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Introduction President-elect Barack Obama's victory in New Mexico has made former Bernalillo County Republican Party chairman Fernando C de Baca the laughing stock of national Hispanic politics. During an interview with BBC, C de Baca stated that Hispanics wouldn't vote for a black candidate. He further compounded his error by adding, “Hispanics came here as conquerors and blacks came here as slaves.” The following table shows the November 4, 2008 New Mexico results and how wrong C de Baca was in his own state let alone nationally. 2004 winner: Bush (GOP) by 1
McCain (GOP) 343,820 42% 100% of precincts reporting C de Baca got it all wrong. This work will illustrate that not only in New Mexico but also across the entire nation Hispanics voted for Obama, hence the title, "Somos Obameros." Nearly 70 percent of Hispanics here voted for Obama, according to Associated Press exit polls. In 2004 44 percent of Hispanics voted for Democrat John Kerry. What a change!!! Moreover, there were more Hispanic voters in this election — up a third from the numbers in 2004, accounting for just over 40 percent of all voters in the state. Nor did C de Baca's prediction hold up elsewhere: Two-thirds of Hispanics nationally voted for Obama, according to New York Times exit polls. The reason for the jump in Hispanic support of Democrats, both here and nationally, was likely the economy, which the majority of all voters identified as the most important issue facing the nation. But according to the Associated Press, while 55 percent of New Mexico voters identified the economy as the most important issue, more than 60 percent of Hispanic voters did. Another big factor in the Democrat's success in New Mexico and nationally was the urban vote: In Bernalillo County, Obama's 58,000-vote margin was five times larger than Kerry's edge in the same county four years ago, according to the Associated Press. Across the nation, the New York Times found that Obama got 71 percent of the vote in big cities and 59 percent in small cities as well as 50 percent of the suburban vote. Obama won 63 percent of the vote among people with less than a high school education and 53 percent of the vote among those with a college degree or more. He got 53 percent of the Catholic vote and more than three-quarters of the Jewish vote. As New York Times columnist Timothy Egan put it, "this was a trans-formative election, but not because there was some big lurch to the left or an unequivocal rejection of the right." Gay marriage lost in liberal California, in Florida and Arizona, he notes. But abortion restrictions were voted down in conservative South Dakota. Voters have rejected Bush's incompetence and wedge-issue politics. To his credit, as Ellen Goodman states, elections in the future will be post-racial and post-partisan, because of Obama’s fantastic win. What does all this portend for the Hispanic community? A revolution and no less. Political change happens with a compass, not a roadmap. Obama has clearly indicated which way he wants to lead. Our job is to push him forwards and keep him on course. The end result could be a Constituional Convention, I believe it is time. In this work I take a look at the “Patron system” which was the way politics was played out in the Hispanic community in the southwest, through a change that occurred with the boomer generation and the change that is forthcoming with the involvement of Hispanic personalities such as America Ferrara and Mario Lopez. Perhaps even David Archuleta! .
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