拉美裔选民的崛起：历史

一部新的历史揭示了拉美裔选民的崛起如何重新绘制了政治版图，以及它对美国政治未来的预示。
拉丁裔投票的影响一直是专家和学者争论的话题。它会影响选举吗？政党将如何应对越来越多的拉丁裔选民？然而，一个更基本、更具启发性的问题是，拉美裔选民是如何形成的——扎根于拉丁美洲的美国选民是如何被理解为一个拥有共同利益的群体的。本杰明·弗朗西斯·法伦（Benjamin Francis Fallon）在《拉美裔选民的崛起》（Rise of The Latino Vote）一书中展示了这个多元化的选民群体如何设计出一种共同的政治身份，以及拉美裔选民的崛起如何改变了选举格局。
拉丁美洲的政治权力是最近才出现的现象。它出现在20世纪60年代和70年代的动荡时期的全国舞台上，当时墨西哥裔美国人、波多黎各人和古巴裔美国人的活动人士，以及民主党和共和党的领导人，开始构思并推广泛西班牙裔身份。尽管拉美裔统一投票的政治潜力越来越大，但许多个人选民仍然更多地与他们特定的族裔社区建立联系，而不是与更广泛的拉美裔选民建立联系。解决这一矛盾的努力继续推动着动员拉美裔选民并确定他们对美国政治制度的影响的努力。
“西班牙语投票”是通过深思熟虑的行动构建的；正是由于人口增长，政府才承认拉美裔是少数民族，从而开启了一个多元文化政治的新时代。当我们思考新一代拉丁裔选民将如何塑造美国的未来时，弗朗西斯·法伦揭示了美国不断变化的面貌背后的历史力量。
The Rise of the Latino Vote: A History
A new history reveals how the rise of the Latino vote has redrawn the political map and what it portends for the future of American politics.
The impact of the Latino vote is a constant subject of debate among pundits and scholars. Will it sway elections? And how will the political parties respond to the growing number of voters who identify as Latino? A more basic and revealing question, though, is how the Latino vote was forged―how U.S. voters with roots in Latin America came to be understood as a bloc with shared interests. In The Rise of the Latino Vote, Benjamin Francis-Fallon shows how this diverse group of voters devised a common political identity and how the rise of the Latino voter has transformed the electoral landscape.
Latino political power is a recent phenomenon. It emerged on the national scene during the turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s, when Mexican American, Puerto Rican, and Cuban American activists, alongside leaders in both the Democratic and the Republican parties, began to conceive and popularize a pan-ethnic Hispanic identity. Despite the increasing political potential of a unified Latino vote, many individual voters continued to affiliate more with their particular ethnic communities than with a broader Latino constituency. The search to resolve this contradiction continues to animate efforts to mobilize Hispanic voters and define their influence on the American political system.
The “Spanish-speaking vote” was constructed through deliberate action; it was not simply demographic growth that led the government to recognize Hispanics as a national minority group, ushering in a new era of multicultural politics. As we ponder how a new generation of Latino voters will shape America’s future, Francis-Fallon uncovers the historical forces behind the changing face of America.

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