dont hire them just becaus the whites had there turn and so did the blacks now it is time for the spanish ,

i can see in 15 years or less the spanish will be the majority in the us with the whites then the blacks , and asians

viva la raz will be there cry and by puting them in power that way you get a new mexico as corupt a brazilian politics well mexico is much wores .

open up CUBA for US tourtis and money the people will make the change , you gives a flop what the cuban in the US think , ho thats right the democrats & republicans do just fir there votes

sell off the US for your party that is the new cry

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I'm at a loss to understand Oppenheimer's call for a "latino" Secretary of State aside from his statement - "after all, they have had two Afro-Americans."As an African-American I've seen our political acumen develop to the point that a Colin Powell nor a Condy Rice changed our assessment of George Bush's or the Republican's agenda. However, I noticed with interest their use of "handsome" latino males (with some success) in reaching for the latino votes. This was a tactic that worked in the more immature years of the african-american electorate but has dubious success today. (we are much more likely to question the motives of the white candidated as well as their African-American representative.) In this day and age, when domestic and international policy is of paramount importance we cannot afford to select personell for sensitive posts merely for the superficial self-esteem of an, arguably, fractured central-american and south-american in the United States. The article does not even make it clear that, given the internal schisms, prejudices and regionals biases within the latino population in the United States, that a Secretary of State from this population, (which includes Cuba, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Argentina, Brazil, among others) would not aggravate issues in this region rather than solve them. That and the fact that the next Secretary of State of the United States has to repair the damaged image of the US, worldwide, not just in South America.

If the thrust of the article is that the Secretary of State position is some Machivellian chess piece being used to win the latino vote then more analysis of that situation is required. In the last election, with the Republican winning huge percentages of the latino vote, only in Florida were their vote pivotal (and these from the Cubans, not the Puerto Rican and other populations).

In this election, with the Republicans essentially selling out the latinos (on immigration) the bargaining power of latinos is diminished even more.

There is a danger to the latino appeal to support "la raza" as evidenced in the recent mayoralty election in Camden, New Jersey. There, a hispanic woman ran for mayor against an African-American woman. There were strong (and very racist) appeals to vote for the hispanic. There were spanish papers that declared any hispanic to be a traitor if they voted against the hispanic candidate. Up until the racist appeal there were many African-Americans (who have had already had African-American mayors) who were prepared to vote for the younger, hispanic candidate. But, when the racist appeals started, the African-Americans (much more mature in political organizing) proceeded to "spank" the hispanic community. The hispanics were fooled by the population numbers into thinking that they had a chance. But only a fraction of African-Americans vote when they feel that nothing is at stake. When attacked, the African-Americans voted in record numbers to easily put the African-American candidate into office. The same thing happened in Florida and it took the Supreme Court (and the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of African-American voters) to give the Republicans the victory in that State.

The latino community needs to be careful in what they are demanding and the tenor of their tone in demanding it. By statistics, they might be considered the first largest "minority" group (13% vs 12% for African-Americans). But, in contrast to the very cohesive African-Americans the latinos are very balkinized. Puerto Ricans and Cubans have opposite views in almost the entire political spectrum. The democrats will liberalize relations with Cuba (travel and trade). The Florida community can do nothing to stop this. Whether they vote democratic or not.

Similar to the STATE OF BLACK AMERICA conference being held by Talvis Smiley the latino community would be better served by a definition of its core agenda (not self-esteem initiatives) and joining in solidarity with those groups with whom they share the same objectives.

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political maturity of latinos in the U.S.

Very interesting comments and I enjoyed reading them. Thank you.

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