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Cosas Políticas: Politics, Attitudes, and Perceptions by Region
- Michigan State University Press
- Chapter
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n 57 ARTURO VEGA, RUBÉN O. MARTINEZ, and TIA STEVENS Cosas Políticas: Politics, Attitudes, and Perceptions by Region The U.S. Latino population is not only the nation’s largest ethnic minority group, it is also the fastest growing group in the country, making up “more than half of the overall population growth in the United States” since 2000 (Passel and Cohn 2008). Indeed, Latinos are expected to more than double their numbers by 2050 and comprise 30% of the nation’s population. Accompanying this growth, unfortunately, is a fear of its impact on the “conventional tapestry” of the nation. Samuel Huntington, for example, in his 2004 book Who Are We: The Challenges to America’s Nation Identity, argued that Latinos threaten the ethos of the nation because of an inability or resistance to assimilate into American life (see also Huntington 2004b). This fear is exacerbated by the increasing globalization of the nation’s economy and workforce and by a lack of understanding of the diversity and complexity that makes up Latinos as a group. Despite accounting for approximately 15% of the U.S. population and having a presence across the nation, especially in the Southwest, that dates back centuries, U.S. Latinos as a group are not well known. Latinos are still less known in the Midwest, where, having increased substantially in the last two decades, they comprise slightly over 6% of the population, a percentage that will grow in the coming years. What are 58 n Vega, Martinez, and Stevens their views on social and political issues? What political resources do they possess, represent, or portend? Are there differences within subgroups that fracture this pan-ethnic group? And, if so, how are these differences manifested? Or, if not, then what are the commonalities of this group? Take Latinos in Michigan and Maryland, for example. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the states have a similar number of Latinos (406,000 and 359,000, respectively), comprising a similar percentage of each state’s population (4.0% and 6.4%, respectively). However, compared to Latinos in Maryland, Michigan Latinos are younger, poorer, and more likely to be native born and of Mexican origin (Pew Hispanic Center 2010). Moreover, despite aggregate summaries, there are few studies that compare the characteristics of Midwest Latinos, for example, in relation to Latinos living in other regions of the United States (see Longoria 2000). If Latinos throughout the Midwest are similar to Michigan Latinos, for instance, one might nonetheless find important differences between Latinos of this region and those in other parts of the country. This chapter explores some of these differences by examining U.S. Latinos by region of the country through a secondary analysis of the Latino National Survey (LNS) 2006 dataset. The LNS 20061 was a nationwide telephone survey with a sample of Latino adults from 16 states and Washington, DC, that was conducted from November 17, 2005, to August 4, 2006.2 The instrument contained “approximately 165 distinct items,” ranging from demographic information to political attitudes and policy preferences.3 This chapter reports the survey findings on items ranging from nativity and birthplace to political interest and partisan and political ideology. In addition, Latino perceptions of commonality with African Americans, whites, and other Latinos and their attitudes and perceptions on same-sex marriage, abortion, and immigration are examined. These analyses are driven by the following questions: In what ways are Latinos across the country the same? And in what ways are they different? Our principal objective is to compare the responses of midwestern Latinos to Latinos in the South, Southwest, East, and West, with a focus on political resources, attitudes, and perceptions. First, an overview of the sample is in order, as are a few words on how respondents were coded into regions (the appendix provides a list of the “variables of interest,” the coding strategy, and the foci of this work). The LNS 2006 polled Latinos from 16 states and the District of Columbia. The sample of 9,5094 comprised 5,049 (53.1%) females and 4,460 (46.9%) males. The overall average age was 37, with females (38.0 years) being slightly older than males (36.0 years). Overall, 40% of respondents were older than the average age of 37 years. In addition, two-thirds (66%) of the respondents were foreign born, and a majority identified their ancestral ethnicity Politics, Attitudes, and Perceptions n 59 as Mexican (69.9%), indicated that they were Catholic...