GOP seeks favor with South Texas Hispanics

Houston Chronicle ^ | November 3, 2012 | WILL WEISSERT

[Cincinatus' Wife]

...A dead-heat contest for Texas House District 43 pits Alice attorney and former Democratic state Rep. Yvonne Gonzalez Toureilles against J.M. Lozano, who was elected to the House as a Democrat in 2010 but switched parties in March, after new electoral maps made his district more-conservative.

..."Some people have told me it's almost like switching religions," said George Antuna, co-founder of Hispanic Republicans of Texas, which donated $2,500 to Lozano's campaign. "But when folks like J.M. switch, people look at it and say, 'I guess it's not so bad.'"

Antuna claims the party has already made strides, pointing to Ted Cruz, the son of a Cuban immigrant, who won the Republican nomination to replace the retiring Kay Bailey Hutchison in surprising fashion this summer and is poised to become the first Latino from Texas in the U.S. Senate......

...."We (Republicans) support oil and gas jobs, we are strongly faith-based based," Lozano said. "When you break it down by party lines, the Republican Party is the one that shares Hispanic values."....

[carlo3b]

I don’t see any problem with this.. If we do not find some path to these folks our future is going to be bleak.. We definitely need more Conservative Hispanics in our party, or else.. yup!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Republicans want everyone to succeed.

Democrats running the show, drive generations into poverty.

Easy choice.

[hinckley buzzard]

Indeed. But it's been a long hard fight even here to counter the knuckleheads who keep saying "screw the Hispanics, we'll never get their vote anyway."

Fortunately, that particular breed appears to be dying off. Culture trumps politics, and the Hispanic culture has the seeds of conservatism baked in. It will take work and time, though, not just knee-jerk reactions to the last election.

[txrangerette]

Any reasonable-sounding rationale for including Hispanic Americans into the fold seems to be sideracked by an irrational supposition:

From my reading, I believe that many FReepers and others on our side, who don’t live in Texas for example and don’t interact with Hispanics in their lives, falsely believe that when you say “Hispanics” you really mean, non-native Americans who sneaked across the border, recently or in the not-too-distant past.

I personally KNOW Hispanics who know only this country, and do not know of any of their ancestors that were not native of this country. As far back as they have information on it, their families have been here.

Now at some point there was a crossing of the Rio Grande by somebody, but that was so long back in the mists of time, when the border was not criminalized because we didn’t have all the laws in place about it that we have now, that these people are clearly American, and Texans in my sphere of knowledge.

And I personally know Hispanics that can’t stand Obama and are basically conservative and typically vote Republican including this year.

But when you start with a false premise, you aren’t going to arrive at a rational place

[txrangerette]

sideracked = sidetracked

[bert]

Those of whom you speak owned ranches and fought Santa Anna. Their Texas heritage is long and proud.

[carlo3b]

HB, when I retired I had about 3000 employees, many for 20 or more years, about 2000, were of some Hispanic heritage, and most of them shared my very conservative credentials..

They were about 50%, 50% female, male, had families, children, and real religious backgrounds.. Most learn to speak English, some quicker than others, just like everyone else.. I wasn’t surprised that their kids were almost all very American, and many attended college..

I found out later when we had a better tracking system, that a mess of them were providing us with phoney SS#’s, and we were forced to fire them.. But I will admit that I spent a small fortune trying, successfully in almost all cases, to help them become legal..