The intersection of race, rhetoric and public policy, particularly pertaining to Latino politics, is a growing area of development. Albeit historically, most immigrants to America faced similar questions of cultural and linguistic allegiance, the case regarding Latinos is unique. Given their continual demographic growth, now occupying the nation’s largest “minority” group, much political debate and commentary has arisen regarding the nations state of national unity and identity. For instance, is there a negative correlation between increasing levels of Latino immigration and the stability of the English language as lingua franca? Alternatively, does increasing levels of Latino immigration threaten the sustainability of “American” values and beliefs? Named and defined as a policy “problem,” Latinos, Latino immigration and the Spanish language have become framed as policy “problems” needing solutions. In efforts to unpack this rhetorically rich debate over national identity, race, culture and language, the canon of invention is analyzed insofar as the creation of Latinos as policy “problems,” with close attention drawn also toward policy makers supposed “solutions.” Engaged in both past and present attempts toward declaring English the national language on both the state and federal level, this project largely concerns itself within the 2006 Senate English as the national language debate, along with the growth of one of the nation’s most out-spoken limited-immigration, English-only proponents, Tom Tancredo.

The fate of undocumented youth recently overwhelmed political dialogue on immigration and its effect on those individuals remains largely unstudied. This paper extends the scope of political information analyses from potential voters to undocumented childhood arrivals. Quantitative observations come from in-depth qualitative interviews in Los Angeles County, California and the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. It finds important regional differences in the ability of immigration status to motivate cognitive engagement of politics. It questions the threat hypothesis, as highly politically knowledgeable DREAMers appear to reside in supportive environments. Such places help equip them with the ability to attribute blame and channel anger or enthusiasm. Findings suggest profound dissimilarities in the potential for political participation if and when DREAMer Latinos gain access to citizenship. / text

Various questions regarding Latinos’ descriptive representation in the mayoralty are examined in this dissertation including: Where and why are Latino mayors elected? Why do Latino mayoral candidates emerge and win? And, is there is a link between Latino ethnicity and electoral outcomes in municipal elections? The empirical results of a cross-sectional analysis of U.S. cities from 1981-2006 suggest that institutions such as term limits and mayor-council governments influence the representation of Latinos in the mayoralty. These effects, however, are conditioned by Latinos’ numerical strength in a city – which suggests that Latino descriptive representation in the mayoralty is largely a function of population size. Despite the prominence of this factor, the results further reveal that Latinos need to swell the ranks of the city council to provide a steady supply of qualified Latino candidates to ultimately win the mayoralty. An analysis of 648 mayoral elections in 113 cities in the Southwest further tests theories of Latino candidate emergence and success based on city-level factors – that supply elections with Latino candidates – as well as strategic factors in elections – that influence Latino candidates’ cost-benefit decision calculus. The results reveal a combined effect of supply and strategy on candidate emergence and success. For example, in cities where Latinos are sizeable (+40 percent) and the electoral context is more competitive (i.e., where turnout is high, more candidates are on the ballot, and when incumbents are not vying for reelection), Latino candidates are more likely to emerge. A similar pattern occurs with regard to the success of Latino candidates except that the individual candidate’s previous political experience is particularly influential in improving their chances of winning. Given the theoretical expectation regarding the impact of ethnicity on electoral outcomes in municipal elections, I also examine whether Latino ethnicity shapes turnout rates and the margin of victory. Latino ethnicity is not statistically associated with these outcomes. However, other factors such as the election timing and the type of election (i.e., runoff election, open seat) seem to be more influential. In sum, the research here examines various aspects of Latino representation in the mayoralty that is the most comprehensive to date.

This thesis explores the impact of Latinidad in Latino political participation, especially in regard to voting behavior. Although Latinos often have been portrayed as a decisive electoral group, the reality is they have not fulfilled the expectations imposed upon them. Therefore, I argue Latinos with different levels of group consciousness will engage differently in politics, which affects the voting statistics of the ethnicity in Censuses, reports and surveys. The use of pan-ethnic terms and the constant stereotypes of Latinos all being “the same,” has caused separation rather than cohesiveness within the minority group, which has resulted in low political engagement. I propose that those Latino immigrants and their descendants who do not have a strong attachment to the pan-ethnicity will behave differently than those who identify themselves in pan-ethnic terms. Consequently, I have come to wonder how Latinidad impacts those who are not part of the main Latino subgroups —Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans— and have been denominated the “other Latinos” when engaging in politics? South Americans, Central Americans, and Caribbean immigrants have been smashed into a group where they do not occupy a significant place. I suggest that differences in country of origin will have an impact on how Latin American immigrants will participate in American politics. To test my hypothesis, I have made a secondary analysis of existent literature. This analysis includes crosstabulations of data obtained from the 2012 National Survey of Latinos, conducted by the Pew Research Center. Through the analysis of the data and the existent literature, I have concluded that the pan-ethnic terms are not strongly entrenched in Latino’s regular use of identity. Respondents mostly said to not have a preference for either term, still their vote intention was high. Differences are noticeable among Latinos/Hispanics that have different ancestries, however, these are sometimes stabilized by citizenship. The data proved that the identity categories used for surveys directed at Latinos/Hispanics are not specific enough, given that a considerable percentage of participants were confused about how to classify themselves, which altered the results. This current study will contribute to the work of Latino studies, that for more than 50 years have tried to get to know those who make up the Latino community, by approaching identity and Latino politics from a different perspective. A perspective where those called Latinos/Hispanics can identify themselves instead of being randomly categorized.

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