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Why don’t Latinos have more power?

by Daniel Cubias

Perhaps you didn’t notice when a national political leader said that America was entering the “Decade of the Hispanic.”

You can be forgiven, because the speaker was Henry Cisneros, and he wasn’t talking about our current decade. He was talking about the 1980s.

Yes, thirty years ago, people were proclaiming that Latinos were on the verge of exerting great political and cultural power. But here we are, more than a generation later and well into a new century, and Latinos aren’t exactly running the place. Indeed, many Latinos struggle to name even one national Latino leader.

We are almost shut out in the two areas that have the most impact on American life: big business and government.

Clearly, there has been no Latino president or vice president, nor even a major party nominee for those offices. The Supreme Court only recently got its first Latina member, and just five percent of Congress is Latino.

The situation is worse in America’s corporate boardrooms. Of the “top 1,000 companies and the nearly 10,500 directors who serve on their boards, U.S.-born Latinos only make up about 1.5 percent of the total.” In the thirty years since Cisneros made his prediction, “there have been only fifteen Hispanic CEOs at Fortune 500 companies” and currently, “there are six, the same as a decade ago.”

So why can’t we make more progress in these crucial fields? Put another way, we have the numbers, why not the power?

Certainly, economic disadvantages are a big reason. As we know, Latinos — especially immigrants — have higher rates of poverty. Furthermore, education has been a perennial thorn in the collective side of Latinos. Put together, we’re setting up a lot of young Latinos to be poor and ignorant, a lethal one-two socioeconomic sucker-punch.

In addition, some cultural values that are often positive may actually be holding us back. I’ve written before about the dark side of our strong family bonds, powerful work ethic, and unshakable religious faith. Other writers have pointed out that Latinos often believe that becoming rich is a sin. For better or worse, that mindset doesn’t afflict innovators like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg.

Politically, some claim we’re lagging behind because we can’t get rid of the victimhood mentality. If true, “much of the blame goes to Latinos themselves, who, in the political context, continue to cast themselves as powerless and allow others to define their agenda and goals.”

So what can we do about any of this? Well, for Latinos to have an influence commensurate with our population, we need to identify the self-generated obstacles that are holding us back, even if the process is painful. Once we do that, we may finally ascend to leadership positions in this country.

And of course, if we did wind up in charge of the nation, it’s not like we could mess up America any worse than it is right now.

To learn more about Staff Writer, Daniel Cubias, visit Hispanic Fanatic.

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of
the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.

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Posted on November 22, 2011 at 10:00 am in Business, Politics   |  RSS feed

3 Responses to “Why don’t Latinos have more power?”

    
  1. Celena Flores
    November 22, 2011 at 6:20 pm

    The Latino lifestyle and culture is very different from Black and White communities when it comes to education. Since most of our parents or grandparents come from Mexico or another country, the views and importance on education is secondary. The idea that Latinos have migrated to the U.S. to have a better life and take care of our families is still fresh in most of our households. Sometimes this means “doing what you have to do” to survive. For some Latino families it means working instead of getting an education. We are technically new to this country and are now realizing the importance of continuing our education. I believe for the future Latinos will prosper in big businesses and government to grow in numbers as CEOs at fortune 500 companies and political figures. When this happens we will teach Americans the importance of strong family bonds, good work ethic and strong religious faith. Latinos would indeed contribute to this country’s success.

  2. Juan C. Mendoza
    November 30, 2011 at 2:22 am

    Daniel, there may be some substance to your opinion… some. But I would have to disagree with a few of your points. You mentioned the Latino “dark side of our strong family bonds, powerful work ethic, and unshakable religious faith.” as a hindrance to Latino social advancement. Since when do core values such as those prove to be anathema to success in life? I suppose they would be if one were to base their failures as a result of those values. I would prefer to employ those values as a basis to my professional and future successes. I firmly believe Latinos are a rich and vibrant entity in America developed from many cultures. But the the problem with the under-representation of Latinos in the power base is not because we “cast ourselves powerless”, it’s because Latinos never seem to want to leave their homeland.

    Latinos in the US always place their country of origin/heritage as part of their introduction. Latino introductions are almost always, for example; “Hola, I’m Juan from Venezuela. Where are you from?”, or something similar. Why do Latinos insist on the country identifier? If Latinos want to truly become leaders in American politics and industry, they must first recognize the country they have decided to support in residence and economy. Personally, my family left Venezuela 43 yrs ago. We’re all citizens and our children are first generation Americans. We’ve taught them they are American and their heritage is from Venezuela. They know they’re American, not Venezuelan. They understand the richness and benefits of their heritage. Being a leader or successful is not based on race or culture, it’s based on will. As Latinos, we should never impose that line of “us versus them” when referencing Americans. We should recognize that being American is based on the ideals of culture and success instead of skintone.

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