WP, pg1: Generational rift defines Democratic race among Rio Grande Valley Latinos

[DeepModem Mom]

In Tuesday's Contests, a Party Divided
By Eli Saslow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 2, 2008; Page A01

BROWNSVILLE, Tex. -- State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. pulled into the parking lot at Rudy's "Country Store" and Bar-B-Q one day last week in an old pickup truck worn by 237,000 miles. He winced as he stepped down from the driver's seat, evidence of two heart attacks and a recent hernia surgery. Doctors had ordered him to stay home, but he refused to watch Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Texas campaign deteriorate from his couch. Lucio, 62, planned to use his influence across the Rio Grande Valley to save her.

State Rep. Eddie Lucio III, 29, arrived in a new Saab compact with a Barack Obama bumper sticker on the rear window. A few months ago, when he applied the decal, friends heckled him. His endorsement of Obama alienated some constituents in a Latino district thick with Clinton loyalists. Career suicide, some colleagues called it. Now, Lucio hoped to prove his instincts right....

A generational rift defines the Democratic race among Latinos in the Rio Grande Valley, where Clinton once enjoyed almost complete support. Obama introduced himself here two weeks ago, and he has since generated enough momentum with young voters to threaten Clinton's Latino support base. Polls indicate that Clinton's lead has evaporated in Texas, a state that her husband has said she must win Tuesday.

An argument that began two months ago in the Lucio household now echoes along the Texas border. Whose voice is louder: that of loyal Latinos who credit Clinton for her history of paying attention to an impoverished region that so many other politicians forget? Or that of younger, better-educated Latinos who identify with Obama as a minority who emerged from nothing?...

***

The biggest risk of (Lucio III's) career paid huge dividends, and now the young legislator has become the unofficial spokesperson of a South Texas upheaval. He considers himself typical of young Latinos near the border: an American first and foremost, with more education than his parents. In a town where most restaurants print their menus in Spanish, Lucio feels more comfortable speaking English. Obama, he decided, could create a United States less divided by economic class and ethnicity....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/01/AR2008030101720.html?nav=hcmodule

[MindMatter]

1. I'm still trying to understand

why Hispanics favored Clinton in the first place.

I understand why Cuban exiles in Miami like the Republicans. They have always been willing to sell out American interests in order to gain favor with the Castro-haters. But I don't see the parallel with the Mexican community. Other than NAFTA, what have the Clintons ever done to garner such loyalty?

It is interesting that this is breaking by generation. Evidently a lot of the younger Hispanics are starting to ask that same question.