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Los Angeles new prize in Hispanic empowerment

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  • Los Angeles new prize in Hispanic empowerment

    LOS ANGELES NEW PRIZE IN HISPANIC EMPOWERMENT
    BY DANIEL B. WOOD

    http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-la19.html
    M ay 19, 2005

    LOS ANGELES -- The election this week of Antonio Villaraigosa as
    mayor of Los Angeles is the latest exclamation point in a story of
    Hispanic political empowerment that has been unfolding nationwide
    for more than three decades.

    Villaraigosa, 52, defeated Mayor James Hahn by an unexpectedly wide
    margin, 59 percent to 41 percent, in the nation's second-largest city.

    "I've said to people, 'I'm an American of Mexican descent and I
    intend to be a mayor for all Los Angeles,"' he said Wednesday. "In
    this diverse city, that's the only way it can work."

    The high-profile ascent of Villaraigosa, a high-school dropout who
    once had a "Born to Raise Hell" tattoo, builds on gains by Hispanics
    in municipal, county, state, and national governments over the last
    25 years.

    The new look

    Political analysts mark those gains by comparing the political
    landscapes of Henry Cisneros, who was elected mayor of San Antonio
    in 1981, and that of two U.S. senators, Mel Martinez of Florida and
    Ken Salazar of Colorado, elected in 2004.

    Between those political bookends, the number of elected Hispanics
    has grown 30 percent in the last eight years, from 3,743 in 1996 to
    4,853 in 2004.

    Latino political gains reflect the nation's changing ethnic makeup --
    and Hispanics' growing ability to appeal to a range of ethnic groups.
    Many such groups of newer immigrants -- Koreans, Pacific Islanders,
    Armenians, Iranians, Russians, Filipinos -- embrace the new Hispanic
    politicians because they sense fresh openness to their own struggles,
    observers say.

    "The new political face of America is looking South and West for its
    emerging identity rather than to Eastern Europe as it did in the
    country's first big wave of immigration," says Antonio Gonzales,
    president of the William C . Velasquez Institute, a Latino-based
    think tank.

    National trend

    "Many of the emerging immigrant populations see Hispanics as accessible
    and open to them in the way more traditional American politicians
    have not been," he said.

    The Hispanic gains also reflect America's demographic evolution --
    and not just in Los Angeles. While the number of Hispanic Americans
    has grown nationwide (to 35 million -- surpassing African Americans
    as the nation's largest minority) the number of Hispanic voters has
    doubled (from 5 million to 10 million) in the last 10 years.

    That has brought emerging Latino populations -- and politicians -- to
    states outside the Southwest, including Illinois, which has seen a rise
    of 95 percent in the number of statewide elected Hispanic officials.

    Christian Science Monitor, with AP contributing

    The Sun-Times Company
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