Amnesty: Key to Latinos Support for Hillary?

Tonight in the conversation partners program run in a church near the Port Authority where I volunteer in an ESOL program I asked a student, a native Ecuadorean, why she supports Hillary Clinton for president.

She explained that she supports Senator Clinton because her husband, Bill Clinton, gave amnesty to illegal immigrants in the U.S. Additionally, she allowed for immigrants to get humanitarian visas.

I don’t know whether this is true or what it means, but it’s the perception of what’s true and that’s what matters most in understanding the nation’s electorate.

When I asked her what she thought about Barack Obama she replied she didn’t know much about him. That’s not a perception, that’s the reality.

The student I was speaking with is a new American. Last Wednesday she took her citizenship test – which each tutor in the program helped her study for over the past six months – and was sworn in as a new American citizen in Federal Hall last Friday. She beamed when she told me about saying the Pledge of Allegiance during the ceremony for the first time. She teared up recalling how she teared up singing the Star Spangled Banner for the first time with her fellow new citizens from 20 other countries.

She knows a lot about America, more than most of us. Some of the questions on the test that we practiced from were an unwelcome reminder to me of how long it’s been since I studied civics for my NYS Regents diploma from high school when I actually knew these facts. I was happy for the brush up course but silently humiliated by my ignorance.

But this new citizen knows a lot about how our government and political system work from the Constitution to Congress to citizens’ responsibilities.

As Texas goes to vote in early March it will be interesting to see what her fellow recent immigrants and new citizens from Latin America say with their vote. How they vote and in the numbers they show up may project the future face and direction of the America they’re struggling to join.

The Yes We Can Song

Who could add anything to this song and video? It’d be like adding an extra “Yeah” to the Beatles’ “She Loves You (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah).” Know when to stop.

“Yes We Can” – will.i.am.

Obamarama Opens on Broadway!

The “Obama ’08” buttons appeared in Manhattan today. Previously neutral – let’s call them indifferent – commuters are coming out in support all of a sudden.

On the downtown A train this morning an older black woman wore the button on her left lapel while reading the Bible. Later, by City Hall, a group of young people carried armloads of Barack lawn signs heading to some destination further south on Broadway (but where do you post them when every NYC park has been turned into an effete lawn museum?). Even later on the uptown 1 train a bearded young white man wore two Obama buttons on his coat while straphanging and straddling the recyclable Trader Joe’s grocery bag between his feet.

To be fair, yesterday at Columbus Circle there was a group of young women cheering for Hillary and thrusting brochures into commuters hands as we exited the station at the street level.

When I saw those jubilant young women yesterday all I could think was: girls, send a message to the top – cut it out. I felt ornery when I saw them. How has it come to this? There dozens and dozens of reasons why the idea of Hillary’s candidacy should make me feel proud – she’s a woman, she’s our New York Senator, she’s super smart, she raised a seemingly well-balanced child. But I can’t forgive her – them – yet for last week and the bullying behavior in the weeks leading up to it. Current reports are she intends to continue on in this style. If so, she’s lost me for good.

I was thrilled to see all that Obama symbolizes and represents succeed last night in South Carolina. I was traveling in Mexico when the Iowa caucuses were held. When the first results came in on CNN that night showing Obama had won I heard a whoop from another room down the hall. It might have been someone’s reaction to a walloping shot of authentic tequila. But it was also the sound of the hope within me leaping up.

Going into this election I foreswore caring about the race this year. Kind of like the last time the heart was broken – I’m never going to date again, I’m never going to fall in love again, there’s no one out there for me, blah, blah, blah…

I think I’m getting schnookered into this again. Obama’s fans are coming out of the shadows perhaps beginning to hope. It’s such a childish sentiment. It’s so simple but raw. We hope tentatively, hoping not to have our hopes dashed.

The only way to do this is one day at a time, I guess. It’s quite a few days before February 5th. I remain fascinated to see if Hillary will come to her senses.