And just like that my computer is working again! I will not question the hows and whys. But try and get some bloggin' down before the laptap goes dark again...
Barack won tonight. That's seven primaries and caucuses in a row. The momentum is building. Texas looms as Hillary's firewall. And of course that means everyone's pontificating on the meaning and direction of the much-coveted Tejano vote. Even those raza sites usually devoted to chisme and asking such burning questions like "Jessica Alba's ass: is it real or not?", are joining in on the conversation. And to be clear this is no diss at all against my wonderfully snarky hermanas over at Guanabee. Their particular explanation on Why Latinos Are Voting For Hillary -- brand loyalty they conclude-- actually makes an interesting point. But then again I may be biased. Any political theory that somehow includes H-E-B in its analysis, as this one does, is OK with me.
Speaking of Hillary and Latinos, writer Richard Rodriguez of infamous Hunger of Memory controversy, pens a Salon.com piece asking should Clinton win the presidential election, would she become the first "Latina-in-chief? More a meditation on race than electoral analysis, Rodriguez's essay riffs on Toni Morrison, opines that "Latino culture is matriarchal," and ends with some words of advice for Obama: "Most Hispanics in the United States are mestizos -- a racial mix of European, African and New World Indian. Most Hispanics would understand Barack Obama if he came to us, not as an African-American but, like us, as a person of confused bloodlines." Check it out.
And finally the National Council of La Raza is sponsoring a site called We Can Stop the Hate, a web page dedicated to stopping the rhetoric of "hate groups and vigilantes" that they believe have "taken over" how immigration is debated in the mainstream media, how "their policy positions frame the country’s political discourse, and their members have infiltrated the media as well as the ranks of those seeking to run our country." A site worth visiting. Especially because of this link to Janet Murguia giving Lou Dobbs a coast-to-coast, prime-time smackdown. Lou Dobbs is such an blowhard...
The problem with Rodriguez's argument isn't that it's RR making it (though his smooth peanut butter rhetoric tends to lose its power when he talks politics), but that it traffics in stereo- rather than archetypes. Hillary as "motherly"? Gimme a break! I'd buy the argument more if it was "like Latinas, Hillary took back a man who can't help cheating." But touche on advising Obama to hit the "mixed race" thing, which I think has appealed to a lot of young brown peoples.
Posted by: Caro | 13 February 2008 at 03:23 PM