specifically, he's been involved in every Republican presidential campaign. So 399 00:26:27.680 --> 00:26:30.480 in two thousand he was a spokesperson for George W. 400 00:26:30.560 --> 00:26:33.840 Bush in the race against Al Gore. And I actually 401 00:26:33.840 --> 00:26:35.840